So I guess Kobe Bryant is dead. This is sad news for his family, for Lakers fans, for NBA fans. Beyond that I have little to say, other than this: I hope I never have occasion to fly in a helicopter, because those things freak me the hell out. It’ll be interesting to see who was flying the aircraft and who else was on board. Beyond that, I can only say: Condolences.
It appears his adorable teenage daughter was one of the others. How awful.
So, remember the state senator I talked about last week, the guy who was called out as handsy perv? A third woman has come forward, and said he interacted with her exactly the same way he did the second woman who reported him — hands on lower back/butt, the up-and-down body leer, etc.
And yes, the same reactions. WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE WHY DIDN’T SHE SAY SOMETHING WERE THE POLICE CALLED? NO, YOU SAY? NO? THEN SHE MUST HOLD HER TONGUE FOREVERMORE!!!!!
One day in the future, we’ll figure out how to dust a woman’s butt for fingerprints, and cross-check her story against the always-on body cameras we will all wear, Black Mirror-style. Until then, you’ll have to take our word for it. And just consider that when three separate women tell the same story, maybe there’s something to it.
(And yes, I believe the women who said Bill Clinton perved on them.)
There was a guy in Columbus, a sportswriter who was ancient 40 years ago, and is no doubt dead by now. Eddie Fisher. He was a leerer, a gross-remark maker. I don’t think he ever touched anyone that I know of, but that might be because the saliva-soaked cigar butt he kept clenched in his jaw was an effective repellant; he was hard to stand close to. But we heard what he said just fine. I think he was one of the two or three men who raced from one part of the newsroom to another to spy on a young female reporter who was committing the unspeakably erotic act of eating a banana with her lunch. Every year he would write an appreciation of Mitzi Gaynor — she passed through town in summer-stock theater — that pegged the needle for creepy old-man slavering over a woman’s legs; I think he actually typed those with his penis.
Now that we have social media, we must also not leave out an important voice from the female side of the discussion, that of the ballsy babe who insists that if anyone ever did that to her, why she would absolutely speak up, and in fact she has. (Long anecdote follows.) I just read one writer who claimed she was threatened with death — actual death — if she didn’t sleep with a male superior, and her response was to rear back and plant a high heel in the middle of his chest “so hard he probably still has the mark,” and it never came back on her and why doesn’t everyone do that? Why won’t women stand up? Etc.
OK, rant over.
All of Michigan is decidedly not like this, but I’m breaking my three-paragraph rule to bring you this anecdote from the Cletus safari to end all safaris, in Politico this weekend, datelined two counties away from me:
“It got to be so bad when Obama was in office, it felt like we were going to have a civil war,” Mike said.
In what way?
“I didn’t realize until Obama was elected that I’m supposed to be a racist,” he said, throwing up his hands.
Confused, I asked Mike to clarify.
“I’m a white man, so I must be a racist. Right?” he said. “That’s what they say about people like me. But one of my best friends is a black guy. And I’ll just say it, you know, he’s my n—–.”
I glanced around us, but Mike didn’t bother. He seemed to know what I’d already observed: There were very few black attendees to be found.
He continued, “We joke around all the time about race. We constantly tease each other. We went to a restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings, and he asked me, ‘Mastah, can I have me some chicken wangs?’ And I said, ‘Yes, boy, you’ve been a good Toby this week.’ And the waitress, her jaw hit the floor! She’d never heard anyone joke around like that. That’s the problem. Nobody can take a joke anymore.”
Mike, by the way, is quoted by his full name: Mike Krupnek. I bet he’ll hear a few funny jokes in the next few days.
OK, then. Monday awaits, and more impeachment. But please no more helicopter crashes.
Ann said on January 26, 2020 at 7:09 pm
Ah yes, Bill Clinton. I once had a law student working with me who had worked the 1992 campaign. She told me there was a rule that no woman staffer was ever to be alone in a room with Bill.
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 8:11 pm
Not to speak ill of the dead, but Kobe Bryant was charged with sexual assault, acquitted, and settled a civil lawsuit over an encounter that he claimed was consensual and the woman said wasn’t (and we can probably guess was less than consensual.) He and his wife remained together, and their fourth daughter was born just seven months ago.
