Americans will be looking to the sky next year as the second phase of NASA’s Artemis II program takes its first crewed test flight of the program’s Orion spacecraft. The program is designed to eventually land a crew on the Moon twice by 2029. The last crewed mission to the Moon was conducted in December 1972.

NASA’s return to the Moon after more than 50 years has led to a renewed interest in all things related to space – that awe-inspiring, vast expanse that holds immeasurable possibilities for humankind and has sparked questions about our place in the universe for millennia.

NASA itself – that’s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- was established in 1958. Members of the Baby Boomer generation and even some early Generation Xers will remember President John F. Kennedy’s pledge in 1962 that Americans would eventually land on the Moon by the end of that decade. The president’s promise would become NASA’s crowning achievement on July 20, 1969, in an event watched by revelers across the globe. In the years both before and since, the genre of science fiction has inundated pop culture, from comics like “Flash Gordon” to beloved TV series and films such as “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.”

Turns out, NASA’s space travels are highly collectible, too, with some items from the institution’s history fetching hundreds to thousands at auction. These items currently listed on eBay, Etsy, and antique auction house websites are sure to amaze any space case or dreamer with their head in the clouds:

NASA Apollo-era SCAPE helmet

This helmet was designed for handling of toxic fuel, worn by those transporting dangerously volatile and corrosive fuel to and from the Kennedy Space Center. This helmet still has its “property of NASA” tag attached to the helmet’s interior. “SCAPE” stands for “Self-Contained Atmospheric Protection Ensemble.” The helmet is being sold on eBay for $2,500.

Also being sold on eBay for an affordable $98 is a collection of ephemera related to the space shuttle Enterprise, built in 1976 to conduct atmospheric test flights. A 1975 booklet describing the shuttle’s mission, its use/operation, and its limitations; another booklet containing diagrams and the ship’s specs is included, as is a third booklet outlining future projects and equipment testing plans. Although the craft originally was named Constitution, Trekkies likely are aware of a campaign in which hundreds of thousands of “Star Trek” fans asked U.S. President Gerald Ford to rename the ship after the popular space craft from the beloved television show. The campaign worked, with Ford asking NASA leadership to change the name. The cast of the original “Star Trek” TV show, along with creator Gene Roddenberry, were on hand during the rollout of the Enterprise in Palmdale, California, on Sept. 17, 1976.

A warning to collectors

Supposed samples of moon rocks can be found on auction sites everywhere. Encased in resin, they are proudly listed as being genuine, but they usually are sold for as little as $10. According to NASA, the Apollo missions collected more than 2,000 samples, some of which are on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Original samples collected during lunar missions are considered priceless. Moon rocks can be determined to be genuine through radiometric testing, and actual moon rocks are exceedingly rare; according to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, those tiny pieces being hawked by eager merchants on auction sites are likely nothing more than fragments of petrified wood.

NASA’s own online shop reveals that demand for collectibles related to space is only growing. Currently, it lists several collectibles related to its Artemis I mission for sale, with Artemis II items sure not be coming up in the coming year. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov.

Clack! go the flippers as the ball is launched. Pop! go the bumpers as the metal ball weaves its way through obstacles. And then the bells – ding, ding, accompanied by the many flashes of light to signify your victory.

Close your eyes and you can see the lights and hear those sounds coming from the pinball machine in the old arcade, bar, or restaurant you used to visit every weekend -- the place where you and your friends spent countless hours feeding the machine one quarter after another in the hopes of attaining bragging rights of becoming a pinball champion.

A cost-effective diversion

Though the game was invented in France in the late 18th century, the coin-operated pinball machines we know today were created during the Great Depression as a cheap form of entertainment for Americans who craved a diversion from the nation’s economic woes.

“It was a low-cost game that anyone could play and get some respite from the hardships of everyday life,” according to an article on Betson.com. Betson is a manufacturer and seller of arcade games.

