"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
What was (and might have been)
I posted this vintage Christmas card to Facebook to amuse my friends. The kid’s woeful expression prompted a few comments. Really, though, if you study 19th and early 20th century portraits, photos, and illustrations, unsmiling faces were the rule rather than the exception. People always looked somber. I started to wonder why that was. Well, for one thing, […]
I don’t know when Veterans Day turned into Veterans Week, but it has, so I don’t feel too bad posting a little of my own veteran history one day early. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was stationed at Soesterberg Air Base in the Netherlands, a brand new F-15 Eagle pilot in the 32nd […]
Gosh, how long’s it been since I last suggested cops should stop tasing, beating, and killing people for no reason? Feels like months. Actually it’s been weeks, which is a long time for me. It’s not that I’ve given up; it’s more like everyone knows what I think anyway, and nothing I say is going to change the […]
“Well, he told me he worked for NASA—he didn’t tell me he had been to the moon and back.”
We watched the first Democratic presidential debate this week. Judging by the wealth of post-debate comments posted on social media, we weren’t alone. Most of us who sat down to watch already knew our own favored candidate would win, and funnily enough, that’s exactly how it worked out. I’m no different. I favored Hillary Clinton going in, […]
Last week, during a break between tram tours at the Pima Air & Space Museum, I spent an hour exploring a seldom-visited back lot where we keep retired air tankers and water bombers. These are civil and military aircraft converted to carry and drop water or retardant on forest fires. Most of the aircraft on […]
During our recent road trip to California and the Pacific Northwest, Donna and I spent a couple of days with our niece Rebecca in Bremerton, Washington. While there, we visited The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. To me, any visit to an air museum is special, but this visit was extra-special. My oldest friend, […]
We spent a weekend in Portland, Oregon and while there I visited the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in nearby McMinnville. The Evergreen museum is the current home of the Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose. I’ll say this about the Spruce Goose: it has presence. When you stand under it, or […]