Do you remember the 60s correctly?

 Many of us thought and may still think of the '60s as a time of change, but there was a conservative element that was present in the decade. We tend to forget that the sixties had a strong conservative element. The 1960s was a time of significant cultural, social, and political change in the United States and other parts of the world. The conservative movement of the 1960s was a reaction to the perceived excesses of the liberal and progressive movements of the era, and it sought to promote traditional values and a more limited government role in society.

One of the major accomplishments of the conservative movement in the 1960s was the election of Richard Nixon as President in 1968. Nixon ran on a platform of law and order, which appealed to many Americans concerned about rising crime rates and social unrest. Nixon's presidency was marked by a number of conservative policies, including a crackdown on drug use, a tough stance on crime, and a focus on national security.

Another accomplishment of the conservative movement in the 1960s was the growth of conservative media. Conservative magazines like National Review and Human Events gained popularity during this time, and conservative radio programs like "The Rush Limbaugh Show" and "The Sean Hannity Show" would eventually become hugely influential in shaping conservative thought in the following decades.

Finally, the conservative movement of the 1960s played a key role in the rise of the religious right in American politics. Conservative Christians became increasingly politically active during this time, organizing around issues like abortion, school prayer, and the role of religion in public life. This activism would eventually help to propel conservative candidates like Ronald Reagan to the White House in the 1980s.

In the 1980s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. In both countries, conservative politicians came to power and implemented policies that emphasized free-market economics and reduced government regulation.

In the United States, President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 on a platform of cutting taxes, reducing government spending, and increasing military spending. This approach, known as “Reaganomics,” aimed to stimulate economic growth through deregulation and privatization. Reagan also took a strong stance against communism and was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Cold War.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pursued similar policies, known as Thatcherism, that emphasized reducing government intervention in the economy and promoting free-market capitalism. Thatcher also implemented policies to curb the power of trade unions and privatize state-owned industries.

These conservative policies had significant impacts on their respective countries. In the United States, Reaganomics is credited with helping to end the stagflation of the 1970s and ushering in a period of sustained economic growth. However, critics argue that it also contributed to growing income inequality and a decline in social services.

Similarly, Thatcher’s policies helped to revive the British economy after a period of stagnation, but they also led to significant social unrest and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Overall, the conservative element of the 1980s accomplished significant changes in economic policy and foreign relations, which are with us to this day,  but their legacy remains a subject of debate and controversy.

Think Back

Think back to a happy time a really, really happy time in your life. Go back as far as it takes, to a time when you felt so light you thought you might float.

Do you remember it? The carefree feeling? The acceptance of the moment, of yourself, of life? Feeling unfettered by thoughts of the future and oblivious to the past?

Feel it a little longer...

There. Very nice.

On this day in History

On this day October 23, the following happened:

(Remember Each day is unique)

42 BC Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi - Brutus's army is decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. Brutus commits suicide.

1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated the Confederate forces in Missouri that were under Gen. Stirling Price.

1910 - Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a public solo airplane flight in the United States. 

1915 - The first U.S. championship horseshoe tourney was held in Kellerton, IA. 

1915 - Approximately 25,000 women demanded the right to vote with a march in New York City, NY. 

1929 - In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged starting the stock-market crash that began the Great Depression. 

1930 - J.K. Scott won the first miniature golf tournament. The event was held in Chattanooga, TN. 

1942 - During World War II, the British began a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein, Egypt. 

1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Leyte Gulf began. 

1946 - The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time. 

1956 - Hungarian citizens began an uprising against Soviet occupation. On November 4, 1956 Soviet forces enter Hungary and eventually suppress the uprising. 

1956 - NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording. The tape of Jonathan Winters was seen coast to coast in the U.S. 

1958 - Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He was forced to refuse the honor due to negative Soviet reaction. Pasternak won the award for writing "Dr. Zhivago". 

1962 - During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. naval "quarantine" of Cuba was approved by the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS). 

1962 - The U.S. Navy reconnaissance squadron VFP-62 began overflights of Cuba under the code name "Blue Moon." 

