The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXC

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 40th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger
30 June 1982: The Space Shuttle Challenger OV-099 rolled out of the North American Rockwell factory in Palmdale, California; originally built as a test article (STA-099), it was less expensive to rebuild her as an Orbiter than the Enterprise OV-101; she flew ten missions from 1983-1986; the Challenger explosively disintegrated during ascent on her final flight, dooming her crew of seven.

Commentary: The Challenger rolled out of the factory while the Columbia was on orbit conducting S.T.S.-4. Heady days for the Space Shuttle program!

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: The Space Shuttle Challenger
Mike Park, "Challenging Me" from For the Love of Music (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Reel Big Fish, "Don't Stop Skankin'" from Candy Coated Fury (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Thus concludes the SKAfter Party 2022. Have no fear, SKAugust is right around the corner.

"Don't stop skankin'!…"

The Star My Destination: The Soyuz 11 Disaster

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 51st Anniversary of Soyuz 11
Fifty-one years ago to the day, 29 June 1971, the Soyuz 11 capsule vented its internal atmosphere into the vacuum of space, asphyxiating to death its crew of three: Commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, Flight Engineer Vladislav Volkov, & Research Engineer Viktor Patsayev. Soyuz 11 had departed the Salyut 1 space station after a three-week residency & was preparing for atmospheric re-entry.

The Soyuz 11 trio were not wearing pressure suits, leaving them defenseless against the sudden capsule depressurization. Cosmonauts had stopped wearing pressure suits, even during launch & re-entry, in order to squeeze more crew into the Voskhod & Soyuz capsules. After the disaster, the Soyuz capsule was redesigned to accommodate a crew of two, wearing pressure suits. The Soyuz 11 trio remain the only humans to have perished in outer space, above the Kármán line (one hundred kilometers/sixty-two miles above mean sea level).

The Soyuz 11 capsule depressurized just prior to atmospheric re-entry, killing its crew of three, 29 June 1971, fifty-one years ago today.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: The Soyuz 11 Disaster
The Phenomenauts, "Heroes" from For All Mankind (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Soyuz 11 Disaster
№ DCCCXXIII: The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 11, Part I
№ DCCCXXVII: The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 11, Part II

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Muatard Plug, "Real Rat Bastard" from In Black and White (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"You told me I'm a real rat bastard,
I'm telling you I can't deny it's true,
But step inside this real rat bastard,
You be me and I'll be, I'll be you…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day

Green Day, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" from Nimrod (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: This one goes out to Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, who in protest of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision cursed these United States, renounced his U.S. citizenship, & declared his intention to relocate to the United Kingdom. Armstrong is a Californian; California has & will contiue to have far more permissive & expansive abortion laws than the U.K. He's leaving a more pro-abortion place for a more pro-life place, in the name of abortion access. What a nimrod! Every time I try to give pro-abortion folks the benefit of the doubt, they expose the intellectual shallowness of their own position & the emotional nature of their own beliefs.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party!

The Aquabats!, "Aquabat March!" from The Return of The Aquabats! (Captain Thumbs Up!)

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCLXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 40th Anniversary of S.T.S.-4, Part I
27 June 1982: The Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102 lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center with CDR Ken Mattingly & Pilot Hank Hartsfield; this was the first Shuttle flight to carry Getaway Special payloads, the first to launch precisely on schedule, the last with a crew of two, & the last "test flight;" both Solid Rocket Boosters crashed into the ocean & sank due to main parachutes failures.

Commentary: This was the fourth flight of the Columbia OV-102.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: S.T.S.-4
They Might Be Giants, "Four of Two" from No! (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Save Ferris, "Nobody But Me" from It Means Everything (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Desmond Dekker and the Aces, "Jamaican Ska" from King of Ska (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: A visiting missionary priest from Jamaica? Don't mind if I do!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the XIII Sunday in O.T.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Chris Tomlin, "God and God Alone" from the Salvation's Tide Is Rising compilation (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day

New Found Glory, "All About Her" from New Found Glory (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: One of the all-time great songs.

"Let me practice this, before I say it to you.
I know it might come out wrong but I want it to:
Another chance to fight,
Another way to make it right.

