Had to go get back x-rays yesterday…
Not a lot of fun, got twisted into positions I couldn’t get into when I was MUCH younger. Hurts to sit, hurts to stand, so you get a meme while I try to get my back unkinked…
And yes, EXTREMELY grumpy yesterday…
Made its debut 51 years ago, February 9th, 1969…
At least Boeing saved this one… And it became known as the 100 or SP series. The upstairs portion in the hump behind the cockpit was depending on the airline, either a lounge or ‘private’ first class seating.
I got my first flight on one in early 1973, from DFW to HNL aboard this bird…
It was known as Big Orange, and I remember that each ‘section’ had a different color scheme. Upstairs was a lounge and snacks. And they were FAST! Cruising at 560 kts, that was a quick trip to Hawaii. Ironically, a couple of weeks ago, yet another 747 broke the record for the fastest trip from New York to London, thanks to a ‘significant’ tail wind of about 240 kts, beating two Airbuses that were minutes ahead of them and minutes behind them because they cruise slower… LOL
Not bad for a 50+ year old design.
Stuffed in the back of the sardine can on the way back from SLC yesterday, got pretzels and a little glass of Coke… sigh…
Granted it was a quicker trip, but…
An interesting bit of history that most of you are too young to remember. The docks where the Clippers tied up on Guam are now part of the marina on Naval Station.
Flying the Atlantic during the late 1930’s in the Pan Am Clipper.
You jet jockeys and frequent fliers will really appreciate this nostalgic look back in time at the Pan Am Clipper! Be sure to look at it all. The ‘fate’ of the Pan-Am Clipper was shocking.
Clipper passengers took their meals at real tables, not their seats. See below…
For most travelers in the 21st century flying is a dreary experience full of inconvenience, indignity and discomfort.
That wasn’t the case in the late 1930’s when those with the money to afford trans-oceanic flight got to take the Boeing Model 314, better known as the Clipper. Even Franklin Roosevelt used the plane celebrating his 61st birthday on board. Between 1938 and 1941 Boeing built 12 of the jumbo planes for Pan American World Airways.
The Clipper had a range of 3,500 miles — enough to cross either the Atlantic or Pacific with room for 74 passengers onboard. Of course modern aviation offers an amazing first class experience (and it’s a whole lot safer), but nothing in the air today matches the romanticism of crossing the oceans in the famed Clipper.
The nickname Clipper came from an especially fast type of sailing ship used in the 19th century. The ship analogy was appropriate, as the Clipper landed on the water, not runways.
On the Pan Am flights passengers had access to dressing rooms and a dining salon that could be converted into a lounge or bridal suite.
The galley served up meals catered from four-star hotels. If you want to sit at a table to eat with other people these days you have to fly in a private jet. There was room for a crew of 10 to serve as many as 74 passengers.
On overnight flights the 74 seats could be turned into 40 bunks for comfortable sleeping. The bunk beds came with curtains for privacy.
Unlike some modern jets that come with joysticks the Clipper had controls that resembled car steering wheels.
Navigating across the oceans required more manpower in the air.
The Clipper made its maiden Trans-Atlantic voyage on June 28, 1939.
But once the U. S. entered World War II the Clippers were pressed into service to transport materials and personnel.
POSTSCRIPT:
Prior to WWII the Japanese military became very interested in the new Pratt & Whitney radial engines that powered the PanAm Clipper.
On a flight from San Francisco to China a Clipper landed on Truk Lagoon to be refueled by Japanese authorities. Later the Clipper was assumed lost over the Pacific. Years later it was revealed that the crew and passengers were arrested and executed. The engines were retrieved and sent to Japan and the Clipper was sunk in deep water off Truk Lagoon.
Sadly, none of these aircraft exist today.
Sigh… Apparently the scheduler didn’t, so you get a combined post…
Day 2- MOAR panels… We had fun with the horses panel, got some good info out, even with a couple of presenters that did the SQUIRREL thing a couple of times. I mentioned cutting horses, and I see one young guy in a cowboy hat do a fist pump. Turns out he rides broncs and bulls in the local rodeos, and also works on a ranch.
Funniest thing so far, Larry Correia, Pete Nealen, and I doing an impromptu gun and Cartels panel in the hallway for an hour…. Had eight or nine folks standing around going, “I didn’t know that.”
Glad I decided NOT to attend one of the panels Larry was on, I would probably have been thrown out for ‘contradicting’ one of the panelists… She apparently made the SAME stupid comment as last year…
Last day today, and I’m not on any panels so I can go attend panels that I want to see. And we ‘might’ have put another anthology together… LOL…
I was also humbled by the number of folks that apparently like my writing and are now following me, plus the compliments we’ve received on the panels I was on.
Day 3- Thankfully no panels today. Lots of side discussions, actually got to attend a few panels, and more side discussions, plus plans for ‘specific’ panels for next year. Dogs were barking and my back wasn’t liking me… So short evening. I’ll be sitting at the airport waiting on the flight home as you read this.
Again, my apologies for the missed post.
And we’re off and running… First panel was at 0900, and we almost filled the room! Good mix of folks, and quite a few compliments. Second panel was at 1300, ‘interesting’ mix of comments, both from the other panelists, and the kibitzers… You know who you were…
The usual mix of suspects, good to see a lot of familiar faces, and it’s kinda scary when people are still talking about panels we gave last year. There seem to be less of the total wallflowers this year, and more people interacting, maybe that’s just me, but I’m not seeing the large groups hiding the corners this year.
Sadly, some folks couldn’t make it for a variety of reasons, and they are missed. So far, the best ZCQOTD- If I see one more mention of a ‘gray’ corpse, I’m gonna give them a demonstration, ON THEIR OWN CORPSE!
