News You Can Use

A brief article in Esquire explains something of use for the drinking man.  Excerpt:

"You wanna know my secret? How I can drink beer all night long and never get drunk?"

In fact, I had always wondered that. Though this was the first time I’d ever formally met Koch, I’d “met” him in the past at a few beer festivals. Those sorts of events are always kind of Bacchanalian shit shows, with people imbibing dozens of beer samples in a short period and soon stumbling around large convention halls drunk of their asses. Brewers included. But not Koch, who I’d long noticed was always lucid, always able to hold court, and hold his own with those much younger than him. This billionaire brewing raconteur was doing likewise with me at 4 PM on a Thursday afternoon despite the fact we were both now several beers deep. So what was the secret?

Read the link to find out... even though the graphic gives the secret away.  Who knew?

H/t: Digg.

Cadillet or Chevrolac?

I like to think of myself as a moderately well-informed gearhead but today was the first time I've seen one of these...

That's an El Morocco, a customized 1957 Chevy with an add-on body kit designed to make the car look like a Cadillac.  From an article in today's Hemmings Daily newsletter:

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a surefire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means.

This example recently sold at auction for a staggering $140,800.00.  Only three such cars are known to exist, which may explain why I'd never heard of the thing until today.  According to the linked article El Morocco body kits were produced in 1956 and 1957.  That's a damned good looking automobile.

s Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

Huzzah!

A couple o' few days ago I said this in comments on my post about the T-Birds and Lawn Darts:

One of the best things about bein' an AF Brat was I got to see a lot of airshows while growing up. I haven't seen very many since I left the AF, though.

Well, imagine my surprise... 

I saw the poster for the air show while I was out at the base earlier today and you'll note there's nothing on the poster that neither confirms nor denies the 'Birds will perform.  Well, a quick trip to the 'Birds web site revealed that yes, yes they WILL appear at Cannon on the dates indicated.  Hot Damn, trainee!

Now I have to figger out how to get my lil oxygen machine to last for the duration of the show and other activities, like cruisin' the flight line while taking lotsa pics!

A Day Without Posting Is Like...

... a mini-vacation!

But wait, there's this:



Three Game Sevens, all on the same night.  The remote is gonna get one helluva workout this evening and we'll be in hockey overload by the end of the night.  There's nothing quite like a Game Seven in the playoffs, even in Round One.  While it's true I no longer have a dog in this fight I'll still root for the Rangers, Avs, and Sharks tonight.  Or mebbe I'll root for the Flyers, coz a Battle of Pennsylvania would make for an interesting Round Two.  Rooting for the Flyers is REALLY hard for me to do as I hate have an active dislike for that team.

And now it's back into vacation mode.  Beer me!

Poles

No, not the kind that live in Krakow.  This sort:

It seems rather priggish of me to just give you yet another Shoebox post, so here's a lil sumthin' I did about poles in the near-wayback:

Friday, August 17, 2007

Care to Dance?

So. I sorta quit paying attention to McNeil/Lehrer The News Hour last night about 20 minutes or so before it actually ended. I got wrapped up reading something or other, and by the time I looked up Jim Lehrer’s smiling face was gone and this had begun:

Live From Lincoln Center Mozart Dances
Mostly Mozart Festival
Mark Morris Dance Group

It was the music that caught my ear, and I looked up. The Mark Morris Dance Group is pretty good, if you like that sort of thing. Understand, Gentle Reader, I could stick what little I know about “dance” in my eye and it wouldn’t hurt a bit. I’ve never been to a dance recital. This is the first recital I’ve seen on TeeVee, to the best of my recollection. So, it’s with a grain of salt you’d be taking when I say this was Modern Dance. I know it wasn’t ballet—no tutus. And it wasn’t folk dancing—no ethnic stuff. And I’ve come to the end of my dance-description rope, right here. Right now.

I stayed with the program…but only for the music (Mozart is my absolute favorite composer). I’m not much into watching half-naked men dancing around a stage— especially when they’re dancing with each other rather than with the women. And there was a lot of that, seemingly every other time I looked up from my reading.

And as for the women-only segments of the program? They were just OK, these segments. The women were beautiful and very well put together (in that athletic, dancer sort of way), the costumes were interesting, and the dancing complemented the accompanying music. There was a critical element missing, however, that ultimately impaired my enjoyment of the performance…

No poles.

There's more to that post (i.e., short treatises on depression and the war on [some] drugs), given that I was in the habit of putting up omnibus-sorta posts in the near-wayback when it seemed I had a lot more to say than I do now.  I often wonder why that is; it's very tempting to blame Bush.

