Learning From Star Trek

My apologies for not posting sooner.  I've been wrestling with a tremendous migraine headache that shut me down for several days.  I've been drinking Gatorade and nibbling on cheese and crackers to keep the body going, while the brain kept saying, "Crawl into a dark hole and die."   Luckily Lovey and Nedi know when I'm not feeling well.  Lovey just huddles as close to my face as she can get, and stays there.  Nedi comes in every three or four hours and touches my face with a feather-soft paw, sits for a minute or two, and then retreats.  I guess Lovey tells him she's got me covered.  Anyway, I'm feeling much better today and will head out to walk Rosie and Charlie this morning in about an hour.
   Fifty years ago, yesterday, I sat on the floor in our living room in our small house in Florida.  I had done my homework, and was (probably) already in my pajamas - I had a 9 o'clock bedtime on school nights, and I had just started fifth grade.  NBC was showing the premiere of a new television show, and I did not want to miss a second of it.  The show, Star Trek, was a new science fiction series; and it was to showcase cooperation of all humans and countries on Earth, as well as other planets.  I was awed by the thought of a "United Federation of Planets," and was eager to see what would happen.  I fell in love with the show, with the concept, and with Mr. Spock.  Originally, the first show to be broadcast was supposed to be "Where No Man Has Gone Before."  But the network executives didn't think that that specific episode would "catch" viewers - and, so, the first aired episode was "The Man Trap."    Creator Gene Roddenberry had presented the idea of Star Trek as an episodic "Wagon Train to the stars" and had firmly said there would not be a monster-of-the-week in each episode.  - And what do the executives give us?  A weird looking creature, female, the last of her kind, who needs huge amounts of salts to survive - and she gets them by tricking and killing crewmen from the USS Enterprise.  Poor Gene Roddenberry.....
   Forty years ago, I attended the first 10-year Star Trek convention over Labor Day weekend at the Statler Hilton Hotel, next door to Macy's, in New York City.  Almost every one of the actors was there, folks who had two appearances or more, and all of the main cast - except Leonard Nimoy, who was appearing in the Helen Hay Theatre in the play Equus.  But even Leonard Nimoy appeared, making an unscheduled showing on stage, which excited my friend so much that she was puking.  I missed the appearance, but not the barf...  I had been in another venue, and had gotten Mark Lenard's autograph.   And my group, Mary, Kathryn, Carol and I, got to see Nimoy on stage in Equus, as well as out on the streets of New York, as we tried to decide on a tea room after the play.  Carol was so intent on her local NYC map that she ran directly into Nimoy's chest - and was very flustered.
   Mom and Dad had always tried to raise my sister and I without prejudice toward any one or any thing.  Dad was always urging us to try new foods, new ideas, new places, new books....  I think that Dad ended up enjoying Star Trek for those three seasons as much as I did.  He certainly dove into my science fiction books, fantasy books, and historical novels after the first year of Star Trek.  I really have to thank my parents - and Star Trek - for opening my eyes to things that had been hidden, or unseen by me, before.  Thanks to Star Trek, I do believe in the IDIC symbol.  Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

Happy 46th Birthday, Star Trek!

Forty-six years ago, I was 10 years old.  I was crazy about any TV show that had a horse in it - which meant, at that time, a Western....  But on September 8, 1966 a new show premiered on NBC - and I saw it and liked it, and have been a fan ever since.  The creator of the TV show, Gene Roddenberry, sold the idea to he network by describing the show as "a 'Wagon Train' to the stars..."   It was called Star Trek, and it took us on journeys "where no man had gone before."  It was a ground-breaking show in many respects -  a black female as a ship's officer, the first inter-racial kiss ever shown on TV - it was instrumental in opening the way for the empowerment of women.  All hail to thee, Great Bird of the Galaxy!  And all hail to the original cast of the original Star Trek!

From left: James Doohan, DeForrest Kelley, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett, William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, and George Takei

 

Over the years, I have decided that my favorite actor in the series was James Doohan, a shy family-man of many voices and accents

 

In the beginning, I was completely intoxicated by the character of Spock - and I loved the very different aspects of both Kirk and Spock's reactions to situations

 

Can I really be this old?!?

