The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977 and still sending back data from a distance of 22 billion kilometers (13.7 billion miles), carries a gold-plated record which among other things (pictures, greetings etc) has what has been called the Mix Tape of the Gods, music from Eastern and Western, indigenous and colonizer/colony sources.
Among the latter are selections from Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry.
On April 22, 1978 during a Saturday Night Live segment, "Next Week in Review" it was announced that, after capturing the Voyager spacecraft, the first alien message received by earth would be....
"Send More Chuck Berry"
This trip down Memory Lane is prelude to this, from the Financial Times, Letters:
Message from space was ‘Send more Chuck Berry’
March 4, 2016
Sir,Correct and correct. Typical wonky FT reader.
In David Cheal’s story on Blind Willie Johnson’s song “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” and its inclusion in the disc attached to Voyager 1 space probe in 1977, he quotes Steve Martin as joking that a message was soon received from another world that read “Send more Blind Willie Johnson”. (The Life of a Song, Life & Arts, February 26.) This is not correct. The joke was made in a skit on Saturday Night Live on April 22 1978, in which Martin’s character Cocuwa, a psychic, reported that the message received was “Send more Chuck Berry”....
All of which was brought to mind by a tweet from FT Alphaville's editor:
Izabella is a wonk.Oh no. The beginning to @Netflix’s Laundromat sees Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman perpetuating the myth that barter exchange predated money/credit! Eeeek!— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) November 11, 2019
I don't care who you are, even the Director of Yale's Museum of Money or the Curator of Narodowy Bank Polski's (Poland's Central Bank) Sławomir S. Skrzypek NBP Money Centre:
would think that flashing on the precedence of money/credit over barter exchange while watching Antonio Banderas on Netflix is totally wonk.
You have to admit, now that's wonky.
