Something Good About America - The National Film Registry

"Established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the National Film Preservation Board works to ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's film heritage, including: advising the Librarian on its recommendations for annual selections to the National Film Registry, apprising the Librarian of changing trends and policies in the field of film preservation, and counseling the Librarian on ongoing implementation of the National Film Preservation Plan." 

Last night I watched a really interesting documentary These Amazing Shadows. You can see it almost anywhere from Amazon to YouTube. The National Film Registry has been around for some time now but I don't think we hear that much about it.

I personally think this is a good use of our taxpayer dollars, preserving our past for future generations. Watch the film I think you might agree. What is chilling are the number of films which have been lost. Back in the day the movie studios just didn't think anyone would ever be interested, cans of film negatives were just tossed on storage shelves, left to rot in many cases.

It is interesting to see how films are used to tell stories, good and bad, truths and lies. Stories to inform and stories to persuade. And most of all stories to entertain.

You can read more about the National Film Registry here at the Library of Congress website. And if you are curious about what films have made it to this honored list you are just a click away to find the complete  Film Registry Listing.

This and That - the true Artichoke Way - Leaf by Leaf

Watercolor pencil by Cherry San

Sometimes we never get read the ending to our nightly story hour. I thought I would address a couple that previously fell through the cracks in my cabin floor.

In case you missed it, here's a little fun fact: FBI says price paid was worth it 

This tidbit is a follow up to that Apple-FBI case involving the San Bernardino iPhone. The last I      heard was that the FBI had withdrawn their action against Apple, after apparently being able to access the data on the phone that they sought. The ending to this story that never got read to me was how much it cost the FBI to hack that phone.

In a related story Apple says requests for data from governments agencies have grown.

When one door closes, another door opens. It seems Edward Snowden has come up with a new gadget, a phone case that shows when your phone data is being monitored.

And this is the first I have read in a long, long time about what is going on with the sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan that were exposed to radiation during  Operation Tomodachi when the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant experienced a meltdown.

It bothers me that the government wants to cover this up, like it never happened. I mean these sailors weren't exposed while drinking beer at a bar in Japan. They were on duty, providing an ordered humanity mission and entered a hazard zone to perform their job.

That is your This and That for now.

We Must Get Home Again

These past years have been troubling ones. We have been digging our heels in firmly and tugging on a rope held at the other end by our own self.

I heard a portion of this poem, We Must Get Home, in a movie I was watching and Goggled it so I could read it in its entirety.  When I did my first thought was how this really seemed to reflect us as a nation today.

Perhaps there is still some hope. "We must get home again -- we must -- we must!"

*   *   *

We Must Get Home

by James Whitcomb Riley

We must get home! How could we stray like this?--
So far from home, we know not where it is,--
Only in some fair, apple-blossomy place
Of children's faces--and the mother's face--
We dimly dream it, till the vision clears
Even in the eyes of fancy, glad with tears.

We must get home--for we have been away
So long, it seems forever and a day!
And O so very homesick we have grown,
The laughter of the world is like a moan
In our tired hearing, and its song as vain,--
We must get home--we must get home again!

We must get home! With heart and soul we yearn
To find the long-lost pathway, and return!...
The child's shout lifted from the questing band
Of old folk, faring weary, hand in hand,
But faces brightening, as if clouds at last
Were showering sunshine on us as we passed.

We must get home: It hurts so staying here,
Where fond hearts must be wept out tear by tear,
And where to wear wet lashes means, at best,
When most our lack, the least our hope of rest--
When most our need of joy, the more our pain--
We must get home--we must get home again!

We must get home--home to the simple things--
The morning-glories twirling up the strings
And bugling color, as they blared in blue-
And-white o'er garden-gates we scampered through;
The long grape-arbor, with its under-shade
Blue as the green and purple overlaid.

We must get home: All is so quiet there:
The touch of loving hands on brow and hair--
Dim rooms, wherein the sunshine is made mild--
The lost love of the mother and the child
Restored in restful lullabies of rain,--
We must get home--we must get home again!

The rows of sweetcorn and the China beans
Beyond the lettuce-beds where, towering, leans
The giant sunflower in barbaric pride
Guarding the barn-door and the lane outside;
The honeysuckles, midst the hollyhocks,
That clamber almost to the martin-box.

We must get home, where, as we nod and drowse,
Time humors us and tiptoes through the house,
And loves us best when sleeping baby-wise,
With dreams--not tear-drops--brimming our clenched eyes,--
Pure dreams that know nor taint nor earthly stain--
We must get home--we must get home again!

We must get home! The willow-whistle's call
Trills crisp and liquid as the waterfall--
Mocking the trillers in the cherry-trees
And making discord of such rhymes as these,
That know nor lilt nor cadence but the birds
First warbled--then all poets afterwards.

We must get home; and, unremembering there
All gain of all ambition otherwhere,
Rest--from the feverish victory, and the crown
Of conquest whose waste glory weighs us down.--
Fame's fairest gifts we toss back with disdain--
We must get home--we must get home again!

We must get home again--we must--we must!--
(Our rainy faces pelted in the dust)
Creep back from the vain quest through endless strife
To find not anywhere in all of life
A happier happiness than blest us then ...
We must get home--we must get home again!