The Historical Herky Bird

From the Usual USAF Source:

C-130 Deliveries Hit 2,400: Lockheed Martin announced the delivery of the 2400th C-130 Hercules that it has manufactured on its production line in Marietta, Ga. The company said Marietta's Hercules assembly activities represent "the longest continuously operating military aircraft production line in history." The 2,400th C-130 is an Air Force MC-130J special-mission aircraft destined for beddown at Cannon AFB, N.M. This aircraft's delivery follows a record year for C-130J production in 2011, with 33 C-130Js supplied, a new high for the C-130J model, according to the company. These 33 C-130Js were in six different configurations for six operators: Air Mobility Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, the Marine Corps, Canada, India, and Qatar. According to the Air Force, the company delivered the first C-130s in December 1956.  (Image from Wikipedia.  "C-130s from the: US, Canada, Australia and Israel [foreground to background]")

Further... from The Wiki:

Over 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 60 nations. 

During its years of service, the Hercules family has participated in countless military, civilian and humanitarian aid operations. The family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. In 2007, the C-130 became the fifth aircraft—after the English Electric Canberra, Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, Tupolev Tu-95, and Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker—to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer, in this case, the United States Air Force. The C-130 is also the only military aircraft to remain in continuous production for 50 years with its original customer, as the updated C-130J Super Hercules.

I think that's amazing, considering the way technology has changed every facet of life since 1956.  Like the BUFF and the KC-135, a few of the Herky Birds are older than many of the pilots that fly them.  Unlike the BUFF and the -135, there are many NEW -130s on the ramps of Air Force bases.  That's amazing too, but not in a good way.

Just TOO Freakin' Cool

By way o' explanation:

On December 21st 2011, Les Amigos and The Toronto Generals were ready to play their weekly hockey game when Budweiser transformed a regularly scheduled match into an epic high-energy spectacle complete with screaming fans, play-by-play announcers, and even a Budweiser-branded Zamboni!
 
The catch? This epic moment was captured on film and will be featured as Budweiser’s Canadian Super Bowl XLVI commercial.

Hell, I might even buy a Bud at the bar this week just to express my gratitude for a job well done.  Well, mebbe a Michelob.  Same difference, right?

h/t to the Usual Hockey Source.

The BEST Plane Pr0n You'll Ever See

I just spent 48 minutes of my day watching this:

The post title is not an exaggeration by any means; watch it in full-screen 720p.  This vid has it ALL: excellent cinematography, brilliant air-to-air shots, a compelling story line, and the most-balanced, all encompassing depiction of what the military is all about: team work.  Everyone's here: pilots, battle staff, fighters, heavies, trash haulers, refuelers, BB-stackers, wrench turners, fire fighters, SAR guys... the whole crew.

Simply brilliant.  This video almost makes me wish I'd have been in the airplane bid'niz.  Almost.

h/t to Lex's commenter DAve.

In Today's Mail

I have the best Occasional Correspondents.  First, this lil vid:

The video was accompanied by an admonishment not to mess with old people because "they're already angry because they're old."  NOT true.  Most of us Old Farts are very happy, even if it's only happy that we've made it this far.

And then there's this, which is semi-misogynistic, lewd, crude, but not tattooed:

Gentlemen Quiz

1. In the company of feminists, intercourse should be referred to as:
a) Lovemaking
b) Screwing
c) The pigskin bus pulling into tuna town

2. You should make love to a woman for the first time only after you've both shared:
a) Your views about what you expect from a sexual relationship
b) Your blood-test results
c) Five tequila slammers

3. You time your orgasm so that:
a) Your partner climaxes first
b) You both climax simultaneously
c) You don't miss SportsCenter

4. Passionate, spontaneous sex on the kitchen floor is:
a) Healthy, creative love-play
b) Not the sort of thing your wife/girlfriend would ever agree to
c) Not the sort of thing your wife/girlfriend need ever find out about

5. Spending the whole night cuddling a woman you've just had sex with is:
a) The best part of the experience
b) The second best part of the experience
c) $100 extra

6. Your girlfriend says she's gained five pounds in weight in the last month. You tell her that it is:
a) No concern of yours
b) Not a problem - she can join your gym
c) A conservative estimate

7. You think today's sensitive, caring man is:
a) A myth
b) An oxymoron
c) A moron

8. Foreplay is to sex as:
a) Appetizer is to entree
b) Priming is to painting
c) A queue is to an amusement park ride

9. Which of the following are you most likely to find yourself saying at the end of a relationship?
a) "I hope we can still be friends."
b) "I'm not in right now. Please leave a message after the tone...."
c) "Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You."

