Not Much In the Overnight Mail

Well, not much that would be of general interest, anyhoo.  That said, there was this from the Usual USAF Source:

US Air Force crews ferried two MC-130J Commando IIs, assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command, including the one shown here, from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility in Marietta, Ga., on Dec. 5, 2014, to RAF Mildenhall, England. Lockheed Martin photo.

That looks like a giant slinky trying to eat a Herky-Bird.

The only other thing in the overnight mail was a link to a short article at NPR about catalogs.  The first grafs:

Many things made with paper have become relics because of computers and the Internet: the Rolodex, multivolume encyclopedias, even physical maps.

Now take a look in your mailbox or somewhere around your house. There's a good chance you'll see a shopping catalog, maybe a few of them now that it's the holiday season.

OK, I looked and found four catalogs... one from LL Bean, one from Land's End, one from cigar.com, and another cigar catalog from an outfit called Thompson's.  That was it, and I haven't cracked any of those as yet. That doesn't mean I don't use 'em; I do.  My catalog consumption is way, waaay down from Former Happy Days when I'd receive at least 15 to 20 of the things each and every month.  And I remember, quite fondly, the day the Sears Big Book hit our mailbox back when I was a kid... especially when the fam'bly was stationed overseas and we pretty much LIVED out of the Sears Roebuck catalog.  There was a reading/browsing hierarchy associated with the Sears catalog: Mom got it first, then Dad, then us kids.  Woe be unto you if you tried to browse the catalog before Mom said you could.  Death would have been preferable to what would have happened to you...

And so it goes.  I might be back with a video later; it seems The Tube o' You isn't functioning properly at the moment.

Clever

Via Digg, where they say:

WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT

Can You Spot Every Reference In This Brilliant Animation?

The music video for Cruisr's "All Over" is one cultural reference sliding into another. And another. And another. Good luck keeping up.

I think I got most of 'em and there were a lot!  That said, if the pairs of heads were cultural references it's time to put me out to pasture coz I didn't recognize a single one.

In other news... we went down early again last evening, i.e., 2230 hrs, with predictable results: my eyes popped open at 0430 hrs and simply refused to close again.  Boy, do I EVER hate it when this happens.

In other, other news... Occasional Reader Virgil Xenophon left this comment on yesterday's post titled "Ike's B-25" and I thought it deserved promotion to the main page.

"...use by lower-ranking generals."

Most people know that Air Force 1 is the designation of the Presidential plane and Air Force 2 that of the VP, but did you know that there is an "Air Force 3?" That is the designation given to a similarly-equipped aircraft for the use of members of the JCS or the Heads of the major commands. From this I'll relate a funny story. At the time I was stationed in the UK my 1st cousin, then a Brig General, was the Deputy Commander for Ops, (DCO) HQ USAF in a 2-star slot. As such he was technically the # 3 guy in the Air Force (working directly under the CinC and ViceCinC USAF (despite the presence of many 4-star generals in the major commands. From all this I have a story:

One night I returned fairly late to the O'club @ RAF Woodbridge after drinking at a local pub: "Jesus Christ, Virgil" they said, "call the command post IMMEDIATELY, the Wing Commander has been rising hell trying to find you!" Turns out the Wing CP had gotten a call from "Air Force 3" en route requesting that I be located so that the DCO, HQ, USAF (my cousin) could have dinner with me. LOL! Of course they didn't know that he was my cousin, and that he was on his way to a USAFE conference in Wiesbaden, so they--including the Wing CO--were jumping thru their a-holes trying to locate this Jr Capt that must have SOME KIND OF PULL! With failure to do so perhaps seeing certain careers sink before their very eyes. The situation was saved only by the wx which caused AF 3 to divert to RAF Mildenhall, from whence Maurice was driven down to Bentwaters by staff car. There were some puckered you-know-whats for a while on that dealieo, lol!

Virgil has the BEST stories.

It's Here, For Better Or Worse

But mostly worse: this morning my inbox was filled with e-mails shouting BLACK FRIDAY DEALS!  Everyone from the GOP ("George H. W. Bush socks!") to Grassfire ("40% Off On Grassfire Christmas Gifts for all members") to Cigar dot com ("Box Bedlam") to HP ("Up to 50% off!") to... well, you get the idea.  Everyone wants my money, and yours, too.

