Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The words do not have to be perfect.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

In my day, never was longer.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I really should read my own blog.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / One small step and one giant leap

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    Eric

    Obviously liberal given he faked the so-called moon landing to get more money for government and anti-god science projects.

    There can be only one first and it was he.

  2. 2.

    Egypt Steve

    I was 9 years old in 1969, and we were visiting my grandmother during the Moon flight, and watching it constantly — seems now like it was on constantly. I do remember the landing of the LEM on the Moon, and hearing the voice of Mission Control telling Armstrong “We’ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue — we’re breathing again.” It’s a pretty vivid memory for something that happened 43 years ago, but I do believe I’ve heard that tape repeated and by God, that is pretty much what was said.

    I also remember staying up late for the the first step. Like everyone else, we all went outside to look at the Moon.

    I can’t remember when I stopped watching every space shot.

  3. 3.

    And Another Thing...

    I was working at the Newport Jazz festival when Neal Armstrong walked on the moon. Somebody put a 12″ black & white TV on the roof of a VW van. Abt 100 of us were watching the TV & looking at the moon simultaneously. The DF hippies were just as into it as the squares like me. Space is the most awesome thing of my lifetime…except for the human genome.. RIP Neal Armstrong.

  5. 5.

    jimmy higgins

    He won my heart all over again after his astronaut days; he kinda porked out and when some interviewer suggested exercise, he replied:
    “I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street.”

  7. 7.

    Keith G

    I was 10 on that summer morning (2:00 I guess). Walter Cronkite on a B&W TV. As an Ohio farm boy, I was extra thrilled that a fellow Buckeye was walking on the Moon.

    Rest in peace, my friend.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I don’t know what his politics were, and I don’t care.

    Amen.

    I was 12 that summer. Visited my grandparents in Florida, and got to see Apollo 11 lift off, from their front yard.

    Then watched him walk on the Moon.

    Those were the days, when space launches were a big fuckin’ deal. HUGE.

  9. 9.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    I remember that night. We were visiting my grandparents in Nebraska. Cousins, grandparents, siblings, parents were all gathered around that TV to watch a grainy video transmission.

    RIP Neil Armstrong, you had a great run.

  11. 11.

    hildebrand

    Favorite geek moment of the last year was when Doctor Who incorporated the moon landing into the story. Yes, yes, I know I am being shallow, but I couldn’t help myself. I would like to think that Mr. Armstrong appreciated the many and various ways his stunning stroll entered into the lives of countless people.

  12. 12.

    kindness

    Neil has taken one Giant step but this time just for himself. Thanks to the big guy. He said just the right thing up there on the moon.

  13. 13.

    JPL

    My parents had company over and I sat with them to watch the landing. It was a special day. Thanks to all the Apollo members.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    It was the summer I turned five and my family was at Yosemite. Someone had a portable tv and everyone in the campground stood around the tailgate of that guy’s car to watch it. Given that I was still four, the significance of what I was watching passed me by, but I remember the feeling of awe emanating from the adults and older kids.

  16. 16.

    jackmac

    It would have been easy for Neil Armstrong to cash in on his fame by doing commercials and endorsements, making reality show appearances or diving in politics or silly controversies. He never did. I respect him as much for that as for being the first human to walk on the moon. Rest in peace and God be with you, Mr. Armstrong. You’re a true hero.

  17. 17.

    Ceremet

    I’m shocked – just doesn’t seem possible that he’d pass … he was such an Icon. Will be missed both for what he did and how he handled it.

  18. 18.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    @Eric: Wow do I love the moon landing conspiracy. It so perfectly highlights my criticism of conspiracy theories. To wit:

    Q: Who stands the most to gain from the moon landing conspiracy theories?

    A: The US government.

    Why?

    Because you can either have a conversation about whether or not the moon landing was faked (with one side looking loony and the other side having TONS of evidence)

    Or you can have a conversation about the man who got us there. The Nazi who tried to nuke NYC – and by extension, Operation Paperclip. This is not only an uncomfortable topic (esp at the time), but it also undercut the idea of “American exceptionalism and ingenuity”.

    Gee.

    Fucking morons. sheep.

    This is textbook counter-intel.

    R.I.P Neil Armstrong

  20. 20.