10. A woman who is uncomfortable watching you masturbate:
a) Probably needs a little more time before she can cope with that sort of intimacy
b) Is uptight and a waste of time
c) Shouldn't have sat next to you on the bus in the first place

If you answered 'A' more than 7 times, check your pants to make sure you really are a man.

If you answered 'B' more than 7 times, check into therapy, you're still a little confused.

If you answered 'C' more than 7 times, call me up. Let's go drinking.

Well... I answered 'c' eight times.  What time do we leave?

One of the BEST Things About Bein' All Grown Up...

... is that sometimes "dinner" looks like this:

The second course is more o' the same.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're taking a moment outta our busy day o' soakin' up sun and beer out on the verandah to post a couple o' selections from today's soundtrack...

It's an R&B kinda day, kicked off and prompted by the post immediately below this one.  When I say "R&B" I mean traditional R&B... not the perverse 21st century interpretation o' the term, which makes my lip curl and my eyes roll.  No, we're talkin' Al, the Temps, Aretha, Etta (RIP), and yeah... Lenny, too.   Which is otherwise described as Sweet Soul Music...

There were at least two ways we could have gone today... select one the R&B themed stations we've defined on Pandora, or pull CDs from our collection and crank up the stereo.  We took the path of least resistance and decided to let Pandora choose our music for us.  There are a couple o' bennies associated with that choice... not only is the path of least resistance so very easy, it also includes music that isn't in our personal collection for one reason or another (but mostly due to financial considerations -- I've not yet hit the point where I can buy EVERYTHANG I like).  Which isn't to say our personal collection is limited... coz it ain't... it's only that I'm so very lazy today.  We're not in a decision making mood, beyond that required to choose a specific musical genre.  Mission Accomplished, on all levels.

Our beer o' choice today is more o' that Black Butte Porter and our cigar o' choice is a Drew Estate Red Eye.  It's how we begin, but not necessarily how we'll end.

PS:  Go on... do a google search for "drew estate tabak especial red eye" and note that EIP is the SOLE image result for that term.  

Ah, fame.  Such as it is.

MUCH Sadness

When I first saw this a day or two ago:

Oh, NO.  NOT Reverend Al!  Is NOTHING sacred?  The song that makes me think of love lost and love found and love eternal is now flogging fuckin' potato chips?  I may have lived one week too long.

Because There Are Waaaay Too Many Cat Vids On the Intar-tubes

And not near enough Louis Prima... or Louis Prima clones (the tune here might be done by Brian Setzer).

The Ol' Man Would Like This

From the Usual USAF Source:

English Project Seeks to Honor 8th Air Force's Friendly Invasion: Local English communities have come together under a project to preserve the story of 8th Air Force and its presence throughout eastern England during World War II. The initiative, dubbed "The Eighth in the East," has just received a development grant of some $22,800 (£14,500) to launch its activities. "Inspired by a team of archaeologists, archivists, and museum curators, the project is aimed at helping local people of all ages who live close to one of the 67 war-time airfields to take ownership of this rich legacy by recording oral histories, mapping each air base, and putting together events which will engage everyone with a three-year period that changed the course of history," reads a release from project planners. "It's almost shameful," said BBC's Nick Patrick "that, were it not for a handful of dedicated volunteers and museum professionals, this history has almost been allowed to die." (For more on the Mighty Eighth during World War II, read The Real Twelve O'Clock High and The Cost of Schweinfurt from Air Force Magazine's archives.)

