The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Leap Day

Upbeat Allstars, "Leap" from Wake Up! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Carpe diem!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day before Yesterday

Montag, 26. Februar
Everclear, "Santa Monica" from Sparkle and Fade (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"We can live beside the ocean,
Leave the fire behind,
Swim out past the breakers,
Watch the world die…"

Operation ÖSTERREICH: II Week of Lent Edition

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 355.4 lbs. (Wednesday, 21 February)

Bonus! Lied von ÖSTERREICH
Melbourne Ska Orchestra, "While You Wait" from Melbourne Ska Orchestra (Mike Papa Waiter)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Today

Mittwoch, 28. Februar
The Aquabats!, "Look at Me, I'm a Winner!" from Charge!! (Captain Thumbs Up!)

The Stars My Destination: Elliot See & Charles Bassett

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—In Memoriam Elliot See & Charlie Bassett
Fifty-eight years ago to the day, 28 February 1966, Mister Elliot McKay See Junior & Major Charles Arthur Bassett II, U.S.A.F., died when their T-38 Talon crashed into the McDonnell Aircraft factory in foggy conditions; See had been selected as part of N.A.S.A. Astronaut Group 2 in September 1962, Bassett as part of N.A.S.A. Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Elliot See & Charles Bassett
The Explorers' Club, № DCCCII

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

Requiescat in pace.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Primary Election Day

Fitz and the Tantrums, "Dear Mr. President" from Pickin' Up the Pieces (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Polls show that the majority of Americans don't want a re-match between President Biden & President Trump, each running for his second term, in this fall's general election. A primary system that delivers such a baleful outcome is clearly broken, empowering the radical fringes of both parties to choose the most divisive candidates. Bring back meaningful conventions! We must bring back the smoke-filled rooms where party grandees horse-traded to come up with the best candidate for the general election. An excess of direct democracy is the surest, swiftest route to the end of our constitutional republic & the tyranny of first the mob & shortly thereafter the dictator.

The Explorers' Club, № MXIV

The Space Race—Astronaut Group 3 (the "Fourteen"), Part II
David Randolph Scott (born 6 June 1932), Colonel, U.S. Air Force—He flew Gemini VIII (1966) & Apollo 9 (Gumdrop & Spider, 1969) & commanded Apollo 15 (Endeavour & Falcon, 1971); he swam on scholarship at the University of Michigan; he was the first member of Astronaut Group 3 to fly, the seventh of the twelve Moonwalkers, & was Director of N.A.S.A.'s Dryden Flight Research Center.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: The Fourteen—Dave Scott
The University of Michigan Marching Band, "The Victors" from Forever Valiant (Space Cadet Mike Papa Wolverine)

The Wayback Machine Tour of Dave Scott
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCIV: The 55th Anniversary of Gemini VIII
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCXXXV: The 51st Anniversary of Apollo 9, Part I
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCXXXVI: The 51st Anniversary of Apollo 9, Part II
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCXXXVII: The 51st Anniversary of Apollo 9, Part III
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXXXI: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 15, Part I
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXXXII: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 15, Part II
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXXXIII: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 15, Part III

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the II Sunday o' Lent

The Second Sunday of Lent
Sufjan Stevens, "The Transfiguration" from Sufjan Stevens Invites You to: Come on Feel the Illinoise (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the War

Samstag, 24. Februar
The Skamotts, "From Russia with Love" from Pleasure Isle (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Operation AXIOM: The 2nd Anniversary of the Russian Re-invasion of Ukraine
Two years ago to the day, 24 February 2022, ground, air, & naval forces of the Russian Federation crossed the frontiers of both Russia & Belarus into Ukraine, a thrust aimed at capturing Kyiv & decapitating the Ukrainian government. The Kremlin's aim has been clearly stated, to erase the Ukrainian national identity & re-absorb the country into their sphere of influence, the Russkiy mir ("Russian world" & "Russian peace," mir being a multivalent word).