    General Stuck

    I was a sophomore in HS that year, and it was a delight to watch something so positive and riveting, during some pretty angry times

  22. 22.

    The Dangerman

    Too young to remember the day Kennedy died…

    …but, I recall the moon landing clearly. It was an incredible time.

    RIP, indeed.

  23. 23.

    John O

    Well said, soonergrunt.

    I was at some sort of beach house I think my parents’ friends owned, and we watched it on a little B&W which was the fashion of our time. Or maybe it was the radio. Our memories are notoriously fallible.

    All I remember now was how cool it was. And that it was my twin brothers’ 6th birthday.

  24. 24.

    xian

    since this an open thread, can i just say i spotted matoko chan over on sam wang’s princeton election consortium blog?

  25. 25.

    DougJ

    @Eric:

    Obviously liberal given he faked the so-called moon landing to get more money for government and anti-god science projects.

    Bingo.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    OT.. I am linking to the President’s entire interview with AP because we all know it will be diced and sliced tomorrow.
    link

  29. 29.

    Scott

    I was 9, and I remember my dad saying, “Hey, pay attention to this! It’s a big deal!”. And I did. I even got a plastic model of the lunar module and put it together.
    The only other time my dad said that to me was when Nixon resigned.
    RIP Mr. Armstrong.

  30. 30.

    General Stuck

    Too young to remember the day Kennedy died…

    I was ten, and to this day I can sense the pall of unbelief and grief that came over most the adults. Depressing doesn’t begin to do it justice. I don’t think any single event I lived through has been more formative in a number of ways, than JFK getting assassinated. Though the year before, the Cuban missile crisis sort of dovetailed into that as well. Mankind on the brink. My intro to existential fear.

  31. 31.

    Another North Carolinian

    Watched every second of it. My grandmother was staying with us that summer, so I got to watch the first footsteps on the Moon with Tennessee’s last widow of the Confederacy. I still get historical whiplash from recalling that. (FWIW, I *never* stopped watching every flight although I long ago became a big fan of sending robots rather than highly trained, much-too-delicate and extraordinarily hard-to-maintain sacks of water Out There.)

  34. 34.

    PurpleGirl

    The moon walk happened the summer between high school and college. I’d taken over a tv set and so was able to watch it in my bedroom without my parents complaining about me staying up late and making noise. As a kid I watched every rocket launch I could, getting up at ungodly hours (and making noise).

  35. 35.

    geg6

    Man, a night I’ll never forget. I was 11 and my parents made my younger sister and I go to bed and nap so we could stay up to watch. When he stepped onto the moon’s surface, my parents had all six of us kids in a bear hug and tears in their eyes. And then they broke out a bottle of champagne (an unimaginable luxury for them) and gave a small glass of it to each of us. I liked it at first taste and it was the very first time they had let me drink alcohol.

    RIP, Neil Armstrong. I’ll always consider you a personal hero.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    It does sound as though he was quite ill. I do hope that he was able to see Curiosity on Mars.

  37. 37.

    drew42

    My #1 childhood hero (although I was born after the Moon landing).

    And I may be misremembering, but I always thought he was staunchly apolitical, at least publicly.

  38. 38.

    quannlace

    He played himself on that episode of ‘Frasier.’ Poking fun at alien conspirecies, ‘There were things we saw that we couldn’t talk about…”

  41. 41.

    mai naem

    Reading the comments on NBC, I guess MSNBC had the obit written as Neil Young, 82, astronaut before they fixed it. I’m sure Neil Young wouldn’t have minded being an astronaut.
    RIP Commander Armstrong – all around cool guy.

  45. 45.

    mechwarrior online

    @JPL:

    Armstrong was deeply religious and very much an advocate of manned space flight. Which makes a lot of sense given his background in the military and as a test pilot. Keep in mind that NASA and the DOD are very closely linked, NASA wouldn’t exist sans spending billions on the DOD.

    Towards the end Armstrong was rather bitter about the lack of manned space programs. He didn’t hide it either and spoke rather opening about how once we lose the lead in manned space flight we probably won’t get it back. He was a huge critic of governments abandonment of manned flights to the moon and a manned flight to Mars.

