History Warp (8/27-9/02): Dreams & Sticky Wickets

Posted: August 27th, 2012 | Filed under: History Warp | No Comments »

Some moments are beyond pithiness, so laden are they with historic ramifications.

Thus I shall dispense with my usual sense of frolic and advise this: On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King gave the most famous speech of my lifetime.

“I Have A Dream” is known to just about one and all, whether with reverence or disdain.

It is flowery. The syntax is often suspect. But it is surely powerful

A snippet:

Allow me at this point to get in touch with my inner travel guide.

The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on the site of the Lorraine Motel, where M L King was assassinated, is a marvelous place to visit. (Plus, while you’re down there, you can eat some Rendezvous dry rubbed ribs, visit Graceland and Sun Studios. All three of which are also places which should be on your bucket list.

* * * * *

There was nothing that unusual about the cab ride. Other than that it was the only one I took while visiting friends who were wintering (summering, perhaps, depending on your perspective) in Sydney several years back. Normally we took a ferry across the harbor, but we’d stayed too late at a restaurant too far from our lodging.

Oh yes, there was this. The cabbie was listening to a cricket match on the radio. Frankly I was incredulous. He attempted to school me on some of the subtleties of the sport, but it fell on mostly deaf ears. He was passionate though.

I trust he was aware of this monumental moment on August 29, 1882. It was on that day Down Under that the Aussie National Cricket Team defeated England for the very first time.

So upset were they north of the English Channel that the Sporting Times ran the story as an obituary, dubbing the defeat, “the death of English cricket.”

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