Whether that incident had an impact, or the fact of having daughters did, Kobe Bryant was hugely supportive of women’s basketball and women’s sports. He would turn up in all sorts of places: https://247sports.com/college/louisville/Article/kobe-bryant-hailey-van-lith-louisville-womens-basketball-jeff-walz-cashmere-high-school-142053711/
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Connie said on January 26, 2020 at 8:30 pm
I rode a helicopter over the Badlands when I was ten. I was terrified. It was a small bubble like helicopter with no actual doors. I was terrified because I was convinced that my Dad, who was seated next to the door, was going to fall out that opening on to those nasty rocks.
Most memorable Dad moment from that long ago trip involved a man screaming help from a hotel room door and his rushing in, dropping to his knees and doing CPR to a man on the floor while two kids watched google eyed from the hall. Both men in the room were in full priest regalia, which was really exotic to Dutch Reformed kids from west Michigan. Something we had only heard about and only seen on tv. We also got to watch the ambulance come. Dad digression over. Guy died.
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alex said on January 26, 2020 at 9:13 pm
Today we took the plunge and tried the WaPo’s supposedly restaurant-style hot-and-sour soup and can attest that you need to use the chinkiang black vinegar as recommended. (I’ll have to try to find some for next time.) But it was good and well worth the trouble:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2019/12/18/this-hot-and-sour-soup-recipe-is-a-cure-all-for-cold-and-have-a-cold-days/
I skipped over the Politico Cletus safari previously and only read it after it had been posted here. Looking for Democrats at a gun show is about as ridiculous as looking for urinals in a convent, but a failsafe strategy for finding nutters willing to give their names and go on the record saying things that should get them fired. So it gets props for that anyway.
I noticed one of my brothers-in-law hasn’t posted anything to Facebook in over a month and he had been running quite a nonstop barrage of incendiary anti-liberal bullshit ever since Trump got elected. My partner unfriended him over it some time ago. When I observed this weekend that his Facebook page had gone dead, my partner told me that his brother had called him on Christmas asking why we weren’t there. My partner told him it was because of his Facebook page.
So there’s hope.
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Bitter Scribe said on January 26, 2020 at 10:26 pm
Ah, fat old lecherous cigar-smoking white guys. What would sports journalism have been without them?
(A hell of a lot better off.)
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beb said on January 27, 2020 at 12:45 am
This Politico piece was damn depressing. I don;t know how someone could look at Clinton and Trump and decide that Clinton was the bigger crook. Of course the only place less representative of the nation than a roadside diner would have to be a gun show. So we’re looking into the abyss’s abyss here.
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Dexter Friend said on January 27, 2020 at 3:47 am
I had just grabbed a jar of Metamucil at Walmart when my phone went “off the hook”, ping ping and call after call. Kobe was dead. I was shocked because he was but 41, then as the day rolled along and the praise and mourning continued…well, Sherri…all I could think of was Colorado. We still got newspapers then and the coverage was gavel to gavel, and there was grave concern…was The Black Mamba a rapist? Kobe was tried and found innocent of rape. Memory serves of a story of a cocktail waitress invited to Bryant’s room, sex , and a rape charge. Of course Bryant and the Lakers got the best criminal lawyers , and they rarely lose, and Kobe didn’t either. Just like William Kennedy down in Florida on that beach-rape charge many years ago. Then after Bryant was all cleared, to offset the cheating, Mrs. Bryant was in the media showing off the biggest fucking diamond anyone had ever seen. I am not going to look it up, but wasn’t it like a $5M dollar ring?
