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On Wednesday, August 7, 1974, impressionist Rich Little opened a four-day engagement in his home town, Ottawa, Ontario. I was there, among the audience members in the opera hall of the National Arts Centre.
In those moments of political high drama just across the border in the USA, I'm sure most of the audience was looking forward to Little's signature impression: U.S. President Richard Nixon. We were not disappointed.
The very next evening, August 8, fifty years ago today, Nixon announced his resignation. It took effect the following day at noon. I understand that Rich Little dropped that segment of his program for the rest of his engagement.
I was in Ottawa in those years as a student of the Russian language and Soviet area studies at Carleton University. But I was also very interested in the politics of my own country, the USA. Along with other USA citizens among my Carleton University friends, I followed the Watergate scandal closely.
In fact, the news of the Saturday Night Massacre (October 20, 1973) hit me so strongly that on the following day I got on the overnight train from Montreal to Washington, DC, where I found little knots of people in Union Station discussing the latest developments. Not having any definite idea of what to do, I felt led to walk to the White House, and there, along the White House fence, I met others who had felt a similar elemental pull to come to Washington and witness events for themselves.
I'm writing these notes in Raymond, Maine. I have my diaries from 1973 and 1974 back at home, and when I get back there, I may fill in some more details. But I don't need my diary to recall some of these Watergate anniversaries, including Rich Little's performance of August 7, and the resignation announcement the following day.
It is, of course, very sobering to realize that five whole decades have passed since Nixon's resignation, and even more sobering to think of how quickly those decades seem to have gone by. As we pass through another time of testing for our democracy, another campaign seeking to convince us that the USA would do better under authoritarian rule, I'm hoping that our younger friends and relatives, those who will still be around in 2074, will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this year's upcoming victory of freedom and compassion.
August 1974 has a more private significance to me as well: On August 11, I made my very first visit to a Quaker meeting—Ottawa Friends Meeting of Canadian Yearly Meeting. Since that day, Friends have shaped my understanding and practice of Christian discipleship and provided me with many precious mentors and companions in our worldwide faith family.
A year later, in August 1975, I made my first visit to Russia. I had no idea that eventually I'd spend nearly ten years of my life there.
Two years later, in August 1977, I first met Judy Van Wyck. In August 1980, we became husband and wife. Tomorrow we celebrate our 44th anniversary. August has become a very important month!
We cannot let these days in August go by without another acknowledgment: August 6 and 9, 1945, the only times atomic bombs have been used as weapons. Here is a BBC History survey and debate on the justification for those bombings. My own skeptical (grumpy?) attitude toward Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemorations.
Eric Berger (ars technica) on the lively discussions concerning when and how to bring the Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to earth. (Reminder: I first wrote about this spaceflight back on June 6!)
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| Viking Venus (a relatively small cruise ship, 930 passengers) at Flåm, pop. 500. |
Since I'm the grandson of a cruise ship captain, I have mixed feelings. However, it helps to remember scale. Knut Maurer's last ship was about one-fifth of the length and about 1% of the displacement of today's typical cruise ships.
Here is a glimpse of the future of fjord-eligible cruise vessels. These solutions may work for destinations with appropriate tourism infrastructure on land, but don't meet some of the other concerns of cities and regions trying to cope with unsustainable numbers of visitors. (Is the Camino de Santiago a worthy case study?)
Related: Tourism. ("To feel superior to the ordinary tourist might just be another form of that primordial social poison, elitism.")
The opening line of "Reflections on Britain Yearly Meeting 2024" by Mark Russ: "Should I keep my membership of the Religious Society of Friends?" Keep reading!
Becky Ankeny on sacrifice and salvation.
When Jesus chose to allow himself to be arrested and crucified, he sacrificed himself despite all his human fear of pain, his ordinary desire for life and happiness. In the garden he sweated drops of blood as he contemplated his near future of torture and death, and on the cross he cried out his sense of abandonment by God. He protested against pain and death and aloneness, but he held fast to his intention because it brought and brings good for us. His ultimate act of agency was choosing to forgive his torturers.
Lightnin' Hopkins in full storytelling mode. "Mr. Charlie's Rolling Mill." (Hopkins mentions John Lee Hooker's stuttering; more about that here.)
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