Tin Indians

GM announces...

"The Pontiac brand will be discontinued".

Just like that...

"Mainstream performance vehicles" since 1926.

The venerable GTOs, Gran Prixs, Firebirds and Trans Ams...

Will be gone.

Once employment for my Grandfather, father, uncles and cousins...

Gone.

When we were kids...

We called them "Tin Indians".

A bust of Chief Pontiac...

Looking forward from their hoods.

The Chief would have been proud at one time...

Now, he is just sad.

Now the Chief looks backward...

And says, "All good things..."

Crow On Fifty (Ayn - the last installment)

You may recall the one installment of this series on Ayn ("ine") and her Atlas Shrugged opus was focussed on dissing her for her fifty page speech that I (so cleverly) estimated would take around three hours to deliver.  That speech was on pages 929-979.

Well, "ine" nailed me on page 1007.  That is to say... she was all over me like a cheap suit.  On that page she has the protagonist explain that it took him "three hours" to make his point to the nation.  In the same vicinity she has yet another character refer to the speech as "too intellectual for the common man."  That would be me.

So I am eating a little crow here but it doesn't taste too bad.  I am thankful she presented the book and I had the opportunity to go on an incorrect tangent... as I so often do in all matters.

But consider this... I was so impressed with the speech I paused to read a page of it out loud and used that to estimate the length of the thing.  I came up with three hours right?  So how do you suppose Ayn ("ine") did it?  I have to figure she must have done something similar otherwise how would she have pointed out the duration some 30 pages later?  I call this an intriguing coincidence and man, I  love intrigue! 

Here I was; thinking she was just rambling on, page after page as she composed her speech in long hand sometime around the mid-ninteen fifties.  No problem as there wasn't much on TV at the time right?!  But now I am pretty sure she was deliberate in that effort.  My apologies Ayn.

And now for something final in stating my awe in this book and it's writer.  Thousands of people have surely described both a lot better but here is my take: 

Ayn was a rugged individualist who devoutly believed in the merits of capitalism and self-interest.  She believed (I say "correctly") that without those attributes a country such as ours could not exist... that if we reach too far into socialism we will surely fail.  She was an avid, brilliant student of philosophy, history and industry.  Her talents and beliefs are expertly woven into Atlas Shrugged for over a thousand glorious pages (except for one 50 page speech).  It is a novel with a vital lesson about how our economy should work.  It is also imbedded with five of the most remarkable main characters one can imagine... exactly the sort of leaders we need right now, in the midst of this economic crisis.

If you can't tell by now that I loved this book then just ask yourself, "Who in the hell is John Galt?!"  You will find out...  and along the way consider this:

"I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

Lemon Rineand

"Houston.  We have a problem"

Okay, okay we have produced three blogs in high praise of "Atlas Shrugged", written by my very close friend and colleague (in my mind) Ayn Rand (pronounced "Ine").

Suddenly, on page 929, I have come across the reason "Ine" is renowned as a philosopher.  It is on that page, 929, where she begins a speech by her main protagonist. The speech lasts precisely 50 pages...no breaks.  To put this in perspective, I launched a cool little Internet stop watch and timed the reading of one of these pages...out loud and at the pace you would normally expect.  It took over three and a half minutes.  That equates to at least 175 minutes of...speech - no breaks. Just a hair short of three hours.  Pretty deep material too.   

After I got a half dozen pages into it I suddenly realized "Ine" was trapping me.  That is when I stopped to tally the depth of her trap.  Fifty big ones.  I am not even sure Mother Teresa could sit still for a speech like that.  This must be why they have the famous "Ayn Rand Institute",  http://www.aynrand.org.  It is because there are a bunch of folks who are spending their entire lives trying to figure out what she said on pages 929-979 of "Atlas Shrugged'.  No.  I am not joining.

So I am thinking; practically, there is no way I will ever in my lifetime read all those pages.  I won't even skim them.

I withstood Philosophy in college and know how painful it can be to try to understand some of those folks... I mean if it was easy everyone would be a philosopher right?!  Anyway, now I know why Ayn hit the big time in philosophy circles - she took the time to write a 50 page speech.  I have also found that she wrote it long hand and had a typist assisting her - a typist who could hunt and peck all day without nodding off and having her head hit the keyboard...er, I mean typewriter.

Now I have moved past the, "You guys are wrong and I am right" speech and am continuing to love the book. A little over a hundred pages left and I will file a final report on this, perhaps the greatest book I have ever read... except for the speeches.

The Tea Bagger

As a trusted agent of the Tea Bag movement, the tea bagger knew there would be a time when he would be teased.  Nevertheless, he carried on as a true warrior of tea would.  Of course, he was concerned the movement would attract a bunch of really radical conservatives… those known to consume copious amounts of teapot but he wasn’t afraid of their spontaneous giddiness or for that matter, their curious, insatiable thirst for seriously sweetened tea.

