What is a pixel? It's a spot of ink about the size of the dot at the end of this sentence . A printer uses these dots to produce a newspaper . One square inch equals = 9,216 pixels.

If you look at this front page of The New York Times, Feb. 21st edition, the large illustration that dominates the page used 500,000 pixels to print... 500,000 dots the size of this period . 

And each single dot in that 17" x4" graphic represents one man, one woman or child in the United States that died of Covid 19 since  Feb. 6th last year.

That number more is than all who died in World Wars I, World War II and Vietnam combined. And wars are for killing! (Wow! As I wrote that it felt just terrible... but sadly, true.)

Individual vignettes of those we have lost bleed out in virtually every newscast since then, and the only sad conclusion is that there are not enough newscasts to make this more real.

Did you lose a father, a mother, a child, a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor, a spouse, a school crossing guard, a postal deliverer, a teacher and/or anyone else that you knew or shared a memory? Then that one death of those 500,000 who have died, magnified your loss exponentially. It was personal.

Years ago when Russia's strongman, Joseph Stalin, was listening to another Russian official sadly enumerating the millions of people dead and dying of famine in Ukraine, Stalin stopped him advising. "If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that's only a statistic."

Ours is never to forget, but to remember. Without  personal tangency, it is easy enough to lose the sense of each and every life lived and lost, but the grief of each of our fellow humans must be acknowledged with tribute. The news media try to give tragedy a face. 

When our covid death toll crested 100,000 less than 10 months ago, The New York Times tried to make it personal, running 1,000 clipped personal obituaries that covered its entire front page and several more inside. To read any, many or most of those was to deeply appreciate what the loss of those lives took from all of us. Television vividly chooses representative mini stories to create the personal sense of loss. 

President Biden and Vice President Harris once again memorialized the 500,000 and counting as we lower our flags in tribute. It's so very personal to so very many. 

In the end we have no choice but to look forward. The past cannot be altered, and then there is a pandemic to battle, global warming to attack, racism, secular prejudice and strife of one against another to repair.

There is this ultimate reality: We only have one life to live and no time to waste. We also know that those we care about that do live on must deal with what we have left for them. We can do better because we must. Even though there is work to be done, Martin Luther King Jr. made us believe: "We shall overcome." 

TO ALL OF THIS WORLD: We've no choice but to go forward together, or die (literally) trying! 

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD, or not: Don't they make great films anymore?

What is the greatest film ever made?

Oh, you know it but you'd never guess what and why. Well, I'm about to tell you.

With the Golden Globes happening February 28th and the Oscars April 25th, this may be an opportune time to talk about the best picture ever made.

A touch of background: Most listers of the top 10, or the top 100, or whatever. best movies of all time usually start with Citizen Kane, or Casablanca, The Godfather, Grapes of Wrath, Lawrence of Arabia, Gone With The Wind, The Graduate, On the Waterfront, etc. and these are good. They however don't offer what we seem to need most in a movie that tells a story, makes us smile and offers a life lesson. 

There is one though. And don't laugh or think I'm crazy (well, maybe that), but this one offers joy--both overtly and subliminally--in a belief that has been told over and over again but hidden in the ways it braces our spirit with love, hope and redemption seasonally, year after year.

You can start guessing but you'll never get it... until now. Miracle on 34th Street won three Academy Awards in 1948: for Best Story, Best Writing and Best Supporting Actor, Santa Claus/Edmund Gwenn. OK, so it's not Christmas but just live with it, will you?

It was the black and white original version that best told every child's story. It spread a spirit and the hope that prevails at the appropriate time every year* despite the arguments that Santa isn't real. But he is, and the United States Postal Service officially proved it.

Historically, Santa Clause/St. Nicolas, was first 'real' about 300 years after Christ's birth, revered as a kind and generous monk. He was born in where modern day Turkey is on the map, and was admired for his piety and kindness. He was the subject of many legends because he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. There are many supporting stories. Perhaps he was Mother Teresa before she was.

Over the years he became known as the protector of children and sailors. And, as we learned as kids, if
you say 'St. Nicholas' 10 times faster and faster, it turns into 'Santa Claus.'  

Told you so. 

Though you've probably seen Miracle on 34th Street many times, it should be most remembered for what it expresses through the eyes of a child, our tomorrow. 

This was not the first time such irrefutable proof was offered. In 1897, a newspaper writer for The New York Sun was given a task to to make something good happen by answering a little girl's  'Letter to the Editor.'  Who doubts his answer was truth itself.  