Pissing Contest

We haz one.  I sent this off to the Mediscare folks today...

So, here's me, blissfully cruising along through life with my spiffy lil portable oxygen generator until two weeks ago when that referenced "Summary Notice" from Mediscare showed up in my snail-mail box.  I have more than a few issues here, first and foremost being the non-payment for my O₂ machine; the second being the fact I wasn't informed of the non-payment issue when it first began, with the bureaucrats waiting over six months to inform me via a "summary notice;" and the third being the date of the summary notice versus the date I actually RECEIVED the damned thing.  I'm not exactly a Happy Camper at the moment.

Oh, well.  We took the shot across our bow and replied in kind.  I had to go see my doctor last week to obtain copies of all the communications in this CF and the strange thing?  She was NOT surprised, in the least, and was slightly amused that I was.  I have to give props to American HomePatient for leaving my machine alone in the face of non-payment.  One wonders how long that will last.

It's always sumthin'.

Milestone

From the Usual USAF Source:

Thunderbirds Milestone

The USAF Thunderbirds marked their 2,000th official F-16 Fighting Falcon demonstration during an air show at Columbus AFB, Miss., earlier this month. "The F-16 is a remarkable and dependable aircraft. It starts with its design characteristics, but the platform has always had excellent parts supportability, contractor partnership, and engineering oversight from our system program office," said Capt. Lucas Buckley, Thunderbirds maintenance officer. "But the main reason we're still flying the F-16 here is the work done by the exceptional airmen in this squadron, who put in sweat equity each and every day to keep their machines safe, reliable, and effective." The Thunderbirds have flown the F-16 since August 1982, more than half of the team's history. The air show was held April 5-6, according to a base release. (Thunderbirds release.)

I remember when the 'Birds went to Lawn Darts as I was still on active duty, doing my last year in Ol' Blighty when they switched over from T-38s in 1982/83.  The T-38 was a miserable little aircraft for airshow purposes, being too small to be easily seen in the high altitude maneuvers.  

Apropos o' not much, I've seen the 'Birds in every airframe they've flown, with the exception of the Thud, which they only flew in six shows.  My favorite?  The big-ass F-4... loud, smoky, and fast.  

Now that was a GREAT aircraft for airshows.

Egg-Zackly

We want some better weather, too.

We've been three days in the maelstrom.  Let me up, I've had ENOUGH.

Saturday: Historic and Otherwise

It's been that long?  I'm talking about this, from the Usual Source of my Saturday posts:

Finally, it's amazing to think that just nine years ago this week, the very first film was loaded on to YouTube. Jawed Karim, one of YouTube's founders, made the 18-second-long video called "Me at the Zoo". It's been watched more than 14m times, has more than 95,600 comments, and yet there is no way it would have ever gone viral if it had been made today. How far videos have come!

How far, indeed.  Just for the historical value, here's Video Number One:



I don't go back quite that far with The Tube o' You but I have over seven years of history there, including over 50 vids, the first of which was posted on March 4, 2007.

And speaking of how far we've come... there's this:



It helps when yer Dad works for Dreamworks.

I Need One o' These

"Need" might be a lil strong... or not.

I'd want mine in red, though.  Just sayin'.

Depressing

So, here we are... down 3-1 in the first round to Boston after losing TWO games at The Joe.  It pretty much looks like the Beloved Wings' season is over, with only the formality of Game Five left to seal the deal for those Broons.  I expected big things last evening, what with the return of Zetterberg, and the Wings delivered... sorta, what with the Wings having a 2-0 lead at the mid-point of the second period... until such time as Boston tied it up and took the game to overtime, where they won on a fluky double-deflection goal.  I think that's all she wrote for this year; I fully expect to see a handshake line at the conclusion of tomorrow afternoon's game.

Ken Campbell, writing at The Hockey News, sums it up succinctly:

The Red Wings are just too banged up, too tired and too slow to keep up with the team that was the best in the NHL from Games No. 1 through 82. Their valiant run through all this adversity will likely be officially pronounced dead Saturday afternoon, but even on life support, they’re giving the Bruins all they can handle.

"All they can handle" just ain't quite enough.  We're left with the fan's lament: "next year!"

You Mean They Were Dumb Before?

This is the pic that accompanied an article from the Usual USAF Source; it's pretty good plane pr0n:

Click to REALLY embiggen. (Air Force photo by Micah Garbarino)

We're posting the pic coz it's a nice shot of a BUFF either leaving or arriving at Tinker AFB in OKC.  My final assignment in the AF was at Tinker; I spent a lil over two years there.  Just looking at that wide expanse of white ramp space gives me the creeps, mainly coz I remember how miserably hot, humid, and nasty the weather was in the summer.  And then there were all those Springtime tornadoes and the occasional winter ice storm.  OKC has the worst weather of any medium sized city in the country; it's SO bad that I don't understand why anyone lives in that place by choice.

