We Are SO Easily Amused...

Ain't technology grand?  We had a German Googler drop by and s/he went to the trouble of translating us into Deutsch... so I did a screen-cap of the result (click for larger):

Heh.  "Wenn ein ganzes Leben kann zu einem Tag verglichen werden, dann ist Happy Hour!"  As I said:  We are SO easily amused.  This isn't the first time we've played this game, either:

Dontcha hate it when I'm stuck inside?

And Now... Your Local On the Eights...

Our wintry mix has turned into mostly wet, heavy snow.  The walkway outside of El Casa Móvil De Pennington is treacherous, to say the very least.  I imagine the roads are much the same.

I'm glad we're ALL stocked up on the mission-essential items (like beer) and I don't have to get out in this sh!te.  This stuff is getting old already.  Have I told you how much I hate snow?  I have?  OK... Never mind...

Heh

I'm not gonna comment on Woods' woes... other than to say there could be a whole helluva lot more people at the bar here.  As a matter of fact, you could start a "Philanderer's Pub" and have a roaring bid'niz, what with all the sex-scandals we've seen in the past year or so... Edwards, Spitzer, What's-His-Name from South Carolina... and that's only politicians, and just off the top of my head.  Lord knows this sorta behavior is taken for granted among the glitterati.  Except for Tiger, of course.  I will admit I'm kinda-sorta stunned at the sheer volume of bimbos coming out of the woodwork at the moment; we're not too far from a point where it'll be easier to list the women who haven't had sex with Woods, as some wag commented.

―:☺:―

We just poured our first cup and we're staring out the window at a rather entertaining weatherscape, to wit:

And we're glad it's relatively warm; otherwise the copious quantities of rain, snow, and ice pellets (really... that's what it is) I'm watching would amount to a blizzard like white-out.  Still and even:  yet another Indoor Happy Hour today.  (sigh)  T'is the season, and all that...

Warhol's "15 Minutes"

Someone tipped me to this blurb published at AFCENT's website (the post title is all about SN1 getting a lil bit of his fame allocation, and nothing else):

Leadership lessons linger

Lincoln with military officers at Antietam.

Commentary by Capt. Kristen D. Duncan
451st Air Expeditionary Wing Chief of Public Affairs

12/7/2009 - KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- It doesn't take much to find leadership in a deployed setting, whether on the battlefield, in a maintenance back shop, or among the seasoned SNCO's and officers of our Wing. I stumbled upon a meeting of the minds however, true leaders studying to become better. Better officers, better Airmen - all thanks to lessons from former President Abraham Lincoln.

The 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Group officers met Saturday, non-alcoholic beer and cigars included, to discuss the humble genius in honest ol' Abe. Led by one of the youngest ranking in the group, 1st Lt. Christopher Anderson, HH-60 HMU officer in charge, kept the briefing to only four main slides, to foster discussion and discourse.

[...]

Communication
Master the art of public speaking. Influence people through conversation, and preach a vision and continually reaffirm it.

"At my first assignment as a two-striper, we never had a doubt of the priorities," said Maj. Buck Pennington, 451st EAXMS maintenance operations officer. "It was preached over and over and when something came up, we looked at how it met each of those priorities."

Colonel Hopkins shared his vision for the Maintenance Group: people, planes and processes focused on aircraft availability and munitions support. To him, keeping a level balance between the three equals success.

To me, bringing his officers together to talk about becoming better leaders is one sure way to achieve that vision.

Next book: "Cigars, Whiskey & Winning" by Al Kaltman - Leadership lessons from Ulysses S. Grant

Heh.  As I told the "someone"... the FIRST lesson to be learned from ol' Ulysses S. would be REVOKE GENERAL ORDER NUMBER ONE!  (Sorry.  Didn't mean to shout.)  I dunno if this misguided directive is a result of Lessons Learned in Vietnam... a war that ran on booze, and lots of it... or is simply a carry-over of Gen. Schwarzkopf's GO1 from Desert Shield/Storm.  I strongly suspect it's the latter and although Stormin' Norman is/was undoubtedly correct in the universal sense I doubt the impact on morale is worth the politically correct sop to Muslim culture.  While GO1 might be entirely appropriate in Saudi Arabia, it looks pretty damned stupid when one reads of Iraqi entrepeneurs opening up booze boutiques.  The tide may be turning in Iraq, but leave us not digress.  The Wiki tells us alcohol is still banned in The Af... except for foreigners.  And I read that some military folks... most notably the Germans... could have it until recently.  Gen. McChrystal put the kibosh on that.