1962 - Steveland Morris Judkins, later known as Little Stevie Wonder, at the age of 12 recorded his first single. The song was "Thank you for Loving Me All the Way." 

1971 - The U.N. General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and seat Communist China. 

1972 - The musical "Pippin" premiered at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. 

1973 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn over the subpoenaed tapes concerning the Watergate affair. 

1977 Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announces that 34-billion-year-old one-celled fossils, the earliest life forms, had been discovered

1978 - Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious attempted to commit suicide while awaiting trial for killing his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. 

1978 - CBS Records raised the price of vinyl records by one dollar to $8.98. 

1978 - China and Japan formally ended four decades of hostility when they exchanged treaty ratifications. 

1980 - The resignation of Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin was announced. 

1984 - "NBC Nightly News" aired footage of the severe drought in Ethiopia. 

1985 - U.S. President Reagan arrived in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly. 

1989 - Hungary became an independent republic, after 33 years of Soviet rule. 

1992 - Japanese Emperor Akihito became the first Japanese emperor to stand on Chinese soil. 

1993 - Joe Carter (Toronto Blue Jays) became only the second player to end the World Series with a homerun. 

1995 - In Houston, TX, a jury convicted Yolanda Saldivar of the murder of Selena. 

1995 - Tone-Loc was ordered to take an anger management class after fighting with a pizza delivery person. 

1997 - The musical "Triumph of Love" opened at the Royale Theatre. 

1998 - Eddie Nichols (Royal Crown Revue) was arrested in Toledo, OH, for allegedly hitting a sheriff in a diner. Nichols was charged with a felony and held without bail over the weekend. 

1995 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and U.S. President Bill Clinton agree to a joint peacekeeping effort in the war-torn Bosnia. 

1998 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a breakthrough in a land-for-peace West Bank accord. 

1998 - Japan nationalized its first bank since World War II. 

2000 - Universal Studios Consumer Products Group (USCPG) and Amblin Entertainment announced an unprecedented and exclusive three-year worldwide merchandising program with Toys "R" Us, Inc. The deal was for the rights to exclusive "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" merchandise starting in fall 2001. The film was scheduled for re-release in the spring of 2002. 

2001 The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks.

2001 Apple releases the iPod.

2001 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began orbiting Mars. In 2010, it became the longest-operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars. 1941 - "Clarinet a la King" was recorded by Benny Goodman and his orchestra. 

2005 - In Chicago, IL, Lou Rawls gave his last performance when he performed the national anthem of the United States to start Game Two of the 2005 World Series. 

Way back when

When you look at old photos, it's obvious isn't it? You were good-looking back then. Really good-looking. Yet somehow, at the time,you didn't quite believe it.

Try to learn from yesterday, because today you're even better looking than you were then. Way better. You're smarter, too. Funnier. Wiser. More compassionate. Less serious. Life is strange that way. We get older and we get better, believe it!

Halloween

History of Halloween, like any other festival's history is inspired through traditions that have transpired through ages from one generation to another. We follow them mostly as did our dads and grandpas. And as this process goes on, much of their originality get distorted with newer additions and alterations. It happens so gradually, spanning over so many ages, that we hardly come to know about these distortions. At one point of time it leaves us puzzled, with its multicolored faces. Digging into its history helps sieve out the facts from the fantasies which caught us unaware.

Yet, doubts still lurk deep in our soul, especially when the reality differs from what has taken a deep seated root into our beliefs. The history of Halloween Day, as culled from the net, is being depicted here in this light. This is to help out those who are interested in washing off the superficial hues to reach the core and know things as they truly are. 'Trick or treat' may be an innocent fun to relish on the Halloween Day. But just think about a bunch of frightening fantasies and the scary stories featuring ghosts, witches, monsters, evils, elves and animal sacrifices associated with it. They are no more innocent. Are these stories a myth or there is a blend of some reality?


