Friday night

A thought while scrolling:  "That's all well and good.  But I know good and well that..."

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Seen any good stuff lately?  Yes, the Mike Wallace Interview, a half-hour of picture radio from the late 1950's, conversation with the up-and-coming (Henry Kissinger), those past their prime (Mary Margaret McBride, Dagmar, Gloria Swanson, Philip Wylie) and those still riding their 15 minutes of fame (Ralph Lapp) or infamy (Eldon Edwards, Grand Wizard of the KKK).  A few people at the top of their business (Steve Allen, Eddie Arcaro), and some near the end (Commando Kelly, Diana Barrymore).

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As a child growing up a couple of decades after World War II, I learned about the war years through history, not as an eyewitness.  The Manhattan Project had been top secret, I read, except for a few pesky leaks to the Soviet Union, I read later.  When Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked, it was a huge surprise to everyone outside that small cadre of nuclear physicists.  No one had ever heard of such a thing.

And so it wasn't until tonight, following up on the Mike Wallace Interview with Philip Wylie, that I learned that the atomic bomb had been the subject of numerous articles in the 1930's in newspapers, in magazines like Popular Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated, and short stories in pulp science fiction magazines.  People knew about the sudden cities in Oak Ridge and in Los Alamos.

Actually, the pulp stories continued into the early years of the war (so I found out) until a government agency said in effect, "Ix-nay on the Omb-Bay.  The enemy can read, too."  Philip Wylie had written a story that brought together a great deal of knowledge about the progress being made on nuclear weaponry, and he was taken to a quiet room by several serious men who wanted to know how he knew so much and why he was telling so much about it.

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I was in the basement last night, and I looked across the floor and saw my little cat, Good Queen Swirly.  She saw me and ran to me for some affection, and I was happy that seeing me made her so happy.

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