Oh, well.  Enough of this.  "Not Your Father's Air Force," yet again.  And it most certainly ain't Your Grandfather's Air Force, either.  All that said... it's a great good thing that "the management" can get together and discuss the finer points of leadership over a few (non-alcoholic) beers and cigars.  I'm all for that. 

(note: photo not included with original AFCENT release... embellishment by YrHmblScrb and obtained from Iconic Photos.)

Linkage

I always have trouble getting into the Christmas Spirit and it's been that way for over ten years now.  But I'm a lot closer to being there than I ever have been in the recent past.  Why? Because I just finished reading Cricket's "Joy To The World."  This is a FINE piece of writing excellence and you'll be much poorer for things if you don't go read.  Right now.

Especially if you're having trouble with the holidays.

Well, OK. Whatever You Say...

This appeared in The Guardian today:

The New York Rangers came from behind to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 and complete a satisfying weekend's work in the NHL. Brian Boyle put the Rangers ahead in the 16th minute of the contest but Pavel Datsyuk levelled the scores in the second period.

However, the home side finished strongest and after Dan Cleary had netted with 2min 3sec remaining, Kris Draper put the gloss on the victory with an empty-net goal seven seconds from the end.

Jimmy Howard excelled in the home net, stopping 28 shots – including a penalty save from Ryan Callahan in the second session which kept his team just a goal adrift.

The result enabled the Rangers to follow up Saturday's defeat of the Buffalo Sabres in style, while Detroit's disappointment continued – they had gone down 4-3 in a shoot-out to the New Jersey Devils the previous night.

Just two little problems with that... (1) Howard was in outstanding form, but he plays for Detroit.  And... ummm... (2) the WINGS won the game.  Other than that?  A typical Guardian take on most things: wrong.

Pearl Harbor Day

Sixty-eight years ago today... "a date which will live in infamy"... the nation was shocked out of its complacency and determination to stay out of the conflict engulfing the rest of the civilized world by the horrific Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.  Here's an excerpt from President Roosevelt's speech to congress on the following day:

The men who fought back at Pearl Harbor formed the Pearl Harbor Survivor's Association about ten years after the war and they used to hold a reunion in Hawaii every five years... until 2006, when they held their last reunion there.  I published this post to mark that occasion (note that the link to the news article is dead now):

Pearl Harbor Day

The USS Arizona - Then and Now (U.S. Navy photographs)

It’s said — quite often and by many, many people — that 9/11/2001 “changed everything.” And it is indeed true for the current generations of Americans. But I’ll submit that 12/07/1941 “changed everything” to a degree it is impossible for us who were not alive and going about our business on that Sunday in December, 1941 to realize. Those of us whose parents were members of The Greatest Generation understand my point. A smaller subset, those of us whose parents fought in World War II, understand the point a little bit better, perhaps. We have the benefit of hearing the first-person narratives of that day in December 1941, and stories from the long, long days that followed…from the dark and despair of the war’s first year to the signing of the Japanese surrender on the decks of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay not quite four years later. And a lot in between.

They are leaving us. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association is holding their last meeting today.

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - With their number quickly dwindling, survivors of Pearl Harbor will gather Thursday one last time to honor those killed by the Japanese 65 years ago, and to mark a day that lives in infamy.

This will be their last visit to this watery grave to share stories, exchange smiles, find peace and salute their fallen friends. This, they say, will be their final farewell.

"This will be one to remember," said Mal Middlesworth, president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. "It's going to be something that we'll cherish forever."