Behind the name... Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland , means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows', also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints', or 'All Souls' Day, observed on November 1. In old English the word 'Hallow' meant 'sanctify'. Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherians used to observe All Hallows Day to honor all Saints in heaven, known or unknown. They used to consider it with all solemnity as one of the most significant observances of the Church year. And Catholics, all and sundry, was obliged to attend Mass. The Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them, and made oblations to them. The festival was celebrated on February 21, the end of the Roman year. In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints' Day to replace the pagan festival of the dead. It was observed on May 13. Later, Gregory III changed the date to November 1.

The Greek Orthodox Church observes it on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Despite this connection with the Roman Church, the American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called "Samhain", celebrated by the Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Samhain is pronounced "sow-in", with "sow" rhyming with cow. In Ireland the festival was known as Samhein, or La Samon, the Feast of the Sun. In Scotland, the celebration was known as Halloween. In Welsh it's Nos Galen-gaeof (that is, the Night of the Winter Calends.

According to the Irish English dictionary published by the Irish Texts Society: "Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were quartered. Faeries were imagined as particularly active at this season. From it the half year is reckoned. also called Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess). The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary defines it as "Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin = end of summer." Contrary to the information published by many organizations, there is no archaeological or literary evidence to indicate that Samhain was a deity. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such. Thus most of the customs connected with the Day are remnants of the ancient religious beliefs and rituals, first of the Druids and then transcended amongst the Roman Christians who conquered them.

Jeans and their evolution

Thought of the day: Why is it acceptable to wear the same pair of jeans for days, even weeks, without being questioned by friends? Yet wearing the same pair of cargos three days in a row would be scowled upon and considered un-hygienic. Do we actually believe jeans are immune to dirt?

Still on the topic of jeans… remember when all we had to choose from was either a pair of Levis, Lee or Wrangler’s? And all you had in your wardrobe was a choice of black stone wash and blue stone wash?


Levis decided that we didn’t have to wait years and years to wear in our favourite pair of jeans, ‘cause America’s convicted criminals could do all the hard work for us! Yep, all those second hand Levis being sold in boutiques actually came from America’s prisons. Imagine the satisfaction for the prisoner, knowing that some good came out of their existence? As long as they served their full sentence, of course (jeans just didn’t achieve an optimum level of worn in-ness if prisoners got out early on parole). So my pre-worn Levis alla ‘break and enterer’ became the ‘hottest’ thing in my wardrobe (just kidding, I paid for them). Really, how could I have been so narrow minded as to think crime didn’t pay?

Moving into the new millennium, jean manufactures suddenly realised that it was wrong to allow such an obvious exploitation of America’s prisoners. Especially when the Chinese could do it for a whole lot less, and quicker too! Engineered denim was born. All of sudden, we didn’t have to wait years for our jeans to hit the perfect level of worn in-ness, because we could buy a brand new pair of ‘pseudo old’ that looked like, well, a bad pair of new jeans. Like anything in its infancy, there is always something NQR (Not Quite Right) about it. Kinda like when CGI special effects first started to appear in film. Much to the rile of everyone around me, I just couldn’t help the comment “Aw that looks so fake!” every time a dinosaur ripped apart a person, or when a ship collided with an iceberg in the middle of the Antarctic. It was just a natural reaction to something that looked completely unnatural when trying to appear natural (also my natural reaction when I see a man with hair plugs, or a woman with a bad boob job. But that’s another blog entry all together). And while I didn’t go around pointing at people wearing badly engineered jeans on the street (only because I too was a serious offender), I did wonder when the edges of pockets were going to be grinded evenly, rather then looking like they had been attacked by cat claws.

Today however, while we are finally perfecting pocket grinding, crotch whisker marks, and thigh and ass sand blasting, isn’t this all merely an improvement on the fake worn-in look? I mean, I have a pair of jeans that I bought almost four years ago in dark indigo denim with only a basic enzyme wash. Over the years of wearing, there has not been even the slightest beginnings of fraying along any pocket; the whisker mark around the crotch goes straight across the thigh, (not splayed out in all kinds of unsightly directions drawing attention to my bathing suit area); and my ass does not look likes it’s been dragged over coloured sand! Perhaps we have forgotten what a real pair of worn in jeans looks like?