Comments on: The Daily Agenda for Monday, September 17

By: Jim Hlavac

Jim Hlavac — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:04:17 +0000

On Reagan, it was true that he didn’t say the word until ’85. So what? Yet I hear so many people harp on his like he was a heartless cad. HIV/AIDS wasn’t commonly called AIDS until 1985 — it was GRID from 1981 to late ’84 — with the AIDS term slowly taking over. In 1981 when it started, in the beginning of Reagan’s term, the first year hardly saw any big numbers of deaths — it was a scattered handful, by mostly pneumonia and KS. No one knew anything, there was no name at all. No one knew it was a separate thing for a year or so, then GRID came along.

But one thing Reagan did — something worth far more than words — he pumped funding so fast into sorting it all out that by ’85 HIV was discovered, the link established, and the inkling for meds on the horizon, though still nearly a dozen years away. But still, he couldn’t have said AIDS until ’85, for it didn’t exist. How can he be blamed for this?

Meanwhile, the money mattered; not the words.

By: TomTallis

TomTallis — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:14:35 +0000

I worked in Hollywood as a studio musician back in the day. Roddy was rumored to have the biggest dick in Hollywood.

By: Ben in Oakland

Ben in Oakland — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:35:25 +0000

Mrs McDowell had hot dog sandwiches ready for Tab and Roddy?

What an understanding wife! But I’m certain they brought their own.

By: GDad

GDad — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:53:59 +0000

Didn’t Roddy McDowall have some sort of section in his will or whatever that stipulated his secret papers would be released fifty years after his death or something of the sort? Perhaps I’m thinking of someone else, or maybe it’s just a fever dream.