"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
There I was at 30,000 feet
I came home yesterday and found a notice taped to my door: Weblog Protective Services says if I don’t hurry up and write some entries, they’re gonna take my blogs away and give them to Kevin Federline. So here’s what I’m working on: a letter to the authorities protesting first-class security screening lines at airports. The […]
Wow, the left side of the blogosphere is up in arms over this story, about the woman who demanded to be let off a departing flight after becoming frightened by Arab passengers she thought were acting suspiciously. Witness this blog entry, titled “racist hysteric apologizes for targeting DOD-approved swarthy people,” and particularly the reader comments below […]
My friend Dick Herman, in a comment to an earlier entry, asked for my thoughts on the warrior ethic. For a few years, back when my career was on fire, I was on the staff of a joint command, working with Army, Navy, and Marine officers. Army and Marine officers could philosophize about the warrior […]
Report Uncovers Astronauts’ Heavy Alcohol Use. Oh my. Here’s what I read between the lines of the linked article: NASA, in the wake of the Lisa Nowak incident, has been busy hunting witches in the astronaut program. Astronaut pilots, astronaut mission specialists, and astronaut flight surgeons are turning on each other. It must be a horrible […]
Okay, I cede the battle. Our ground squirrels and pack rats are smarter than the traps I set out for them. For now, they have the run of the property. For now, they scoff at me. Vermin take note: I have not ceded the war. Yesterday’s news today: our first 100-degree day; regular gas finally […]
Is it time for a bad vein update? I suppose it is. The surgeries are complete and barring new vascular problems I should be fine. All told, I had three surgeries in three months: separate endovenous laser procedures on veins in my right and left thighs, and another operation to clamp off perforated ladder veins […]
Perforated veins. Yeah, I got ’em, and I don’t want ’em. This morning my friendly neighborhood vascular surgeon performed the first of four procedures, a laser endoscopy on a large vein in my right thigh. Essentially, he zapped the vein from the inside out, and now it’s closed . . . my body will adjust […]
I have to admit I’m curious as to what actually happened on American Airlines Flight 924. Here’s what CNN said: Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, said Alpizar had run up and down the plane’s aisle yelling, “I have a bomb in my bag.” But according to the same article: . […]