First time I heard of her was in the Beastie Boys lyric, "I got more rhymes than Phyllis Diller"
I had to go to the reference library to look that up.

I really did.
I mean obviously it was pre-internet, but I mean I really did chase up stray references if my parents couldn't help me with them. Heterosexual for example (Mum confused it with homosexuality but it didn't fit in the context) and the Marquis de Sade who became a brief obsession of mine (although remained a lasting interest). Jonestown was another.

Kids this days have everything at their fingertips.
The bastards.

:lol:

That's a distinction you might want to keep straight. So to speak.

Nina Bawden

:cry:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19341736


She was in the "I assumed she died forever ago" category. I'm sad now I know she didn't. But now she did. Carrie's War, The Peppermint Pig, and The Amazing Mr Blunden are the three books that stayed with me from my childhood (not all written by her)

This makes me sad. All that work thrown away... A true hero.

Thrown away?

No significant human presence in space 40 odd years later. We are not Vulcans, robot missions are neat but lack the romance of humanizing space.

Small tangent:

When Kennedy said 'Let's go to the moon.', we went in nine years. Today, they say it'll take fifteen years to get to the moon.

Hell, if'n we use 1960s technology we could do it this weekend.

WTF?

Well, after seeing his job outsourced to machines, and seeing his namesake disgraced, it has been a shitty month for him.

Seriously, I am saddened by this. He was the symbol of the greatest - or at least most symbolic and dramatic - human achievement to date. Now he has died of old age. It drives home how long it has been since we did this.

Mentioned to my kids that Neal Armstrong had died and asked if they knew who he was, and they thought he was the Tour de France cheater. So I straightened them out, and they were all "oh, yeah, we knew that."

And then I saw on Facebook, a friend of mine who works at a university reported that many of his students were confusing Neal Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, and Neil Patrick Harris.

Neil Patrick Harris? WTF! Doogie Howser? :facepalm:

It's in the first 20 seconds

The Neil Armstrong Space Museum is an icon to those of us who've travelled up and down I-75 near Wapakoneta. I went there as a kid, but now I'm thinking a second look would be nice.

By all reports, Mr Armstrong was an unassuming man. An engineer they wanted to make a star: a transition he shied away from.

R.I.P. Rocket Man. :(

Have you ever toured the soundstage where they filmed the landing? It's actually pretty small and unimpressive. The snack bar is cool though, they have these retro chairs and Tang and Space Food Sticks.

.