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There I was at 30,000 feet
This one’s from the Air-Minded archive, originally published in December 2004. When I flew fighters, my tactical callsign was Skid. How did I get a name like that? Simple: I blew a tire. But enough about my sex life! Callsigns, as often as not, are based on screw-ups, minor mishaps, and embarrassing personal traits. I […]
I enjoyed all the photos posted to social media by friends who made the trek to Idaho and Oregon, standing together looking skyward with blinders on. Honestly, though, those photos would have been more interesting if giant buckets of ice had been involved. Which is to say the eclipse was two whole days ago and why is my Facebook and Twitter timeline still cluttered with eclipse posts? Get a grip, people!
Well, whatever the reason, last night’s no vote was a great big affirmative YES to the American people, and I’m happy John McCain will end his long political career on a positive note.
My friend Peter van ____, who was the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron’s Dutch military liaison officer when I flew F-15s at Soesterberg Air Base from 1978-1982, just sent me a batch of NATO archival photos taken there on 5 & 6 April 1961. The occasion was either a NATO exercise or possibly the production of […]
Nothing personal on the menu today, so here’s a dish of links & commentary: – ‘Underwear bomber’ was working for the CIA. The Guardian’s headline confused me. Like you, probably, I thought they were talking about the underwear bomber of 2009. This is a new underwear bomber, with exploding BVDs made by the same terrorist who was […]
I try to stay out of the restoration volunteers’ way at Pima Air & Space Museum, but curiosity overcame me yesterday, so I borrowed a golf cart and drove through the fence like I owned the place, armed with a selfie stick and my trusty iPhone. A few months ago a fleet of flat-bed semis […]
Or Shack o’ Sit, if you prefer. Cleverly vulgar signs and business names are funny the first time you see them, but the humor wears out fast. Used to be, I’d see photos like this on Facebook and instantly share them with all my friends. These days I try to exercise restraint … and yet here I am leading […]
Wasps love our pool. They light on the water, float on surface tension for a few minutes, then fly off to their nests. They’re drinking, as anyone would in this heat, and I suspect storing a little extra water somewhere to deliver to the nest. It’s normally live & let live at Woodford Manor, but […]