"...you won't believe it.  everything is there."

So I checked it out and as a lark i decided to look for this very clip, a very famous, very interesting, very unusual piece of footage; from the past but not too far back, 

and as i'm sure you already guessed, this clip came up right away.

I was amazed.

Nowadays, we take such access for granted.

But then, it was amazing.

Because the work we had to do to see a piece of footage like this - the in person visits and forms and deposits and requests and tapes sent in the mail.  It was so laborious, took so much time, and cost so much money.

until it didn't.

so this is here because it was a watershed moment in my life.

but it is also here because it is a watershed moment in US history, in world history, in the history of human beings on the planet.

here is why:

If one has to choose a date for the peak moment of human experience on the planet, after which it has been downhill in various speeds all the way; the moment when the rise of humans, from animals to tool users to global dominators to the point of seemingly putting ourselves and the entire planet under threat so huge it takes away everything we've ever accomplished and seemingly begins an unstoppable decline, what date would you choose?

for me, the assisnation of JFK marks the sharp end of peak human life on the planet.  After that comes the Vietnam War, inflation, the end of the gold standard of world currency, Watergate, AIDS, 9/ll, the global war on terror, the covid pandemic and global climate crisis.

JFK was a controversial figure, to be sure.  But he was an embodiment of hope and possibility.

Marilyn Monro was a movie star, to be sure.  But she was an embodiment of female sexuality that has never been rivaled since.

and the sheer surprise of this public, yet so intimately private song, sung by her to him, in front of so many and yet ... at a time when media was not 24/7 news cycle, so it could remain both storied and celebrated and yet also not that well known.

well, for all that and more, here it is.

thank you youtube

thank you marilyn

thank you Jack.

(thank you reader for reading this far.   in fact if you do, you HAVE to email me, because honestly, i would be surprised if anyone gets all the way down the rabbit hole of this website to...

... this

     .... very

          ... page.