In those early days, the game bore many names, such as Ballyhoo, Baffle Ball, and Bingo. Early companies that produced the machines included the Bingo Novelty Co. and D. Gottlieb & Co., According to Betson, by 1936, the name pinball had finally stuck.

The first electronic pinball machine hit the market in 1933, and the machines installed in public places quickly proved to be a draw. Players could win prizes for achieving the highest scores. But along with the skilled players also came the cheaters, who would pick up the table and shake it in order to affect the game’s outcome.

“To counteract this, the tilt mechanism was invented in 1935 by Harry Williams, the founder of the Williams Manu-facturing Co.,” the Betson.com article explains. “Today, pinball machines have two tilt devices: one for tilting side to side and one for ‘slam tilt,’ when a player bangs the machine with their hand.”

By the end of the decade, there were an estimated 145 pinball machine companies throughout the country; however, the sheer number of them created intense competition, and many were forced to shutter their doors due to market saturation.

And, like many industries of the time, production of pinball machines came to a halt with the outbreak of World War II in 1939 – those that remained in business by the end of the war six years later were indeed fortunate.

The Iowa Pinball Club celebrates its 20th anniversary in business this year.

Pinball lovers and seasoned players keep the game alive, too, with their participation in one of the many conventions and tournaments that take place each year. The largest is organized and sponsored by the International Flipper Pinball Association, which organizes events and competitions at the local, state, national, and international levels. According to the IFPA’s website, currently, the top two world pinball players are American, with Colorado’s Escher Lefkoff in second place (currently age 20, he occupied the top spot for years and has played pinball since the age of five). In first place is 19-year-old Jason Zahler of New Jersey, who has played since the age of 7, born nearly a century after the modern iteration of the game was invented. And, according to the IFPA’s calendar, Tulsa, OK, will be the site of several tournaments in 2024.

“These memories come flooding back”

Pinball’s popularity and ability to thrive in the age of video games boils down to one secret: memories.

“What is driving the boom? Much of it is nostalgia,” according to a May 2023 article on games.slashdot.org. “A generation raised on pinball in arcades in the 1980s and 1990s are now at an age where they have disposable income, and kids with whom they want to play the games they played as children.”

In Las Vegas, the Pinball Hall of Fame resides in a 27,000-square-foot building close to the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. The building, home to restored machines from the 1930s through the 1950s, is ground zero for that nostalgia, says owner Tim Arnold, quoted in a May 2021 article by Kerry Callahan on the PR website The Feast of Friends.

“(Visitors) walk past a machine that they’ve completely forgotten about,” Arnold said. “They see it again, and all these memories come flooding back. And they just lock up. They’ll sit there and point at the machine [and say], ‘So this is the machine I was playing the first time I kissed a girl,’” Arnold said. “We see that every day

Pinball players flock to KC for championship

Kansas City welcomed pinball players and enthusiasts alike in late January for the International Flipper Pinball Association’s Annual IFPA State Championship Series finale.

More than 1,000 players from across the U.S., in both men’s and women’s categories, descended on the 403 Club, the venue that hosted the event.

A Jan. 19 article on the website of KSHB 41 quotes the owner of the venue.

“When I tell people that we host the Kansas State Pinball Championship, they’re like, that’s such a thing?” said Artie Scholes, the owner of 403 Club. “Yes, it is.”

With players as young as 8 – Scholes’ son, Oliver -- competing during the action, the event proved to be a draw for enthusiasts of all ages. 

For more information on this and other tournaments, visit www.ifpapinball.com.

For centuries, the birth of Jesus has been depicted by cultures and countries on nearly every continent.

In fact, 2023 marks 800 years since the very first nativity scene was created in a small village in Italy. According to the National Catholic Register, St. Francis of Assisi, one of the world’s most beloved saints, created the nativity scene in 1223, likely inspired by time he spent in Jerusalem between 1219 and 1220.

“Seeing the holy sites of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection made them feel all the more real,” according to a December 2022 article by Hannah Brockhaus, “and he wanted to recreate that experience.”

Since then, other cultures have followed suit, with each nativity scene bearing its own special details that make it unique from others.

