The first time I walked by the Texas Embassy, I did a double take. Surely Texas doesn’t have its own embassy in the UK? That would be bizarre, but not completely unexpected given the inflated ego of the state’s residents (and I say this as a Californian ). Well, as it turns out, it is just the name of a Tex-Mex restaurant near Trafalgar Square. My friends and I spent our 4th of July here in 2005 when the soggy London weather forced us to cancel our plans for an Independence Day barbecue. If you can’t have hot dogs, you might as well celebrate our country’s independence from the Brits with margaritas and nachos.

Strange, I went nearly an entire month without posting to this blog. It’s not due to lack of material, as I’ve got plenty of that. I suppose I just feel guilty writing blog entries when I could be writing yet another cover letter.

Anyways, this is something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile. A few years ago, I would post an old LIFE magazine photo that I found particularly interesting, along with a short blurb about the photo. Well, I figured why not revive that, but instead of posting a LIFE photo, use one from my archive. I’ve managed to take over 8,200 of them in the past ten years, the majority of which are from my overseas travels. Setting a goal of posting one per day, along with a short description, at least gets me back in the habit of writing, and producing content when I don’t have time to sit down and write an extended entry. So let’s see if I can manage to post once per day. I’ll pick whatever image comes up in the “random image” section of my gallery and write a short post about it (unless the image totally sucks, in which case I will just hit reload and hope for a better one).

So, first up…

This is an entrance to Oskar Schindler’s factory in Krakow, Poland. Schindler, a German businessmen, is famous for saving the lives of 1,200 of his Jewish workers during the Holocaust. Schindler spent every penny of his personal fortune to provide care for his workers and bribe Nazi officials to ensure the workers wouldn’t be shipped off to concentration camps. To honor his efforts, the State of Israel declared Schindler “Righteous among the Nations” and allowed him to be buried in Jerusalem following his death.

When I visited in 2007, there was not much to see at the factory, but it was recently turned into a museum, so you can now view exhibits on Schindler and the Krakow ghetto.

Destroyer USS Shaw exploding during early morning air attack by Japanese on Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, near Honolulu.

Saw this on Wonkette a while ago. Still amusing.

SNL comic Tina Fey and Sen. John McCain on cover of LIFE 10-15-2004.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (2L) vehemently arguing w. VP Richard Nixon (2R) who is furiously objecting as an excited interpreter (C) translates their firey words re US ideas on home construction during “kitchen debate” at American Natl. Exhibit at Moscow Fair

The entire transcript is worth reading, but this is the best line:

Khrushchev: You’re a lawyer of Capitalism, I’m a lawyer for Communism. Let’s kiss.

Sounds like the title of a Panic! at the Disco song.

(Howard Sochurek, 1959)

(Michael Rougier, August 1957)

Tourists carrying backpacks sightseeing in Dubrovnik.

Young people traipsing about wearing jeans and gigantic backpacks with a flag pinned to them. Fifty years later, and not much has changed (except for the footwear. Flip-flops, please).

Dubrovnik is by far one of the most beautiful places on earth. If I win the lottery, I’m moving there, buying a flat in the Old City, and spending my days eating pizza and seafood, drinking beer, and listening to the 80 year old dudes at the bar tell stories about whatever.

Post Gidget invasion, and Dora’s nightmare.

(Allan Grant, 1961)

Pres. John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline arriving for a tour of the city on the morning of Kennedy’s assassination.

I always thought this photo was incredibly sad. A little over an hour after this photo was taken, Kennedy would be pronounced dead.

(Art Rickerby, 1963)

American astronauts Tom Stafford and Deke Slayton holding tubes of vodka given to them by Russian cosmonauts during historic rendezvous and linkup of Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft.

Who cares what space food tastes like when your meal comes with a tube of vodka?

(The tubes of vodka didn’t actually contain vodka, as that is probably the last thing you want your crew to drink when piloting spacecraft. As a joke, the Soviet cosmonauts pasted vodka labels onto tubes of borscht and presented them to the Americans for a toast. Yes, tubes of borscht. I think I’d rather have the vodka.)

(1975)

Atomic Bomb Test In Nevada
Scorched & disheveled male mannequin clad in dark business suit standing in the desert w. lady mannequin in bkgrd., 7000 ft. from the 44th nuclear test explosion, a day after the blast, indicating that humans could be burnt but still alive.

Well, that’s comforting. The tie on the dummy is a nice touch as well.

(Loomis Dean, May 1955)