file under: on this day

JFK was assassinated 43 years ago today. to be honest, that never meant much to me. as a kid in the '80s, it felt like a remote event that had been talked about to death. over the last few years, though, it's started to take on more and more weight in my imagination.

and for good reason: an early victory against a scowling nixon on the televised debate, onto camelot, pink pillbox hats, marilyn monroe's birthday serenade (and suicide a year before dallas), the space race, cuban missle crisis, birth of the berlin wall, the opening wound that was vietnam, mobilization of the civil rights movement, not to mention the tragedies of the brothers (another death and chappaquiddick shortly thereafter), even onto the famous torch-passing photo of the president with a young and hopeful william jefferson clinton. there's so much tied into that knot of events! no wonder it's at the center of so much obsessive speculation.

throw in zapruder and the truly shakespearean minor character hand-wringing that was oliver stones examination, (even house of yes, if you like, possibly only for style points) and you have the greatest greek tragedy ever made on american soil.