A centuries-old art

Every nativity set’s basic components are the same – figurines of Joseph, the Christ child’s Earthly father; Mary, his mother; and the newborn Christ. Beyond that, most sets include other figures from the story of Jesus’ birth, such as the three wise men bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; barnyard animals (though none are mentioned in the Bible, one can assume some were present); and an angel only referred to in the Bible as “an angel of the Lord.” These figurines may be standing in a space designed to act as the manger in which Jesus was born.

One prominent vendor that has sold handmade nativity sets for nearly three decades is Pennsylvania-based Yonder Star (www.yonderstar.com). The merchant sells a variety of sets in many different styles, from cherry wood sets to those made of aluminum, from those smaller sets one can display in their home to larger outdoor sets that can be viewed by passersby.

The tradition of live nativity scenes, in which participants pose as Joseph, Mary, and the wise men, has existed in churches for decades and been a draw for houses of worship throughout the country.

Collecting for a cause

Though nonprofit organizations and fair-trade businesses are known to sell nativities made in developing countries, one family is doing their part to support the artists who craft these pieces as well. In Utah, the Hyde family collects Nativity sets made in African, Asian, and Latin American countries. They sell some of the Nativities on their website, www.worldnativity.com.

“While contemplating what we could do as a family project to teach our children about charity and serving others, we had a very inspired thought,” Garrick and Ginger Hyde explain on the website. “We started buying Nativity scenes from artisans in developing countries as a means of helping the artisans generate income in a way that preserved their dignity. We thought we might buy a few Nativities, but now we have many.”

What started as a small project quickly grew into a business designed to help lift up those artisans, with the Hyde family selling Nativity scenes on their site.

“Along the way, we started buying extra Nativities from artisans around the world,” Garrick and Ginger write. “We sold the extras to our interested friends. We thought it would be a small project, but the response has been so high that we have sold more than 10,000 nativities from hundreds of artisans since 2005. Profits are given 100 percent to humanitarian ​causes and micro-credit projects in developing countries that benefit children and low-income adults. … The lives of these artisans are dramatically improved from the additional income.”

The true meaning of Christmas

Such a story embodies the meaning of the season – helping your fellow man by engaging in charitable acts and thus becoming closer to God.

“The Nativity scene has always captivated people around the world,” explains the Franco family, another Italian merchant that specializes in Nativity sets. “Jesus was born by a simple woman and as son of a poor family. The poverty and the natural birth of God’s son enabled people to feel that he was one of them. They could identify with him.”

And according to Wellspring Christian Ministries, no matter the country in which a Nativity set is made, no matter their differences, the meaning behind each of these works of art is the same.

“In spite of the discrepancies depicted in most nativities and the Biblical account, the most important thing about a nativity is its message to the world,” the site states. “Because our sin requires a perfect sacrifice before a holy and just God, our Heavenly Father sent His own Son to earth as a man so that He could become that sacrifice.

While the Second World War raged across the ocean, a battle for the minds of servicemen and everyday Americans was being fought at home.

The weapons employed in that fight included posters, brochures, and even movies and cartoons. And while they didn’t have the power to take lives, but they did have the power to shift public opinion.

“Persuading the American public became a wartime industry, almost as important as the manufacturing of bullets and planes,” according to an article from the website of The National Archives. “The government launched an aggressive propaganda campaign with clearly articulated goals and strategies to galvanize public support.”

Uncle Sam needs you

Combinations of dominant, strong, physically imposing figures and imagery along with calls to action comprised portrayals of American superiority and the need for civilians to do whatever they could at home to support their boys overseas. Meanwhile, American depictions of the Axis Powers – Germany, Italy, and Japan – painted America’s wartime enemies as sneaky, deceptive, evil racial and ethnic stereotypes in an attempt to instill anger and revulsion in American citizens.

