It was deeply offensive to me that John Glenn's funeral was not broadcast in its entirety on all the news channels and major networks.
Glenn was a unique and important American hero, who served our country as a fighter pilot, astronaut, and distinguished United States senator, as well as a candidate for president.
He has left our country an important example of a life of service. We need examples like this for our young people.
We need opportunities on occasions like this for parents to sit down in front of their TV sets with their children and explain what it means to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world.
And we need to honor such servant leaders.
Shame on the networks for failing to take advantage of a perfect moment for mass civic education, a desperate need in these times.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Showing posts with label PBS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PBS. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Monday, September 07, 2015
Arthur Conan Doyle's platonic relationship with woman he loved
A fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories since reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for English class in the seventh grade and a fan of Martin Clunes' work on Doc Martin, I was interested in watching the premier of Arthur and George, starring Clunes, last night. I enjoyed the first episode.
I knew a little about Doyle. I knew that while he patterned Holmes after a diagnostician under whom he studied while in medical school, Holmes was more of an alter ego to the keenly observant Doyle than of the fictional doctor who narrates the Holmes corpus, Watson. I knew that Doyle was devoted to spiritualism. I also knew that he became an acquaintance with Agatha Christie, after the latter, who boldly stole the basic ideas for the main characters in her early Poirot stories--Holmes=Poirot, Watson=Hastings, Lestrade=Japp, Mrs. Hudson=Miss Lemon--had risen to fame. And I knew that after Christie's first husband had betrayed her and she had, deeply depressed, disappeared, a concerned Doyle offered a substantial sum of money to anyone who could help materially in finding her.
But having never delved into Doyle's life very much, I wondered whether his life was being significantly fictionalized in Arthur and George. I wondered about two things, in particular. First, had Doyle become involved in sleuthing himself for the purpose of exonerating a man he thought wrongly convicted of a crime? (It turns out that Doyle had done just this.)
The other thing I wondered about was a character in last night's episode, Jean Leckie. According to the show, while Doyle was married, he had conducted an ongoing and unconsummated relationship with Leckie. Last night, Clune's Doyle, following the death of his wife, makes understated Victorian overtures to Jean about getting married and the Leckie character tells him that they must wait for a period of time to pass before that happens. Were they juicing up Arthur and George's story line for twenty-first century TV audiences?
So, I went to that font of all knowledge Wikipedia and found this about Doyle's personal life:
Apparently, Arthur and George has it right about Doyle and Leckie. And that impresses me for several reasons. One is that so many screen dramatizations of real people's lives play fast and loose with the facts.
The other is to consider how remarkable the real life Doyle and Leckie were. Here were two people deeply in love with each other who refrained from intimacy when they could have been together--even in the Victorian Era, the high and mighty, which Doyle was, could get away with behavior that would otherwise be considered scandalous--all because Doyle remained loyal to his wife.
The Victorian Age may not have been as primitive as it's often portrayed as being.
I knew a little about Doyle. I knew that while he patterned Holmes after a diagnostician under whom he studied while in medical school, Holmes was more of an alter ego to the keenly observant Doyle than of the fictional doctor who narrates the Holmes corpus, Watson. I knew that Doyle was devoted to spiritualism. I also knew that he became an acquaintance with Agatha Christie, after the latter, who boldly stole the basic ideas for the main characters in her early Poirot stories--Holmes=Poirot, Watson=Hastings, Lestrade=Japp, Mrs. Hudson=Miss Lemon--had risen to fame. And I knew that after Christie's first husband had betrayed her and she had, deeply depressed, disappeared, a concerned Doyle offered a substantial sum of money to anyone who could help materially in finding her.
But having never delved into Doyle's life very much, I wondered whether his life was being significantly fictionalized in Arthur and George. I wondered about two things, in particular. First, had Doyle become involved in sleuthing himself for the purpose of exonerating a man he thought wrongly convicted of a crime? (It turns out that Doyle had done just this.)
The other thing I wondered about was a character in last night's episode, Jean Leckie. According to the show, while Doyle was married, he had conducted an ongoing and unconsummated relationship with Leckie. Last night, Clune's Doyle, following the death of his wife, makes understated Victorian overtures to Jean about getting married and the Leckie character tells him that they must wait for a period of time to pass before that happens. Were they juicing up Arthur and George's story line for twenty-first century TV audiences?
So, I went to that font of all knowledge Wikipedia and found this about Doyle's personal life:
In 1885 Doyle married Mary Louise (sometimes called "Louisa") Hawkins, the youngest daughter of J. Hawkins, of Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, and sister of one of Doyle's patients. She suffered from tuberculosis and died on 4 July 1906.[39] The following year he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie, whom he had first met and fallen in love with in 1897. He had maintained a platonic relationship with Jean while his first wife was still alive, out of loyalty to her.[40] Jean died in London on 27 June 1940.[41](Note the citations.)
Apparently, Arthur and George has it right about Doyle and Leckie. And that impresses me for several reasons. One is that so many screen dramatizations of real people's lives play fast and loose with the facts.
The other is to consider how remarkable the real life Doyle and Leckie were. Here were two people deeply in love with each other who refrained from intimacy when they could have been together--even in the Victorian Era, the high and mighty, which Doyle was, could get away with behavior that would otherwise be considered scandalous--all because Doyle remained loyal to his wife.
The Victorian Age may not have been as primitive as it's often portrayed as being.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Has Facebook Peaked?
Has Facebook peaked? Is it settling into a particular social media niche? Today's Daily Stat from the Harvard Business Review would seem to indicate that the answer to both questions is, "Yes":
Personally, I feel that Facebook is good for some things, like communicating with family, friends, and groups. But as a media for receiving or transmitting information or opinions, Twitter is better.
