Lt. James Doohan and the 80th Anniversary of D-Day
I didn't see any one mention it here but today is the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy and what has become to be known as the beginning of the end of the Second World War.
James Doohan who famously played Scotty in The Original Series in the 1960s was a veteran of this famous battle. This was also the day he famously lost his finger which he always did his very best to hide from the camera.
Read about him at this webpage provided by the Juno Beach Centre.
For those who don't know Juno Beach refers to one of the five named beach areas of the D-Day landings. Juno Beach was the landing area for the Canadian Forces of which James Doohan was part. And also for those who don't know, James Doohan was a Canadian.
Edit: not intended as an offense to Scotty, just found it funny that's the finger he lost and that there's multiple instances of flipping the bird (one of which is official).
... one a side note, I'm on the road on a slow internet connection ... I'm on mobile and I have barely one bar reception to stay online ... that was one hell of a download to get that image to load ... it took me 15 minutes to get it through.
lol ... no wonder ... the download was reminscent of internet porn in the late 90s ... it would load, scan line by line, freeze, stop, then I would have to restart or refresh and start again, and again and little by little it came in
I'm guessing this came out in 95/96 when Voyager first came out ... otherwise Comic Book guy would have been downloading Seven of Nine ... and on a much faster 56k modem instead of a 28k modem ... but by then, the image would have been twice as large and it would have downloaded at the same speed anyway.
Oh Comic Book Guy ... the patron saint of first generation internet geek porn
I profusely apologize for any offense, as it was never my intent. Just took the opportunity to showcase instances of "the bird" in Trek media as it related to his injury. Mr. Doohan's service helped countless many, among others.
I wouldn't take it too hard ... I can understand @[email protected] surprise because for a second, I felt the same way ... until I saw who had posted it. Anyone else and I would have challenged the response in the same way because I would not have known who the commenter was or where they were coming from.
In all the comments and responses we make on these silly platforms, eventually we will inevitably step on toes and say the wrong things at the wrong time, in the wrong way and taken in the wrong context.
Much like Doohan getting his finger shot off by his own men ... eventually we will get shot at by our allies on the internet front lines.
Doohan was in all his public appearances and talks a genuinely kind and thoughtful person. He even laughed about his missing finger later in life.
He lived through enough horrors in that war but life redeemed him a lot of joys through his work at Star Trek that I don't think he would have taken any of this as an offense. I certainly don't because I know where @[email protected] heart is at.
I'm sure Doohan would have had a laugh at this too.