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Wednesday, 30 September 2009

The “other” moon landing speech

What would have happened if *gulp* Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin hadn’t ever made it off the moon?

Luckily President Nixon’s speech writer, William Safire — who passed away this week aged 79 — was prepared with a speech in the event of any Apollo 11 astronaut strandings. And a careful note to call the “widows-to-be” before publicly announcing their deaths.

Note: read the below in a booming voice.

500x_moon-disaster-1

500x_moon-disaster-2

via Gawker

2 Comments

  1. deccles
    Posted Wednesday, 30 September 2009 at 1:12 pm | Permalink

    This was published in *every* edition of Mr Saffire’s excellent collection of speeches ‘Lend me your ears’. Well worth the read, as it is more than a ‘collection’ it also includes an analysis about the mechanics of why great speeches work.

  2. Bullmore's Ghost
    Posted Thursday, 1 October 2009 at 12:10 am | Permalink

    “Widows-to-be”. Spooky stuff indeed.