Remembering Mister Rogers

"All that kind of superficial complicated stuff does is to make people feel worse about themselves." 

By Wendy Murray

Mister (Fred) Rogers died on this day 11 years ago. The more time that passes since he left this world the more I wish he was still here, still inviting us to the Neighborhood. The cover story I wrote for Christianity Today was the last major article written about him when he was still alive. I know it was the only major piece that highlighted his "theology of the Neighborhood." He was thrilled to see it. He repeatedly contacted me requesting more copies.

Fred was known to become close to those journalists who interviewed him. How could he not? When you were with him he gently hijacked the interview and asked you the questions. He loved us "just the way we are," even as journalists. He changed our lives.

Upon this anniversary I  include highlights from my time with him in which he discusses the power of the media. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church to minister to children and families through television so he was vested in the proper appropriation:

The space between that television screen and the person who is watching and listening, that space is holy ground. What you present can be translated through that space to meet the need if the person who is listening and watching. The Holy Spirit translates our best efforts into what needs to be communicated to that person. The longer I live the more I know that that's true.

Television is a fabulous media. I would not have devoted all of my professional life to it if I hadn't believed that. 

I wish I knew how every media outlet could take an assignment--and I'm talking about television and radio and computers and magazines -- to do our best to make goodness attractive. We're so caught up in glorifying the opposite, giving it space. I think the Accuser [Satan] would have us be so despairing that we wouldn't do anything. But you know the effect in great darkness of one little candlelight. That sounds very simplistic, but it is true.

What is deep and simple is what is eternal, not what is shallow and complicated. Sometimes evil is almost palpable and we see it trying to make people sad and mad and distrustful.

But I refuse to give up hope because I have seen in my life too many indications of what is wonderful about human beings. 

(Wendy Murray's upcoming book on Fred Rogers will be out next year.)

Tony Rooke Took on the BBC for False Reporting on 9/11, and Won

By Wendy Murray

Tony Rooke after winning his case
regarding false reporting of WTC7

A year ago this month, British citizen Tony Rooke stood before Horsham Magistrates’ Court in West Sussex, charged with not paying for his needed license to access the BBC.

The then-49 year-old Rooke refused to pay his required TV license because he believed the BBC covered up facts about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He said that paying his bill would be tantamount to supporting "the practice of terror." In that hearing he was found guilty of using an unlicensed television set and given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £200.

A few months later, in April 2013, he represented himself in court. He did not deny owning a TV and watching it without a license. He cited the Terrorism Act, Section 15 of the 2000 Act, as his reason for withholding payment. The Terrorism Act states that it is an offense for someone "to invite another to provide money, intending that it should be used, or having reasonable cause to suspect that it may be used, for terrorism purposes."

In court Rooke made the case that to pay funds to the BBC was tantamount to furthering the purposes of terrorism and "I have incontrovertible evidence to this effect. I do not use this word lightly given where I am," he said.

Rooke cited that during the attacks of September 11, 2001 the BBC reported that World Trade Centre 7 had fallen, when, in fact it still stood erect and intact over the shoulder of the reporter reporting it. The news story occurred 20 minutes before building actually collapsed. (The

screen capture, right, shows a BBC reporter announcing the collapse of WTC7, even while it stood erect behind her; it collapsed 20 minutes later).

He said to the court: "The BBC reported it 20 minutes before it fell. They knew about it beforehand. Last time I was here I asked you (the judge): 'Were you aware of World Trade Centre 7?'" (WTC 7 was a 47-story skyscraper that was not hit by a plane on 9/11 but imploded at free-fall speed later that day.) "You said you had heard of it. Ten years later you should have more than heard of it. It's the BBC's job to inform the public. Especially of miracles of science and when laws of physics become suspended."

Rooke argued that since the BBC had prior knowledge that the building was doomed and did not warn Americans about it, it made them complicit in the attack.

The judge ruled that he while "did not believe he had the power to rule under the terrorism act," he agreed that Rooke had a reasonable case and thus found him not guilty.  He was not fined for failure to pay the licensing fee.

BBC editors assert the reporting was a mistake but that they "no longer have the original tapes of our 9/11 coverage for reasons of cock-up, not conspiracy."

