Ever heard the phrase “bread ‘n butter”? If a couple walking down the street hand in hand are seperated by a pole, mailbox, or other obstruction, you say “bread ‘n butter”. I don’t know why, but you just do. I consider myself fairly cultured, but this one completely escaped me until I met Lesley. I figured it was an English… Read more →
Assessing the Damage
Ahhh, fresh air and rain–manna from heaven! It seems that Mother Nature has accomplished what 15,000 firefighters, dozens of aircraft, and millions of dollars could not. The fires are finally under control. It’s been two weeks of pure hell for many Southern Californians, not to mention something like a million acres of land and a couple thousand homes burned. Disasters… Read more →
Just Say “No” to Macintosh
Reason #1845 Not To Own A Macintosh I’ve never been a huge Macintosh fan. It’s not that the computers themselves suck, though I must admit I’ve used the Mac a lot over the years and in my experience it crashes more often than the Windows boxes I’ve owned. My dislike of the Macintosh has more to do with the irritating… Read more →
Van Nuys Courthouse Shooting
Between the ambulance chasers, frivolous lawsuits, corporate maneuvering, high finance, and other big dollar areas of our society which are controlled by attorneys, it’s no wonder that dead lawyer jokes are as common as peanuts on a Southwest 737. It’s understandable. Consider our nation’s finest minds, our most brilliant and highly educated physicians. These are people have worked their way… Read more →
Flying and the California Fires
I’ve only been flying out of the Los Angeles basin for about six years, but in that time I’ve been witness to some unusual stuff. September 11th comes to mind. I recall standing outside the fence at John Wayne Airport and listening to the sound of complete silence. The Southwest jets normally found on the east side were replaced with… Read more →
On Crime and Punishment
I’ve never been one of those people who believes that God strikes people down with a bolt of lightning when He’s unhappy with them. After all, if this were the case I would have been burned to a crisp years ago. No, I think His method is to allow organizations like the FAA or IRS to hound people like me… Read more →
“Real” Flying
One fine summer afternoon, a tiny Cessna 150 was flying in the pattern at a quiet country airfield. The instructor was getting irritated at the student’s inability to maintain altitude in the thermals. Just then he saw a twin engine Cessna zoom by 5,000 ft. above him and thought “Another 1,000 hrs of this and I qualify for that twin… Read more →
Camera For Sale
Anyone need a cool digital camera, cheap? A friend sent me this message: “I’m selling a friend’s digital camera. He’s in the hospital now, and will probably be there for a while. He needs the money to pay for medical bills – it’s a great camera, see the attached last picture he took to see the amazing photo resolution &… Read more →
Who’s the Boss?
Congratulations, Governor-elect Schwarzenegger. I’ve never been a fan of Gray Davis, but I have to admit he gave a very graceful concession speech. Not that there were many options open to him. The results were so lopsided that it would have been tough to blame the loss on hanging chads or voter disenfranchisement. Nice to see that he’s smart enough… Read more →
Zoom-Zoom!
Those kooky Brits. If I tried anything like this in the U.S. I’d lose my pilot certificate faster than you could slap that annoying little “zoom zoom” kid from the Mazda commercials. Maybe they have a get-out-of-jail free card for anyone who flies a Spitfire… Read more →