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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for this website, Behind the Black, is now over. Despite a relatively weak initial three weeks, the last week was spectacular, making this campaign the second best ever.

 

Thanks to every person who donated or subscribed. It continues to astonish me that people who can read my work for free like it enough to donate money voluntarily. Words cannot express my appreciation for that support, especially in these uncertain times.

 

If you have been a regular reader and a fan of my work and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider doing so. I take no ads, I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands (most of the time). Thus, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation:

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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Learning To Fly

An evening pause: Performed live, 2006.

R.I.P.

I’m learning to fly
But I ain’t got wings
Coming down
Is the hardest thing.

Hat tip Edward Thelen.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

9 comments

  • Joe

    One of the great all time rockers, he will be missed!

  • LocalFluff

    I’ve taken a course in hang gliding, flying horizontally with a delta wing attached to your back, starting by jumping off a cliff. The instructors said more people die during golf than during hang gliding. Of course, many more people play golf than hang glide, and those who die from old age do so while playing golf because they spend so much time there. Maybe brave people are brave just because they lie to themselves about the dangers? With hang gliding, life is at stake each time.

    So, silly lyrics. Coming down is unavoidable. Although one wishes one could be on the ground again without the landing part. Out of ten guys for three weeks, only one broke a leg and two quit. One after having gained surprising height and blew away over the mountain tops to the next valley. He came back to the instructors’ farm late at night after a long walk through the wilderness, bruised and in torn clothes without the wing. He left the next morning. (That all got off topic)

  • Joe

    Local Fluff, I have always said, at least when I go flying, I have wings!, often see people on motorcycles going airborne in some form of stunt and think that to my self!

  • LocalFluff

    @Joe
    Wings? So, you’re Hell’s Angels? :-)

  • wayne

    Great audience-participation, good selection Edward.

    Felix Baumgartner jump
    Red Bull Stratos
    https://youtu.be/7f-K-XnHi9I?t=195

  • @Joe:

    Heartily agree. My Petty albums were some of the first I converted to CD.

    @LocalFluff:

    Flying is easy; landing is hard.

  • Joe

    Landing is the fun part, take offs mean you are committed to the landing!

  • eddie willers

    As they say about mountain climbing: Going up is optional, getting down is mandatory!

  • eddie willers: Heh. In caving and hiking the Grand Canyon, it is the reverse: Going down is optional, climbing out is mandatory.

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