My father served in the Mighty Eighth during the Big One and flew his 25 missions in B-17s over Der Vaterland.  I'm pretty sure he'd be happy to hear the legacy of the 8AF in Britain is being defended; too much of its physical presence has already vanished.  As for me... I'm glad the Brits are putting some effort into preserving the history.  Good On 'Em.

You might wanna chase both of the above links, but especially the "Twelve O'Clock High" link.  An excerpt:

It had an authenticity seldom seen in war movies. It pushed all the right buttons for airmen, who held it in such regard that the movie became something of a cult film for several generations of Air Force members. 

In those days, almost everybody in the Air Force had seen it at least once, and the film was used for many years in USAF leadership courses.

You can count me among that "several generations of Air Force members" referenced in the quote.  I've seen the film at least three times, if not more.  The linked article is a great read.

Today's Happy (?) Hour Soundtrack

A couple o' tunes and a random thought or two.  First, Colbie Caillat...

I won't do what you told me
I won't do what you said, no
I'm not gonna stop feeling
I'm not gonna forget it
I don't wanna start over
I don't wanna pretend that
You are not my lover
That you're only my friend

That was me ten years ago.  We've grown up a lil bit since then*.  And then there's this...

Isn't this the best part of breakin' up
Finding someone else you can't get enough of
Someone who wants to be with you too

It's an itch we know we are gonna scratch
Gonna take a while for this egg to hatch
But wouldn't it be beautiful

Here we go, we're at the beginning
We haven't fucked yet, but my heads spinning

Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you
Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you
It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it
So tell me
Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you

Oh, damn.  There it IS.  I was gonna go off on this tangent about how and why is it that heartbreak songs outnumber those that celebrate "true love" (if there is such a thing) by a factor of at LEAST 10:1.  That ratio is based upon today's Happy Hour soundtrack, which was the Joan Osbourne station on Pandora.  And further... I didn't keep an actual count of the songs, it's just a gut-feel sorta thang.  I think I'm erring on the conservative side as well, because if I really go with my gut I'd say the heartbreak songs outnumber songs celebrating love by a factor of 20:1.  But that's just me, and we're ignoring what Ms. Phair said.

We digress.  I think Miz Phair hits on it... the feeling one gets when one is caught up in an irresistible attraction and that feeling is prolly the demise of most relationships.  I've been on both sides of this phenomenon and neither side is pretty: someone always gets hurt.  It really makes me wonder why the hell we go through this shit but I think that's mostly a function of age.  It's much easier to let it all go... to give up the chase, to accept solitude... when you've got one foot in the grave.  Yet still... so much to lose, so little to gain.  Why?

*Which is only a small lie.

Mostly Good, With a Lil Bad Mixed In

Yeah... Ron Paul is lookin' better and better.  And better.  But I just can't sign on with his foreign policy views, among other thangs.

―:☺:―

We've had a run o' good... no, great... WX this past week.  I sat out on the verandah from about 1030 hrs until twilight last evening, goin' directly from morning coffee to beer without even so much as a missed step.  We did take the odd potty break now and then, one blogging break, and spent some quality time with the neighbor ladies and my erstwhile foster granddaughter, who continues to crawl all over me like I'm some sorta amusement park.  "It's because you're so nice to her," sez my neighbor.  I just smiled while thinkin' "well, I'm nice to YOU, too, yanno?"  I should verbalize these thangs, methinks.  The ol' "faint heart/fair lady" cliché comes to mind...

There's a downside to this fine WX: the right side o' my face is severely sunburned; sunburned to the point o' pain, to the point where we broke out the Greasy Kid Stuff (Neosporin) and slathered it all over our nose and cheek last evening.  I hate it when this happens, more so in the dead o' winter.

We shall be havin' more of the same in the upcoming week.  Note:

Which is MUCH better than a year ago, almost to the day (01/30 vs. 01/31):

We Otta Be a Whole Helluva Lot Smarter By Friday...

... on account o' because we're gonna be spending the next four nights in the Holiday Inn Express just across the highway.  I thought about this long and hard before I decided to abandon El Casa Móvil De Pennington for a warmer space.  My Inner Macho Man said "don't be a freakin' wuss, it's just a lil cold, is all."  Macho Man was winning until I ran into Jenny at Wally-World and she was pretty emphatic with the "do it!" thing.  Which all goes to prove that women are generally smarter than men when it comes to macho stuff.

