JULY 18th - Never Let Go

On this day in 1986, video footage of the Titanic wreckage was released. In 1985 Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel located the remnants of the The Unsinkable Ship. Bad nickname. Completely tempting the Universe. You wouldn’t name your horse The Unbeatable Horse, would you? So these guys found the wreckage of the most famous ship 73 years after Captain Homeslice hit an iceberg and killed a whole lot of people. And then Ballard made sure to capture video of footage of the wreckage. There was a boon to underwater searching. By any account the finding of the Titanic was monumental and impressive. Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t really have cared, but then he actually saw Davey Crockett kill him a bear when Davey was only three years old. TJ was all like “That bear was on its last legs. I could have killed that old thing when I was one year old.” TJ just wasn’t easily impressed, so he probably wouldn’t have found the footage all that amazing. But I bet you a young James Cameron was impressed. Just 11 years later he made like the biggest movie ever, until he made the next biggest movie ever 12 years after that. But the first biggest movie ever was about the Titanic. Really it was about a poor guy who fell in love with a suicidal rich girl who was actually a suicidal poor girl with a rich abusive boyfriend. But they were on the Titanic when all this went down. And oh, the love! The love that poor guy and that suicidal, rich, poor girl shared. It was a love that transcended class. That made people hear Celine Dion singing all the time. It made hearts leap. And teenage girls cry. And then cry again. And again (remember they kept going back to see the damn thing?) A love so powerful it could sink ships. Bad joke. Of course you can’t talk about Titanic and not discuss the door scene with Jack and Rose. Because as strong as their love was, apparently it hadn’t matured to a place where sharing was a priority. For a long time, I blamed Rose for not scooting the hell over. But then I came to the conclusion that Jack was just a quitter. One time you try to get on the door? One time? I mean you just survived a ship sinking. Those poor bastards in the band played till their own damn death so you would have some pleasant music to die with, but you beat the odds and survived. And then you’re just done? Don’t give me that looking out for Rose crap. The girl tried to kill herself two days prior. I’m not making light of suicidal people here, but I’m going to go ahead and trust my own judgment over the girl that obviously has some issues. Oh, and you know what helps fight hypothermia, Jack? Body heat. So you were a quitter AND an idiot. But you did have that moment when you were King of the World. No one can take that from you buddy. Near. Far. Wherever you are. Except all the people who reenact that scene and then don’t die by being stupid quitters. But we won’t mention them.

This Day has been Marked.

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