"So forget all of your chances,
It's up to you to follow through,
Forget the way she was
'Cause it's the things she does, that make me—

"Sing about her!
She knows I care about her!
She said, 'Be gentle, boy,
'You show a lack of character.'
Oh, yeah!

"Let me work this out before I come back to you.
I know you sometimes hate the stupid things I do.
Another lonely night,
Another way to make it right.

"So forget all of your chances,
It's up to you to follow through,
Forget the way she was
'Cause it's the things she does, that make me—

"Sing about her!
She knows I care about her!
She said, 'Be gentle, boy,
'You show a lack of character'…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Chinkees, "You Don't Know" from The Chinkees… Are Coming! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Let's cancel "cancel culture," yeah? I think the vast (silent) majority of us can get behind that. The answer to bad ideas is better ideas, not to label ideas you dislike "thought crimes." The answer to bad speech is more speech, not censorship.

"I like people for what's inside.
They use their own minds, don't care what other people think.
You can be a punk, mod, hippie, Christian, anarchist, jock, nerd, preppie, hey!
What I'm trying to say is: People can be jerks no matter what they look like
And people can be great in exactly the same way!…"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCLXXXVIII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—The Irish Civil War, Part II
28 June-5 July 1922: The Battle of Dublin—The Provisional Government's National Army, under the command of Michael Collins, assaulted the anti-Treaty I.R.A. occupying the Four Courts; an explosion in the Public Record Office destroyed records dating back to the Norman conquest (1170s); fighting centered around O'Connell Street continued for a week; this was full-blown civil war, Irish killing Irish.

Lest we forget.

Bonus! Song o' the Most Sacred Heart o' Jesus

Flogging Molly, "Rebels of the Sacred Heart" from Drunken Lullabies (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Interrupters, "In the Mirror" from In the Wild (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, "All Good Ska Is One" from Ska Me Forever (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Reel Big Fish, "The Bad Guy" from We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: It's says a lot about Reel Big Fish's body of work that front man Aaron Barrett says a song other than "The Bad Guy" is "the meanest song I ever wrote." Oh, how their snarky bitterness makes my black heart soar!

"It's mean, but I'm not sorry I let you down,
It's mean, but I'm not sorry I let you down,
It's mean, but I'm not sorry I let you down,
Don't you wish I never came around?…"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCLXXXVII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—The Irish Civil War, Part I
22 June 1922: The Assassination of Sir Henry Wilson—A former Field Marshal & sitting Northern Irish member of the Westminster Parliament was killed in Liverpool by Irish Republican Army terrorists; the British, who still had troops in Southern Ireland, threatened revenge & pressured the Irish Provisional Government to reclaim Dublin's Four Courts, occupied by anti-Treaty partisans since April.

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "The Impression That I Get" from Let's Face It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: I'm pretty sure I'm a coward.

"I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested,
I'd like to think that if I was I would pass,
Look at the tested and think, 'There but for the grace go I,'
Might be a coward, I'm afraid of what I might find out…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Less Than Jake, "All My Best Friends Are Metalheads" from Hello Rockview (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: One not only can but indeed ought to be kind & respectful to all, especially to those with whom one disagrees. Let us strive to reclaim civility as a foundational premise of our public discourse. I have fallen short of that mark on too many occasions, for which I now apologize yet again.

"And do you know about his strength and convictions
Or how she puts all her faith in religion?
Did we take the time to really discover
How little we know about each other?

"Keep us from saying anything,
Can't separate from everything…"

Bonus! Song o' Juneteenth

Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On" from Motown 1's (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Microsoft encourages ignorance, this morning describing Juneteenth:

General Gordon Granger arrives on Galveston Island, Texas, with official news: More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been implemented, America's remaining enslaved men, women, and children are freed. The day will be celebrated in Texas, and later in other states, as 'Juneteenth.'

Apparently, Microsoft is unaware that the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves within the illegitimate "Confederate States of America," that there were slave states that remained within the Union & slavery was not abolished throughout the country until the ratification of Amendment XIII to the United States Constitution.

