Scroll down to read this post.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands. Instead, 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:

4. A Paypal subscription:


5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.


Maurice Jarre – Building the Barn

An evening pause: From the 1985 film, Witness.

Collective action can be a great thing, as long as it is done voluntarily and with good will. Makes a good introduction to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hat tip Danae.

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

15 comments

  • vonmazur

    Very nice scene, but I think I think Weird Al Yankovik’s “Amish Paradise” covered this as well..

  • Andrew_W

    Recognize the guy on the right?

  • I used to live right down the road from the farm used in the movie Witness. Some of the old landmarks are gone now – the Dairy Queen has been replaced by a Waffle House, but a lot is still recognizable. Now I have to watch the whole movie again.

  • Andrew_W

    LOTR, obviously much loved in NZ (though not as much as Hasselhoff is in Germany).

  • wayne

    Pivoting–

    “The Hoff Burger” (1/3lb.)
    Carl’s Jr. 2007 (parody)
    https://youtu.be/dkGUI4bnQbQ
    (0:40)

  • wayne

    Andrew_W–
    totally tangential….
    Q: Do you folks a national holiday, along the lines of Thanksgiving?

    President Trump pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey
    11-20-18
    https://youtu.be/EZAeKC14u9s
    9:00

    “Trump isn’t sure if the 9th Circuit will rule against the pardon. It’s sorta hilarious listening to him stick the knife in democrat’s.”

  • Andrew_W

    Wayne, so far we’ve escaped Thanksgiving, other American events like Halloween are gaining a foothold though.

  • Andrew_W: A poor choice. If you had to pick one American holiday to copy, Thanksgiving is probably the best. There is something both humble and noble in a tradition that calls for families to gather and give thanks for what they have, and to wish for better in the coming year.

    To pick Halloween, which increasingly is celebrating the ugly parts of human nature (when it originally was a vehicle for giving the young a taste of independence), is definitely going in the wrong direction.

  • Andrew_W

    I agree Mr. Zimmerman, the problem is the kids, they’re inundated with American children’s programs that push Halloween, all timed to hit the screens in the run-up to the event, so the propaganda effort is on, targeting the most innocent, and trying to use kid power to bully the parents into submission. We resist of course, and I can boast that there was no Halloween at our place, not even a knock at the door, but I fear that in the long term the war will be lost.

  • Andrew_W

    Mr. Zimmerman, we do have fathers day, which I consider to be the most appropriate Thanksgiving, it’s just a pity that I’m still the one that has to pay for it all.

  • wayne

    Andrew/Mr. Z.:
    Personally, I like Halloween! It’s one of our better quasi-religious/Civil Holidays.
    I look at Halloween in the same vein as when the Coke-a-Cola folks invented the modern caricature of Santa Claus and turned Christmas into a commercial/civil-holiday. (I don’t recall Reindeer being mentioned in the Bible, and since when did Jesus Christ’s birthday, morph into December? The (ancient) tax-collecting/census stuff, didn’t happen in December, did it?)
    What other day allows you to approach your neighbors and by agreed upon convention, receive free snacks? (I always considered that quintessential Americana!)
    Normally, I get about 50 trick-or-treater’s, but that is heavily dependent upon the weather. (This year= zero, it was cold & it rained. And, the demographic in my immediate neighborhood consists of older folks without younger children, and newly marrieds’ with infants.) (and a bit of “dinks,” –dual-income no-kids.)

    (sorry– not communicating clearly today, sleep deprivation!)

    Anyway….

    “Lincoln’s Timeless Thanksgiving Proclamation”
    October 3, 1863.
    By the President of the United States -A Proclamation:
    https://youtu.be/9WjeHaGcWh8
    2:43

  • wayne: You are describing Halloween as it used to be. In the big urban cities and in the culture today it is no longer this. Kids nowadays do not go trick-or-treating on their own. They go with their parents, if they go at all, and they usually go to the mall. And older kids, the ones who used to take the lead, don’t go because the act now appears to be for little kids.

    We have gotten so few trick-or-treaters since moving to Tucson that we didn’t even bother buying candy this year. And got none.

  • Edward

    Robert wrote: “Collective action can be a great thing, as long as it is done voluntarily and with good will. Makes a good introduction to the Thanksgiving holiday.

    This year, we had a two-day Thanksgiving, with Wednesday being pie baking (and a movie night), and Thursday being turkey baking, final preps, and the main dinner and desert.

    Wednesday’s dinner was not a feast, but we tried a piecaken ( https://www.delish.com/cooking/videos/a56418/wtfood-piecaken-video/ ), a desert inspired by the turducken (AKA three bird roast). It was a good first try, but we need to polish up our technique before we go commercial with it, like inventor chef Zac Young seems to have done.

    Both days, the kitchen was full of (probably too many) people working together (collective action) and full of conversation. The movie scene reminds me very much of our holiday.

    But maybe next year we should bake fewer pies.

  • wayne

    Edward–
    That Piecaken sounds interesting!!

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *