Ice-cream Emperors

It's a day named after Thor . . . and the mailbox has been filling up with ice-cream.

We can trace our modern shopping habits all the way back to that first Pittsburgh broadcast, 97 years ago today, on station KDKA. Garrison Keillor provided a worthy reflection on this milestone in his Writer's Almanac post of 2017. Scroll down to mid-page of the piece.

Today in 1936 The British Broadcasting Corporation officially launched its first television channel, which was also the world's first regular TV service. It was, and still is a non-commercial service, unlike the advent of television in the U.S. which has been instrumental in spreading American popular culture globally.

Twenty-three years ago today, The first resident crew—including one American and two Russians—arrived at the International Space Station.

. . . we aren’t at the top of anything; we’re simply at the tip, the tip of one small branch of a very huge, verdant tree, and all created things are our grandparents, cousins, and siblings. – Brian McLaren, celebrating All Saints Day.

One of the finest poets in the English language was born on this past Tuesday in 1795: John Keats.

Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought . . .

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

– John Keats, from Ode on a Grecian Urn. July 1820.