Sherlocked

The love is in their faces

By Wendy Murray

[SPOILERS]
The long-awaited Season 3 of Masterpiece Mystery's  Sherlock has come and gone with the fleetness of its hero. We were riveted, in the back of our minds, during the two-year hiatus after Season 2 ended with Sherlock's suicide-by-flying-leap off a rooftop. His arch-nemesis James Moriarty made him do it, mocking and one-upping him mercilessly, taunting Sherlock that all his friends would be executed if the waiting gunmen, lasers already fixed on various foreheads, did not see Sherlock jump. Moriarty laughed and mocked some more, then put a gun to his head and met his demise (so it seemed) with a self-inflicted shot. So Sherlock jumped. His devoted sidekick, Dr. John Watson, watched from below and collapsed seeing his friend dead on the ground. (Sherlock and Watson are rendered in consummate performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.)

Then, in the episode's final scene, we were moved and devastated with John Watson as he was grieving at Sherlock's grave. But wait. There is Sherlock himself watching from a distance in the shadows, head tilted in the singular way, his narrow eyes glancing around, while we (the viewing audience) -- now, ecstatic -- are horrified that he would leave poor John bereft!

Welcome to our world -- the exhilerating, riveting, shocking, stunning, complicated, logical, horrible, hilarious non-stop world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century.

The dismay of Season 2 was indeed resolved in the opening episode of Season 3. The new stretch of the (only!) three-episode season began with John's shock at Sherlock's reappearance, now two years later. Their first exchange finds Sherlock explaining to John that while on the roof with Moriarity that time, he had to work-through deductively 13 possible escape scenarios that would give the impression he had in fact died while simultaneously actually cheating death (and Moriarity). John is not impressed. He wants to smack him, and does.

On it goes -- Sherlock ever configuring logical deductions while Watson, at once awed and appalled, sometimes can respond only, "Sherlock, shut up."

Sherlock is a self-described “high functioning sociopath” with regular spontaneous digressions -- hands to temples and elbows splayed -- into his "mind palace," the place in his head where he processes a dizzying combination of multiple possible logical deductions. We all must simply let him go there and wait until the hard drive exhausts the unyielding process. At that point Sherlock arises wide-eyed and euphoric seeing the now obvious logical explanation.

"Of course!"

On his first meeting with Watson, Sherlock's mind palace rendered total insight into the man whom he had known less than five minutes:

Your haircut, the way you hold yourself, says military. But your conversation as you entered the room said trained at Bart's, so army doctor. Obvious. Your face is tanned, but no tan above the wrists: you've been abroad but not sunbathing. The limp's really bad when you walk, but you don't ask for a chair when you stand, like you've forgotten about it, so it's at least partly psychosomatic. That says the original circumstances of the injury were probably traumatic: wounded in action, then. Wounded in action, suntan: Afghanistan or Iraq. You've got a psychosomatic limp. Of course you've got a therapist. Then there's your brother. Your phone—it's expensive, email enabled, MP3 player. But you're looking for a flat-share. You wouldn't waste money on this. It's a gift, then. Scratches—not one, many over time. It's been in the same pocket as keys and coins. The man sitting next to me [John] wouldn't treat his one luxury item like this, so it's had a previous owner. The next bit's easy, you know it already. [The phone is engraved "Harry Watson — from Clara xxx"] Harry Watson: clearly a family member who's given you his old phone. Not your father, this is a young man's gadget. Could be a cousin, but you're a war hero who can't find a place to live. Unlikely you've got an extended family, certainly not one you're close to, so brother it is. Now, Clara: who's Clara? Three kisses [xxx] says a romantic attachment. Expensive phone says wife, not girlfriend. Must've given it to him recently; this model's only six months old. Marriage in trouble, then—six months on, and already he's giving it away? If she'd left him, he would've kept it. People do, --sentiment. But no, he wanted rid of it—he left her. He gave the phone to you. That says he wants you to stay in touch. You're looking for cheap accommodation and you're not going to your brother for help? That says you've got problems with him. Maybe you liked his wife. Maybe you don't like his drinking. [Drinking?] Power connection: tiny little scuff marks around the edge. Every night he goes to plug it in and charge but his hands are shaky. You never see those marks on a sober man's phone, never see a drunk's without them. There you go, you see? You were right. The police don't consult amateurs.