Oh.  Now that we've had our warm and fuzzy moment of remembrance, here's that article...

First Smart BUFF Delivered

Technicians completed the digital upgrades to the first B-52 bomber modernized under the Combat Network Communications Technology program at Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker AFB, Okla. CONECT takes "the B-52 from a rotary-dial phone to a smartphone," Air Force Global Strike Command overseer Alan Williams said in a release. The new datalinks, systems, and software allows real time intelligence and targeting data transmission "so that they can get the most current data" to adapt flight planning en route, added Williams. OCALC began work on the first B-52 last July under a $76 million low-rate initial production contract with Boeing. AFGSC currently has funding in place to upgrade a total of 30 B-52Hs, with eventual plans to install upgrades on the entire fleet, according to the release. Tinker's 10th Flight Test Squadron redelivered the first B-52 to Barksdale AFB, La., on April 21.

Rotary phone/smart phone?  That's an interesting analogy albeit a tad hyperbolic, perhaps. 

I Got Nuthin'

It's true.  I've read all the overnight mail, made the blog rounds and checked memeorandum for potential blog-fodder.  Nuthin'.

Wait.  There's this:

That will have to do for the moment.  Mebbe I'll see something worthwhile when I journey out to Cannon Airplane Patch this afternoon.

Cigar Art XV

That count is apropos of cigar art posts as near as I can determine, based on a search of EIP for "cigar art."  So, plus or minus a post or two, our latest:

No need to embiggen; this is the original size, i.e., "larger than life," which is to say twice normal size.

That Ave Maria band might could be a re-post, but the band is a favorite of mine because it's oh-so-lovely.  What I can't quite figure out is what a knight wearing the cross of St. George has to do with "reconquista" in the current sense of the term.  But historically?  Yeah, I get that.   Oh, well... poetic license, I suppose.

Further... that Ashton label is beautiful for the exquisite detail, finely rendered in miniature, of the landscapes.  I like that a lot.

And those Camacho labels?  I've been infamous for at least that long.

Sometimes I'll Post Anything With a Car In It

Like this:



"Interesting," and I'm sure you know why I use the scare quotes.  I think the best thing about this video is the Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 soundtrack (you can hear the tune without annoying car noises here).  So, OK.  You can tie a frou-frou soccer player, Block.  Let's see ya do that on ICE.

Earth Day

Speaking of Uranus... you KNOW what you can do with your "Earth Day."

Grammar and Spelling In the News, Plane Pr0n Edition

O, my aching ass...

A Romanian air force MiG-21 Lancer deploys a parachute to slow its speed upon landing at Campia Turzii, Romania, April 17, 2014. The parachute acts as an additional breaking (sic) system for the aircraft. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. R.J. Biermann)

I imagine those old MiGs break often enough without the need to deploy an additional "breaking system."  That photo accompanies a USAF press release from Campia Turzii, Romania, following the conclusion of joint exercises between the Romanian air force and elements of a USAF F-16 unit from Aviano AB, Italy.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Lyle, coverin' a Jackson Browne tune...

But Rosie you're all right -- you wear my ring
When you hold me tight -- Rosie that's my thing
When you turn out the light -- I've got to hand it to me
Looks like it's me and you again tonight Rosie

The original J. Browne version and I had a long and storied relationship in the wayback.  I played this tune a lot when I was separated from My Beloved before we married and again while off on extended TDYs and/or bid'niz trips.  The tune was a standing joke in certain circles and justifiably so... there's a bit o' truth in the lyrics.

But these days?  No.  Don't go there.  Don't EVEN go there.

And now it's back out to the verandah.

Well... It Doesn't HURT

I found this in my wanderings around these inter-tubes this morning...



The taglines from this Digg article:

That's One Way To Get People To Listen To Classical Music

Is it working? Are you entranced by this brilliant late 19th-century composition?

I don't require visual stimulation to listen to Dvořák's "New World" or the works of most any other classical composer (except Bartók.  There's always an exception).  But I'm OLD...

That said, the visuals here are pretty good!

Happy Easter

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

Image: Sistine Chapel. Hendrick van den Broeck (1519-1597) — Scenes from the Life of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ (H).
 

(Yes... it's the same thing I posted last post every year.  Some things cannot be improved upon.