November 18

When you have a moment, open the book of history to any random page. Then flip through its pages and you will be hard pressed to find a page where you are not brought face-to-face with a technological leap forward that forces you to sit up straight and pay attention. Examples are many; the invention of the printing press that used movable type, wireless telegraphy, mankind’s first heavier-than-air flight, the synthesis of penicillin, and man landing on the moon are only a few of the many moments of greatness humans may take pride in. To that list, you should add the often-overlooked event that took place on the 18th in 1928 when Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks released Steamboat Willie, the first animated cartoon with synchronized sound, featuring, in their second appearance as stars, Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

November 17

Often it is difficult, if not impossible, to look on the bright side of life. I have found however that with a little bit of effort some good may be found in anything that happens in your life. Have you fallen from a high place of fame, fortune and renown? Has life hit you repeatedly in the back of the head? Take heart, all is not as dark as it might seem to be. In your moments of despair, you would be well served if you took a moment to pause and remember Sir Walter Raleigh who, on the 17th in 1603, went on trial for treason. The trial did not go particularly well and he would in the end be convicted, the sentence of death by beheading being passed down. For a variety of reasons, the sentence would not be carried out until October 29, 1618. When Raleigh was led to the block so that justice could be administered he asked to see the axe. Upon viewing it, he stated, “This is sharp medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases and miseries.”

November 16

Fyodor Dostoevsky was a prominent and far too vocal member of a revolutionary group called the Petrashevsky Circle. Quite often, and not always due to the Tsar’s opinion of his writing, Dostoevsky found himself at odds with Tsar Nikolai 1. So great was Nikolai’s displeasure that he ordered the arrest of him and other members of the group, which was done on April 23, 1849. All were and charged with a variety of anti-government activities. On the 16th of November, in 1849 Dostoevsky together with other members of The Circle were convicted and sentenced to death; sentence to be carried out immediately. Dostoevsky and his colleagues were led out of the courtroom and were lined up in the snow so that they could be executed by firing squad. At the last moment, the Tsar commuted Dostoevsky’s sentence to four years of exile to a katorga prison camp at Omsk, Siberia. Unfortunately, when asked for his last words, Dostoevsky began reading from The Brothers Karamazov. When he got to page 312, the men in the firing squad shot themselves in the head because they just could not take Dostoevsky’s reading any more.

Dostoevsky’s first book, entitled Poor Folk, was published in 1845, to unanimously glowing reviews.
The Petrashevsky Circle was a discussion group which focused on Western philosophy and had been organized by Mikhail Petrashevsky
A kartoga camp is one that applies a system of penal servitude in a prison farm.

November 15

If there had been just a little more traffic, today’s entry would have had to appear tomorrow. At 10:00 p.m. GMT on the 15th in 1970, the Soviet Spacecraft Luna 17 slipped in to orbit around the Moon. Carried onboard was the Lunokhod 1, a really neat remote control car, which would land on the Moon on November 17. Actually, it was a bit too odd looking to be called a car. Calling it an RC car does get the point across though. Well, maybe not a car, it looked more like someone polished off all the Vodka in the liquor cabinet and then got in to their kid’s erector set. If you look at it very closely, it becomes clear that it was a miniature laboratory. O.K., maybe it’s not the Dr. Frankenstein kind of laboratory, but it is a laboratory nonetheless. The Lunokhod 1’s significance, however, lies in the fact that it was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on a planetary body other than Earth. Perhaps I should qualify that by saying it was the first rover made by humans. That would be both accurate and leave the door open for new evidence that may be coming out of Area 51 once everything there is de-classified.

Lunokhod means Moon Walker in Russian.

November 14

On the 14th in 1889, journalist Nellie Bly[i], inspired by Jules Verne’s book Around the World in 80 Days, left Hoboken, New Jersey and began a trip that se and her sponsors hoped would either meet or beat Verne’s time. She arrived, to great fanfare, back in New York[ii] 72 days, 6 hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds later. Not that anyone was watching the clock or anything as silly as that.

[i] Bly’s name at birth was Elizabeth Jane Cochran.
[ii] In 1887, while working for the newspaper the New York World Bly had herself committed to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island to research a series of articles about conditions in the Asylum.

November 13

On the 13th in 1994, noted guitarist and scholar Katherine Simone Perchik was born in Brooklyn, New York. It strikes me as unnecessary to say it, but I must point out that at no time have any allegations of felonious activities focusing on Miss Perchik been made. Additionally, she has not yet been called upon to appear before a committee of the United States Senate to give testimony concerning her involvement in plotting to interfere with a Federal investigation of questionable dealings anywhere within the 48 contiguous states or Alaska. As of this writing reports from Hawaii have not been formally presented, but it is anticipated that officials there will not charge Miss Perchik with any crimes whatever. However, there are others about whom the same cannot be said. On the 13th in 1909, Collier’s magazine published an article accusing Richard Achilles Ballinger of questionable dealings with private claims in the Alaskan coalfields. Bollinger was a member of President Coolidge’s cabinet, holding the position of United States Secretary of the Interior and as such was only eight heartbeats away from the presidency itself.

The Secretary of the Interior is eighth in the presidential line of succession.

November 12

I have no way of knowing, but considering the time and place, these rocket scientists may have been breathing a little too much Oregon air. On the 12th in 1970, a dead sperm whale washed ashore in Florence, Oregon. Trust me on this one, after a couple of days a dead cetacean weighing about eight tons starts to get just a little ripe. I can testify to the fact that the while beaches along the Oregon coast are always cold, they are not an adequate substitute for proper refrigeration. In Oregon, all beaches are under the jurisdiction of the state’s Parks and Recreation Department. Curiously, the task of removing Moby (the whale, not the musician) from Florence’s lovely waterfront fell to the very capable Oregon Highway Division. Apparently, after meeting with members of the United States Navy, it was decided to use the same techniques that would be appropriate for removing a very large boulder from a highway: just blow the darn thing up. Taking into consideration the fact that this was a very big whale and quite dead, they figured that 1000 pounds of dynamite out to do the trick. The resulting explosion scattered blubber over a wide area, crushing a car and showering areas well away from the beach with icky whale guts. What do you think the workers from the Highway Department saw when the smoke cleared? Go ahead take a guess. If you guessed that they saw a very large, very disfigured, very large dead whale still on the beach you win a prize. Rather, you would have won a prize if I had taken any steps to hold a contest and provide one, which I haven’t.

Frank Herbert wrote a great portion of his Dune series while visiting Florence, Oregon to research an article he was writing on the Department of Agriculture’s coastal management program.