Sputnik I begat beatniks (YET ANOTHER LEFTY CONSPIRACY THEORY - THIS TIME FROM '57)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | March 18, 2007 | DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter

[Graybeard58]

And, I'm sure many hundreds of thousands of others saw it, too. We were not the only ones...

I saw it, it wasn't a rare occurence. Anybody old enough could have seen it.

[tanuki]

This information age is getting too scary./s

But you take PayPal? HMMM.... What else did you do?

[tanuki]

"Vanguard was a project of the NRL (Naval Research Laboratory), which was regarded more as a scientific than a military organization... However, Vanguard was a US Navy rocket project!"


Yeah, better research needed before posting, check. Whoah, nice pic! Definitely not one of the Navy's better moments.

[dr_lew]

And, I'm sure many hundreds of thousands of others saw it, too.

You bet. I specifically remember it. TIME has this from an article up on the web:

Twilight Sight. The Russians made their sputnik more conveniently visible in their own territory than in the U.S. during its first trips around the earth, but U.S. observers will get their chance eventually. Dr. Joseph A. Hynek, director of the observatory's satellite-tracking program, calculates that the satellite's orbit shifts around the earth at 4° per day. This will bring it over the U.S. at twilight on about Oct. 20, when it should be visible through small telescopes or binoculars.

I love that "eventually". The article is date Oct. 14, and probably didn't make home delivery until after the 20th. We were used to that though ... factored it in.

[Bender2]

Re: What else did you do?

Outside of trying to make as many FR ladies as I can very, very happy, I Custom Make Pilot Wings and such other stuff...

Check my FR Homepage at http://www.freerepublic.com/~bender2/

[nickcarraway]

Michael Savage is very funny when he spoofs, "Howl." (by the way, he was friends with many of the original beatniks)

[Bender2]

Re: My hunting and fishing skills also leave much to be desired.

Well, all I can think to reply is...

Then...

Now...

[tanuki]

Oh my! Bookmark!

[Bender2]

Re: Oh my! Bookmark!

Hummmmmmmm... Okay...

I can custom make one of those... But it'll cost ya extra!

[Dark Knight]

I saw it, it wasn't a rare occurence. Anybody old enough could have seen it.<<

Then again, I would daresay I may be the only freeper to have been born on Oct. 4, 1957, and have most of the media reminded of my birthday for most of those years. The last real reference I saw, was the 2nd flight of the winning of the Ansari X prize.

It was a wonderful tribute to the largest birthday candle ever.

DK

[Chi-townChief]

Quite frankly, "Blue Monk" is great but stuff like "Brilliant Corners" was and is hard to listen to.

[Chi-townChief]

I like his comment from the Paris Review interview where Jack said hoe the United States gave his French-Canadian family a good break and, because of that, he sees no reason to protest.

[Chi-townChief]

OOPs - hoe=how

[Beckwith]

"...It was launched on Oct. 4, 1957, and it scared the bejesus out of America. The Russians were experimenting with the atom bomb..."

Walter Winchell broadcast the fact that the Russians had the atomic bomb on his program in late August, 1948.

I was sitting in the dark back seat of my father's 1948 Plymouth sedan as we returned from Cape Cod on a late Sunday evening, a little after 10 PM.

Winchell's presentation was in his dramatic style accompanied by the typewriter sound effects. He basically reported that the Russians had the bomb and that we were all doomed to die in a nuclear firestorm.

I had nightmares about this for several years.

[rochester_veteran]

Anyway, this is a fun thread. I remember as a kid hearing how beatniks were said to wear turtleneck sweaters, berets, hornrim glasses, and goatees, while playing bongo drums in funky cafes and reciting unintelligible poetry.

Beatnik girls were pretty and had long, straight hair. That part I liked.

I think it was 1961 that my uncle took my cousin, brother, sister and me to New York City. I remember going to Macy's and eating lunch there, going to the observation deck on the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, eating dinner in Chinatown (where I ordered a hot dog!). My uncle took us through Greenwich Village and we walked around checking out the beatniks. The artists had their paintings displayed along the sidewalk. I remember going into a coffee house and listening to folk music and poetry readings and smelling "burning rope" (pot) :-) and afterwards, seeing a beatnik girl, just as your described, long straight hair, pretty, wearing sunglasses at night, walking what looked like a mink (it could have been a ferret). We had bongo drums at home!

[Freedom4US]

I can say with a fair degree of confidence I'm the only member of FR who actually saw Sputnik I in orbit October 1957

Does my dad count? He doesn't post cuz' he doesn't have an internet connection, but he saw it over Des Moines. He's a curmudgeon of the first order. It was my mom who spotted it first however that night.

[Freedom4US]

What a great set of pictures!

[Freedom4US]

I think it's a requirement to have a set of bongos, clear evidence of subversive thinking. You can bet there's a copy of Maos' little Red Book on the shelf!

[speedy]

Maynard G. Krebs would probably disagree. Seriously, though, Monk seemed all over the map to me. I do love his piano solos. Like many wonderful artists, the stuff he did later in his career was a bit tired.

He did look the part, though. And what I wouldn't give to have a name like that!

[Bender2]

Re: What a great set of pictures!

Oh, thank you... Thank you mucho!

They said pictures... Not knockers!

Pictures? Pictures... You want'a see some hot pictures?

Gad! I'm sure glad... it is time to start drinking!