That said, here's a rather unique Christmas gift ideer: a "Fuck you Anderson Cooper" tee shirt.  Really.  Like this:

And here's what it's all about:

Last month, Anderson Cooper dedicated a segment of his show "Anderson Cooper 360" to mocking the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan for posing with cats on the cover of PAWS Chicago Magazine (the magazine for the no-kill animal shelter PAWS Chicago). Corgan initially came back with a pair of angry tweets, but since this is a musician beef in 2014, it's not official until someone responds by making a T-shirt about it.

That's from an article at Pitchfork, where you can see the Cooper segment on CNN that prompted the shirt.  It's actually a nice looking shirt, if you're into cats.

In other news... Ma Nature is giving those of us living on The High Plains o' New Mexico an early Christmas gift.

Isn't THAT nice!?!

Dumb Stuff We Hear On NPR

There's a LOT that might could fall in that category; this is just the latest:

And what that means is that 1 in 3 adults drinks excessively.

What counts as excessive? Less than you might think.

Women who consume eight or more drinks per week are considered excessive drinkers. And for men, excess is defined as 15 or more drinks a week. (The researchers defined a drink as just 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of spirits.)

Well, now.  It appears that I drink excessively, what with two beers every afternoon and a couple o' single malts or bourbons... on rare occasions more than two... after dinner.  This adds up to a grand total of about 28 drinks a week on average, nearly twice what the quoted study defines as excessive.  I'm not gonna worry my semi-pretty lil head about this, however.  According to my doctor I'm as healthy as the proverbial horse... aside from the fact I can't breathe, which has nothing to do with alcohol.  I trust my doctor one whole helluva lot more than I trust these so-called studies.

WTF?

Fords...

The full explanation and more examples of "elastic cars" are here.

Speaking of "elasticity"...



"We had our cocktails and cigarettes."  Well, yes.  We did.

Are You Happy?

The answer might depend on your age.  I spent about 20 minutes earlier this morning learning about the U-curve, which attempts to explain why some... most, even... people go through what's known as a midlife crisis.  The opening grafs from "The Real Roots of Midlife Crisis:"

This summer, a friend called in a state of unhappy perplexity. At age 47, after years of struggling to find security in academia, he had received tenure. Instead of feeling satisfied, however, he felt trapped. He fantasized about escape. His reaction had taken him by surprise. It made no sense. Was there something wrong with him? I gave him the best answer I know. I told him about the U-curve.

Not everyone goes through the U-curve. But many people do, and I did. In my 40s, I experienced a lot of success, objectively speaking. I was in a stable and happy relationship; I was healthy; I was financially secure, with a good career and marvelous colleagues; I published a book, wrote for top outlets, won a big journalism prize. If you had described my own career to me as someone else’s, or for that matter if you had offered it to me when I was just out of college, I would have said, “Wow, I want that!” Yet morning after morning (mornings were the worst), I would wake up feeling disappointed, my head buzzing with obsessive thoughts about my failures. I had accomplished too little professionally, had let life pass me by, needed some nameless kind of change or escape.

My dissatisfaction was whiny and irrational, as I well knew, so I kept it to myself. When I thought about it—which I did, a lot—I rejected the term midlife crisis, because I was holding a steady course and never in fact experienced a crisis: more like a constant drizzle of disappointment. What annoyed me most of all, much more than the disappointment itself, was that I felt ungrateful, the last thing in the world I was entitled to be.

Illustration from the article.

The article is relatively long but seriously interesting, none the less.  After I finished the article I sat and reflected for a while, asking myself if I went through a midlife crisis and were things better today than they were, say, ten or 20 years ago?  It's a mixed bag.  I definitely went through some difficult times following my divorce (some people would say I'm not out of those woods yet) and I experienced what author Jonathon Rauch calls a "constant drizzle of disappointment" about life in general during that time.  Yet I think I remained happy in an overall sense and went on to achieve the pinnacle of my professional career after running away from home and gallivanting all over the country for a year.  

These days, when that U-curve should be on the upswing as I approach age 70 (this coming March, if you must know), I range from ambivalent to reasonably satisfied with most things in life.  There's at least one caveat, however: I'm not a terribly introspective person.

So... midlife crisis?  Here's one answer:

Heh.  From The Shoebox blog, obviously.

