“...if the pilot says it is UNSAFE to fly through some rain, then godammit, it is VERY UNSAFE.”

Cryptonomicon is among my favorite books ever. It’s quite a tome, 1,000 pages or so, but I’ve read it cover-to-cover ten times; it’s simply that good.

In Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson details his protagonist’s adventure with wisdom teeth removal. I’ve always suspected it was in part at least autobiographical. It’s a bit longish but well worth the read:

“Riding coach can be an excruciating, constricting experience...”

In the early ‘70s I learned to fly at Freeway Airport (W00) in Maryland, about halfway between Annapolis and DC. There is a nudist park a few miles east of the runway that you fly right over on initial approach*. This led to very low, slow approaches in the summer when a gaggle of pretty, naked girls waved excitedly…

And on their retreat. Of some 400,000 men who left France, only about 100,000 reached Moscow, and only about 10,000 made it back. Most of those were divisions that turned back very early. Attacking Russia in the winter is a very bad idea.

Actor John de Lancie who played “Q” on ST:TNG once appeared at a convention even though he had a very bad cold. After his presentation the MC noticed he had left a partially used glass of water on the stage, and jokingly offered to auction it off. Amazingly, spirited bidding ensued and the winner announced he was…

“Level up your smoking skills...”

“Level up your smoking skills...”

Tip 1: never attack Moscow in the winter.

Heartlanders! Heartlanders! Heartlanders! That show demonstrated the absolute necessity of maintaining nuclear parity.

The Moosylvania statehood campaign was all class. Here’s the van in which they pulled up to the gates of the White House. Pay attention kids; this is the only time you’ll ever see Bullwinkle dancing with a Playboy bunny.

Colony always reminded me of Falling Skies in that it couldn’t decide what show it wanted to be: an alien invasion story, a family drama, or a rag-tag band of rebels flight against [insert evil here] with nothing but heart and guts epic.

In related news, the new Ikea app automatically identifies which parts will be left over when you’re done.

The airline industry is there for you.

Fun well-known fact: the title Godzilla: King Of The Monsters has a lot to live down. The original 1954 Japanese movie was of course called Gojira (ゴジラ). It was a dark, atmospheric meditation on what it was like to get nuked, and what a spectacularly bad idea WWII turned out to be for Japan. In 1956 the film was…

“Air travel is arguably the worst.”

Thank you. I’ve often wondered why, given transporter technology, they bothered with things like eating, sleeping, bathroom chores, medical treatment, exercise etc. They could just periodically, or even continuously, beam each crew-member into a nourished, rested, evacuated, healthy, buff state.

Fun fact: the Star Trek transporter was a cost-saving plot device. The original plan was for the Enterprise to land on a new planet every week for a new adventure, but the sfx cost was prohibitive. Forbidden Planet, one of Gene’s sources for Trek, featured an energy beam that protected the crew while the ship…

Eastern Airlines used to operate shuttle flights between Washington DC, New York and Boston. They flew every hour on the hour, and you were guaranteed a seat; if they came up short they rolled out another airplane. This happened once, and the second plane had only one person aboard. After takeoff he got up, picked up…

“We’ve opened it and, thank God, the world has not fallen into darkness.”