Sorry I’m late today. Early meeting, then I took the long way home. Here’s a picture from the drive:
Just another Mack Avenue business. It inspires more faith than another barbering place close by, which advertised a “tatoo artist” on-site. Nothing like getting permanent ink from someone who can’t spell.
So since we’re already behind here and I still have 900 words to write for some actual damn money, let’s make this quick, a little platter of hors d’oeuvres for you folks today. (Slight tangent: I began my career covering the occasional society event, and typing briefs promoting them in advance. As a result, I never have to look up the spelling of “hors d’oeuvres.”)
First, reader mail that didn’t appear in the comments, from me ol’ semi-roommate Borden in Chicago:
I am one of many who interviewed Paul Tibbets, while a lowly suburban reporter in Columbus. He was speaking on a non-Hiroshima topic, an American Airlines jetliner had crashed in Chicago (circa 1977) and I got Tibbets to speculate on the cause of the crash, which was amazingly prescient. The only way to put the jetliner into its death spiral –captured on photographic film– was if the mounts of one jet engine loosened and the engine flipped, resulting in powerful thrusts in both directions and leading to a horrible swirl to the ground. Not sure if a cause was revealed by NTSB, but Tibbets had the engineer and pilot insights and I’ll bet he was correct. One macabre touch: the American Airlines flight was outfitted with cameras allowing passengers to watch their takeoffs and landings on their monitors. Can you imagine the horror–as the cabin turned upside down– of glancing at a monitor and seeing the ground coming up fast?
Yeesh.
John Scalzi finally got to the Creation Museum, and it was worth the wait: Imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit. Stop by now to join the 500-plus comment thread. Web journalism at its best.
Whatever else the writers’ strike is accomplishing, it’s certainly improving YouTube. Evidence here and here, and probably a million other places.
It’s deer season! The Freep is running a virtual buck pole. Many gross pictures.
Off to earn some money. Carry on.
Julie Robinson said on November 15, 2007 at 12:21 pm
“John Scalzi finally got to the Creation Museum, and it was worth the wait: Imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit.”
Oh man. May I just say that this is the kind of crap that gives Christianity a bad name? For anyone who believes in creationism or the inerrancy of the Bible, I have to ask: which chapter of Genesis did you skip?
Because you only have to read Genesis 1 & 2 before you run into big problems. Chapter 1 is the six day version concluding with man and woman. Chapter 2:4 begins the SECOND creation story, with a different order and no timeline. No one in all the religious studies classes I took could ever explain why there are two stories, but God also created our brains and expects us to use them. Not to lead the innocent astray.
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Kim said on November 15, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Love that picture. My latest favorite local sign is the one that says “Free” “Firewood”. My kids used to think it was funny when I held up the air quotes and said those words with a wink. Now, not so much.
AA Flight 191 crashed on a Friday in May 1979. (Senior prom day, and the restaurant where we were supposed to dine was adjacent to the crash site, so the folks said no way.) Clear day, the takeoff and crash were caught on video as well as stills. An engine blew off on the runway, which caused a loss of hydraulics so the pilots couldn’t compensate even though they reportedly responded exactly as they should have in a generic takeoff catastrophe. I guess I doubt whether St. Tibbetts was responding as a pilot or a guy who watched the news or read the paper.
I’ll bet the pilot among us could explain.
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alex said on November 15, 2007 at 1:09 pm
If “it” Ain’t Capitalized, It Ain’t Right.
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Sue said on November 15, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I was working in an operating room at a hospital in Arlington Heights when 191 crashed. We were all put on immediate crisis call (not allowed to leave). Unfortunately, not much “business” came our way. One of those days that you don’t forget, even if you want to. As to hunting season, around here it’s not that unusual to see a gutted deer or two hanging from trees in people’s front yards during these two weeks, like bizarre holiday ornaments.
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Mindy said on November 15, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I saw the billowing smoke from Flight 191 from LaPorte County, Indiana. Wasn’t even looking at it over Lake Michigan, either. Made a huge impact on me; I’ll never forget it.
My favorite sign: Free Beer Tomorrow
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Joe K said on November 15, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I think Gen Tibbetts was speaking as both pilot and some one who had saw the pictures. You are correct in saying the pilots did the right things. When the engine came off it tore out the hydrolics causing the flaps and spoilers to deploy and rolling the airplane inverted. The plane could have flown without the engine on the wing but there was nothing the pilots could have done in that short of time, with the flap and spoilers deployed on one side only.
Pilot,
Joe K.
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Kim said on November 15, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Thanks, Joe K. I guess the snark in me was really wondering whether Tibbetts’ theory was based on having seen nothing and just a pilot’s gut (as Borden implied) or having read/seen stories about the crash. Neither here nor there, I know. It was just a terrible thing.
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Connie said on November 16, 2007 at 10:40 am
That AMerican flight in May of 79 took place right after what used to be known as the ABA show, and is currently known as Book Expo. I had just started working in libraries. That crash killed a couple of dozen Baker and Taylor employees (big library book distributor/wholesaler) and shook up the entire book and library world.
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