Days

Anniversaries and milestones galore this month.  Here are a few:

On Sunday The Simpsons will turn 400. The Nation evaluates the series and what it has meant to all of us:

Remarkably, after eighteen years, The Simpsons never strays far from a "smartest show on television" discussion. Actually, it never strays too far from much of anything it laid down in Episode 1, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," a Christmas special aired December 17, 1989, which featured the first mainstream animated characters who drank beer to excess, bet the family savings at the dog track and said "damn," "hell" and "ass" like the rest of us (and like their nonanimated TV cousins)....The Simpsons is the Gordie Howe of sitcoms. Creator Matt Groening has watched as knockoffs, heirs apparent both worthy and unworthy and even an entire network devoted to cartoons of the swearing, non-Saturday morning variety, come, struggle for a time and--more often than not--go.

Speaking of 400, Jamestown was founded 400 years ago last Sunday.  I'm currently reading Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe.  Coincidence?   Not so much.  Jamestown is one of the Litblog Co-op's Summer Read This! nominees.  As for the settlement, check out some of this photographic slideshow from National Geographic.

Finally, May 6th was the 70th anniversary of the Hindenburg explosion.  I have really no reason to mention this other than the fact that it allows me to post one of my favorite television moments ever, a monologue (of sorts) inspired by Herbert Morrison's radio coverage of the tragedy.

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

Absolutely one of the best last five and half minutes of any sitcom ever.