===CORN POP CRITICAL EXEGESIS===
first, the fabula:
1. a young, Joseph R. Biden becomes the lifeguard at an integrated community pool (a rarity at the time)
There are 2 highly contextual story elements endogenous to the chronotype of early 1962 Wilmington. Biden, in recounting the story in 2017, stresses their peculiarity-"And to show you how things have changed,"
He's not talking about race relations, but Pomade.
Pomade was a water-based styling gel made from lanolin, beeswax, or petroleum jelly, and was popular (along with hair relaxer) in 1950s-60s African-American young men's fashion.
This detail is not simply "cosmetic', but ironically integral to the story's main conflict.
Although popular imagination attributes more "natural" hairstyles to the '60s, pomade was still in vogue as a styler, as William Morris--AKA "Corn Pop" illustrated. However, it's the likely conjunction of Pomade and some unknown chemical relaxer, which sets the stage:
At the time, hair relaxing or a "perm" invented in 1906 was a treatment popular in Black communities as a way to straighten hair with by chemically "relaxing" the natural curls, using a strong alkali, usually ammonium thioglycolate or even formaldehyde, every 8-11 weeks.
a perm is ruined by water, necessitating here, a Swimming Cap
it's absolutely critical to understand that although Corn Pop was indeed by all third-party accounts, "a Bad Dude", young Joseph Biden was absolutely the instigator of this conflict, as his reflection in the story's 3 sequential episodes, reveals progressively:
Corn Pop violates a minor safety rule on the pool's diving board. Having presumably had his hair relaxed and pomaded, is wearing a swimming cap.
And while for new lifeguards diving boards are an item of frequent accidents and special anxiety..
however, while story itself is dependent upon a host of highly contextual and historical elements, its dramatic impetus of the story notably does *not* follow from any of them but instead,
5. Biden publicly rebukes, humiliates Corn Pop, derisively calling him "Esther Wiliams"
Esther Williams was a competitive swimmer and hollywood starlet quite famous in the late 40s and 50s, and in 1962, a household name
yet what is critical at this affective, contextual juncture is Biden's crude analogy--the association of her signature swimming cap, and Corn Pop's own
not only did biden overstep his authority as lifeguard--unwisely and unfairly choosing to publicly shame and punish where mere discipline was necessary to enforce reasonable rules...
Biden, panicked, seeks out Bill Wrightmouse, a pool mechanic, who immediately furnishes him with a 6-foot length of chain to use as a weapon, along with its own bombastic flavor-text:
"You may gut me, man, but I'm gonna wrap this chain round your head."
Biden seeks him out for help in defusing and/or avoiding the confrontation he has provoked with Corn Pop...
to Biden, this is out of character for wrightmouse, who was for biden, a trusted elder and presumably a Cooler Head
the hypothetical imperative posed by the supposed mentor here is significant, but only in its careful ambivalence...
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1/ Imagine that as soon as the referendum result the EU announced that it was looking forward to the end of free movement of UK citizens in the EU
2/ Imagine if the EU said finally all those retired Brits in the EU27 could go home
3/ Imagine if the EU said finally all those Brits in the EU could stop driving down wages, taking jobs and stop sending benefits back to the UK
4/ Imagine if the EU said it was looking to use UK citizens as “bargaining chips” to get a better trade deal
5/ Imagine if the EU told UK citizens in the EU27 that they could no longer rely on established legal rights and they would have to apply for a new status which they have to pay for for less rights
Imagine, for a moment, the reaction of the UK Government, Brexiters, and the RW UK press if Juncker, Tusk, Macron or Merkel went on TV to say that Brexit was worth it to stop Freedom of Movement for UK citizens, and to stop Brits being able to come to the EU and jump the queue.
— Steve Bullock (@GuitarMoog) November 20, 2018
2/ Imagine if the EU said finally all those retired Brits in the EU27 could go home
3/ Imagine if the EU said finally all those Brits in the EU could stop driving down wages, taking jobs and stop sending benefits back to the UK
4/ Imagine if the EU said it was looking to use UK citizens as “bargaining chips” to get a better trade deal
5/ Imagine if the EU told UK citizens in the EU27 that they could no longer rely on established legal rights and they would have to apply for a new status which they have to pay for for less rights
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THREAD PART 1.
On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙
He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq
"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.
On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙
He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq
"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.