He also knew most of the female members of the Tea  Bag movement liked to teaspoon but he was familiar with the position and felt physically up to it although he occasionally suffered from embarrassing bouts of teargas.  In fact, many of them liked to teammate but he drew the line there… and dismissed their overtures, accusing them of having too much teapot.   Rather than cavort in this fashion, the Tea Bagger preferred to teach teamwork… hence the origin of the expression “manage a tearois”.  Often, he would also warn his students to avoid over consumption of tea, lest they accidently teapee into someone’s teapot, a possibly embarrassing situation for all.

And don’t forget all those Tea Bag parties coming up on April 15^th ladies and gentlemen.  The Tea Bagger will be there somewhere… watching and teaching you.

For further clarification: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/teabag-party-mix-up-video_n_185058.html

Language can be so difficult sometimes can't it?  Of course, if you make it up... so what?! 

Ine* Rand 678, Ine* 679

A little over 800 pages in now

Pause to reflect

"Atlas Shrugged" takes you everywhere

Far beyond the powerful messages

First copyrighted in 1957

You know she was writing by hand... or typing

Funny math - roughly 500 words a page

Over 1,000 pages, over 500,000 words

Unbelievable Passion, Strength, Logic, Imagination

Mark this book everywhere... everywhere

To meet her and discuss just one page

Would be the experience of a lifetime

Pages 678 and 679

Abound in run-on sentences

Not a single paragraph break

To give you respite

It's as if she is saying 

"You will love this, but you will work for it."

...and she is right

...and you will

* phonetic spelling makes it more fun...  

RandallC...You've Been Found!

The Internet, invented by the famous chadman, Al Gore, has this amazing power to answer virtually all questions. Also, to "Google" something is now considered a verb in all respectable circles. This is a well earned distinction I would say.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought again of an old friend I worked with in Udorn Thailand many years ago. We were part of a group of Photo Interpreters working in Air Force Intelligence. Our specialty was interpreting reconnaissance photography. That and drinking Singha...Thai beer.

We had special light tables for loading and reviewing

L-R; Yours Truly, Oscar Tisby Jr., Tom Beamon,
Randall Craft. Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base.
Thailand, 1972.  Oscar is all decked out in honorary
Thai flowers because he is headed home.

cans of film. The cans were fresh from F-4 Phantom missions. Cameras on the planes were positioned to give us a three dimensional "stereo" view of the terrain below. This helped us spot North Vietnamese targets such as anti-aircraft artillery, surface to air missiles sites and supply trucks.

Randall C was one of the best, if not the best of us. Whenever I would spot something on film and wasn't sure quite what it was I would consult him. Sometimes we would argue the finer points; "'That is a probable occupied 57 millimeter site!" "No, that is a possible occupied 57 millimeter site!"

Whatever we would agree on would be pencilled into photo interpretation reports and sent to key punch operators who would get the reports in the system. From there, they would be sent to military agencies in Southeast Asia who were responsible for tracking enemy movements and setting up targets for bombing missions.  

Oscar Tisby was one of our crew.  Oscar was the fastest keypunch operator (typist) I have ever seen. He was also one of the happiest people on the planet. When Oscar got our reports, he would key them in like lightening, using huge fingers that dwarfed the keyboard.

Tom B, Randall C, Tom C, Jeff ?
Our own little bar right behind our Photo Recce shop
Udor RTAFB, 1972 

We also had our own little homemade bar, complete with ping-pong table out in back of our main building and we would often retire there after working a grave shift.

Left to right in the bar: Tom Beamon, RandallC, TomC and Jeff(?)

RandallC and I had a few outside adventures while at Udorn as well. Once, we got off grave shift and hit the on base Thai restaurant for a quick breakfast with a Singha on the side.  For some reason we then decided to rent a motorcycle - even though I would say neither of us were experienced riders. I had been on one before and knew how to shift the gears so I was self-elected to handle the controls with Randall C on the back.  

We had a fairly uneventful trip speeding up and down the highway as I recall, except at one point we decided to stop somewhere and have a beer.  We spotted this Thai bar alongside the highway and headed for it.  As we pulled up in front, I noticed the front door was open and really had no sill to speak of (it could have had a dirt floor but I don't exactly recall). With that, I just rode the bike right inside the bar, put the kickstand down and RandallC and I proceeded to have a beer. Luckily, the Thai management were pretty amused by the event. RandallC had an infectious smile (cheese eating grin might be a more apt description) and that is most likely what saved us.

I was privileged to work with those great guys and a couple of weeks ago I Googled Randall  C.  I found him and now we are back in touch after more than 35 years.  Wow!!!

P.S. I am sad to say I also Googled Oscar shortly after posting this blog entry. I found him in his home state of Indiana...among the obituaries. Oscar passed away just a few weeks ago, on the 6th of March. Oscar Tisby Jr. spent one four year hitch in the Air Force and then rejoined his family in Indiana. He retired from Bethlehem Steel and was 60 years old when he passed. Oscar was a great gentleman and I hope to see him again one day...I will sip a glass of fine wine tonight in his honor. Rest In Peace Sir.  (I couldn't find Tom Beamon - where are you Tom?!)