My take on helicopters is different, as I was on a few rescue ops as a medic in Vietnam like 50 years ago. I was friendly with one pilot and sometimes if I wasn’t on duty I’d just ride along on the Huey DustOff chopper when he’d be ordered to transport a wounded soldier to Danang or Cam Ranh Bay for transport to The Philippines or Hawaii or to the USA. Sometimes we’d take or bring back various supplies, one I remember we went through quickly was blood volume expanders, to keep blood pressure up in guys who were leaking badly. War made me nervous, and to get in a helicopter where the world speeded up from up in the air was a great diversion. But then again…I lost a good friend in a crash, so there’s that. Bryant has been flying in helicopters for many years. He hated LA traffic and he disliked driving in general, so he had the money, so why not fly in helicopters. When the Warriors moved across the bay to San Francisco, Steph Curry was contemplating using helo service too; I guess he lives 2 and a half hours away . Kobe’s chopper was ascending northwest of LA in horrible foggy weather when it fell out of the sky and landed upside down and exploded. No miracles, all are dead. Gianna Bryant was the 13 year old daughter. So sad, that.
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ROGirl said on January 27, 2020 at 7:20 am
Last year, an old goat at work got handsy with me. Specifically, as I was standing next to someone and we were talking, he came up from behind me and pulled my ID badge (clipped to my front right pants pocket and hanging from elasticized thread) from where it was resting against my leg, and yanked it back. I had felt something behind me, and before I realized what was going on, the badge was pulled all the way out and back, then let go. I said, “What the fuck?” He was standing at the counter in front of us, pouring coffee and grinning. He walked away, the woman I was talking with said she would back me up if I reported it to HR. I was furious. Very shortly afterwards, I got an email from old goat saying that he didn’t mean to upset me. I waited until the next day to tell the HR manager and she scheduled a meeting with me and old goat. He, of course, said it was all in fun, and reiterated the email message, but didn’t apologize for doing it. I pointed out that I didn’t want to be touched randomly, and the HR manager let the old goat know that’s the customary behavior. Ultimately, he was told to stay away from me, and he would get written up if he did it again. The witness backed me up and I sent the email to the HR manager. He proclaimed his innocence to 2 of his female friends, and they supported him. One of them stopped talking to me after that. He retired at the end of last year.
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Bitter Scribe said on January 27, 2020 at 8:08 am
Dexter – Kobe was never tried. He paid off his accuser before he could be brought to trial. And she wasn’t a cocktail waitress invited to his room. She was a nineteen-year-old hotel employee who was showing him to his room.
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LAMary said on January 27, 2020 at 9:45 am
Alex, you can get that vinegar from Amazon, I’m pretty sure. If you can’t let me know and I’ll send you some.
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Jeff Borden said on January 27, 2020 at 10:28 am
Kobe “gifted” Vanessa Bryant with a rare, 8-carat purple diamond ring valued at $4 million after his sexual assault case was dropped. Not exactly the actions of an innocent man. Perhaps his strong support for women’s sports was his attempt at making up for his assault on the teenaged hotel employee? There’s no question a drunk Ted Kennedy abandoned Mary Jo Kopechne to her watery grave and used his political power to avoid criminal prosecution at the time, but some observers have argued he spent the rest of his life trying to make up for that horrific act as a liberal lion in the Senate.
Did anyone happen to check out the Twitter responses to Bryant’s death? Our adored Orange King originally posted ‘This is terrible news!” When Barack Obama weighed in with his usual elegant style in a far more literate tweet, the pussygrabber-in-chief sent out a second tweet that borrowed heavily –to the point a college instructor would scream “plagiarism”– from Obama’s. There isn’t a scintilla of character in the man.
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BigHank53 said on January 27, 2020 at 10:33 am
Oh, he’s got loads of character–it’s just that it all resembles the goop that you scrape out of the bathroom sink trap.
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Sherri said on January 27, 2020 at 10:36 am
Bitter, the case was in pre-trial hearings when it was dropped. I believe that Kobe raped that girl.
I also know that Kobe is a huge supporter of women’s sports, not just in a show up on the sidelines and be seen kind of way but in a way that gives of himself and his time.
Trust me, nobody around the women’s basketball world has forgotten the rape, but Kobe’s death is felt deeply nonetheless. As well as that of GiGi, his daughter.
