Air-Minded: Son of Duck

After my post about the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, I asked some friends if they wanted me to blog about any aircraft in particular.  My niece Rebecca voted for a floatplane, I imagine because she lives in Seattle and sees them all the time … also, of course, floatplanes being so cool.  It happens that […]

Photoblogging (in Lieu of Writing)

Nothing much to say today, so I’ll post four photos instead. Wednesday at the air museum I photographed some aircraft awaiting restoration.  It wasn’t till later, downloading the photos, that I realized all three aircraft were British.  In the top left photo, sitting in front of the museum’s restoration hangar, are a Hawker Hunter (in […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. Arizona: When I began following the Tucson Unified School District book banning story, I found one of the most interesting sources of behind-the-scenes reporting, both within TUSD classrooms and on its governing board, to be David Morales’ Three Sonorans Blog, […]

Monday Bag of Apples

My old PC started to die a couple of months ago.  As time went on the process accelerated.  I decided it was time for a new difference engine, so I made a fresh backup and went shopping.  While looking at new PCs and trying to sort out what kind of core to order, how much […]

Rue & Trayvon

When I read The Hunger Games last year, one game contestant from the first book stood out from the others: Rue, the 12-year-old from one of Panem’s agricultural districts.  Katniss, who volunteers for the games to protect her own 12-year-old sister, forms an alliance with Rue, even though they both know that if it comes […]

Crisis Recovery Mode

I turned the computers off Sunday night because Angie’s visiting from Tampa and sleeping on the Murphy bed in our office.  When I turned my PC back on Monday morning, a warning window appeared telling me my user profile was corrupted.  All my files, settings, contacts, email, etc — not gone exactly, but invisible and […]

Friday Bag of Steak Marinade

The end of the week has come again.  The world’s most interesting couple doesn’t eat much steak, but when we do we eat it on Friday night … and with that in mind I took a flank steak out of the freezer this morning.  This afternoon I’ll put it in a marinade of soy sauce […]

“We’re Not Going to Vegas”

I’m working on the motorcycle today, so this’ll be a short entry. As an Air Force pilot I had to pass a complete flight physical every year.  Under civilian rules, airline transport pilots are inspected even more often: two physicals per year, administered by FAA-certified doctors.  So it’s unsettling that a pilot with obvious mental […]