And just how cold will it be?  This cold:

 

I can do overnight temps in the teens but below zero stuff just ain't ANY fun.  At all.

So.  We're booked.  Registering at the front desk of the HIE was sorta funny... I was asked for address, etc. and duly gave the particulars... which got weird for the lady when she said "and your ZIP code there?'  "88130," sez I.  "Hunh?  What's that all about, if I may ask?"  We explained, she understood.  And Hey!  Free breakfast for the next four days, or at least someone else is gonna do the cookin'.  Coz it ain't exactly free, yanno?

I'll take this year over last... along with some zinc oxide for the ol' snozz.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Oh, baby... it don't get no better than this:

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster from an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go 

Yeah.  A hard way to go, indeed.  But what a brilliant tune. 

Broadening Our Horizons XL

Not extra large...

But the fortieth edition of BOH is extra good.  Today's Happy Hour began sometime around 1300 hrs and is still goin' on as we speak, for it is the MOST magnificent day here on The High Plains o' New Mexico.  And we should be drinkin' a most magnificent beer now, shouldn't we?   The Bros REALLY like this beer, and I gotta admit I do, too.  From their (world class) review:

Taste: Silky smooth with a nice medium bodied mouth feel. After the luscious mouth feel come the flavour which is quite malty ... light acidic twang from the roasted malts, a little dark roasted coffee flavour and an underlying toasted biscuit taste are balanced with a perfect combo of hop and roasted malt bitterness. The lingering after taste is of faded burnt sugar, drying grain and a slightly warming alcohol. A wonderful yet delicate hop character helps to round this brew also.

Notes: Oh baby! There are good porters and then there are great porters ... this one goes down as a great one, no doubt!

Yeah.  What he said.  And now it's back out on the verandah to continue as we've begun.  It's a three-cigar sorta day, and a three (or more) beer day, too.

Life is good.

In Today's Mail

This, from SN1:

Hey dad…

Just a quick story for you that goes with this pic:

Apparently this shirt isn't allowed to be worn by the forensics team now…

It seems one of the mothers on the team was shocked when she saw the back…she thought it said: fornicate.

So…because one woman can't read and has a dirty mind (not that that's a bad thing!), the kids can't wear what I think is a really cool shirt that Sean says is extremely comfortable.

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Thought you'd appreciate this...

Isn't that SPECIAL?

Update:  Frickin' Blogger.  You'd THINK Blogger and g-mail, both bein' horses from the same stable, would be able to talk to each other.  But noooo...

300 Channels and Nothing On

WTF?

How Thick Is Your Bubble?

A nifty lil quiz via a tweet from Taranto...  "How Thick Is Your Bubble?"

This quiz is inspired by American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray's new book, "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010," which explores the unprecedented, class-based cultural gap in America. How culturally isolated are you? Answer these 20 questions to find out.

Taranto scored 7, I scored 13.  And 13 means...

On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.

In other words, you don't even have a bubble.

Well, that's nice to know.  I think.  And I did it without having seen a movie (in a theatre) in the last year, not having gone fishing or hunting in the past five years, and bein' unable to ID a pictured NASCAR hero.  They must give bonus points for bein' in the military.

How did you do, Gentle Reader?

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Faces...

Oh Cindy ain't you noticed 
that several of your friends have moved on
And the street outside is just a little too quiet
And your local paper's run out of news
I'm not persuading you or disengaging you
But Cindy you and me we've got to move

Faces weren't a band of any great significance but they WERE one of the best party bands, evah.  Loose, mebbe much too loose, but as I said: one for the Good Times.  I think Rod Stewart's gigs with Faces were his finest hour (outside of "Every Picture Tells a Story")... they beat the shit outta that "Great American Songbook" krep.  IMHO.

And yeah... we've run outta news.  Didja notice?

One Thing I Meant to Post but Didn't

Joe Queenan in this past Saturday's WSJ:

Devotees insist that yoga would help me deal with the herniated discs in my neck, would ease pressure on my spine, would lower my blood pressure. They say—thereby providing false hope to my family—that yoga would make me more mellow, more accepting, perhaps even induce me to stop and smell the roses.