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Deborah said on January 27, 2020 at 11:01 am
According to Five Thirty Eight, now 10.3% of Republicans think Trump should be removed, about a week ago it was 8% so the needle is moving in the right direction. And that’s just Republicans. It will be interesting to see how the Bolton revelation makes a difference.
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Bitter Scribe said on January 27, 2020 at 11:10 am
Sherri — Don’t get me wrong. So do I. He bought his way out of it, pure and simple.
The victim was subjected to some big-time carrot-and-stick treatment. I believe it was made clear to her that if she proceeded, her reputation would be trashed and her life made miserable. I remember seeing a picture of her in some tabloid, taken at her high school prom, where she was lifting her dress to reveal a garter, which was supposed to prove…God knows what. (Her face was pixelated, but so what.) You just know it was leaked by Kobe’s defense team.
Despite how tragic his death was, despite his help for women’s basketball or anything else, despite his great career, I still have no use for him.
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Julie Robinson said on January 27, 2020 at 11:19 am
LAMary, did your son get back okay? I think about him every time I hear more news about the coronavirus.
Since the only sports I follow are IU basketball and figure skating, I didn’t know much about Kobe Bryant except the rape charges and his wife’s bling. So I hope he had changed, and am sad for the families of everyone in the crash. I did read that other helicopters were grounded because of the fog, so I wonder if it was preventable.
And I’m with Nance on never entering a helicopter. Add to it those gondolas at amusement parks. They give me the heebee-jeebees too.
Since I do follow skating, I was annoyed at NBC breaking into that coverage twice, the first time for 20 minutes while some codger sportswriter rambled on and on. The second time, at the end of the competition, lost us the last two and best skaters. It was pretty dumb–we skating fans would have been happy with a crawl. We are not the audience that wants that kind of coverage, and the audience that does wasn’t watching that network.
Sorry if that sounds churlish, but this was the equivalent of the NBA Finals, and they only broadcast a few paltry hours of it anyway.
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Suzanne said on January 27, 2020 at 12:27 pm
Good old IN Rep Jim Banks was on Twitter this morning linking to a story in the Moonie owned Washington Examiner that the virus in China is the result of a biological weapon in development that escaped from the lab.
Because of course he did.
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Charlotte said on January 27, 2020 at 12:32 pm
Hubris strikes again. It was apparently such foggy weather that even the LAPD helicopters weren’t flying. The same entitlement that had Kobe thinking a 19 year old chambermaid wanted him seems to have caused him to believe that weather didn’t apply to him. Ugh.
I have a girlfriend whose father was flying her two older sisters, aged 16 and 18, and a cousin, home for spring break from prep school. They went down in the mountains above Vail. She went overnight from being the bratty baby sister to the only survivng sibling. It’s a terrible fate that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, even Kobe Bryant’s wealthy wife and 3 surviving daughters. To say nothing of the other families left to deal with losing both parents and a sibling. Heartbreaking.
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alex said on January 27, 2020 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the offer, LA Mary. If they don’t have it at any of the Asian groceries in town I would be surprised, but you never know. It was a labor-intensive dish, very mise-en-place with the food prep, but so worth it. And it’ll be even better next time with the right vinegar.
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Jenny Derringer said on January 27, 2020 at 12:50 pm
Every sports dept. must have a cigar-smoking “Eddie Fisher” that can’t contain his smartass comments and leers. I turned ours in about 20 years ago. He was removed from the sports editor job, but unfortunately they kept the creep on staff.
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Sherri said on January 27, 2020 at 1:21 pm
There are plenty of people I have no use for. I’m not a fangirl of Kobe, but I recognize him for the big impact he had, including the big positive impact he had. He did grow and change, and his actions beyond just PR demonstrated that, and I respect that.
Does it make up for what he did? No. Did he atone for what he did? You’d have to ask the woman he did it to.
I’ve been following sports my whole life. I have no illusions about sports stars being heroes. The rape will always be a part of his story, and should be. There is more to the story, though, because he was a complex human being capable of growth. Many in his position don’t have to grow. Evidence suggests he did, and continued to.
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Mark P said on January 27, 2020 at 2:06 pm
I have ridden in helicopters four times. Twice was in one owned by the newspaper where I worked. I got a lift back from the master’s plantation in South Carolina to the newspaper building in Augusta, Ga. Once was at night, when the pilot asked the fellow riding up front to hold a flashlight just in case his instrument lights went out. The other time was in a strong thunderstorm. The rain was so heavy I couldn’t see the buildings surrounding the newspaper building’s helicopter pad. I’m glad I was young and stupid; otherwise I would have been scared.
The other times were on a military helicopter when I went to Kwajalein Atoll on business. There is a big difference in the ride between a military helicopter and a civilian helicopter. In the military ‘copter, I could feel a big “Whump” every time the blade went around.
It does appear that Bryant flew in conditions that should have grounded him. Add him to the list with John Kennedy Jr. A few years ago a corporate jet took off from our local airport when there were low clouds. They flew about five miles and then right into the side of the mountain where I now live. The corporate bigwigs were in a hurry.
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basset said on January 27, 2020 at 2:13 pm
Back in my former life I was in a helicopter, smaller than Kobe’s, in total instrument conditions, foggy and raining and we couldn’t see out the windows at all. The pilot was very experienced, about 7000 hours including Vietnam and crop dusting, and I asked him what would happen if the power to the instruments failed. He said there was a backup. So what if that fails? He looked at me, dead serious: “Then you might as well open the door and jump out, because you’re gonna die.”
Not trying to connect that to the Kobe crash in any way, no idea what happened there.
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Dorothy said on January 27, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Jeff Borden @ 11 – Slimey Don’s original tweet about Kobe expressed sympathy about his death and the death of ‘three others’. One of the replies to that tweet said “You can’t even get this right.” At that point it was being reported that five people perished. But you’re right – he did another tweet and it was almost a copy of President Obama’s. His picture really must be in the dictionary next to the word dumbass.
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Sherri said on January 27, 2020 at 3:08 pm
My allotment of contempt was already being consumed by Republican Senators, so I had to tap into my contemptment reserves for Ken Starr.
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Suzanne said on January 27, 2020 at 4:38 pm
Above, I meant The Washington Times which is what Banks is linking to for his conspiracy about the virus in China being a rogue biological weapon.
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Deborah said on January 27, 2020 at 4:39 pm
We’re having a rare gray day in Santa Fe, which combined with Republicans defending their disgusting president in the news today has put me in a blue funk. I mean come on, this is ridiculous. Why in the world do they want to defend that slimey criminal? It seems they will do it at their own peril.
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Dexter Friend said on January 27, 2020 at 5:34 pm
Bitter Scribe, thanks for the facts. I do remember Bryant being allowed to travel constantly back and forth to LA during the long process, how he admitted adultery but denied assault. The story went that the woman showed him to his room and then some time later she returned and shortly afterward accused rape. Mike Tyson was convicted of rape of Desiree Washington in Indianapolis, but Tyson has morphed into a popular celebrity who went on tour a few years ago to sold-out crowds just listening to him He brushes off the rape conviction with strong denial and people don’t seem to care anymore. Does this mean we are a forgiving nation?
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Mark P said on January 27, 2020 at 5:41 pm
I now learn that Bryant was not the pilot and total dead is nine. Apparently the pilot was actually a helicopter instructor.
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beb said on January 27, 2020 at 5:46 pm
I would be extremely nervious about any man with sexual abuse allegations working with young woman, whether it be Donald Trump’s ownership of the Miss World contest or a sports coach, trainer, doctor or patron.
I rode a helicopter once. It was one of those glass bubble things with no doors. It only lasted a few minutes but it was an experience I don’t want to repeat again.
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Dexter Friend said on January 27, 2020 at 6:29 pm
When I got the call that a very famous person had died in a helo crash I instantly thought…could it be? Naw…no way. I was right.
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LAMary said on January 27, 2020 at 9:49 pm
Sherri, I’m with you on the rape history. Maybe he got some respect for women after that but it still happened. The woman was 19. She’ll live with that forever. Remember she got death threats for accusing the big deal hero.