The survivors have met here every five years for four decades, but they're now in their 80s or 90s and are not counting on a 70th reunion. They have made every effort to report for one final roll call.

Their last meeting. I know All Things Must Pass, but it saddens me so. We owe them so much, and our thank-yous seem inadequate compared to the sacrifices they made.

But: We shall continue, we shall honor their sacrifices, we will remember, and we shall rededicate ourselves to the task that faces this generation…the one that began on 9/11/2001. The Greatest Generation expects it from us.

The 2006 news article may not be available any longer, but the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association is still alive and kicking.  They are few now, but thank God some of those heroes are still around.  It won't be too much longer until they're all gone and as I said above: "It saddens me so."

War Stories

In my wanderings around the blogosphere this weekend I noticed we're getting more than a few seasonal posts now that winter is upon us.  Kath posted some pics, Jimmy did too, Sharon posted a horror story, and Daphne (she abiding in temperate Austin) posted an ode to the white stuff.  I just can't wax poetic about frozen precip - I've seen enough of that sh!te to last me the rest of this lifetime and well into the next.  Let's review, shall we? (click the pics to embiggen)

It Could be Worse, Part Deux

Up too late again. Back in a few, but until then, there’s…

Today’s Pic: Keeping with the “It could be worse” theme… Yesterday’s pic was taken at the old homestead in Perinton, NY. Today’s pic was taken in my new, post-marriage-termination quarters, a rather nice, very new apartment (I was the first tenant) in Webster, NY.

Me (on the phone, waiting for the other end to pick up)…dum-da-dum-da…
Him: EDS, this is (my boss)!
Me: Hey, it’s Buck. I won’t be in today, I’m snowed in.
Him: Snowed in? You can’t get out? Really?
Me: Really. There’s a four foot drift right outside my garage door.
Him: Really?
Me: Yeah, really. Check your mail in a minute or four. I’ll send you a picture.

And this was the pic I sent. It was very late in the day when the apartment complex finally got a front-end loader and a dump truck in to remove the snow… March 3, 1999.

And then there's this:

Do I Miss It?

In the comments to one of my previous posts, Laurie sez/asks:

“Tonight low 18, winds 15-25. Alberta Clipper coming through. Tomorrow, high 19. Don't you miss it here?”

"Here" being Rochester, NY. It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words; if that’s true, then my 2,000-word essay on snow is just above this paragraph. Those two pictures aren’t of the highest quality, to be sure, but that’s my car stuck in my driveway, waiting for the tow truck after about 30 minutes of me trying to dig it out.  And that’s my deck, too. January 19, 2000 (ed: that was January of 1999, actually). 24 inches. Draw your own conclusions.

As I said: I've seen enough.  The ONLY places I really enjoying seeing snow these days is on my teevee and in the pages of NatGeo.  I know we'll get snow this year, we always do.  The best thing about snow here on The High Plains of New Mexico is it's never really a lot (usually) and it almost always goes away in a day or two.  I can handle that.  We need the occasional reminder about why we choose NOT to live Up Nawth.

Heh

A friend sends this along...

Cute, eh?  Dunno if I'd dress MY kid up like that, but still...

―:☺:―

And in the "Not So Cute" Dept...  this:

Too much truth in that one, methinks.

For the Record, Part Deux

Videos of SN1's pinning earlier this week.  Be advised there's a LOT of jet noise in the videos - the ceremony was held on the ramp at Kandahar, and there are a LOT of comings and goings.

Part One (A speech by Col. Hopkins (Buck's boss), the pinning, and administration of the oath):

                    

Part Two (Buck's comments and congratulations from his peers and subordinates):

                    

Text accompanying the vids:

B-roll of a ceremony held for the promotion of Capt. Ivan Pennington to the rank of Major in Afghanistan. Scenes include speeches being made at the ceremony, Maj. Pennington receiving his new rank, Maj. Pennington being congratulated by fellow service members and Maj. Pennington posing for pictures. Produced by Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Anderson.

Well done, TSgt Anderson... Thank you!

A Dead Horse...

