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Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

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Herman’s Hermits – There’s A Kind Of Hush

An evening pause: This live performance is from 1999. The song was a hit in 1966.

Hat tip Roland.

I am in need of evening pause suggestions. Those that have suggested before know the routine. Those that haven’t should note their interest in participating in the comments here, and I will contact you with the guidelines. Do not post your suggestion here however.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

3 comments

  • janyuary

    The sadness I feel from hearing songs that were heard all day and evening long, seared into my memory of sunny, happy days and sparkling sun and calm bay, prosperous fishermen and healthy independent folks, every morning a new adventure awaited, so many friends and family, family you loved, embracing … these songs bring those memories back in super-fine focus and it hurts, because I can smell the eucalyptus against the coast breeze, feel it on my hair, feel the catch of excitement of the day ahead, week ahead … hearing it now makes me sad.

    I know this will pass and the songs will make me smile instead of weep. We were all pretty lucky to have grown up when we did, we old farts.

  • Foxbat

    Hermans Hermits on Tour was the first record I bought.

  • eddie willers

    Bob.

    A few years ago you put up an Evening Pause with a local copy band from the Atlanta area. It was a father that started a side gig with a few of his regular band members when his daughter had turned 15 and sang such great harmony with him at home. They recruited a 16 year old friend of hers from the church choir and had fun playing as Foxes & Fossils (old males playing the instruments with the two young girls singing wonderfully and without any of the vocal histrionics that seem so popular with today’s young)

    The older female singer, Maggie, went off to college, but Tim (the band leader father of daughter Sammi) actually found another 15 year old girl (with pipes like Mama Cass) and kept the gigs going for a few more summers during school vacation. And that was it. It was over, except their stuff sat there on YouTube being found by people like you (and me) as the young girls went off to college and life. Well if college taught them one thing it was being able to read analytics from YouTube. So many people had discovered the 10 ~ 5 year videos that they decided to get together again (now with the third girl, Chase) and give it another go. The pandemic put some crimps in some of the plans, but by the miracle of the Internet and sent files, etc. they have made new videos that are really very good. They now have over 115K subscribers and many of their videos have over a million views.

    So, if I may, I’d like to suggest you revisit them. One I think your readers would enjoy is their version of the Mamas and the Papas “Dedicated To The One I love”, but they have many new videos…all great quality.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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