The Role of Mothers in Babylon 5: Part 2

As in the TV series, Security Chief Michael Garibaldi plays an important role in the first two Babylon 5 novels: Voices, by John Vornholt, and Accusations, by Lois Tilton.  He regards Commander Susan Ivanova as a friend, and so he works hard to clear her name in Accusations, despite all the roadblocks the Earth inspectors throw in his path.  While he’s never forgotten Lise Hampton, the woman he left behind on Mars when he took the job aboard Babylon 5, he feels drawn to the telepath Talia Winters.  Although she doesn’t return his interest, he nonetheless cares for her.  When she flees the station in Voices, he follows her to Earth.  He knows he’ll have no official authority there, but it’s his only chance to protect her from the Psi Cops intent upon killing her. 

Michael Garibaldi was raised in the Bronx of New York, but his mother seems to have played no role whatsoever in his life.  His father worked in law enforcement, was an excellent cook, and the life of any party (particularly any dinner party).  Michael followed in his father’s footsteps, pursuing a career in Security.  Yet his life somehow took several wrong turns, giving him a bad name in his chosen career, wrecking promising relationships, and driving him into alcoholism. 

In the episode, “A Distant Star” (written by D. C. Fontana), we learn that Garibaldi always makes the Italian dish Bagna Cauda on his birthday.  “Now Pop was a great cook, and Bagna was his specialty,” Garibaldi tells Dr. Stephen Franklin, who in the episode is trying to force him onto a diet.  

"You know, this dish is loaded with fat!
Wow, hang on, that's good!"

"Too bad, Doc.
You disrespected the Bagna Cauda, so
I'm keepin' the dessert to myself."

Over the course of the series, Garibaldi leaves his job to start his own business, ends up being manipulated by the evil Psi Cop Bester, and reverts to alcoholism.  Because of the stresses he endures, or simply because he ate too many Bagna Caudas (a dish consisting of Olive Oil, Butter, Garlic, Anchovies, and pepper, served up like fondue), Garibaldi grows increasingly overweight.  He never mentions his mother, but tells Franklin that his father, who has been dead for a long time, always made him the dish to show him that he loved him, even if he could never say it.  Perhaps his father might have found it easier to express his feelings, and Garibaldi might have endured fewer hardships, had his mother played a greater role in his life.

Captain John Sheridan, who commands Babylon 5, facilitates Garibaldi’s efforts to protect Talia Winters and Susan Ivanova.  Although he never emerges as a primary character in either novel, he becomes the most important person in the TV series.  After winning two wars, he retires from Earth’s military, marries the Minbari ambassador Delenn, and settles into his new career as President of the Interstellar Alliance.  He frequently tells Delenn stories about growing up on Earth with a mother and father who always did their best to take care of him, and never left him in any doubt as to their love and respect for him. 

While Talia Winters’ life ends in tragedy, Susan Ivanova finishes her Earthforce career as a general.  She never marries, but after she leaves the military, commits her life to serving as the head of the Rangers.  Michael Garibaldi eventually marries Lise Hampton-Edgars, and rules her former husband's corporation Edgars Industries.  However, neither he nor Ivanova end up as powerful and important as John Sheridan, and both have to battle inner demons throughout their lives.  So there you have it, a testimony to the importance of mothers in the space age, courtesy of Babylon 5, writers John Vornholt, Lois Tilton, and D. C. Fontana, and series creator J. Michael Straczynski.  If you want to live a happy life, suffer a minimum of inner turmoil, and end up ruling the universe, a loving, supportive, and nurturing mother is absolutely essential.  I’ve benefitted from my mother’s influence in my life.  How about you?

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there who play a strong supportive role in your children’s lives.  (Even if, for some unfathomable reason, you don’t love Babylon 5). 

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Notes on "A Distant Star" and a recipe for Garibaldi's Bagna Cauda 

Installing a Microwave Oven in 210 Days: Part 4

Measure twice, then cut once.
Repeat as necessary.
(Or: Try and try again until you finally succeed).

After watching the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix with breakfast, we began our day by relocating one of the brackets we had installed yesterday, as my wife realized that we had set it in the exhaust fan area.  So, we couldn’t use that stud in the wall for support.  Hopefully, all our little brackets, set into the drywall and the half-inch sides of the Oak cabinets, would support our new over-the-stove microwave.  After all, it only weighed half as much as the one we had taken out.

Then we set up shop outside.  We dragged over a duck-board garden bench we made many years ago, and used it for our workbench.  We got our drills and our jigsaw, and I finally found my father’s old crosscut saw in the garage.  We measured where we would need to cut the melamine for the shelf.  As the screw heads protruded from the brackets, we had to account for that.  I tried my best to remember the visual reference for where the blade would cut.  Then I switched on the old saw and made my first crosscut. 

When we tried the board for width, it was too long.  As it turned out, I had allowed too much for the width of the blade.  So I trimmed off a thin slice.  Still, it wouldn’t quite fit.  So we made a third cut.  Hooray: the board slid onto the brackets nicely.  We checked our initial measurements for width, and decided we needed to reduce the shelf’s width by an additional 1/8” due to the protruding screw heads.  So we took the board back out outside, measured, and I ripped the ¾” excess off the board.  Then we took it inside to check how it fit.  I might have cut off a 1/16th too much, but no one would notice when we pressed the 1”x2” Oak trim back in front.  

I have no idea how old my father's Skil saw is.
Newer models tantalize with more features, and
I've often thought of replacing it, but I never have.
Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever
even changed the blade.

Using our template, we marked the drill holes for the upper support screws and the power cord.  Then we drew out the rectangle in back for where the metal frame above the microwave’s exhaust fan would protrude into the shelf.  We used the jigsaw to cut the opening, took the shelf inside to rest on the brackets, marked our screw-holes, then went back outside and drilled those.  Then we set it back inside on the brackets, and installed a screw at each corner to hold the shelf in place.  

We lifted the microwave, slipped it between the cabinets, and set it onto its lower support tabs.  The microwave refused to sit back against the frame.  Although we had followed the template, it seemed we needed to increase the width of the exhaust-fan rectangle by ¼”. 

By now it was noon.  We broke for lunch, warming up leftover pizza in our old countertop microwave oven.  We watched a first season episode of “The Six Million Dollar Man” while we ate.  In the story, written by D. C. Fontana (who had served as Gene Roddenberry's assistant and also wrote episodes of "Star Trek"), Steve Austin helps train Kelly, a female astronaut (played by Lee Major’s then wife Farrah Fawcett Majors) for her first space flight.  When the capsule develops a fault and must dock at Skylab, the hatch refuses to open, trapping Kelly and her injured copilot inside the capsule.  So Steve heads a rescue effort, and uses his bionic strength to open the hatch.  Then he goes outside to effect repairs so the doctor he brought up can perform surgery on the injured astronaut.  Unfortunately, it seems as though Steve's bionic limbs and eye don’t have sufficient radiation shielding: his vision goes fuzzy several times, and he suffers episodes of shaking and reduced strength.  Thus, when all four return to Earth in Steve’s capsule, Kelly must pilot the unbalanced and overweight craft manually, something she’s unprepared for. 

After pizza and a Brownie-Fudge Klondike for dessert, we felt more stiff and tired than before.  I mused that, working outside, the sun’s UV radiation must be sapping our strength, just as it had Steve’s.  My wife shook her head.  It wasn’t ultraviolet that was to blame, but microwaves.  Oh well.  Time to go back outside, and resume our work.

Hoping we can finish in the afternoon,

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entry

Bionic Dreams