"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
From 1981, a news report both touching and chilling: touching in its enthusiasm for the future, chilling in its failure to recognize an implicit threat. Oh, and I loved the part where the guy talks about being able to print what he sees on the screen! Why, you can PRINT IT ON PAPER! God we […]
God, the things you have to do if you want to blog! When you first start, you think the blog program itself is enough for you. It formats your entries, automatically archives them, and allows readers to add comments. The package looks professional and slick . . . but it’s not really yours, is it? […]
It’s in the dictionary, somewhere between “shit” and “syphillis.” Two quick reviews of movies whose main characters I could not sympathize with: Secretary (2002) My wife got up and stomped out of the room halfway through, mumbling about perverts . . . and the seriously perverted stuff hadn’t even started yet! Self-mutilation and sadomasochism, the […]
Every year a local car club puts on a car show in Tubac, a resort community halfway between Nogales and Tucson. I started to aim my camera at hood ornaments and grills, as I did at the Barrett-Jackson auction last week, but there were always people in the way, so I gave up and just […]
At 10:06 MST, Barack Obama became our new president. I don’t usually check the clock when important things happen, but I did this morning. My overwhelming impression, watching the crowds in DC? America’s finally coming to after an eight-year stupor. Have you ever seen such an outpouring of optimism and goodwill? Now we wait to […]
A friend in Melbourne sent me this absolutely chilling video of a Russian IL-76 taking off from an RAAF base in Australia. Granted, I flew the F-15, a fighter with so much power we never had to compute takeoff data, but in training I flew T-37s and T-38s, where running the numbers (gross weight, pressure […]
Wow. Just wow. Who doesn’t need a bit of good news once in a while, especially lately? The incredible and ongoing story of US Airways Flight 1549 delivers the feel-good in spades. Of course I’m heavily prejudiced in favor of fighter pilots, and the actions of the former fighter pilot in question, the captain of […]
So how’s Barrett-Jackson? About like it is on TV, only keener. I was there all day Tuesday. That night in Phoenix I bored my daughter Polly to tears watching B-J live on Speed, saying “I saw that car,” and “Oh, that one too!” Wednesday night, back in Tucson, I did the same thing to Donna. […]