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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. 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. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


R.I.P. Rose Marie

Rose Marie, best known for her role on the Dick Van Dyke show in the 1960s, has passed away at 94.

Diane and I recently rewatched the entire Dick Van Dyke show, and they come off as fresh and as funny as when they were made more than a half century ago. If you want to see adult comedy at its best, not the modern obscene and shallow adolescent humor that dominates today’s culture, you must see this show.

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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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

  • wayne

    CBS has newly colorized Dick Van Dyke episodes at their pay-site, and they have a free episode compilation running on their regular website. Embedded player & you have to watch ads, but the colorization is amazingly seamless.

    http://www.cbs.com/shows/holiday_central/

    “Holiday Central 2017”
    The Dick Van Dyke Show – Now In Living Color!
    (2017) S1 Ep1
    (43:26)
    “The special features the season one episode ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette,’ written by Reiner, and the season three episode ‘October Eve,’ written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. (TV-G)”

  • Wayne: Colorized? Yuch. CBS did the same crap with the original Star Trek, replacing all the original effects with mediocre modern digital cgi. Not good.

    The entire Dick Van Dyke series was available on amazon for less than $100. Worth every penny. And cheap at the price.

  • wayne

    Mr. Z.,
    Completely agree about wrecking old Star Trek with new ditigal special-fx’s. Totally unnescessary.
    I’m completely opposed to colorization myself, but the software & techniques in use today are incredibly advanced, compared to the 90’s.
    They are also incredibly synthetic, and to me, fake like the News they broadcast.

    pivoting– (I have a clip in mind, for everything.)

    David Byrne –
    My Fair Lady
    https://youtu.be/mk5rDrmgC7w
    3:33

  • wayne

    Baby Rose Marie –
    “The Child Wonder” 1929
    “Vitaphone Varieties” short
    https://youtu.be/DzlZjuy5urU
    8:13

  • ken anthony

    Ok, it has to be said…

    Oh, Rob!

  • Robert Pratt

    We love the show. It is among many I’ve enjoyed sharing with Isabel who doesn’t come from our culture. Bob Newhart is one my caves along with Mary Tyler Moore. Best description of Bill O’Reilly is when Limbaugh called him Ted Baxter!

  • wayne

    Robert—
    My favorite is: “The “O’Baxter Factor.”

  • wayne

    Baby Rose Marie – “The Child Wonder”
    “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner Bros. Entertainment.”

    Last week, Warner Bros. didn’t know who Rose Marie was, nor did they care.

  • wayne

    “From The Mark Steyn Weekend Show earlier this year: Mark bids farewell to one of those we lost in 2017, Mary Tyler Moore.”

    Mark Steyn’s Last Call: Mary Tyler Moore
    https://youtu.be/Dl5vctnM82A
    8:30

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