It's Already Begun, With a Twist

I'm pretty sure I saw the first Christmas shopping ads on my teevee at least a week ago, or longer.  It's getting to the point of ridiculousness if it hasn't already passed that point.  (Minor digression: we're waiting for blog-bud Jim to kick off his annual "Thanksgiving Comes First" campaign; we don't want to jump into the fray before he does.)   That said, this week I noticed a completely new aspect to the usual Black Friday crap.  This:

Americans are exceptional at creating spectacle out of commerce. And yes, the eager-to-normalize marijuana biz is ready to behave (and benefit) like all of the others. At least one pot shop in Colorado will be marking Black Friday with legitimate “door-busting deals” that will bring many a toker to the lines that will inevitably stretch outside its doors on the weekend after Thanksgiving.

But when Denver recreational pot shop The Grass Station opens its doors for Black Friday sales at 8 a.m. Nov. 28-30, what will be their equivalent to Walmart’s dirt-cheap flat-screen TVs?

“It’ll definitely be the $50 ounces,” said Grass Station owner Ryan Fox. “Right now our cheapest ounce is $250, and some of those ounces in the $250-$325 range will be selling for $50 an ounce on that weekend.”

Celebrating Black Friday with loss-leader deals in the hopes of luring more regular customers is Fox’s way of saying that legal marijuana businesses are normal businesses.

There's no word if The Grass Station will advertise on teevee but I don't think they'll really need to do that (if Colorado law even allows pot shops on teevee).  A 50-buck bag in this day and age is advertising enough. 

Heh

Oh, this is good...



Just in case you've been under a rock for the past week or three, the vid is a parody of this "tempest in a teacup."

H/t: Cassandra.

O, My Aching Ass

There are conspiracy theories and then there's this...



I think there's a better reason not to indulge in energy drinks...



"Get thee behind me, Satan!"

A Passing

The Public Radio world, and a LOT of the rest of us, suffered a loss today.  From NPR's web site:

Photo credit: NPR

Tom Magliozzi, one of public radio's most popular personalities, died on Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 77 years old.

Tom and his brother, Ray, became famous as "Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers" on the weekly NPR show Car Talk. They bantered, told jokes, laughed and sometimes even gave pretty good advice to listeners who called in with their car troubles.

If there was one thing that defined Tom Magliozzi, it was his laugh. It was loud, it was constant, it was infectious.

The rest of the obituary is here.  Rest in peace, Mr. Magliozzi, and thank you for all the wonderful, joyous laughs you gave us; you WILL be missed.  I heard on NPR this afternoon that they... NPR... plan to continue the show, but in what form wasn't disclosed.

Magnificent

From an article at The Daily Beast...

VATICAN CITY—In the 500 or so years since the Sistine Chapel was decorated, it has never looked so good. That’s in part because no one has ever seen Michelangelo’s frescoes portraying the book of Genesis and “The Last Judgment” in quite the right light. Now, with the help of 7,000 light-emitting diodes or LEDs, the detailed work has emerged from the shadows.

The new lighting system was unveiled last week to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the chapel’s restoration and the 450^th anniversary of Michelangelo’s death. The lighting project, together with a new climate control system, cost nearly $4 million, paid in part by funds from the European Union through a consortium called Led4Art, led by German light bulb giant Osram, which developed a special color temperature to best enhance Michelangelo’s hues at around 3,550 Kelvin units, according to the Osram explainer on the magical illumination. The rest of the work was donated either in supplies, expertise, or technology by firms who wanted to be involved in the project, meaning the Vatican didn’t have to spend any resources for the extraordinary enhancement.

The best thing about the article?  A link to a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, about which, these:

Two screen-shots from the virtual tour; as always, click to embiggen.  Or better yet, chase the link and go there yerownfineself.

Apropos o' Not Much

So, there I was*... out at Cannon Airplane Patch again, for the second time this week.  Today we went out that way to get our quarterly haircut... I get my hair cut EVERY three months, whether it needs it or not... and I noticed all the barberesses were dressed up in Halloween costumes, as were the folks in the commissary.  It seems like everyone and their mom, literally, are in the holiday spirit.  That includes my neighbor Jessica, who happened to come home as we were sitting out on the verandah enjoying Happy Hour.  And here she is!

I wish she would have smiled for the photo coz her smile is just brilliant.  But ya get the ideer, Gentle Reader, right?  What a CUTIE!

And, apropos o' not much... my barberess commented on my mustache today, sayin' she really, rilly liked it.  I mention this coz it's the third such comment I've received in as many days, all from wimmen.  I think I'll keep on keepin' on in this space.  Who knows what might happen?