But I do not want to stop and smell the roses. I don't even want to smell the roses if it were possible to smell them without stopping. For years, I have told those of the yoga ilk: I can't practice yoga or tai chi or therapeutic jujitsu or dien bien phu because I'm too working class, I'm from Philly, it's just not my style. If my hard-drinking, heavily tattooed Dad ever caught me doing yoga he would come back from the dead and strangle me. Then my neck would really hurt.

Joe... he speaks for me.  The rest of the piece... "Assuming the Pose of 'Guy Saying No'" is worth your time (subscription may be required).  And when it comes to yoga there's this and we NEVER pass up an opportunity to be self-promoting. 

Actually, there's a plethora of New Age crap that should be rejected out of hand.  Like crystals (what's so mystical about a clear rock?), "organic-fucking-anything/everything" (I was raised before "organic" took over whole aisles of our food stores and I seem to have turned out alright), feminism (of the strident sort -  real men have ALWAYS respected women and women have always known their worth), and left-wing politics (you really need a parenthetical expansionary comment?).  Among other things.

Yamaste.  (My Bad.  I meant Namaste.  Thanks, Skip.).

Things I Wish I Hadn't Seen

Yeah, I watched it.  No, I have no comment... other than "blah, blah, blah."  Wait.  I do have a couple o' things.  His "spilled milk" joke was stupid.  And his references to the military were simply bizarre and just a LITTLE bit offensive to me, speaking as a military kinda guy.  I should have said this yesterday, I know.  But that's life here at EIP: a day late and a dollar short.  Always.

―:☺:―



Except for hockey, where we're never a day late. Some quotes about last night's game:

“We realize the scope of what we’re up against tonight. This is the best team in the NHL right now and they’re definitely playing like it. They’re a group of veterans that all play very intelligently. They control the puck a lot of the time and they really make you fight for possession. We’re going to have to be at our best and try to push our style of game.

“We have to be ready to go for 60 or 65 minutes if need be to come out of this with two points. We’ll have all the time we need to rest up after tonight, but right now we need to set our sights on winning this game.” --Montreal Canadiens assistant captain Josh Gorges. (as quoted at the Usual Hockey Source)

And...

Wings' Babcock: “I'm not going to look at the video of this at all, I'm going to go out and drink, actually, is what I'm going to do.''  --A tweet by AnsarKhanMLive

"I thought because we were playing in such a great building in such a great environment that it was going to be a no-brainer," Babcock said. "But we just were awful."  -- Mike Babcock, quoted in The Freep

Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall reacts after Detroit yields another goal during the 7-2 loss Wednesday in Montreal.
 Jean-Yves Ahern/U.S. PRESSWIRE

Montreal 7, Detroit 2.  Worst game of the year... even worse than the 7-1 loss to the Caps and that 5-1 debacle on the Island.  I almost turned it off.

Twilight Landing...

... in El-Eh.

While watching this vid it occurred to me that about the ONLY thang I miss about air travel... which I did a lot of back in Former Happy Days... is the spectacular nighttime city views one gets during a night landing.  My favorite night landing was always Dee-troit but that was more a function of coming home than the view itself.  The view was pretty good, however, given that Dee-troit is essentially flatter than flat and spread out over a VERY large area, compared to other cities.  And then there's Noo Yawk, of course, and London, and a plethora of other cities.  They are all spectacular from the air on a clear night.

But the most amazing night landing I ever experienced was at the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong (at right)... and it was ALL about the terror, mainly because one gets the feeling your pilot is setting you down on some boulevard rather than an actual airport.  You could actually SEE people walking around inside their high-rise apartments as you were on final into Kai Tak.  THAT, Gentle Reader, is a most unnerving feeling.  I can only imagine how the residents of those apartments felt about having a 747 whistle... or roar... by their windows every two minutes or so.  I'm thinkin' those people were sure glad when Kai Tak shut down.  Me?  I was glad to have survived the landing, which was a close encounter of the disconcerting sort.