One of the most famous propaganda images wasn’t created during World War II, however. In propaganda posters, American might is most famously personified as Uncle Sam in the now-famous “I Want YOU to enlist for the U.S. Army Now” poster. In that image, created during the First World War by American artist James Montgomery Flagg, Uncle Sam is a white-haired man decked out in traditional red, white, and blue, but his message is direct, his eyes staring directly at the viewer to convey the serious and urgent nature of his plea. In another poster, Uncle Sam has shed his star-spangled top hat, his white hair wild and flowing as he rolls up his sleeves and wields a large monkey wrench as he threatens the “Jap” and urges his audience to buy war bonds, used to by the government to finance war operations without raising taxes too high.

“Masculine strength was a common visual theme in patriotic posters,” the National Archives article reads. “Pictures of powerful men and mighty machines illustrated America’s ability to channel its formidable strength into the war effort. American muscle was presented in a proud display of national confidence.”

Put down that sugar bowl

Besides calling on Americans to buy war bonds, American propaganda posters issued other calls to action that allowed civilians to help their servicemen – or at least to create the appearance of helping. Rationing of items such as sugar, butter, meat, gasoline, and even rubber was commonplace, fueled by the posters issued by the federal government. These items were badly needed by the troops, it was argued, and the American civilian’s willingness to ration them displayed patriotism and support of the military that fought for them overseas. Sugar was the first item rationed, and families across the country lined up at schools and other community gathering places to receive ration books that employed a point system, which allowed each family a certain amount of processed goods and a certain amount of perishable goods each month. These ration books can still be found in antique stores everywhere. Though propaganda posters attempted to drum up support for rationing, it was seen as a sacrifice Americans had to make if they wanted the defeat of the Nazis, who continued to march across Western Europe and conquer its countries in their wake.

Beware of the enemy

Posters also warned Americans to always be aware of their surroundings and warned them against sharing any sensitive information. After all, you never know when a spy is listening.

“Concerns about national security intensify in wartime. During World War II, the government alerted citizens to the presence of enemy spies and saboteurs lurking just below the surface of American society,” according to The National Archives. ’Careless talk’ posters warned people that small snippets of information regarding troop movements or other logistical details would be useful to the enemy. Well-meaning citizens could easily compromise national security and soldiers’ safety with careless talk.”

Those posters that didn’t make us feel proud of our country and exploit that patriotism by encouraging sacrifice were instead presenting caution – that the atrocities occurring in another land could just as easily happen on our shores, so always beware.

Mr. Capra goes to Washington

Posters, of course, weren’t the only medium through which propaganda spread during the war. The medium of film was a powerful tool that expressed many of the same sentiments to the public in newsreels shown in movie theaters before the main feature began.

The U.S. Department of War commissioned filmmaker Frank Capra to produce the series of seven propaganda films written to help American soldiers understand why the U.S. was involved in the war. The series, titled “Why We Fight,” was produced between 1942 and 1945.

While Hitler and the Nazis had their own propaganda filmmaker in Leni Riefenstahl, Capra was an Academy Award-winning filmmaker whose career had soared in the 1930s with films like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Capra, who would go on to direct the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” even teamed up with Walt Disney Productions for the series, with Disney producing the several animated segments in the films. Capra later said he intended for “Why We Fight” to stand as the American response to Riefenstahl’s nightmarish “Triumph of the Will,” a documentary that covers the Nazi Party’s 1934 rally in Nuremberg. An article in The Western Journal of Speech and Communication from author Kathleen German stated that the medium of film accomplished what printed material like posters and other literature could not – that it employed the viewer’s senses of sight and hearing, bringing the battle between good and evil to life for audiences living in a world that was receiving more and more of its information from visual sources with each passing year.
Though World War II ended in 1945, the military continues to produce posters, “not just to attract recruits, but also to send messages to troops, such as instilling values, promoting safety and preventing sexual assault,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Very soon, get ready to enjoy a holiday with colorful costumes, delicious food, and celebrations centered around spirits.

No, Halloween enthusiasts, not that one – the other one.

