In Memoriam: Francis "Frank" McCourt, 1919-2009

Just weeks shy of what would have been his 79th birthday, cancer has taken author Frank McCourt of Angela's Ashes fame in a Manhattan hospice. Yahoo! News has posted an obituary here. Though I have not myself read his work, I have certainly heard of him and, given the historic primacy of his people in letters, mourn the loss of yet another great writer from Ireland.

My heart, thoughts and prayers are with his family (especially his brother and authorial colleague Malachy), and all those who knew and loved him...including his students at the school in New York City where he taught, who have no doubt benefited tremendously from his wealth of experience and talent. May he have as fine a wake as ever was held for an Irishman.

On three much happier notes...

The happiest of birthdays are hereby wished to the following members of my friends list: poltr1, mhopcroft2 and starmalachite's husband stevemb, a longtime realspace friend.

"We came in peace for all mankind" 40 years ago this night

At 10:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday, July 20, 1969, Neil Alden Armstrong and Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. became the founding members of an exceedingly exclusive club: the first two of only a handful of human beings to have walked upon the surface of Earth's moon, Luna, and returned alive to tell the tale, while a breathless world watched in awe and admiration.

Tonight, the History Channel debuted a brand-new docudrama called Moonshot in honor of the occasion, featuring Daniel Lapaine as the young Armstrong and James Marsters (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Smallville fame) as Aldrin. Mixing authentic Apollo XI footage and media coverage with recreated scenes, the story depicts the mission the two of them and US Air Force Major General Michael Collins undertook to fulfill the late John F. Kennedy's pledge to put Americans on the moon by the end of that decade. It is fully on par with Ron Howard's excellent film Apollo 13 in accuracy, entertainment value and verisimilitude, and I highly recommend watching it when it repeats or purchasing the DVD.

Only five more teams of astronauts visited the moon after them; now, four decades after the first, our government plans to return at long last. May that plan come to fruition as swiftly and surely as did the fateful mission we remember today.