That Question:

Dear Editor--

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon

115 West Ninety Fifth Street 

His response, written with all verbosity and lacking some of today's correctness, nonetheless focused on the spirit and goodness of Santa that we all hold childlike within us to recreate annually for our little ones... and all the rest of the world. Remember, this was 134 years ago:

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Believe in Santa or not. But to continue without wonder and awe means there is no magic beyond what we know, experience and see. And that would be very sad indeed, especially for the young whose minds should be filled with the wonder and belief in the magic of good. The world we call 'real' will come soon enough, when we can no longer hear the bells.

*That original version of Miracle on 34th Street, is now only available to stream on Disney+ so you will not see it broadcast at Christmastime, or elsewhere to stream. It can still be purchased for home viewing. 

We've come a long way baby... or have we? You may be very surprised.

That's a yes AND no quest- ion be cause now we actually know the answer. 

You may be very surprised.

Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock 51years ago. The book sold six million copies internationally and is still selling. The book's updated front page notes "Future Shock is the classic that changed our view of tomorrow... Its startling insights of accelerated change led a president to ask for a special report, inspired composers to write symphonies and rock music, gave a powerful new concept to social science and added a phrase to our language. Future Shock is the most important study of change and adaption in our time."

It's always difficult to define something that hadn't yet happened. Initially the book was seen as science fiction but without a 'Flash Gordon' protagonist. So what did Toffler see from his 1970 perspective? 

In what ways have we/have we not come a long way?

In 1950, super detective Dick Tracy had a wrist radio, he called it... but that was science fiction. Car phones... ridiculous!

In Tracy's time there was something called 'a telephone' that was connected to the wall with a too short cord and it didn't even tell you who was calling. And get this, you would never know if  anyone called because it didn't take messages. If you ever had to use one of those today, odds are you wouldn't know how. Is that ridiculous or what? Today, everyone has a wrist phone and/or Apple watch and/or cell phone and always knows who was calling, when they called and what they said. And as an added bonus, there is text, Twitter, Linkedin, Zoom, etc. 

Remember when a picture you might want of Aunt Milly and Uncle Fred acting silly? That required something we ancients called 'film' to put into 'a camera.' The 'film,' possibly in black and white, had to be sent to a developer in Chicago... or other exotic places, and in mere days or weeks, returned to you as a photograph on shiny paper. All photos were either pasted in an album or stuck in a bottom drawer to be viewed after your death by heirs getting rid of all that stuff? We never took pictures regularly because it cost money for film and processing. Young people never took pictures... ever. Now everyone, especially the young, takes pictures of everything for any or no reason, posts them on social media to be seen by anyone and everyone, and stores them by the thousands on our 'smart phones/cameras/computers or 'the cloud,' never to be erased except by technical 'glitches.' We were made for Instagram, Tic Tok and so many others.

Remember when the Wright brothers first flew that rickety airplane at Kitty Hawk? Well, someone watching then, in 1904, has also witnessed us putting a man on the moon just 65 years later. That's progress! Even going to the moon is so yesterday. We have already been virtually on Mars and are planning to live there. In real estate, it is location, location, location. We'll put the strip malls on Venus. And presently, a Tesla with a manikin representing David Bowie at the wheel is speeding past Mars into space forever. Really. 

The internet would not exist until January, 1983. No one then on earth could reach everyone else on earth... ever. Today, instant access to all everywhere is the norm. And we can say, or believe anything we want and everyone will know who and where we are. We can be caring, concerning, kind, love cats and/or we can terrorize, lie, cheat, bully... and everything in between. There is no privacy and all of our personal data is available to any hacker who wishes it.

Censors wouldn't let Lucy and Ricky Ricardo sleep in the same bed in their I Love Lucy classic television series. Today, we laugh at that because we can view virtually everything on our TVs. Lucky us.

Comedian George Carlin shocked so many because one of his comedy routines included the seven taboo words you couldn't say on the air. Curious? check out "Seven Dirty Words" on Wikipedia. Heck, (no, that's not one of the words) we've certainly broken that barrier by a long, long way.

We can own more guns... today in the US, we have 800 million firearms in 125  million households for a world record: more guns than people. No other country can brag that. And the number is growing exponentially with every school massacre or scare, real or imagined. True. But then, we've always had lots... 800 million is just the current number on our way to 1 billion-plus. That's progress I suppose. 