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a holiday with traditions thousands of years old that began in what is now known as Mexico but whose influence has spread to countries throughout the world, including the United States. Celebrated Nov. 1-2 throughout Latin America, the holiday is designed to honor departed family members and loved ones. Among those who observe the holiday, it is believed that the spirits of those loved ones return to visit their families.

One of the largest components of the Day of the Dead is making gravesite offerings to the deceased. Family members will bring favorite foods and beverages to their loved one’s final resting place or at private or public altars (ofrendas) to nourish the spirit along its journey through the afterlife. Mexican women also will bake pan de muerto (bread of the dead), a sweet bread decorated with edible skulls made from dough, to be left at the gravesite. Many altars will also include flowers (such as marigolds, the flower most associated with the holiday) and scented candles, as it is believed that the fragrances will help guide the departed soul from the cemetery to their familial home.

For the living, in addition to paying tribute to their deceased family members, the day is filled with lots of music, dancing, food, and beautiful costumes.

But first, a look back

The rituals associated with the Day of the Dead took root in Aztec and Mesoamerican cultures an estimated 3,000 years ago. In those ancient beginnings, the celebrations took place over the course of an entire month. With Spain’s brutal colonization of Latin America in 1519, however, the Spanish moved the holiday to coincide with the Catholic Church’s All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, creating the tradition blended from indigenous and European celebrations to which we are accustomed today, according to an October 2022 article by Rebekah Mejorado of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Perhaps no other imagery is more linked to the Day of the Dead celebrations than the “Calavera,” or skeleton. Unlike those skeletons appearing in imagery associated with Halloween, the Calavera is not meant to frighten or startle the viewer; instead, they are figures associated with joy and celebration. The Calavera usually appears in Day of the Dead decorations and art as either a complete skeleton or only a skull – though many are made from clay and elaborately decorated, these skulls also can be edible, too, made from sugar.

“This face has a definite aesthetic: a skull, wearing a much-embroidered bonnet resplendent with flowers,” writes Simon Ingram in an October 2019 article in National Geographic. “This is La Calavera Catrina – the ‘elegant skull’ – often simply La Catrina.”

Bring paper to the party

Another popular element of Day of the Dead festivities can be found in papel picado, or ‘pierced papers,’ colored tissue paper pierced with intricate designs using a knife and chisel. You can see them strung up high over streets and on altars; because they are made of tissue paper, these decorations represent the fragility of life. The themes presented in papel picado aren’t just limited to Day of the Dead celebrations, however. They also make colorful appearances for celebrations during Easter, and Christmas – even quinceaneras, baptisms, and weddings.

“Most papel picado is machine-cut today in order to mass-produce these detailed decorations, but only a few artists still continue to cut sheets by hand using a variety of chisels and knives to complete up to 50 sheets at a time,” according to California’s Chapman University.

It’s not ‘Mexican Halloween’

Though Day of the Dead festivities take place across the globe, here in the United States, it appears that celebrations of the holiday are especially grandiose the closer the state is in physical proximity to Mexico. States with high numbers of Mexican immigrants, including California and Texas, host themed parties every year, and other states with large celebrations include Louisiana, Florida, and even Illinois.

Closer to home, the holiday is still alive and well in states such as Missouri, where Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art hosts an annual altar decorated by local artists and created in collaboration with local students, the local Mexican Consulate, and the Mattie Rhodes Center, a nonprofit organization offering wraparound services to individuals and families in Kansas City’s Hispanic community.
No matter where you choose to join the party and pay tribute to your dearly departed loved ones, just make sure not to ever call Dia de los Muertos “The Mexican Halloween.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

“Although dwindling in number, there are still many Americans who have never heard of Día de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead). Those who have heard of it, but don’t really know much about it, sometimes refer to it as ‘Mexican Halloween,’” according to an Oct. 30, 2017, article on USAToday.com. “While Halloween and Day of the Dead do share common roots, they are totally different holidays.”

To learn more about Dia de los Muertos, visit The Smithsonian Institute’s Mexican Museum at www.mexicanmuseum.org/dia-de-los-muertos.