The war is not our fault, the war is the fault of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin & his personalist authoritarian regime. But we failed to deter Putin & we are to blame for our fecklessness. Putin, as prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, cemented his legitimacy by re-invading Chechnya in 1999, returing the breakaway region to Moscow's control; we did nothing, despite the brutality of the Russian invasion. In 2008, Putin's Russia (at the time, he was prime minister under President Dmitri Medvedev) invaded Georgia, establishing a permanent military presence inside Georgia within the breakaway republics of Abkhazia & South Ossetia; we did nothing. In 2014 (when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States), Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine, illegally annexing the Crimean Peninsula & beginning an insurrgency in the Donbas; we did nothing. In the run-up to 2022's re-invasion of Ukraine, President Biden spent more time ruling out potential American responses than threatening an effective American response; that this utterly failed to deter the invasion became lamentably undeniable on 24 February two years hence.

Russia invaded the Ukraine, again, two years ago today, 24 February 2022.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Yesterday

Freitag, 24. Februar
Magic!, "Rude" from Don't Kill the Magic (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Fish Fry Song o' the Day

Fountains of Wayne, "Bright Future in Sales" from Welcome Interstate Managers (Mike Papa Whitefish)

Commentary: The fish fry's operating hours are 4:00-7:00 P.M. Last week, we sold out by 6:15 P.M. The weather was cold, but clear, & the roads were perfect. We're hoping for an even bigger crowd this week.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

The Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle
Letters to Cleo, "St. Peter" from Wholesale Meats and Fish (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № MXIII

Operation AXIOM: The 30th Anniversary of Aldrich Ames's Arrest
21 February 1994: C.I.A. officer Aldrich Ames was arrested for spying against the United States since 1985, for first the Soviet Union & later the Russian Federation; up to twenty-five American sources inside the Soviet Union were executed due to Ames's betrayal; ostentatious displays of wealth were ignored for years; Ames passed polygraphs in 1986 & 1991, despite identifiably deceptive responses.

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Today

Mittwoch, 21. Februar
No Doubt, "Don't Speak" from Tragic Kingdom (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Operation ÖSTERREICH: I Week of Lent Edition

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 360.6 lbs.
This weigh-in: 355.4 lbs.
Difference: -5.2 lbs.

These pounds are the easiest to shed, the low-hanging fruit. The hard work is still ahead.

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

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Yesterday

Dienstag, 20. Februar
Reel Big Fish, "Last Show" from We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Am I terrified of worldly success because I listen to Reel Big Fish or do I listen to Reel Big Fish because I'm terrified of worldly success?

"I don't want fame, I don't want money,
I just want to have fun again,
I don't want girls, or backstage parties,
I just want to feel like we're friends…

"I never thought I would hate music,
I never thought I would hate you,
But every day his feels more like a
Job I don't even want to do, well,
I think i've learned my lesson:
I'll never follow my dreams again…

"Did we do it for the money?
Did we do it because we were bored?
I was better off with what I had before
And that was nothing,
That was nothing at all!

"This is the last show I will ever play with you, This is the end of what you put me through, The last show I will ever play with you…"

The Stars My Destination: Mercury '60-'63

The Space Race: The 58th-63rd Anniversaries of Project Mercury
Six men challenged the unknown in tiny Mercury capsules across six flights in the two years between 5 May 1961-15 May 1963, America's first manned space flights. Project Mercury required both truly experimental test flying & literal rocket science. The Freedom 7 & the Liberty Bell 7 flew fifteen-minute suborbital missions, propelled by the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, a direct descendant of the V-2 ballistic missile from the Second World War. The Liberty Bell 7 sank shortly after splashdown & was not recovered from the sea floor for nearly thirty-eight years. The Friendship 7, Aurora 7, Sigma 7, & Faith 7 flew orbital missions, launched by the Atlas LV-3B, also known as the Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle, derived from the United States's first intercontinental ballistic missle (I.C.B.M.). The Friendship 7 & the Aurora 7 each flew three orbits, the Sigma 7 matched them both by flying six orbits, & the Faith 7 pushed the Mercury spacecraft to the absolutle limits, completing twenty-two orbits over the course of thirty-four hours.