... well flogged:

OK.  We're done with this.  Back to 'Bama - Florida (Roll Tide!)... with chores done, a clean bod, a beer, and a cigar.  Life is good.

Yays!

First a shower.  Then the dishes.

Is Anyone Else Having Problems with SiteMeter?

I lost 24 hours worth of data last night...

The weird thing is the data was there around 0100 hrs this morning but disappeared overnight.  SiteMeter is usually as reliable as the proverbial brick, so this lapse is highly unusual.  Is it just me, or...?

The Wages of Sin...

... are Death, we're told.  I dunno know about that, but I do know sin doesn't pay very well, at the very least.  Another thing I know: The Wages of Stoopidity Are Dirty Dishes.  And lots of 'em, too.

Yeah, we're still froze-up; over 48 hours and counting.  But it's 34 degrees as we speak... on its way to 45, or so sez the NWS... so the end is nigh.  Good thing, too.  I'm gettin' mighty tired of bathing in 88-cent/gallon spring water heated on the stove.  And I REFUSE to wash dishes with said spring water.

Habs Celebrate 100 Years...

First of all... it's only fitting the Canadiens beat Boston 5-1 at their 100th birthday party.  From Les Habitants web site:

MONTREAL (AP) -Mike Cammalleri and Carey Price met the likes of Guy Lafleur, Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden and Frank and Peter Mahovlich prior to the Montreal Canadiens' 100th birthday celebration, then went out and played like them and all of the storied team's greats.

Cammalleri scored three times in the second period and the Canadiens celebrated their centennial anniversary with a 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday night.

Cammalleri scored twice to put Montreal up 3-0 before completing his fourth career hat trick with the Canadiens' fifth goal late in the middle period, drawing a roar from the sold-out crowd of 21,273 that featured some of the team's former greats, including Jean Béliveau, Lafleur and Roy.

"As I was going around the room I felt like a kid in a candy shop," Cammalleri said about introducing himself to the legendary players prior to the game. "Roy, Dryden, both Mahovlichs, Lafleur, obviously the list goes on and on. Shaking these guys' hands and getting to say hi to them, it was pretty cool. I had this big smile on my face and it was pretty inspiring."

And second... homer that I AM... I'll post a vid of Mr. Hockey introducing Jean Béliveau to the assembled multitudes last evening:

Note the welcome these fans gave Gordie.  They love their hockey in Montreal and they recognize greatness when they see it.

There were many, many great Canadiens from their glorious past in attendance last evening.  Witness:

And if'n you don't know... the Canadiens are second only to the NY Yankees in terms of professional sports teams success... they own 24 Stanley Cups to the Yankees' 27 World Series titles.  That sort of success will NEVER be seen in the NHL again, mainly because the bulk of Montreal's Cups came during the Original Six days.  It's a whole HELLUVA lot harder to take home Lord Stanley's Cup in a 30-team league.

(Sigh)  It's a shame I missed the ceremonies and the game.  I had to content myself with these six lil thumbnail vids of the occasion.  If I were still living in Dee-troit I could have watched it all on Channel 9 out of Windsor... and you KNOW I would have, too.

But Hey!  There's football later on today... and lots of it.  I shall be consoled, in part.

This Makes Me Positively ILL

A tweet from the "official" Air Force Twitter account: 

(US_Air_Force) Huge thanks to all for the blog link from Al Gore!! "Good job Air Force" http://bit.ly/5j8Bj0 We hadn't seen this yet.

OMFG.  Sick, sick, sick.  Algore is the very LAST person I want giving me props... in any way, shape, or form.  Not to mention the fact that Algore or his minions can't simply say "Good job."  Oh, noes... there has to be a "vote for cap 'n' tax" message thrown in, too.


It's official:  I've lived way too damned long.  Just shoot me now and be done with it.

Wow. Just WOW.

A friend just sent this along...

Just click on the picture above, then click on play,  then leave the mouse alone, sit back and enjoy a piece of creative brilliance.

Wow. I'm bettin' you watch it more than once.  I sure did.  Wow!

Is It Gropenhagen?

