Monday, July 20, 2009

RIP Frank McCourt & the Moon

I loved Angela's Ashes. While it tells of his quite depressing childhood, and made me very sad at times, the book is a lovely piece of literature. Here is an obit from CNN.

Also, even if you're not that into it, please take a moment to realize how freakin' amazing it was that 40 years ago today, two men walked on the moon. The moon. It's a shame we haven't been back.

4 comments:

Maega said...

Hey! It is so cool that 40 years ago there were moon walkers- but there were several since then too;
http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/everything/moon/people.html
But the last time was 12/72- so why not since then? Are there cooler things than the moon??

A. said...

Oh, believe me, I know there were more since then. I just meant since the Apollo missions were canceled in 1972 - before they were even meant to be done. They still had a couple more missions to go, but the country and Washington were bored with space by then...

When you have a rocket scientist for a husband, you would be an extreme disappointment if you didn't know the history.

I strongly suggest the miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon." It tells the history of the Space Race. Humorous, smart, great actors - the whole shebang!

Anonymous said...

While I love and respect space travel, I'm really focused on losing Frank McCourt today. Many moons ago (to use a space-related phrase), I had the chance to meet McCourt when he spoke at my college, Willamette University. At that time I was features editor for the college's newspaper and had just finished reading "Angela's Ashes" (just brilliant). I got to meet him, ask him a few questions for an article I wrote about his speech and he signed a copy of AA for me. Just last month I reread AA for the hell of it and loved it as much all over again. I'm glad McCourt got to live an exciting and positive life after such a "miserable childhood." What a loss to the literary world.

CMS said...

And another great writer leaves us ... I loved Angela's Ashes.

A, I don't know much about the moon, but I do know a few "space cases" (you know them too). Does that count for anything?