No human had ever flown in outer space when the "Mercury Seven" were introduced to the public on 9 April 1959: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Al Shepard, & Deke Slayton. The Seven were all military test pilots between the ages of thirty-two & thirty seven with intelligence quotients (think what you will of I.Q. scores) between one hundred thirty-five & one hundred forty-seven. They were involved in the design of the Mercury spacecraft, insisting on a window & greater flight control for the astronaut pilot, as well as the ground systems for tracking & controlling flights. Glenn personally insisted on taking a thirty-five millimeter (35mm) camera aboard the Friendship 7 (Mercury-Atlas 6, 20 February 1962) over the objections of the engineers & mission planners; today, the Cuopla module, with its seven Earth-facing windows, is the most iconic location aboard the International Space Station.

Let us never forget Project Mercury, the beginning of America's great adventure into the final frontier.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Project Mercury
1960
"The Explorers' Club," № CMLXVIII: The 63rd Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 1
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCLIX: The 61st Anniversary of Mercury-Redstones 1 & 1A
1961
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCXCVI: The 60th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 2
"The Explorers' Club," № CMXXXIV: The 62nd Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 2
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCVI: The 60th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone B.D.
"The Explorers' Club," № CMXLVII: The 62nd Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 3
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCXLVII: The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 3
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCLX: The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 4
"The Explorers' Club," № CMLXXIX: The 62nd Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 4
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCLVI: The 60th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 5
1962
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCXXXIII: The 58th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 6
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXVIII: The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 7
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXLIII: The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 8
1963
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCLXXXIII: The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 9

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Mercury Seven
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCIX: Part I—Astronaut Group 1
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXXIV: Part II—Al Shepard
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXXV: Part III—Gus Grissom
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXXXVII: Part IV—John Glenn
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXLV: Part V—Scott Carpenter
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCLXI: Part VI—Wally Schirra
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCLXII: Part VII—Gordon Cooper
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCLXIII: Part VIII—Deke Slayton

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Presidents' Day

Washington's Birthday (Observed), A.K.A. Presidents' Day
Big D and the Kids Table, "President" from How It Goes (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № MXII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
25 January-5 February 1924: The I Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France—Sixteen nations competed in bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, speed skating, figure skating, military patrol, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, & ski jumping; Norway led the medal table with seventeen: four golds, seven silvers, & six bronzes; Austria & Hungary competed, while Germany was banned.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: I Olympic Winter Games
John Williams featuring Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Utah Symphony Orchestra, "Call of the Champions (Official Theme of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games)" from American Journey (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the I Sunday o' Lent

The First Sunday of Lent
Shane Harper, "Hold You Up" from God's Not Dead: The Motion Picture Soundtrack (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Great Big Sea, "The Mermaid" from The Hard and the Easy (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary, eh:

"She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish,
From her head to her waist it was just my taste,
But the rest of her was a fish!

"'Cause her hair was green as seaweed,
Her skin was blue and pale,
Her face it was a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart,
But I only liked the upper part,
I did not like the tail…"

Bonus! Fish Fry Song o' the Day

Barnes & Barnes, "Fish Heads" from the Fish Heads single (Mike Papa Whiting)

Commentary: We don't actually have any fish heads at the Fish Fry, buying our cod already cut into carefully-sized pieces ready to cook, yet "Fish Heads" still strikes me as seasonally appropriate.

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

The Coral, "Dreaming of You" from The Coral (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"When I'm down and my hands are tied,
I cannot reach a pen for me to draw the line
From this pain I just can't disguise,
Its gonna hurt, but I'll have to say goodbye.

"Up in my lonely room,
When I'm dreaming of you,
Oh, what can I do?
I still need you, but
I don't want you now…"

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Dance Hall Crashers, "Make Her Purr" from Purr (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"You looked around, I'll admit it was sad,
Trying to hide that you wanted her so bad,
It took some time, then you finally saw her again
And she ignored you like the rancid mustard in the fridge door,
And then, she left with Damon from Blur!

"You'd like to think you know her,
Know what it takes to make her purr,
But she don't live here anymore…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song against Valentine's Day

No Doubt, "Spiderwebs" from Tragic Kingdom (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: This may surprise any younger readers, but there was a time not so long ago—less than thirty years hence, in the late 1990s—when most of us did not routinely screen our phone calls.