That asterisk above?  It concerns how war stories... or sea stories, which have a variation on that theme, i.e., "This is no shit"... always begin.  See here for the salient point, specifically at the eight second mark:



"Everybody knows that" is the operative expression, no explanation is needed or wanted.  We ALL know how war stories begin so just stop explaining the obvious, mmm-kay?

Yup

History WILL repeat itself:

There are ten more rejected cards here.

Saturday: A Space Odyssey

From the Usual Source of these things:

And to round off a viral video chart that has been totally free of cats and unfortunate accidents, we have a British Film Institute trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which will be re-released in cinemas on 28 November. The 2 minute video reminds us exactly why the film is a classic. 

I might actually go sit in a theatre to see this.  Again.

What Would We Do Without Studies?

I swear this is real:

Go here to read the paper... and Calvin didn't cause as much damage over the course of the strip as you might think.

Heh

From My Buddy Ed In Florida...

Altogether now... "It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. ... It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.!"

Bits and Bytes

Some linkage and a video...

There's this, to begin with.

I'm actually rather embarrassed about my results, what with only getting 11 out of 15 correct.  This, after living in Ol' Blighty for three years and making at least four trips back since I left in 1983.  (H/t: Skip, who's an Honorary Brit, too.)

And then there's this, from Anne Bonney:

There are cheaper alternatives at the link and thank The Deity At Hand for that.  Forty-seven Yankee Dollars for a single candle is about three ticks to the right of "outrageous."  That said, I've heard lotsa people will never move to an e-reader because of the lack of that "book smell."  Well, problem solved!

And finally, here's the video I mentioned up top... but first a screen-cap from the source... Hemmings Daily (the comments at the link are interesting, most notably this vid was shot mere days before the big earthquake of 1906):

It makes perfect sense... to me, at least... that Americans' bad driving habits originated in California, and San Francisco, specifically.  That said, the video above ain't got a THING on driving in the Third World, which might could be best described as "you hadda be there."  Go ahead, ask me how I know.

Yet Another Slow Day

This is the best we've seen today...

... and that's not sayin' a whole helluva lot.  There are things we COULD say about this 'toon, but we won't.

Have I mentioned the fact we're only ten days removed from the start o' hockey season?  No?  Well, it's true and we're waitin' with bated breath.  I mean, college football is OK and the Tigers won their division but hockey is where it's at, and I understand yer mileage just MIGHT vary.  But mine doesn't.

Say WHAT?

Ah, the grand exit gesture.  Sorta.  The anchor-lady's response was about as nonplussed as I've ever seen on teevee, but she did manage to get out an apology.

In other news... Yesterday was a total fail.  I woke up yesterday morning with back pains of the annoying sort, which is to say not terribly painful or debilitating, just

irritating.  So I did what any normal person might do, which was to take a couple o' Bayer Back and Body aspirins along with the morning's first cup and a vitamin.  I should have known better... 30 minutes later I was in the bathroom giving the aspirins and that first cup up to The Porcelain God.  We then dosed ourfineself with Pink Stuff and turned to the couch for an hour or two to let the nausea slip away, hopefully.  That almost worked but another dose o' Pink Stuff and about three more hours o' couch time did the trick.  I didn't really get semi-right until about 2100 hrs last evening, at which time I went to bed.  It should go without sayin' that yesterday was one one of those VERY rare days, a day in which we were alcohol-free.  No beer, no whiskey... none at all.  We just weren't up to the challenge, so to speak.  No cigar, either.

So, today.  Same back pain upon awakening with an added, no-extra-charge sore throat.  This is beginning to look like the onset o' the flu, an event I could GLADLY do without.  I don't "do" sick very well at all and I'm certainly not ready for this... if it's what I think it is.

A Couple o' Things From Yesterday

Ramirez, first.

The man has a point.  And then there's this:

Hockey soda?  Really?  And what does "pro STYLE" really mean?... not to mention the eye-rolling "functional lifestyle beverage."  MY functional lifestyle beverage is whiskey, thankyaverymuch.

And finally... We're gratified to see the adults in the room prevailed in the Scottish independence referendum.  The United Kingdom is still united, thank The Deity At Hand.

Pro-union supporters celebrated in Glasgow as the result became clearer.  (photo from the Beeb, more here)