    Very few people have the background to debate manned vs unmanned space programs, but Armstrong firmly believed in manned space flight, and he was certainly qualified to speak on the subject.

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    I was thinking exactly that! I hope so too. In many ways, the Curiosity landing and explorations and witty, informative communiqués take me back to that sommer of 1969, when so much seemed possible.

  48. 48.

    Mustang Bobby

    I was sixteen, up at my grandmother’s place on Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan. We watched on the black-and-white TV and the replay the next morning.

    I grew up not far from Wapakoneta, Ohio, the town where Neil Armstrong came from, and was always proud that he was a humble and self-described “white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer.” He was a hero to those of us who were of the same ilk…except for me being a gay theatre nerd.

    Oh, by the way, Republicans… he didn’t get there by himself.

  50. 50.

    mechwarrior online

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Eh Republicans are fine with defense spending and Nixon was one hell of a cold war warrior while this was going on. We could have free education, a brand new space program, and a ton of investment if we convinced people that was had to beat Iran to mining the astroids and Mars.

  51. 51.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    We should have moon bases there by now, but nooo we had to feed our addiction to the MIC. Godspeed Neil Armstrong, I hope the thirst for space exploration comes back before I shove off the mortal coil.

  52. 52.

    Randy P

    @Egypt Steve:

    I can’t remember when I stopped watching every space shot.

    I was 12 in 1969. We all stayed up to watch it, but my memory was that it was about 10 pm Eastern time by the time they finally came out of the LEM, and I wasn’t quite awake. I remember that “One small step” line though.

    In the Apollo 13 movie the characters were commenting on how already moon launches were not getting TV viewers, that the stations weren’t interrupting programming to carry them. I felt guilty when I heard that because I also don’t think I was religiously watching every launch by then. I remember being riveted by Apollo 13 after the disaster, but not the launch.

  53. 53.

    Schlemizel

    I was 17, I had come of age watching Sheppard, Grissom, Glenn and the other heros slip the surly bonds of earth. It was hotter than hell that day, we never had air conditioning. While it had cooled slightly after the sun went down but it was still not cool. My parents and I were stripping all the woodwork in the house so it had been a long day but we broke to sit, sweltering in the dark, I stared at the the flickering gray images wondering how far humans could go, how far we would get in my lifetime. I wanted to walk in those footsteps.

    God speed Mr. Armstrong.

  54. 54.

    CaseyL

    I was 13. I’d been watching Star Trek, Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, and reading scifi for years. I was riveted to see the stuff I’d been seeing and reading about actually happening… and I was sure, absolutely sure, we’d be exploring deep space and have colonies and stuff within my lifetime.

    I adored and followed the space program for decades.

    I kept the faith for a long time.

    I don’t know at what point I realized we weren’t going to make Star Trek happen, or anything remotely like Star Trek.

    But I cried like a baby when we discontinued the space shuttle program. Not so much because the shuttles were so great, but because we weren’t replacing them with another humans-in-space program of any kind. The Rovers are great, but it’s not the same.

    RIP Commander Armstrong. You went where no one had gone before, and you were magnanimous about it. Thanks.

  55. 55.

    mechwarrior online

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    NASA is part of the MIC there smart ass. Look at the companies make the test jets for NASA, look at the ones that make rockets, then look at military contractors. Hint, it’s the same people and the same technology.

    You’ll still feed the same monsters and Beoing no matter what. You can lie to yourself about it if you feel better at night, but it’s the same players.

    Also check just how many astronauts were military officers ;)

  58. 58.

    gnomedad

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Oh, by the way, Republicans… he didn’t get there by himself.

    Which doesn’t diminish him in any way … that’s what they’re hoping the rubes won’t understand.

  60. 60.

    Randy P

    @CaseyL: …because we weren’t replacing them with another humans-in-space program of any kind.
    We are, you know. It’s just behind schedule because the program that was going on was over budget, behind schedule, and stuck with outdated technology, and it got cancelled.

    Here’s NASA’s exploration page:
    http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/index.html

    And here’s what they’re building for the next manned space platform:
    http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/index.html

  61. 61.