Off to bed early, my tired old ass was dragging last night. I always hate the first night in a hotel, trying to get the temps right, and get my body to ‘like’ the bed… Sigh…
Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day to all you ladies out there!
At Life The Universe and Everything in Utah through Sunday. LTUE is a writer centric con with over 200 panels covering a wealth of information. Their website is HERE.
Doing a few panels- Colonizing the Sea: Living on and under the Waves, The Cold War and Science Fiction, Horsing Around: Use, Care, and Feeding of Horses, and Disabilities Aren’t Superpowers: Balancing Human Durability and Frailty. You can find the guest list HERE, and look under the Cs to find my name and schedule.
Also, just for S&Gs, putting The Grey Man- Vignettes and Rimworld- Into the Green up on Kindle for $0.99 today through Sunday.
Also, proof copies of Burnt Ends is in house… Now comes the ‘fun’ of roof preading… Sigh…
Hopefully this one will release early next month, and it is ONLY going to be paperback, since all but two short stories are already up on my author page.
One story, Rocking C, is a short that was the first story I sold. It went into a vampire anthology. The other, To the End of the Trail, is a short in the Western series I’m currently working on.
First up, Monalisa Foster’s newest short story- Pretending to Sleep- A Communism Survivor’s Short Story
As always, click the cover for the link!
The blurb-
Based on actual events, this short story provides a quick glimpse into life under Ceausescu’s brutal communist regime. Like so many Romanians, ten-year-old Renata lives in fear of Securitate (Ceausescu’s secret police). They don’t always take you in the middle of the night. In a world where the living envy the dead, not all examples are made in the shadows. Some are made in the light of day.
This one is truth, plain, simple, and unadorned. It’s not pretty… But it’s a damn good read if you want to know what it was actually like behind the Iron Curtain.
Next is another installment of Wayne Whisnand’s story arc with Tole- One of Those Days
The blurb-
A plan gone wrong serves as a forceful reminder to Tole that even though things seem to be going according to plan, your guard is something you should never let down. Everyone has an off day, but when you’re a killer for hire an off day can be your last.
Good quick read, great characters, and an interesting story.
I was first in Italy in the summer of 1969, and I remember the tension then…
While there are some in the United States who believe we are headed toward another Civil War, there is perhaps another, more recent parallel worth exploring – the so-called “Italian Years of Lead.”
The short version is that in the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Italy was a hotbed of assassination, shoot-outs and bombings between various factions of the far-left, the far-right and the Italian government – with American, British and Soviet intelligence agencies often pulling the strings.
From Ammo.com, HERE.
And I was in and out of Italy from 1978 through 1986 with the US Navy… We were ‘always’ briefed to keep our presence low key, not to drive official vehicles off base, and were granted approval to have regular Italian tags on vehicles, rather than ‘official’ AFI plates. It was a touchy time, not just in Italy, but also in Greece and Germany. Reading this article sent shivers up the spine, remembering the crap that was going on, and I was glad I was down in Sicily, not up around Rome or further north.
In the ‘money’ game is playing out in Australia…
Have you ever considered the data trail you leave as you swipe a card or make electronic payments for transactions over the course of your day? Australian officials have considered it, and they apparently think that trail of digital breadcrumbs is just an awesome step on the road to a surveillance state.
Full article, HERE.
This is NOT the first time this idea has been floated, but this one is actually making its way through the Australian House.
I remember when the European countries switched over to the Euro and the amount of black market money that got ‘turned in’, especially in Spain and Italy… Up until the banks started limiting the amount of money would could exchange at any one time…
I found the article, HERE from the Guardian in 2014, it doesn’t go into the black market economy per se, but I remember hearing that an estimated 302B in Pesetas had come from the black market just in Spain, and Italy’s Lira was estimated to be that or more. I also remember that it was hard to actually use a credit card to pay for anything, even then in the smaller towns. They wanted traveller’s checks or green (USD), because so much of both countries existed in a barter economy that wasn’t able to be taxed…
And that, for most countries IS the bottom line, more taxes… Sigh…
h/t VD
IF these are correct there definitely ARE being some games played…\
Supposedly the actual vote counts from Iowa.
| First Vote | Final Vote | Total S.D.E.s | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Pct. | Votes | Pct. | Votes | Pct. |
| Buttigieg | 36,718 | 21.3% | 42,235 | 25.0% | 550 | 26.2% |
| Sanders | 42,672 | 24.7 | 44,753 | 26.5 | 547 | 26.1 |
| Warren | 32,007 | 18.6 | 34,312 | 20.3 | 381 | 18.2 |
| Biden | 25,699 | 14.9 | 23,051 | 13.7 | 331 | 15.8 |
| Klobuchar | 21,896 | 12.7 | 20,525 | 12.2 | 255 | 12.2 |
| Yang | 8,660 | 5.0 | 1,752 | 1.0 | 22 | 1.0 |
| Steyer | 3,001 | 1.7 | 407 | 0.2 | 7 | 0.3 |
| Uncommitted | 955 | 0.6 | 1,410 | 0.8 | 4 | 0.2 |
| Other | 158 | 0.1 | 204 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Bloomberg | 214 | 0.1 | 20 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Gabbard | 326 | 0.2 | 15 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Bennet | 146 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Patrick | 49 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Delaney | 9 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
This does tend to lend credit to the one blurb that popped up ONCE on a feed about Bernie’s lawyers getting involved prior to midnight Monday…
And, again, if these numbers are right, there is once again a concerted effort to ‘minimize’ Bernie because the Dems are scared to death of him.