My son got home ok but still shocked. He had been thrown out of his hotel because someone heard him cough. The manager banged on his door and told him to get out. No other hotel would give him a room. They said “no foreigners.” When he got to LAX no one checked him to see if he was sick. He asked a guy if they wanted to check him and the guy asked him,”why? are you sick?”
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LAMary said on January 27, 2020 at 9:58 pm
Alex, I work about two miles from Monterrey Park, which is a very Chinese suburb of LA. You can find any Asian ingredient you need, short of pangolin scales, in Monterrey Park. You can also find the most amazing Chinese soup dumplings. OMG. If you find yourself in LA, get in touch and I’ll take you on a dumpling crawl. I’m also addicted to pork belly fried rice.
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alex said on January 28, 2020 at 6:54 am
I’m remembering the last time I was in L.A. It was the 1990s.
I had just ended a relationship with a rather difficult individual. On the very same day that he got a cushy job offer in L.A., I got downsized. He spent the next several months urging me to move out there with him to make a new start together. I thought it was a terrible idea. I didn’t want to be at the financial or emotional mercy of someone who had proven himself much too controlling, but I didn’t mind the idea of spending a few weeks there on vacation on his dime pretending to think about it. By this time I had already started working freelance and had the flexibility to take time off if I wanted.
While he was busy at work, I had a blast and caught up with old friends who’d moved out there. Also spent a little time visiting San Francisco. After two weeks of R&R I was ready to go back to Chicago and resume life happily single. It was the best little respite ever.
Today I’m in a job that doesn’t allow much time off for travel and my partner is situated likewise. We have a heck of a time coordinating our own mini-vacations or staycations. I’m looking forward to retirement sometime within the next ten years depending on what my finances look like and then I’ll be ready for some travel again.
So if I get to California I’ll take you up on it, LA Mary.
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Suzanne said on January 28, 2020 at 7:08 am
I listened to bits of the Republican Trump lawyers yesterday. They were, as one would expect, making idiotic statements about Trump really just trying to clean up Ukraine (Look! Crowdstrike! Squirrel!) and claiming that nothing he did is impeachable. They accomplished what they set out to do, though,which was to keep the story in the news that Hunter Biden and, by association, Joe Biden are corrupt.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 28, 2020 at 8:06 am
Helicopter-wise, I’ve been in two LifeFlights (chaplaincy, not patient) and five or six Black Hawk trips in the service, but my most terrifying was helping with an archaeological survey here in Ohio. I had the shotgun seat in an Ohio Dept. of Transportation helicopter, four seater, with the lead archaeologist in back with a good window; I was in front because I had the marked topographic maps on my lap. The pilot had been in Vietnam where he learned his trade (this was not quite thirty years ago), and every time we had a field between patches of wood where we were looking for early spring traces of 2,000 year old earthworks, the pilot put the bird over on its side for better view, and curled around for a long look down to our right. Repeat that a few dozen times and . . . well, at a certain point, though I’d never been airsick before, I called for a bag, which the backseat couldn’t find, and the pilot watched me in horror — explaining later that he’d had to dismantle his instrument panel twice before after flying politicians around without any aerial maneuvering, and he was already trying to figure out how to fit that time in during the afternoon.
I held on, used a non-traditional method to contain my reaction (long story), and we continued the survey without incident. A week later, I got a fat packet from the pilot of some materials we’d discussed about his service and work since for ODOT, and a note where he expressed his sincere appreciation for my restraint.
We found nothing visual on that trip, by the way, but that’s what surveys are for sometimes. And a spectacular view of Newark, Chillicothe, and the Scioto Valley in general, plus buzzing the Great Seal range of hills that are on Ohio’s state imprimatur.
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Joe Kobiela said on January 28, 2020 at 8:31 am
Whenever someone gets uneasy while flying with me I tell them to start breathing down the front of their shirt and this will help them with airsickness, this way if they do barf it’s contained in their shirt and not all over the airplane. As far as helicopters go, I always ask if their pilots have ever been to a antique helicopter show? They always say no, my point exactly. Plenty of antique airplanes no helicopters left. I’ll let the Ntsb give a probable cause on the crash but I’m guessing controlled flight into terrain. Special vfr allows you to fly with 1mile visibility and clear of clouds, but 1mile visibility at 150mph doesn’t give you much time to react.