 

Space, the Final Frontier

Forty-five years ago today, I was 10 years old and waiting for the premiere of a daring new TV show on NBC.  'Space, the final frontier.  These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise, it's five year mission: To explore strange, new worlds; To seek out new life and new civilizations; To boldly go where no man has gone before.'  I honestly don't remember what any of the ads and teasers were about; but I do know that I anxiously awaited the first aired episode of Star Trek. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in "The Man Trap" - the first episode the network decided should be aired - but it got better, much better - and then it became worse. (What goes up, must come down.) It was neat - a broadly-played "international" cast, the logical alien, and a female (and black!) head of communications.  This program was out to prove that if we had trust in one another, and could compromise, our future was limitless.  It was ...  fascinating.
Gee, we have all these fires in Texas, and all the flooding in the Northeast - wouldn't it be great if we could twitch our noses and cause the water in the Northeast to dump onto the fires in Texas?  Sigh.  I know, it's a silly thought... but I still wish I could do it.  -  Snow is falling in the mountains!
The kits were excited that I stayed home all day yesterday (except for a quick run out to give Boo her 2:00 meds).  They stayed curled up on top of me or next to me almost every minute I was at home.  Of course, the fact that the low was 55 and the high was 60, and that it rained all day also helped.  Nedi, however, could not stay inside - he ran in and out, and was constantly jumping up onto me with wet paws and beads of rain all over his fur.  Thankfully, he isn't sneezing this morning.  Had a great walk with Rosie and Remy this morning - we actually passed within 3 feet of a bedded-down doe without her moving, and without the dogs sensing that she was there.  The same can't  be said about the squirrels - I think the kids would have pulled my arms out of their sockets running after squirrels today. 
A freight train whistle is blowing right now.  It reminds me that a 17-year-old girl, a freshman at CSU, was trying to "hop a freight" for a free ride down to Colorado Springs.  She was with three men, aged 17, 21 and 25.  Two of the men got onto the moving train.  The girl tried to jump on, but fell onto the train tracks.  The train was moving at about 10 miles per hour, in a business area of Longmont.  Luckily, the crossing was just a few blocks away from the Longmont hospital.  A 30-ton freight car severed both of the girl's legs; one above, and one below, the knee.  There was an EMT in the second car stopped at the crossing, and an RN in the fourth car that was stopped.  Both of these women raced to the victim, applied tourniquets and pressure bandages.  The girl was wide awake, but in shock.  She is in stable condition at the moment.  -  Maybe I'm being cynical but I'm expecting her family to sue the railroad and/or the train engineer....  She's lucky her stupidity didn't get her head cut off!

Crazy Days

Forty-four years ago tonight, I sat down in front of our black and white TV, and was transported for the first time to "Space, the final frontier..." The first episode of Star Trek to be shown was "The Man Trap", unfortunately - but it introduced me to a new world, and I fell in love, at age 10, with then Lt.-Cmdr. Spock. I'm still in love with Spock.
The kits are fine today; I'm tired. Remy, Rosie, Suki and Boo are all fine. I'm worried about Grandma Anne and Tabitha, as they went back up to the house on Sugarloaf this morning - even though it's still very much within the evacuation area. The fire? It's still 0% contained - four people are missing - over 140 structures have been documented as completely destroyed, even though less than half of the area has been checked. Supposedly, only those people who are qualified fire fighters are allowed within the evacuation area - Grandma Anne took a few back roads and ran into no traffic cones or personnel to turn her back. So she is happily back home, the fire still burns, and the family worries. If you want to look at a map of the area, you can see the evacuation area, the fire area of 11 square miles, and (on the east side of the map) the city of Boulder, including the two sites I was house-sitting on Monday and Tuesday:
http://www.bouldercounty.org/bocc/FourMileFireWebPerimeter.pdf

I wrote a much longer, and (I thought) nicer posting earlier, but Lovey sat down on the keyboard and erased the whole lot just as I was about to click the Publish Post button.... oh, well

If you want to visit a few fun web sites, I recommend:
http://howbigreally.com/
http://bit.ly/zombie-ant
http://sciencemag.org/content/vol329/issue5995/r-samples.dtl