Or is it a natural reaction to Big Gub'mint intrusion into our lives?  From Der Spiegel:

Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference. Now, the prostitutes have struck back, offering free sex to anyone who produces one of the warnings.

Copenhagen's city council in conjunction with Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards out to 160 Copenhagen hotels urging COP15 guests and delegates to 'Be sustainable - don't buy sex'.

"Dear hotel owner, we would like to urge you not to arrange contacts between hotel guests and prostitutes," the approach to hotels says.

Now, Copenhagen prostitutes are up in arms, saying that the council has no business meddling in their affairs. They have now offered free sex to anyone who can produce one of the offending postcards and their COP15 identity card, according to the Web site avisen.dk. 

Heh.  I'll bet the first people in line are the bureaucrats that mailed the cards; I'm sure they have lots of 'em left over.  We ARE talking gub'mint, right?  Screwing people is what they DO.

(h/t: a tweet from Andy Levy)

I'm An Eco-Criminal. You Are, Too.

Although this article in New Scientist is UK-centric (written by Scots climate scientist (hunh?) David Reay), you might find "Five eco-crimes we commit every day" entertaining... if you get off on enviro-weenie misanthropic bombast. But there is humor there, of course.  And as you might expect... I'm guilty of numerous eco-crimes, including Numero Uno on Reay's eco-misdemeanor hit parade:

1 Coffee

(blah blah blah)

But the average cup of black filter coffee is still responsible for 125 grams of CO₂ emissions. Of this, two-thirds comes from production and most of the rest from brewing.

Opting for the more prosaic joys of instant coffee reduces that figure to around 80 grams. Yet that still means a six-a-day caffeine habit clocks up more than 175 kilograms of CO₂ each year. That's the equivalent of a flight across Europe - from London to Rome, say. Add milk, and the methane belched by dairy cows means you increase your coffee's climate-changing emissions by more than a third.

It doesn't end there, though. The environmental group WWF has calculated that it takes 200 litres of water to produce the coffee, milk, sugar and cup for just one regular takeout latte. So if everyone ditched their pre-work coffee fix that would do wonders for the planet.

Holy Crap!  I had NO ideer about the Gaia-pillage I'm responsible for!  I suppose I can disregard the last graf since I brew my 12 cups per day (minimum) at home, thus dispensing with at least four paper cups I'd need to hold that amount of eeevil brew if bought at Starbucks.  

But...assuming there's no statute of limitations on eco-crimes,
and why would there be?... I'm in deep kimchee for past offenses.  Said offenses being four grandes (that's "medium," in Starbucks-speak) every day, five days a week (and some Saturdays),  for two and a half years.  At a minimum.  Well, there are mitigating circumstances... coz I drank straight coffee and didn't do the lattes and caramel macchiato stuff... so deduct points accordingly.  That reduces the severity of the offense(s) considerably, I would think.  Except I'm still at least partly responsible for Juan Valdez and his cute little burro's eco-felonies.  I'm one of his chief accomplices.  He's grateful, too.

One more thing... who the Hell has time to calculate the environmental impact of  producing "the coffee, milk, sugar and cup for just one regular takeout latte?"  And what methods do they use?  Can I see the raw data?  What?  They threw it OUT?  Bastards!  I can't BELIEVE they did that!

Now ask me if I intend to quit.  And then there's...

5 Food wastage


Of all the facets of overconsumption that plague both human society and the global environment, food wastage is the most shocking. US households throw away around 30 per cent of their food, worth $48 billion every year. Similar levels of wastage are seen in Europe. In the UK, some 6.7 million tonnes of food is binned annually. Most of this joins the layers of unwanted clothing in landfill sites, where it decomposes, emitting the powerful greenhouse gas methane. Potatoes top the pile, with 359,000 tonnes going uneaten each year. Bread and apples are not far behind. Meat and fish are next, accounting for over 160,000 tonnes, followed by 78,000 tonnes of cooked rice and pasta. A staggering 4.8 billion grapes go the same way, as do 480 million yogurts and 200 million rashers of bacon. The annual cost to UK consumers of all this waste is £10 billion and the cost to the environment is the equivalent of an extra 15 million tonnes of CO₂ (The Food We Waste, WRAP, 2008; bit.ly/urUFj).

