Here is your open thread for April 15, 2020.
Chris Stapleton turns 42 today.
On April 15, 1632, Protestant Swedish forces under Gustavus Adolphus defeated Catholic league forces under the Count of Tilly at the Battle of Rain in which some 5,000 people lost their lives. The battle is still studied today by military scholars and historians as a tactical engagement between two brilliant generals, rather than it being still studied today as an object lesson in the sheer stupidity and antichrist blasphemy of Christians slaughtering one another in battle.
On April 15, 1912, Charles Joughin — chief baker aboard the RMS Titanic — gave up his designated seat on a lifeboat and began both: A) heroically shepherding women and children into the remaining lifeboats, and B) heroically helping himself to some of the best wine and liquor available on the luxury liner while gradually making his way toward the back of the ship. When the Titanic finally sank beneath the waves, Joughin rode it down and stepped off gently into the frigid water without getting his head wet. Thanks to being a large man in a state of sanguine intoxication, Joughin survived for several hours in the frigid water before being hauled into a lifeboat and rescued. Between about 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, and 2:20 a.m. on the 15th, Charles Joughin pulled off one of the most impressive three-hour stretches in the history of the human race. He resettled in Paterson, New Jersey, and later survived the sinking of the SS Oregon. Joughin died in 1956.
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. So if this were a normal April with baseball, everybody’d be wearing No. 42 today. This tribute is usually described as the day Robinson “broke the color line,” which makes it sound like “the color line” was some natural phenomenon rather than, you know, a deliberately constructed lie built by the choices of wealthy and powerful white men.
Leonardo da Vinci was born 568 years ago today. Some day we’ll get around to building that time machine he probably designed in one of his sketchbooks and thereby get the chance to go back and wish him a happy birthday in person.
Henry James was born 177 years ago. Low-brow reader that I am, my favorite James work is The Turn of the Screw.
A. Philip Randolph was born 141 years ago. He organized the first predominantly black labor union, forced FDR to ban discrimination in World War II industries, and then pressured Harry Truman to end segregation in the armed forces. Oh, and he also helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963.
Corrie ten Boom, Righteous Among the Nations, was born 128 years ago today.
True story: After graduating college, I worked briefly as a substitute teacher at the private fundamentalist Christian high school I’d graduated from four years earlier. One week I covered for the middle school social studies teacher who had left detailed lesson plans for the two weeks she’d be out for minor surgery. On Tuesday, her lesson plans involved using Romans 13, teaching the class that all government is instituted by God and that, therefore, President George H.W. Bush, like Ronald Reagan before him, was God’s appointed leader for America. Wednesday and Thursday of that same week was spent watching a movie: The Hiding Place. I got in a little trouble for deviating from Friday’s lesson plan for a class discussion allowing the kids to work through the cognitive dissonance of all of that.
Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, was born 126 years ago today. Here’s “Put It Right Here (Or Keep It Out There).” It’s about what you think it’s about.
Helene Hanff was born 104 years ago. 84, Charing Cross Road is as short as it is sweetly delightful. You’ll be sorry it wasn’t longer.
Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago was born 98 years ago today. Roy Clark was born 87 years ago. People remember Clark for the cornpone humor on Hee Haw, but he was also a terrific guitar player. Here’s that time he was a guest star on The Odd Couple and they ended the episode by just letting him show off a bit.
Advice columnist Heloise Evans turns 69 today. She took over the Hints from Heloise column after her mother, the original Heloise, died in 1977. So I guess Heloise is kind of like the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson turns 61 today. My favorite Emma Thompson role is all of them, but let me highlight a few that tend to go overlooked: The Tall Guy, Dead Again, Wit.
Songwriter Linda Perry turns 55 today. Due to social distancing measures, the last few weeks are the first time in America since 1993 that no one has sung Perry’s “What’s Up?” at karaoke.
Danny Pino’s 46th birthday today is a good excuse to recommend the prescient and wickedly strange one-shot series Braindead. If you’ve never heard of that and wonder what it’s about, Jonathan Coulton can get you up to speed here.
Seth Rogen turns 38 today. Pretty sure I know what he’s doing to celebrate. Emma Watson turns 30.
Finally, today is the feast day of Jozef De Veuster, better known as Father Damien, who was the kind of Matthew 25 saint whose life really does merit a day of reflection.
Talk amongst yourselves.
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