    PurpleGirl

    @Schlemizel: The original 7 were coming to NYC for a ticker-tape parade. They were flying into LaGuardia and going by convertible car into Manhattan by way of the Triborough Bridge. I lived two blocks from an overpass over the route to the bridge. I don’t remember how I was able to get my mother to let me stay home from school that day — I wanted to go and wave at them on the overpass. I still remember waving and shouting.

  62. 62.

    raven

    I was in Australia on R&R when we landed on the moon. They had a tracking station (there is a movie called “The Dish”about it) and the Aussies were really into it so I was able to keep up. I called my dad collect from Sydney right after and, the cheap Norske that he was, he never failed to bring it up at family gatherings.

  63. 63.

    raven

    Seattle firefighters, including a fire boat, have a waterfront blaze under control. Firefighters responded to the scene at about 2:45 p.m.

    KING 5 reports that the fire broke out on Pier 56. The Ferris wheel called the Seattle Great Wheel is on the adjacent pier, and was not affected by the fire.

    Elliott’s Oyster House and Argosy Cruises are located on Pier 56.

    White smoke billowed from the pier as firefighters doused it with water. There were no injuries.

  65. 65.

    Applejinx

    How many living human beings does our species have left who have walked on the surface of the Moon?

  66. 66.

    PurpleGirl

    @Applejinx: Twelve men walked on the moon, of whom eight are still alive.

    01. Neil Armstrong *
    02. Buzz Aldrin
    03. Pete Conrad *
    04. Alan Bean
    05. Alan Shepard *
    06. Edgar Mitchell
    07. David Scott
    08. James Irwin *
    09. John W. Young
    10. Charles Duke
    11. Eugene Cernan
    12. Harrison Schmitt
    (* = deceased)

  67. 67.

    Steve

    I was born almost exactly 9 months after the moon landing. But I’m adopted, so I guess I’ll never know if it was just a coincidence.

  68. 68.

    LanceThruster

    I’ve met Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell on separate occasions and felt that was a pretty elite bunch, but meeting Gen. Paul Tibbeta and the surviving crew of the Enola Gay had to be one of the more exclusive clubs I’ve ever been in the presence of (people who’ve dropped atomic bombs in combat).

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    I was 35 days old when Armstrong walked on the moon, so I was probably sleeping, pooping, eating, or some combination of the three.

    If I can brag about my adopted hometown for a moment, we get a space shuttle! It’s arriving at LAX in September and there will be a parade to transport it from LAX to the California Science Center in October.

    G doesn’t usually like to go to events where people will be gathered in groups, but I may force him to go.

  75. 75.

    Cacti

    It was a fine achievement for a government space program, but private industry…

    Still hasn’t put anyone on the moon 40+ years later.

  76. 76.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    I was 20 months old that day, and I’ve been told that I was woken up so I could watch with them. Sadly, my memory doesn’t go back that far.

    I was in diapers the day man walked on the moon. And it’s looking like I’ll be in diapers again, by the time anyone with both the funds and the will decides to go back.

    Look up: There’s the moon. Barely three days away, taunting us.

  77. 77.

    Yutsano

    @raven: I was at work at the time. I think just about every fire truck in the city responded. And I was close enough to smell the smoke then we saw where it was coming from. Since I was in a federal building, we got a wee bit edgy.

  78. 78.

    pseudonymous in nc

    RIP. Neil Armstrong, dead at 82, forever alive in memory at the age of 38 years, 11½ months.

    (Which is pretty much my age now… damn.)

  79. 79.

    ErinSiobhan

    I was seven and pretty much clueless about what was happening but my dad was a nerdy engineer/tech type and he woke me up to watch it. It was definitely a different era… my Grade 5 teacher told us that we would live on the moon and travel to the stars. Sadly, that dream has died.

    I grew up to be another nerdy engineer who could finally appreciate what an incredible accomplishment it was for Neil to walk on the moon. I am so sad that he has left us.

  80. 80.

    Death Panel Truck

    @mai naem: Neil Young made it into orbit countless times without the help of the space program. ;)

    I was six when Armstrong walked on the moon. I remember watching it on our parents’ ancient DuMont black and white TV. We actually didn’t have a color TV until 1973. I remember being disappointed that all that was on that summer were the Watergate hearings.

  82. 82.

    CarolDuhart2

    @PurpleGirl: And no woman or person of color yet. That too was a possibility lost when we ended the Apollo program-to see a crew of common humanity on the surface of the moon working together without prejudice.