The cost of food wastage reverberates down the supply chain, increasing requirements for storage, transport and packaging. But the biggest impact by far comes in food production. For almost all the food we buy, the bulk of its greenhouse gas emissions arise here. This is especially true for meat and dairy produce. For example, 40,200 tonnes of milk are wasted each year in the UK, adding up to the equivalent of 40,000 tonnes of CO₂. This is comparable to the annual CO₂ emissions of 10,000 cars, or of flying 30,000 people from London to New York and back.

(blah blah blah)

Wasting food has always been an issue, to get serious for a moment.  I am ashamed at the amount of food I let spoil before I get around to consuming it. That said, I'm thinking it would cost quite a bit more for me to pack up my spoilage (before it goes bad, as if I would or could think that far ahead) and ship it off to Bangladesh or some other deprived third-world country... in both absolute (read as: shipping costs) and eco terms (read as: yet another gazillion tons of emissions and the addition to my carbon footprint).  And Mom's admonishment isn't lost on me, either: "Clean your plate! Think of all the starving kids in China!" (Chinese kids apparently have become well-fed since I was growing up; we worry about Bangladeshi and African kids now).  But how many millions of obese children are running around the US because Mom's concerned about the Bangladeshi?  Think about that!  I submit throwing out some food is preferable to the epidemic of juvenile diabetes and other overeating debilities... not to mention the aesthetics of adding more fat people to the population.  Oops. Major digression.

Still and even, I remain astounded that eco-weenies actually calculate the amount of methane emitted by decomposing food in landfills, among other things... like counting up 4.8 billion wasted grapes or weighing the aggragate amount of thrown out potatoes.  Sure they do.  I've seen 'em standing at the entrance to Waste Management plants/sites with their scales and clipboards, rummaging through every garbage truck that comes in.  More amazing is these numbers are presented as absolute fact, not "estimates" or in other  rational terms.  We're expected to believe this stuff?  Really? 

So... there's more, of course.  Own a widescreen teevee?  Eco-criminal!  Ever bought a plug-in air freshener or sat under a patio heater?  Gaia-raper!  And you people who let your kids take the Playstation along on road trips or opted for a factory-installed system in your (gasp!) SUV are due for a comeuppance, too.  You defilers, you!

I'm not making ANY of this up.  Chase the link and be amazed.

The Triumph of Form Over Function

Which is ever true in Obama-world.  From today's Daily Report (which I was gonna post earlier before I was overcome with snow-angst):

Faux Pas in Alaska: An Obama staffer apparently decided the President shouldn't be photographed with the F-22 Raptor—the fighter the Administration succeeded in killing at just 187 aircraft—during his stopover at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska in mid November and ordered the base to remove it from the hangar where the President was to speak, according to a report by The Cable, a Foreign Policy magazine blog. The Cable confirmed with Elmendorf that the White House asked the base to put an F-15 in place of the F-22, the newest fighter operated and maintained by Elmendorf airmen.

We had heard tell of this a while back.  But we were sworn to secrecy.  Kinda-sorta.

Update:  It's still snowing.  Dang. 

Update II (1505 hrs):  A tweet from the Clovis News-Journal:  "(cnj) Eastern New Mexico University is canceling all classes tonight that begin at 6 p.m. or later. Golden Library will remain open."  Heh.  You'd think we were in Mississippi or sumthin'.  The frickin' roads are just wet... we've received maybe an inch and a half at the VERY most.  I'm thinkin' these people would just curl up and die if they were in Upstate New York or anywhere else in the Northern US of A.

Right Now

Well... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Dang it.  OK, it's pretty.  I'll give ya that.  But it's also cold!

(Sigh)  Indoor Happy Hour again today.  And my frickin' water lines are frozen; long-time readers know we do this stoopid-human trick EVERY year, without fail.  Sometimes more than once, too.