"Sorry I'm not home right now,
I'm walking in your spiderwebs,
So leave a message and I'll call you back,
A likely story, but
Leave a message and I'll call you back…"

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Ash Wednesday Edition

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 355.6 lbs. (Wednesday, 20 December 2023)
This weigh-in: 360.6 lbs.
Difference: +5.0 lbs.

Bonus! Lied von ÖSTERREICH
"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Lasagna" from Even Worse (Mike Papa Walrus)

Bonus! Song o' Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday
Audrey Assad, "Spirit of the Living God" from Fortunate Fall (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: The Spirit drove the Christ into the desert to pray & fast for forty days in preparation for His earthly ministry. In imitation of the Divine Master, we too go into the desert, in preparation for the Paschal Mysteries of His Passion, Death, & Resurrection, the fulcrum of all time & space, of the whole created order.

Section 31: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-2024)

Episode o' the Day
"Armageddon Game" (season two, episode thirteen; 31 January 1994): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: "Armageddon Game" gives us a riveting plot, apparently inspired in part by the original series episode, "A Taste of Armageddon." The great Bashir-O'Brien friendship is further developed, as the odd couple discuss the classic tension over whether Starfleet officers are better off with or without families (wives & children).

This is our last Deep Space Nine episode 'til Easter, as I'm giving up the "Section 31" thirty-first anniversary re-watch for Lent.

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Spike Jones & His City Slickers, "My Old Flame" from The Spike Jones Anthology (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Stars My Destination: S.T.S.-41-B

Code Name: CHAOS
From the beginning of American spaceflight, missions were numbered sequentially. Mercury-Redstone 3 (Al Sheppard) followed Mercury-Redstone-1A (uncrewed) & Mercury-Redstone 2 (Ham the chimpanzee). Gemini 3 (Gus Grissom & John Young) was followed by Gemini IV (Jim McDivitt & Ed White), the Roman numerals continuing all the way through Gemini XII (Jim Lovell & Buzz Aldrin). After the Apollo 1 tragedy, there was no Apollo 2 or Apollo 3, but the uncrewed Apollo 4, Apollo 5, & Apollo 6 were followed by the manned Apollo 7 (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, & Walt Cunningham) all the way through Apollo 17 (Gene Cernan, Ron Evans, & Jack Schmitt).

The early Space Shuttle flights followed this pattern. The Space Shuttle was the only part of the ambitious Space Transportation System (S.T.S.) architecture to be built, & so flights were numbered S.T.S.-X: S.T.S.-1 was followed by S.T.S.-2, all the way through S.T.S.-9. But all that changed when S.T.S.-9 was not followed by "S.T.S.-10," but by S.T.S.-41-B. That's an exaggeration, not everything changed: the S.T.S. prefix remained. Let's unpack the new & different "41-B."

"41" is no longer a sequential number, but a code, telling us specific things about the flight. Though read as forty-one, the four & the one refer to different traits. "4" refers to 1984, not the calender year 1984 but N.A.S.A.'s fiscal year 1984. "B" is the sequential part of the code, indicating that S.T.S.-41-B was the second Space Shuttle flight of fiscal year 1984. N.A.S.A.'s fiscal year 1984 began in October 1983; so, under the new system, November-December 1983's S.T.S.-9 would have been designated "S.T.S.-41-A." The Space Shuttle was still flying in 1994 & 2004 (though grounded in that latter year in the aftermath of the Columbia tragedy); it is unknown how those years would have been represented in this scheme. Would 1994 missions have been S.T.S.-141-X & 2004 missions S.T.S.-241-X? Or S.T.S.-941-X & S.T.S. 041-X? We'll never know. The use of the alphabet for sequential designation would allow for up to twenty-six flights per year, A through Z. The highest number of Shuttle flights in a single year was nine, in 1985.