    Thanks, Neil for keeping it dignified. It must have been a tremendous temptation from time to time to really cash in. But you kept the dream untarnished for future generations instead.

  83. 83.

    lamh35

    RIP Neil Armstrong, but I’ll admit my first thought as I read this thread is that jeez youse guys are old. I was born in late 1976. My mom was a young mom, so she was only 10 in 1969.

  85. 85.

    mike shupp

    It’s been 42 years since Armstrong set foot on the Moon, 40 years since anyone else did, and both major Presidential candidates this year have gleefully proclaimed that we’re never going to do this silly stuff again — to the relief of taxpayers, and certainly all of the major political and economic bloggers on the internet.

    Has there ever been a “hero” more repudiated by posterity?

  86. 86.

    Reklam

    @jackmac:

    Is it sad that this also impresses me most? Cf. Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn, et al. I know he was on some stupid Ohio corporate boards…but truly he recognized the grandeur of not shilling.

  87. 87.

    columbusqueen

    May he ride up to the spirit in the sky–godspeed, Neil, from your fellow Buckeye. What you did shall always be remembered, for you were the first of our kind to truly break the bounds of earth.

  89. 89.

    redshirt

    @CaseyL: Bravo. Agree with everything.

    I posit the roll back of our manned space program is the true sign of our country’s demise. We reached our zenith when Neil walked off that ladder and was utterly magnanimous. We’ve been receding pretty much ever since.

    And to think Republicans! Are responsible for not only our regressions, but that same regression happening the world over. Such a small number of people causing so much damage.

  90. 90.

    MCA1

    @Another North Carolinian: Wait. What!? How old was your grandmother at the time? I mean, this was over a century after the end of the Civil War. Was she born in 1875 and married some guy 30 years older than her or something? She wasn’t actually alive during the Civil War, right?

    Remarkable, nonetheless, that one human’s life could span from pre-electricity and plumbing to people launching a machine that travels 25,000 miles per hour and lands safely on the fucking moon and then COMES BACK. I can’t even conceive of what the analogue would be for my children, who (the oldest) at the age of 7 has an iPod. What is it that is inconceivable to them?

    Scientists are fucking awesome.

  91. 91.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    On a travel-study trip to Spain, the summer of ’69, after high school graduation. We had a grainy B/W picture, could barely hear or see anything, but we watched what we could.

    Armstrong considered himself a “nerdy engineer”. Just like me and all my college buddies. I still have my slide rule. RIP.

  93. 93.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @MCA1: My grandmother, born in Mississippi in 1897, grew up with no electricity or running water and lived to see flight, the space age, antibiotics, and everything else that happened in 86 years. An amazing generation, we can’t even conceive of the changes in their lives.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, the Tom Hanks HBO series From the Earth to the Moon is quite excellent if anyone hasn’t seen it.

    My two favorite episodes are “Galileo Was Right,” which is about the geology lessons that the crew of Apollo 15 got before they went up, and “The Original Wives Club,” which looks at the stresses and strains of being an astronaut’s wife.

  96. 96.

    Kane

    I don’t know what his politics were, and I don’t care.

    But we do know that he believed in service, shared sacrifice, and in working for a cause greater than himself. And we know that when he made that first step on the moon, he didn’t declare I did that, instead he recognized the collective accomplishment that mankind had achieved.

    I would say that he would fit right in with today’s Democratic party.

  97. 97.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    I was seven, in my second year of school. They had something set up in the assembly hall so that we all could watch. We Aussies were very proud that we would be seeing it FIRST. Am disappointed that as a planet we have been unable to really build on that amazing time. Deb

  98. 98.

    opie jeanne

    I was 19 and the Moody Blues album “Days of Future Passed” was playing non-stop in LA when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. My memory of the event is less tied to the tv broadcast and more to the memory of driving home from San Bernardino after dark in my mom’s Chevy Nova, the stars overhead, and Nights in White Satin on the radio.

    I’m in England for the Discworld Convention, and they stopped the Maskerade to announce his passing. There was a stunned silence and the emcee, Dr Pat Harkin, had a bit of trouble continuing with the planned silliness.

Comments are closed.