In the "It's Always Sumthin" Category...

My watch quit today.  It might only be a dead battery but I kinda doubt that, as I replaced the battery last year and batteries usually last three years or so.  That's been my experience over the past 20+ years I've owned this watch, anyhoo.  And I dearly love the thing... a garden variety Seiko Lassale... coz it's a beautiful piece of work:

I bought the watch about a year after I got out of the Air Force... seeking something simple and elegant... and the watch is all that and a bag o' chips.  And they don't make 'em like this any longer, either.

Jean Lassale, a Swiss watch maker, sold his business to Seiko sometime in the late-70s or 80s (?). Seiko didn't sell their Seiko Lassale brand very long, and those Seiko watches sold new, at the time, for around the $400 to $500 mark. The Seiko Lassale's are Japanese-made and have a Japanese movement. Jean Lassale has since taken up his watch-making business again (I believe sometime after 2000, maybe 2003?). Those watches are "Jean Lassale", are Swiss-made and have a Swiss movement and retail for several thousand dollars. A recent quote I received from Jean Lassale in Geneva was almost $7,000. *gulp*

A used Seiko Lassale can be had at eBay for between $50 and $200, and there is usually a small but steady stream of them. It's worth checking out, because even the Seiko Lassales are beautiful and very, very thin.

I didn't pay near that much for this watch, if memory serves.  I'm not into bling yet I sure do love this watch.  We've been through a lot together and it's been my constant companion for nearly 25 years (it looks it, too). The thought of replacing it with something similar pains me greatly.

Last Night at West Point...

Just for starters... here's why I watch Fox News:

Instead of MSNBC:

Is there a bigger twit in the teevee news biz than Matthews?  "Enemy camp," indeed.  What a frickin' maroon.  I'm amazed  that even moonbats find this asshat credible in any way, shape, or form.  Unless we're talking about tingles, of course.  He knows a lot about that subject and is more than willing to share. 

So... Didja watch the speech?  I did, granting The One a one-time exemption to my "Nobama" policy because of the gravity of the moment.  I give the man a B+ for delivery and a C- for content.  He said most of the right things in a properly presidential manner, included the de rigeur indirect and sanctimonious Bush-bashing, and... amazingly... used the royal "we" when talking about success in Iraq.  What incredible gall for a man who opposed Bush's Iraqi Surge, yet who is adopting the same sort of strategy in Afghanistan.  And he kept a straight face, too.  That said... I, like others, thought the speech was long on conditions and caveats and short on inspiration and motivation.  I don't remember hearing the word "victory" used... even once.  See if I'm wrong: the full transcript is here.  A final thought: the corps of cadets looked less than impressed to these tired old eyes.  Maybe I was seeing what I wanted to see... but perception, reality, and all that.

So... the West Point speech dominates the late night/early morning topics at memeorandum.  I read pieces from The Usual Suspects (around here, anyway) and particularly enjoyed Crittenden's, Kristol's, and Jennifer Rubin's take on things.

WTF?

FOUR posts in a single day?  Ah... the things we do when we're stuck indoors in winter...  So.  It's yet another indoor Happy Hour, with an appropriate soundtrack (Da Blooze), another Full Moon (I LIKE this beer, even if it's an ersatz "craft beer," made by mass-brewer Coors.  It's still good.), and a Deep Dish.  Like this:

And we're doing Happy Hour indoors because it's not nice outside and will only get worse as the week progresses.  Witness:

Aiiieee.  Note Thursday's forecast.  I'm NOT adjusting well... at ALL.  But it is what it is.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin

So... at the behest of Occasional Reader Virgil Xenophon we went looking for this:

And found it, obviously.  Interesting, eh?  I can't imagine a beer with an ABV of 32%.  I used to drink a particularly strong ale barley wine at The Royal Standard of England (my favorite pub in all the world, but leave us not digress) that went by the name of Owd Roger.  About which, this:

Owd Roger is an infamous dark barley wine with a vinous bouquet - and an ABV of 7.6 per cent. It is so strong that, way-back-when, it was only served in halves. It was first brewed 400 years ago at The Royal Standard of England. When I last drank here, the innkeeper used to challenge all-comers to drink four pints, then run round a tree in the car park. If they didn't fall over, the next pint was on him. His profits were safe. No one ever made it back to the bar. And some are still running. Legend has it that one drinker ended up in Bekonscot, the oldest model village in the world, where miniature horses hunt for a miniature fox. After four pints of Owd Roger, such sights can tip a man over ... 

