Lucas Birthday Edition - Lucas Portrait

Summer of Trinity Again - Week Ending June 2, 1945

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end. Just for a different perspective. A look at each day between Memorial Day and Labor Day, 1945 - the six weeks on either side of the Trinity test on July 16. (For future weeks, we'll have an entry for each day, but we already did May 1945 in the previous episode.) May 30, 1945. Wednesday. Memorial Day. It is the 60th day of the Battle of Okinawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day] May 31, 1945. Thursday. It is the 61st day of the battle of Okinawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_B._Craft [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_B._Craft] June 1, 1945 Friday. It is the 62nd day of the Battle of Okinawa. Times around the world, as the meeting of the Interim Committee starts, 11AM in Washington DC https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/notes-meeting-interim-committee?documentid=NA&pagenumber=9 The members of the Interim Committee include (not a complete list) Mr. George H. Bucher, President of Westinghouse - manufacture of equipment for the electromagnetic process. Mr.Walter S. Carpenter, President of Du Pont Company - construction of the Hanford Project. Mr. James Rafferty, Vice President of Union Carbide - construction and operation of gas diffusion plant in Clinton. Mr. James White, President of Tennessee Eastman - production of basic chemicals and construction of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-12_National_Security_Complex [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-12_National_Security_Complex] The committee also discussed how difficult it would be for the Soviet Union to replicate the work that had been done on the atomic bomb. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/notes-meeting-interim-committee?documentid=NA&pagenumber=4

Summer of Trinity Again - May 1945

A introduction to the state of the world in May 1945, as part of a re-run of Summer of Trinity. * FDR is dead. * Truman is President, only three months after he became vice-president. * The Battle of Okinawa is ongoing - it had started on April 1st. * USS Indianapolis is in San Francisco for repairs from a kamikaze attack in the waters around Okinawa, just before the invasion began. * The USSR has just ended its non-agression pact with the Empire of Japan. * Mussoline is dead, killed on April 28 * Hitler is dead by suicide on April 30. * Nazi Germany is defeated on May 8. * The long-term coalition government in the UK ends with the victory over Germany. * Churchill has requested that elections be held, around the beginning of July. * In Los Alamos, the Manhattan Project team awaits deliveries of uranium and plutonium to use in their Little Boy and Fat Man designs. * And although nobody realizes it for certain, the war is nearly over.

Summer of Trinity Again - Intro

Summer of Trinity is a look at the summer of 1945, between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Halfway between those dates, on July 16, was the Trinity atomic weapon test - but a lot was happening all around the world, during the 6 weeks before and after Trinity. That's what this series will be about.

Lucas Birthday Edition - Lucas Portrait

This is just for fun, with no real generational connection except that both Abraham Lincoln and George Lucas are from Prophet generations. (Boom for Lucas, Transcendental for Lincoln.) And, as such, it's not surprising that a similar arrangement works for both of them. If you like Star Wars and Aaron Copland, you may enjoy it. Fun fact: George Lucas' birthday is May 14, 1944, which was the two-year anniversary of the premiere of Lincoln Portrait. Here's where I found the quotations: The first two are from different sections of a look back at The Phantom Menace: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history [https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history]) The "barbarians" quote is from testimony before the Senate in March 1988 - here's the text I used, from Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1988_George_Lucas_testimony_before_United_States_Senate [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1988_George_Lucas_testimony_before_United_States_Senate] It's not clear that Lucas every actually said the thing about the sledgehammer, but it turns out the fourth section in Lincoln Portrait isn't well sourced either. And in both cases, it's certainly something they might have said. I originally found the last bit here: https://www.biography.com/news/george-lucas-star-wars-facts [https://www.biography.com/news/george-lucas-star-wars-facts] But it turns out it was from a New York Times interview of George Lucas while he was FILMING Star Wars in 1976. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/from-american-graffiti-to-outer-space.html [https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/from-american-graffiti-to-outer-space.html] It's well worth the read.

Reactivites Redux - 14 09 27 - The Battle of Flowers

14 09 27 -- The Battle of Flowers parade was my second parade ever. It was April 27, 1979, in San Antonio, Texas, part of "Fiesta," an annual series of events in San Antonio. I was there with my high school band, on a trip we'd been looking forward to all year. https://battleofflowers.org/events/ [https://battleofflowers.org/events/] The numbering convention is an adaptation of the method used in Defending Your Life [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101698/]. In the movie its a way to refer to specific days in a lifetime while reviewing events that may cover any day within a life. The first number is my age in years on the day this happened, the second is the month number within that year (i.e. the number of months since my previous birthday), and the third is the day within the month. Because I was born at the end of the month, I've simply used the day of that month e.g. for November 11 the month number is 4 and the day number is 11 Although the date is described within the movie as being "Daniels nth year," the actual year used is his age at that point. This means that, for example, 1/1/1 is his first birthday: the first day of the first month when he turned 1., This is noted as a goof on IMDB ( as described, 1/1/1 would be the first day of his first year I.e. the day he was born) but ... having tried to figure it myself, this method turns out to be easier to calculate and more useful to understand about when events are happening. Note that 14 09 27 is NOT "14 years, plus 4 months plus 11 days" but "the 27th day of the 9th month after my 14th birthday." A Twitter thread from a day I was thinking about the Battle of Flowers [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1697115598374002863]. On WIkipedia, you can find what a Sousaphone looks like. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousaphone] Repo Man and Plain Wrap according to IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/trivia/?item=tr0792948] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting] Hang On Sloopy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_On_Sloopy] is not mentioned here and there was no way for me to have included the relevant anecdote in the episode, but I did want to at least have some reference to it. Suffice it to say that it was a song we frequently played at football games.