Pilot Joe
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Deborah said on January 28, 2020 at 11:33 am
Mmmm pork belly fried rice sounds delicious. That settles it, we’re having Asian food for dinner tonight. Probably stir fry because it’s easy and we have some veggies to use up.
I woke up this morning around 2am after a bad dream. Then it took me forever to get back to sleep, I kept thinking about how this country seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. If they don’t allow witnesses and documents in the Senate after the Bolton revelation, that’s disgusting.
Jeff tmmo, Karl Bode died recently, there’s a nice write-up in the Santa Fe New Mexican about him, I’d link to it but I’ve used up my free articles. For those here who don’t know Bode’s is a general store in Abiquiu that’s been around for ages (pronounced Boh-dee). Karl sold it in 1994 when he retired, the current owner has kept it mostly intact. You can buy a bumper sticker there that says “I wizzed at Bode’s”, the bathrooms have always been slightly gross.
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diane said on January 28, 2020 at 11:34 am
Pilot Joe, why when you talk about flight related things are your posts informative, well written and grammatically correct and yet none of the above when you comment on politics? We may differ on the informative part but how is it that you lose your command of grammar?
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Joe Kobiela said on January 28, 2020 at 11:44 am
Beats me, maybe it’s because when it comes to aviation matters you respect what I have to say, politically you don’t so you try to kill the messenger instead of listening to the message.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on January 28, 2020 at 12:26 pm
I’ve got one last thing to say about Kobe.
When we say things like “he raped a girl, so I’ve got no use for him”, that’s contributing to rape culture, because it sets up this dichotomy that only bad guys and monsters are rapists. The problem with that is, men think, I’m a good guy, I can’t be a rapist, so therefore whatever I did wasn’t rape.
I think we’d be a lot better off in many ways if we could move away from thinking “how do I be good” to “how do I serve others”. I don’t think of Kobe Bryant as a “good guy.” He was a driven, intense competitor, and he was not necessarily a pleasant teammate. He almost certainly committed a rape. Yet he also served others, genuinely, as evidenced by so many people with a Kobe story that goes beyond just surface interaction.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 28, 2020 at 12:57 pm
Deborah, thanks for the Bode note; his passing popped up on my Facebook feed from quite a few directions. He certainly made a mark on the Abiquiu area, and yes, the bathrooms there are still not what leads people to stop, but they’re clearly well used.
Joe, I can’t see how it’s anything but controlled flight into terrain. No “mayday” and no other causes arising — sounds like it’s a JFK Jr. scenario where he was trusting his senses over his instruments, and let a crease in the fog fly him right down into the ground while he thought he was on a level path. Former pilots for Bryant say he wasn’t a “can’t we push on through” guy, but maybe there was something on that day that had him wanting to get there (friends, sadly, counting on him to get them there on the same flight?) and a pilot who was wanting to make an impression, and . . . ah well.
Whether Kobe Bryant or DSK in New York ten years ago or the Weinstein charade where he’s faking his way along in a walker, I think there’s some hope in how these sorts of cases were taken as “cost of doing business” not so very long ago, and now being increasingly found unacceptable. I can’t go into detail in any direction, but I’m intensely aware of how expectations and enforcement have changed in colleges with faculty/student relationships, and clergy/parishioner as well. My more conservative friends worry about overreach and hyper-enforcement, but I think the correction is long overdue, and the results of hyper-overlooking such power differential exploitation, even (especially) when the less empowered person (student, church member) says “everything was consensual and please don’t punish my prof/preacher/boss for the relationship” used to lead to huge damage that lasted for a lifetime for many more than are now being shamed and expelled and fired.
What no one is quite sure how to handle are drunken hook-up intercourse that months and years later is presented as sexual assault. I know my son’s been taught “look, impairment means consent is impossible, so beware a yes from a sozzled significant other: it’s not really a yes.” He doesn’t worry me, but it’s amazing how many college age kids haven’t fully engaged with the idea that intimacy while inebriated is a bad idea for both parties. And that’s as much preaching as I’m going to do down that road for a Tuesday . . .
