h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I known what I'll be doing on April 15. In the morning I'll listen to an original Broadway cast recording of "Titanic: The Musical." In the afternoon I'll go to the theater to see the 3D version of Cameron's 1998 film "Titanic."

I'm not celebrating the fact that thousands of people died a horrible death from drowning and hypothermia. I'm just acknowledging the impact the events of April 15, 1912 has had on the world in the one hundred years since.

The first ripples enhanced the image of Molly Brown, a Titanic survivor whom newspapers dubbed "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Meredith Willson picked up the cause with his 1960s musical of the same name, starring Tammy Grimes. The later movie version starred Debby Reynolds. I'm not sure either one was right for the part. I'd rather have seen Kathy Bates star as Molly Brown.

Indeed, there's a film clip from the soon-to-be-released 3D
version of "Titanic" that has Bayes [as Molly Brown] saying "God almighty!" as she watches the Titanic sink from the safety of her lifeboat. In one way or another, many people echoed her sentiments.

Meanwhile, in New York, destiny was giving John Jacob Astor III (or was it the fourth?) the inheritance that his father [who died on the Titanic] had spelled out in his will. Also in New York, another claimant to the Astor riches was in utero, but it no longer mattered, as the Astor paterfamilias would not live to rewrite his will. The Astor who *did* inherit it determined to give away hundreds of millions of family money for the benefit of New York, with Brooke Astor [his wife] stepping in in the late fifties to lovingly look for ways to make the money do the most good.

Ripples. They are probably still spreading out from the Titanic disaster.....