The Gulf Coast and good TV each get a shot in the arm

Good news for the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast: Toyota Motor Corp. of America plans to build a plant near the birthplace of Elvis Presley, Tupelo, MS, to provide a sorely needed economic boost to the area. More about this here.

And some good news for fans of British sci-fi TV: The first season of the revived Doctor Who, with Chris Eccleston as the Doctor (now on view Stateside in NBC's Heroes), is at last airing on BBC America, followed close on by a charming little half-hour show called Hyperdrive, Auntie Beeb's first foray into sci-fi sitcoms since the late, lamented Red Dwarf. More info on that here. We discovered these two new additions to BBCA's schedule quite by accident, our usual Tuesday night fare having been pre-empted by Fox and ABC (House, M.D. and Boston Legal lost out this week to American Idolatry and injured ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff's return to the airwaves in a 20/20 special, respectively).

Today's meme (sort of): YouTubing your birth year

I got this from wcg, who wrote: "Go to YouTube.com and enter the year of your birth in the search box. Then pick a video you like from that year." Sounds simple enough, right?

But I tried it and couldn't find just one among the dozens dated 1963 that spoke to me more than any other, that said, "This was what it was like the year John and June Leger brought you into the world." So many things were happening in late May of 1963: John F. Kennedy, his little brother Robert, Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were all blissfully still alive and vital, not suspecting that evil, cowardly excuses for men would strike from hiding to take them from us in the next few years, starting with the President mere months from now. All are represented in my results. A little-known rock-'n'-roll band called The Beatles was just beginning to show up on "telly" in the UK; their arrival on these shores to rock the living bejesus out of the world, live on The Ed Sullivan Show, was still more months away. They're there, too. In November, barely a day after JFK was gunned down in the Dallas streets, a children's educational program with a sci-fi twist premiered on BBC-1, called Doctor Who. Detroit automakers had rolled out exciting new cars for the 1963 model year starting the previous fall; commercials for some of them are in the list. X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes, now a cinematic SF classic, starring Ray Milland, came out that year too, and there's a clip from it. Bob Dylan is shown playing "Man of Constant Sorrow" on his ever-present harmonica. So is fellow folkie Joan Baez, singing Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" and looking so very, very young and lovely. An old Coronet Films short from classroom days pops up; something about teaching kids in early grade school how to dress themselves and handle other new responsibilities. And McDonald's Corp. introduced the now-iconic character of Ronald McDonald in his very first TV ad, played by a young actor who would become far more famous decades hence, on NBC's Today Show, as America's favorite weatherman, Willard Scott.

So...you tell me, if you remember that year at all (I don't—I can't; I was in diapers and just about woulda fit in Bill's hand at the time): do you see anything in a search on 1963 that seems apropos to what you know of me? The replies on this one should be interesting, if there are any.