Today, one person... just one, could kill millions of people in a seconds. We, as a world, have gotten so proficient at killing and technology has created so many more tools and toxins that it doesn't take an Army. Latest proof of this vulnerability: During Super Bowl LV in Tampa this week, a hacker or foreign terrorists--we don't yet know--broke into Tampa's water supply computer just a mile away from the stadium, instructing the computer to add a lethal dose of sodium hydroxide to the water supply for its 3 billion-plus customers! Thankfully, safety controls involved caught and stopped this or... ? 

We can cure diseases, some of which weren't even known in 1970, and we can miraculously heal so many more in so many ways. It's still that the poor and different just don't get the full benefit of such remarkable advances or insurance they may not be able to afford.

We didn't used to fear global warming because we didn't accept it as a threat then, true even today by some of those who don't even believe the Earth is round. Looking backward, we have just experienced the hottest six years ever recorded on earth: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and wonder if God is trying to tell us something. Just who does He think He is, anyway?

One little girl said it best: When asked by her parents why she prayed for the Earth,  she said "Because that's where I keep all my stuff."

The point is, the world around us is changing faster and even more dramatically than Toffler predicted, and it will continue to accelerate at hyper speed. We as a people are more divided than ever, accepting any premise and tale the internet pushes out that supports or appeals to what we choose to believe. The world of internet has no fact checkers per se but accepts the oxymoron 'alternate facts ' which says 'if you believe it, it's real,' without a blink.

So, we've come a long way baby... or have we?

In the market for a used car? Have I got an unbelievable deal for you!

This baby is a racy red two-year-old Tesla Roadster, like new with perfect tires and, get this, it goes from zero to 42,600 miles-per-hour so fast it could make your head look like this: 

Yes, Teslas are impressive.

So what's the catch? OK, the car does have a few miles on it... just a little over 93 million and counting, but it gets great gas mileage,11,745.9 per gallon... really.  It is out of warranty but according to the calls I receive around supper-time at least 4 or 5 days a week, I can extend my warranty if I act now. Delivery is problematic but hey, it's a Tesla, right? 

Oh, that  figure in the car is a manikin in honor of David Bowie listening to Space Oddity nearly 300,000 times  in right ear and Is There Life on Mars about 400,000 time in the left if the battery is still working...and I wouldn't bet against Elon Musk. This tells more. 

You can see the car somewhere near Mars but you'd have to wait for when a telescope that is about 8,000 feet in diameter is invented to do the job.You perhaps remember the story, and it is really impressive, so a reread is called for. Below is that blog post I wrote when this happened three years ago. 

And yes, I am a fan of Elon Musk who, coincidentally, just became the world's richest man, worth $185 billion and passing Jeff Bezos. He is eccentric and that makes him even more interesting. And he makes rockets to send people into space (like his car) and return to earth standing up on the launch pad just as the did when they left.

That blog post: 

Both are unbelievable but one is true, one is false. Any guesses?

We were thrilled when Henry bicycled across the moon with ET in his bike basket.

 

We were also thrilled (sort of) when the red Tesla streaked past the earth on it's way past Mars.

OK, everyone knows ET will never reach home in the basket of Henry's bicycle. But could a red Tesla ever speed past Mars, with David Bowie's Space Oddity blasting on its audio device, and drive forever into space? Most incredibly amazing, it could. That IS an actual photo you're looking at.

Is there anyone today more interesting and inventive that Elon Musk? Truly this South African born 

Elon Musk

Canadian American billionaire at age 48 has done more than even the best fiction writer could imagine... but it's true. He founded Xcom which became Infinity which bought PayPal which was bought by ebay. He founded the automotive company that developed the Tesla automobile and founded SpaceX which developed the most powerful rocket booster that put his red Tesla with a manikin driver behind the wheel into space forever. Even more astounding, two of the three rocket boosters on the most powerful rocket actually returned to base, landing as if reverse of the take-off. Take that NASA.

So his failure is that the space-bound Tesla that was supposed to land on Mars but missed, is destined to drive forever, at 42,600 miles per hour, into outer space for infinity. It joins with NASA's two Voyager missions to infinity. Imagine the incredible gas/electric mileage per gallon and what would happen if it was ever pulled over for speeding by an alien patrol officer with radar. "Sorry officer, I was running late for Mars so I stepped on it and didn't realize how fast I was going."

Consider that perhaps, eons from now, a distant civilization will encounter both Voyager spacecrafts with their golden records of us saying 'Hello" in 140 different languages and also the Tesla playing David Bowie's Space Oddity and wondering who in the hell those people are/were.

Well, that's space for you.