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basset said on January 28, 2020 at 1:05 pm
Ehhh, Joe, you do tend to be markedly more… let’s just say forceful… and defensive on the political stuff. I think that the difference comes from speaking from your own knowledge on aviation vs. parroting the party line on politics.
Back to helicopters… I was in a Boeing design office some years ago, they used to and may still manufacture some large military helos… and noticed two signs on the wall: “Helicopters don’t fly, they beat the air into submission” and “Helicopters don’t fly, they are so ugly that the earth repels them.”
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Heather said on January 28, 2020 at 1:34 pm
Indeed, Sherri, people are complex, and representing them as “good” or “bad” doesn’t serve us in so many ways. Not quite the same thing, but the sister of an ex who died earlier this year contacted me wanting to understand what his mindset was the last few years. She said she’d gotten so many different sides of him from talking to his friends–this was someone who everyone called “a good guy.” Yes, he was a nice guy in many ways, but he also sometimes treated his girlfriends terribly. Painting someone as a “good guy” means their hurtful behavior is either minimized or seen as an outlying factor–e.g., “that’s not like him.” Well, he (general “he”) did it, so actually it IS him.
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Jakash said on January 28, 2020 at 1:44 pm
Just to be clear, PJ, disdaining the message and killing the messenger are not the same thing. We “listen” to your political messages. Often, some of us refute them, using actual facts and links, rather than partisan bromides. Then you ignore the substance of whatever we’ve posted and call us condescending. Rinse and repeat.
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Joe Kobiela said on January 28, 2020 at 2:05 pm
Jakash,
And when someone does the same to you?
Pilot Joe
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Mark P said on January 28, 2020 at 2:23 pm
Pilot Joe, the NTSB report is what we need. News reports have been obviously wrong so far. First it was five dead, with an assumption that Bryant was flying. Then it was nine dead with an experienced helicopter instructor as pilot. I heard one report that the helicopter hit upside down. I heard another report that it impacted at 161 kt. How could anyone know either of those at this point, lacking eyewitnesses (with a radar gun). The reported impact speed is higher than I have found for that helicopter’s top speed. And, it appears they were not on radar at the time of the crash. So at this point, no one really knows what happened.
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Jakash said on January 28, 2020 at 3:13 pm
Honestly, it doesn’t happen all that often, as I try to be careful with what I post. But if a fact contradicts something I’ve written, I try to acknowledge it. In an odd coincidence, Nancy’s way-back machine over there in the purple today offers an example of an instance where I *was* corrected. You could look at comment #67 to this post for an example of how I replied when it was demonstrated that I’d gotten carried away with some rhetoric.
I’ve conceded points to several people here before, when the situation calls for it. And when somebody engages in a legitimate argument, taking the time to use citations to make their point, my response is not to call them condescending. Thanks for asking.
http://nancynall.com/2011/01/28/caffeine-and-bloggage/#comment-373933
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Charlotte said on January 28, 2020 at 4:50 pm
Sherri — I’m with you on that. Was emailing with my friend who lost her family in a small plane crash when she was 13 — she’s lived in the greater Vail area for her whole life. There’s not a lot of love for Kobe there, but even she said that what’s hitting her so hard is the kids, and that he seemed to really have been a great dad. People can grow, and learn, and still be hugely flawed.
But that bright light of a kid, and the other families … that hits so hard.
Let’s hope none of them saw it coming. Or survived the impact.
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Joe Kobiela said on January 28, 2020 at 5:19 pm
Top cruise speed in a S76 is around 155knt that’s about 167mph if I figured correctly.
✈️ Joe
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susan said on January 28, 2020 at 5:23 pm
178.37081 mph
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David C. said on January 28, 2020 at 6:02 pm
When I worked in avionics, I worked with several pilot/engineers. They all told me to never get in a helicopter. They all had the same reason. Too many potentially catastrophic single point failures.
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