Sunday, April 22, 2012

Two 100-year anniversaries; Two sinking ships

For someone who is interested in history, facts, figures, and dates, I am actually rather poor at remembering anniversaries**.  For example, I completely missed the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (until seeing the articles pop up in my Reader), but if you'd asked me last Sunday when they Titanic sank, I could have told you April 15, 1912, and then immediately worked out that it was the 100th anniversary.  


The Titanic is of somewhat special interest to me because (according to Grandpa Rush), one of my ancestors, Rev. Kirkland, was one of those lost.  Now, I don't know if Grandpa had all his facts straight, but it was still good enough for me to make the good reverend the centerpiece of my sophomore year of high school genealogy  project -- a piece of short fiction called "Futility II" in homage to Morgan Robertson's novella.  While that story was composed on a computer (an Apple IIe, using the Incredible Jack word processor), the 5.25" disk is long gone... though I do have my graded hardcopy.


The other 100-year anniversary I did hear about in time to "celebrate", if from afar, was the opening of Fenway Park, a mere 5 days after the sinking of the Titanic (the Wikipedia article notes that coverage of the Titanic overshadowed coverage of the opening of the park).  Fenway itself, however, is not the other sinking ship, though it plays host to the 2012 Red Sox, who have hit the bottom of the ever-more competitive AL East.  While they should soon catch up to Baltimore, they have a lot of work to do to move into third.


** with the exception of that of my own wedding

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