Sometimes the distinction seems blurred between the two PBS series, American Masters and American Experience. It has come to light that the recent Masters installment about Art Spiegelman was censored to remove a mention of Trump that associated him with fascism.
Giving in to Trump, especially pre-emptively, is pointless. Doing that will get you nothing. Harvard University is refusing to go along, but it has the financial resources to resist his authoritarian edicts. Everybody else will have to hang on until he’s out of office. Which will be four years from now, if we’re still a democracy by then.
January, 1969: Polaroid photo of me with Greg, my best pal at the time, in Norwalk, Connecticut
The latest installment of American Experience explores the hits and misses of Polaroid’s inventor-founder Edwin Land.
Watching the documentary, as the timeline progresses it becomes obvious that Land was stuck in the mindset of photography as a chemical process. So was Kodak for that matter, despite having conducted the first tests of digital photography.
My most significant takeaway from ‘Mr. Polaroid’ was learning about Meroë Morse. While saying that, “of course he loved his wife and two daughters,” the point is made that Land was “married to his work,” which included Morse for almost 25 years.
It’s easy to infer that Land’s feelings for Morse went beyond her being a highly competent and trusted colleague who made significant contributions to the company’s success. In contrast to Land’s deadpan expression in his Polaroid photos, Meroë shines in this attractive test photo.
Meroë Morse
It would be a stretch to say that Polaroid’s decline began with Morse’s untimely death in 1969, but not that much of a stretch. Edwin Land isn’t alone as a Boston CEO who was as responsible for his company’s demise as he was its past success. Other CEO’s of failed technology companies include DEC founder Ken Olsen, DG’s Edson de Castro, and An Wang at his namesake company, Wang Laboratories.
Twelve years after the death of Amar Bose, his namesake company is still in business. So he’s an exception to the Boston rule, with a caveat. Bose sank an estimated billion dollars into a pet project that ultimately went nowhere. After its founder’s death, the company sold off the technology.
The Trump administration is not considering a reality show in which immigrants compete for citizenship, according to the Homeland Security chief, despite statements to the contrary by a department spokeswoman.
After the Batman TV show transformed me into a rabid comic book fanboy, my favorite title was World’s Finest, featuring both Superman and Batman. Note how, with Batman’s sudden popularity, Superman was given second billing on the cover.
World’s Finest Comics #160, 1966
And now, 59 years later, Superman is teaming up with fanboy Stephen Colbert.
A Trump voter who was, “not happy with, y’know, some of the direction the country was going,” is surprised that “a community leader, a pastor, a hard working man,” would be grabbed and detained by ICE.
I have no sympathy — none — for anyone who voted for Trump but is now questioning their decision. Whatever it was they didn’t like about the direction the country was going, do they prefer the direction now?