My guess as to why that's so has been that Facebook is more, pardon the unintended pun, "in your face," whereas the 140-character limit of a tweet on Twitter limits the irritation one might derive from an unpleasant political post, coarse comments, or other irritating posts, pictures, and forwards.
Each week on the PBS Newshour, Lauren Ashburn and Howard Kurtz converse on the cultural impact of digital media. I was struck by several of their comments in the segment two days ago, which seemed to dovetail with my thoughts:
| FEBRUARY 14, 2013 |
| Number of Users Spending Less Time on Facebook Outweighs Number Spending More Time |
| 34% of Facebook users say they spend less time on the site now than last year, while just 13% say they spend more time on it, according to a Pew survey. Additionally, 28% say the site is less important to them now than a year ago, compared with 12% who say it's more important. Decreases in engagement with the site seem to be most prevalent among the young: 42% of users ages 18-29 report spending less time now on the site. |
| Source: Coming and Going on Facebook |
Personally, I feel that Facebook is good for some things, like communicating with family, friends, and groups. But as a media for receiving or transmitting information or opinions, Twitter is better.
My guess as to why that's so has been that Facebook is more, pardon the unintended pun, "in your face," whereas the 140-character limit of a tweet on Twitter limits the irritation one might derive from an unpleasant political post, coarse comments, or other irritating posts, pictures, and forwards.
Each week on the PBS Newshour, Lauren Ashburn and Howard Kurtz converse on the cultural impact of digital media. I was struck by several of their comments in the segment two days ago, which seemed to dovetail with my thoughts:
CHRISTINA BELLANTONI [the anchor conducting the segment]: ...So we're finding actually that some people seem to be a little overloaded on Facebook, right? You have some data...The digital world moves at a lightning pace. We're all still figuring things out. I still use Facebook. But I'm now on Twitter much more than Facebook. It's my social media of choice. Others seem to be drawing the same conclusion or opting out of social media altogether.
LAUREN ASHBURN: And they're taking a vacation from Facebook; 61 percent in the new Pew study, as you can see here, are taking a break from Facebook.
HOWARD KURTZ: Of several weeks or more -- a vacation, virtually.
And there's another 20 percent who were on Facebook, not anymore. And the question is, Lauren, why are they bailing out?
LAUREN ASHBURN: Why are they bailing out?
I mean, I think we could just have a discussion around this table about why we would want to bail out of social media. But I actually posted this on my Facebook page. And I think you have it on yours as well, that the reason, in addition to the ones that the study has, are the fact that you don't like what people are saying politically.
We saw that a lot during the campaign season, that it is affecting your family life, that you are obsessed. And you are spending too much time on social media and Facebook while your 3-year-old child is drawing on your carpet.
HOWARD KURTZ: Facebook fatigue could be a factor, but I also just think that some people are just bored with it. Facebook has been around now.
It's got a billion users worldwide. I don't think it has quite the buzz factor that it used to. So, some people may say, well, I can go on my mobile gadget and do other things, play other games, go on other social networks. Facebook has competition now.
LAUREN ASHBURN: And a lot of people say that Twitter, too, Christina, has almost usurped the place of Facebook in terms of getting information.
I think Facebook is now much more family-oriented and that your network is really your network of friends. But Twitter is where, if you're a journalist, or anyone else ...
HOWARD KURTZ: Public person or a politician.
LAUREN ASHBURN: A public person -- you can get -- disseminate information.
CHRISTINA BELLANTONI: In short little bursts there.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tremendous Interview About the Chilean Miners' Rescue...
...with a surprise ending. At least, the question Margaret Warner asked was a surprise to me. This entire story, from its straight-forward account of the engineering challenges that were supplanted to save the Chilean miners to the boffo finish, will make you feel good!
A Fun Re-Imagining of Sherlock Holmes
What if Dr. John Watson wasn't a nineteenth century veteran of "the second Afghan war," but a twenty-first century vet of the current conflict in Afghanistan?
And what if, rather than using opium to sharpen his deductive reasoning, Sherlock Holmes, due to the difficulties associated with developing a proper smoking habit in the London of 2010, slapped three nicotine patches on his arm?
These and other questions are pursued in, A Study in Pink, the first episode of a new re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous tales of Holmes and Watson. This episode is an updated version of the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. The new series, Sherlock, premiered this week on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.
As a longtime Sherlock Holmes fan, I admit that I was skeptical when I first learned of this project relocating the fictional detective in 21st-century London. The film incarnations of Holmes have, except for the Jeremy Brett series in the 1980s, been horrible, anyway. A post-modern Sherlock seemed like a really bad idea.
But, while A Study in Pink drags a bit at the end, I enjoyed it and look forward to more episodes of Sherlock. It's fun.
Below is the first chapter of the episode. Watch it to get a feel for the series or click where indicated to watch the whole thing. Enjoy!
And what if, rather than using opium to sharpen his deductive reasoning, Sherlock Holmes, due to the difficulties associated with developing a proper smoking habit in the London of 2010, slapped three nicotine patches on his arm?
These and other questions are pursued in, A Study in Pink, the first episode of a new re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous tales of Holmes and Watson. This episode is an updated version of the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. The new series, Sherlock, premiered this week on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.
As a longtime Sherlock Holmes fan, I admit that I was skeptical when I first learned of this project relocating the fictional detective in 21st-century London. The film incarnations of Holmes have, except for the Jeremy Brett series in the 1980s, been horrible, anyway. A post-modern Sherlock seemed like a really bad idea.
But, while A Study in Pink drags a bit at the end, I enjoyed it and look forward to more episodes of Sherlock. It's fun.
Below is the first chapter of the episode. Watch it to get a feel for the series or click where indicated to watch the whole thing. Enjoy!
Watch the full episode. See more Masterpiece.
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