The second digit in "41" refers to the launch site. "1" indicates the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. S.T.S.-41-B was thus the second Space Shuttle flight of fiscal year 1984, launched from K.S.C. But wait, weren't all Space Shuttle flights launched from K.S.C.? Yes, they were. But there weren't always planned to be. Throughout the 1970s, N.A.S.A. needed the support of the Department of Defense to secure the funding necessary to develop a spacecraft as advanced as the Space Shuttle Orbiter. D.O.D. requirements influenced the design of the Orbiter Vehicle, such as the size of the payload bay. Lots of interesting missions could be flown from Cape Canaveral, but certain military missions required higher inclination orbits than could realistically be achieved by launching from Florida. "2" would have indicated Space Launch Complex (S.L.C.-6, "Slick Six") at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Vandenberg was an ideal location for launching missions into polar orbit, a useful orbit for many military applications. The inaugural launch from S.L.C.-6, S.T.S.-62-A, was planned for July 1986, but cancelled in the aftermath of the Challenger tragedy.

This peculiar mission designation system willl be with us for the rest of 1984, all of 1985, & into 1986, fifteen missions overall. Adding to the confusion, with the post-Challenger Return to Flight, Shuttle flights returned to sequential numbering, S.T.S.-26 in 1988 through S.T.S.-135 in 2011. So, having just explored S.T.S.-41-B & looking forward to S.T.S.-41-C, down the road, we also have an S.T.S.-41, S.T.S.-51, & S.T.S.-61 in our future.

Section 31: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-2024)

Episode o' the Day
"The Alternate" (season two, episode twelve; 10 January 1994): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: "The Alternate" is a monster story, a bug hunt. We meet Doctor Mora Pol, the Bajoran scientist who worked with Odo after the infant Changeling was first discovered in the Denorios Belt—& inspired Odo's hairstyle & thus the hairstyle of all Changelings in their "default" humanoid form.

"The Alternate" also features something I wish we'd seen more on Deep Space Nine: exploration of the Gamma Quadrant. A weakness of the first two seasons is too much sitting around the station waiting for new life & new civilizations to come through the Bajoran Wormhole/Celestial Temple. Here, Lieutenant Dax, Constable Odo, & Doctors Mora & Weld visit a planet in the Gamma Quadrant to follow up on D.N.A. signatures similar to Odo's, take samples of metamorphic life, & then flee from poisonous volcanic gas, returning to the Alpha Quadrant & Deep Space 9 were the satsifying monster-of-the-week story happens. More of that type of story would have been welcome. I like the mystery of the Dominion, but I think the sudden, aggressive appearance of the Dominion at the end of the second season would have been even more effective if our characters had already been more invested in & familiar with the Gamma Quadrant.

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Go Sailor, "Windy" from Go Sailor (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"So go ahead and marry her,
And don't mind me,
It's what I get for being blind
To what it meant for you to drive so far away
Just because I was on your mind,
I was on your mind…

"So go ahead and marry her,
It's what you want,
I hope that your forever stays,
Sometimes I imagine that I did things right,
I wish I could have made you wait,
I wish you'd wait…

"So go ahead and marry her,
She's really nice,
She's everything that I can't be,
I just hope that somewhere in your wedded bliss
You find the time to think of me,
I hope you think of me."

The Explorers' Club, № MXI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 40th Anniversary of S.T.S.-41-B, Part II
4-11 February 1984: McCandless & Stewart performed two E.V.A. (7 & 9 February), each flying the Manned Maneuvering Unit (M.M.U.) jetpack untethered from the Orbiter; McCandless flew out more than three hundred feet; after 128 orbits, the Challenger became the first Space Shuttle to land at K.S.C.'s Shuttle Landing Facility, & thus the first spacecraft to launch from & land at the same site.

Commentary: Both Brand & McCandless were selected with Astronaut Group 5 in 1966; S.T.S.-41-B was Brand's third spaceflight, but McCandless's first. The photographs of McCandless's & Stewart's untethered flights with the M.M.U. are among the most iconic images of the early Space Shuttle era.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: S.T.S.-41-B
William Shatner featuring Ritchie Blackmore & Candice Night, "Space Oddity" from Seking Major Tom (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.