Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

During our drive to New Mexico last week we had to stop at two US Border Patrol checkpoints, one on the White Sands Missile Range inbound to Alamogordo, the other homebound on I-10 between Las Cruces and Deming. We were racially profiled at the first one, which is to say the BP agent glanced at us […]

Air-Minded: Throw a Nickel on the Grass

That’s our old squadron-mate Crumer, whose memorial service Donna and I recently attended in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Crumer, as you can tell from the photo (click to see it larger), flew in Vietnam … two back to back one-year tours, the first as an F-4 GIB (guy in back), the second as a front-seater. I […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Trouble

Whenever black Americans take to the streets over police brutality and killings, racist email forwards follow. Over the past week I’ve gotten two, both claiming the media ignores black on white crime out of political correctness. What world do these people live in? Since when has the press ignored black on white crime? I think […]

Air-Minded: Move Your Tail

When the Eagle got up to around Mach 0.95 you’d begin to feel resistance, as if the air was getting thicker and pushing back against your airplane. As you slipped past the shockwave and through the Mach the resistance went away and the airplane felt normal. The second you retarded the throttles, though, it was as though you’d run into an invisible Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in the air. You and your jet and everything in it slowed down in a hurry, forcing you forward against the shoulder straps and seat belt. Once you were back below Mach 0.95, Mr. Stay-Puft went away and things felt normal again. Oh, and half your fuel was gone.

Tuesday Bag o’ Don’t Go There

Don’t go there. I hear that all the time. Over the weekend I read that Tony Stewart, a well-known NASCAR driver, ran over and killed another driver at a racetrack in upstate New York. I was a car racing fan until my mid-20s, when I went to a stock car race in Enid, Oklahoma. A couple of laps into […]

Monday Bag o’ Moto

In preparation for my ride to Colorado next month, I made a motorcycle maintenance play date with my friend Ed. That was yesterday, and it was a full day … well, nine to five anyway, a full day for a working man. All I have to say about that is I’m happy I’m retired and […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Fun Home

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Brunswick County NC school officials, in the wake of yet another parental challenge to Sherman Alexie’s young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, have decided the book will stay on the shelves of a middle school. One parent, though, […]

Air-Minded: Women & Military Aviation

When I tell visitors about the Pima Air & Space Museum’s F-14 Tomcat, I always work in a few words about women in military aviation. The Tomcat seems like the right place to introduce the topic: first because the US Navy, along with the US Army, led the way in training woman aviators in 1974, a full two years before […]