Season 3 saw Sherlock stumble into new territory: the human realm.
It first showed itself when he was called upon to

Sherlock thanking Molly for a
particular kind of help

be the Best Man at John's wedding, which meant -- as Molly Hooper put it (Sherlock's lovelorn endearing pathologist): "He'll have to make a speech in front of people. There will be actual people there actually listening."

It gets worse, but endearingly. He betrays a degree--if restrained-- of emotion during the best man's toast. Somehow supporting his best friend at this fine hour has changed Sherlock. He came out of complicated universe inside his head to think about John. More, he raised a glass to John in front of actual people who are actually listening:

. . . I am the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant and all-round obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet. I am dismissive of the virtuous [he looks at the priest.], unaware of the beautiful [he looks at the maid of honor], and uncomprehending in the face of the happy [he looks at Watson and Mary]. So if I didn't understand that I was being asked to be best man, it is because I never expected to be anybody's best friend. And certainly not the best friend of the bravest and kindest and wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing. 

John, I am a ridiculous man [John agrees], redeemed only by the warmth and constancy of your friendship. But, as I am apparently your best friend, I cannot congratulate you on your choice of companion. Actually, now I can. [To Mary] Mary, when I say you deserve this man, it is the highest compliment of which I am capable. 

John, you have endured war and injury and tragic loss - so sorry again about that last one [the roof bit] - so know this; today you sit between the woman you have made your wife and the man you have saved. In short, the two people who love you most in all this world. And I know I speak for Mary as well when I say we will never let you down and we have a lifetime ahead to prove that.

So he's human after all. This fact becomes more stark and hauntingly real in the remaining episodes of Season 3 -- another twist we didn't see coming. That is the way it is in the ever-evolving, always-expanding, brilliant, exasperating, thrilling, crushing, addicting world of Sherlock.

Season 4 can't come too soon.

    

Nevil Shute's Little-known Classic: A Town Like Alice

Nevil Shute was born 115 years ago today. While most people have not heard of him, he remains one of Britain's most acclaimed and revered writers. His was born Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 1899 - 12 January 1960) and rose to become a popular novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He described in the in an anonymous epigram in one of his books how engineering and design could improve human life: "An engineer is a man who can make something for five bob that any bloody fool can make for a quid!"

He adopted the name Nevil Shute as his pen name and wrote several novels including On the Beach and The Rainbow and the Rose. He his best known for his novel, A Town Like Alice (1950), a World War 2 novel set in Malaya and Australia. The protagonists Jean Paget and Joe Harman are based upon people whom Shute met, both of whom suffered heroically as prisoners of war and who later fell in love redeemed their lost years.

Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards,
real-life inspiration for Joe Harman

Shute based the character of Harman on Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards, an Australian veteran of the Malayan campaign, whom Shute met in 1948 at a station (ranch) in Queensland. Edwards had been crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. He had later escaped execution a second time, when his "last meal" of chicken and beer could not be obtained. Shute appropriates both episodes in the novel.

The novel was ranked in 1998 by the Modern Library ranked 17th on The Reader's List of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the novel contains the earliest known use of the word dicey: "He.. made a tight, dicey turn round in the gorge with about a hundred feet to spare."

Shute possesses a steady narrative voice and drives the plot relentlessly forward, though his plots are often complicated. His magic makes them plausible and wrenching.

Bryan Brown and Helen Morse in Masterpiece Theatre's
wildly successful mini-series (1981) A Town Like Alice

From A Town Like Alice [the narrator as an old man remembering his friends in Australia]:

 "I suppose it is because I have lived rather a restricted life myself that I have found so much enjoyment in remembering what I have learned in these last years about brave people and strange scenes. I have sat here day after day this winter, sleeping a good deal in my chair, hardly knowing if I was in London or the Gulf Country, dreaming of blazing sunshine, of poddy dodging and black stockriders, of Cairns and of Green Island. Of a girl that I met forty years too late, and of her life in that small town that I shall never see again, that holds so much of my affection."

Rare Footage of J.R.R. Tolkien Talking About LOTR Happy Birthday!

J.R.R. Tolkien was born on this day in 1892.