We cannot overcome the tragedies of the past by perpetuating false narratives & spreading misinformation about the tragedies of the past.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Corpus Christi

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
The Daughters of Mary, "O salutaris hostia" from De Profundis (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Open and Honest" from The Magic of Youth (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Well aware and self asserted,
Warned and well alerted,
A bond so strong it can't be wrong
And it will never be deserted,
Stick together, that's the plan,
Stick to that the best we can,
Nothing left to say, thank you…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Interrupters, "Rumors and Gossip" from Fight the Good Fight (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Half Past Two, "1000 Miles Away" from It's About Time (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"I’m so glad for where we are today,
You know I wouldn’t want this any other way now, baby.

"Step outside and we are going nowhere,
But it’s probably somewhere
That I’ll stay,
Take a drive and we can watch the sunset
Don’t tell me you’re done yet
No, not today,
Cause I’m a thousand miles away…"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCLXXXVI

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—The Irish Civil War, Prelude
16 June 1922: A general election for Southern Ireland was held according to the Anglo-Irish Treaty—Sinn Féin was divided into pro-Treaty (Michael Collins) & anti-Treaty (Éamon de Valera) factions, which agreed a truce, a pact to campaign jointly; Sinn Féin won 94 of the 128 seats in the Third Dáil (pro-Treaty: 58, anti-Treaty: 36), but de Valera's faction reneged on the pact & refused to be seated.

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Toasters, "Everything You Said Has Been a Lie" from Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"You said that you would tell me why,
You said there was no other guy.
Wait a minute, let's not pretend,
I'm not your lover, you're not my friend,
Everything you said has been a lie…"

Operation ÖSTERREICH

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 347.8 lbs
This weigh-in: 346.4 lbs.
Difference: -1.4 lbs.

Fortitudine vincimus. ("By endurace we conquer.")

Bonus! Lied von ÖSTERREICH
"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Grapefruit Diet" from Running with Scissors (Mike Papa Watercress)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Toasters, "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" from Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: On the off-chance you haven't gotten the message yet, don't let the bastards grind you down.

"Don't let the bastards grind you down,
Don't let them grind you down!
Don't let the bastards grind you down!
Don't let them grind you down!…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, "Glorious" from Glorious (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Bombskare, "Mr. Undiplomatic" from The Day the Earth Stood Stupid (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Bombskare style themselves, "Scotland's Ska Juggernaut."

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Trinity Sunday

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The Daughters of Mary, "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" from De Profundis (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Last 24 Hours

Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders, "Chasing Bandini" from Ford v. Ferrari: Original Score (Mike Papa Whiskey)

24 Heures du Mans | 04:32:00

In Hypercar, one of the two Toyota GR010s will win & the other will finish second unless they crash or break down. The principal question is which will win, the № 7 or the № 8?

In L.M.P.2, the № 38 Oreca-Gibson from J.O.T.A. Sport has stood like a colossus atop the category since the Tricolore signaled the start. They will win unless they crash or break down.

There is a question as to which of several contenders will triumph in G.T.E. Am., but it is not the category of greatest interest.

As usual, the closest battle & greatest drama is in G.T.E. Pro., the class that is being eliminated. The № 64 Corvette was dicing with the № 51 Ferrari when the Corvette was brutally crashed out of the race due to two reckless gentleman drivers in L.M.P.2 driving like jackasses. The amateur who directly crashed his Oreca into the № 64 later walked down to the Corvette pits to apologize, which I have to admit was a classy move. The hideous coincidence is that the formal retirement of the sister № 63 Corvette was being announced at the exact moment the № 64 was forced off track into the crash barriers. Thus ends a historyof Corvette Racing at Le Mans that stretches back to 2000.

Currently, the № 51 Ferrari & the № 91 Porsche are nose-to-tail for the class lead. This is the best racing on track, as G.T.E. Pro. is year in & year out. Yet the G.T.E. Pro. class is being eliminated. I'm sure the A.C.O. has was it thinks are solid reasons for getting rid of the best racing at each & every year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, but their logic escapes me.

24 Heures du Mans | 07:22:00

Perilous peril!
The G.T.E. Pro.-leading № 92 Porsche suffered a tire failure, slow return journey to the pits, & repairs that dropped it from the class lead to three laps down & second-from-last in class.

At virtually the same time, the overall-leading № 7 Toyota suffered some manner of software/electrical problem, which required several reboots of the GR010, costing it the lead & a lap to the № 8 sister car.

Beware the Mulsanne corner!