I think Owd Roger has been dumbed down since it was taken over by Marston.  Legend has it (and that legend exists primarily in my own mind) that when Owd Roger was brewed on-prem at the RSOE it was something like 16% ABV.  I know fer sure that two pints were enough to ensure The Second Mrs. Pennington was gonna do the driving when we left the pub...

Just For the Record

SN1 pinned on major yesterday in a ceremony held in front of an A-10 at Kandahar.  We knew of the circumstances surrounding the event and were expecting photos in our mail today, but alas... none materialized.  Which doesn't mean there aren't any, of course.  We managed to find one such, as a matter of fact... on SN1's blog.  Which we stole and will publish here.  Without authorization.  Major Pennington is third from the right:

So... sue me.  (Blogger doesn't do emoticons, so you'll have to visualize a smiley-faced thingie here.)

Today's minor mystery:  who are those women in civilian clothes and what are they doing in a war zone?  Blackwater?  Halliburton?  A-10 tech reps?  (visualize yet another smiley-faced thingie here)

Not Your Father's Air Force, Yet Again

This lil blurb in the Daily Report cocked my eyebrow this morning:

Let That Be a Lesson To You: Members of 13th Air Force's analyses, assessments, and lessons learned directorate at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, are the Air Force's Lessons Learned Outstanding Team of the Year for 2009. The group was recognized at an awards ceremony in late October in San Antonio for its work to improve Air Force operations at all levels by incorporating the experiences of individual airmen engaged in organizational changes in the Pacific theater. "Regardless of how successful a mission is, there is always something to be learned and captured for future missions," said John Trifonovitch, who heads the winning directorate. He said the lessons learned also impact the joint community to help ensure that "we thrive as a team." (Hickam Nov. 24 report by TSgt. Kerry Jackson)

OK, all you MBAs and management types who live by the guidance and wisdom contained in the Harvard Business Review will probably kick my ass for being incensed over this, but... WTF?  The Air Force has entire directorates devoted to "lessons learned?"  And there is a formal awards and recognition dinner for these directorates... for which people fly from Hawaii (not to mention other places, one assumes) to frickin' Texas to accept said rewards?  I'm gonna flog this dead horse some more, if only to ask what happened to IG inspections?  What about ORIs?  Are there not "lessons learned" in those activities?  Lessons that, if NOT learned, result in leadership turnover or termination of  careers for non-performance or failure to meet mission criteria?  Doesn't the IG... at ALL levels, USAF, MAJCOM, and Operating Agencies... publish and circulate their findings any longer? Or has that gone by the boards (heh) in favor of "Lessons Learned Directorates?"

OK, rant off.  We have the finest Air Force the world has ever seen when all is said and done.  But stoopid shit like "Lessons Learned Directorates"  really irritates me.  There's simply no need for organizations like this and the money could be better spent elsewhere... like O&M funds or maybe even buying new tankers.  The Air Force ain't a corporate entity, nor is it an academic institution.  We used to exist "to fly and to fight."  Now it appears we fly, fight, analyze, evaluate, and publish.  Damn.   

―:☺:―

Well, yeah... I DID get up on the wrong side of the bed today, why do you ask?  And I apparently cracked my coffee pot while washing it this morning, to add insult to injury.  Coffee slowly leaked all over the warming plate before and after brewing, making a helluva mess for me to clean up once I realized what was going on.   That bad news (the leaking) happened as I wrote the rant above.  But... and this doesn't happen all that often... there is GOOD news, as well:  I had a spare carafe in my kitchen cabinet.  The morning was saved... believe it or don't.