Post  #2496.   USAF screw-up assignments; other.     

VD Control Officer at Thule AB
FOD Report Compiler at Palooka ANGB (Arkansas) no runway
Golf Pro at Shemya AFB (Renamed Eareckson Air Station in 1993

This post will have to get a new title because I wanted to include a Margaret Cho haiku, spoken but not written down after her visit to Calcutta. It goes, A man in a suit taking a dump in the street. It wasn't on the Internet anywhere and for some reason I thought it should be and yes I know it doesn't qualify as a haiku (does if you translate it.)

I took Econ 201 back in 1965 and one of the things I remember Mr. Smith saying was that the price of salt was probably the best gauge of inflation in the economy. So, I just bought some for Safeway delivery next Tuesday, one of the greatest advances in the history of civilization, by the way, online grocery shopping, and the price was 99 cents. That would indicate there's been very little inflation, according to Mr. Smith. It has taken 45 years, but I think he may have been wrong on that one. Another teacher, Mr. Grover, (Amer Gov class, 1961, high school) was worried to death about the federal budget deficit and where it was going. Especially the interest that would be eating us alive if current trends continued. I looked it up: interest on the National Debt was $9.2 billion in 1960, and the total debt amounted to $1,572 for every person in the United States. Oh my. To have numbers like that again. And Mr. Grover must be apoplectic by now.

And second to last for today, on a timely and stupid subject: Only three days before the election, terror incident grips nation. We're talking about the mail bombs here, the ones placed aboard cargo jets bound from Yemen to Chicago where they were to be delivered to Jewish synagogues. Am I not seeing something, or are the people involved in all of this (both sides) auditioning for a Saturday Night Live Skit? Any one of us could write it, down to where the the Synagogue mail lady rushes into the Rabbi's office with the package, excitedly asking if she can open it, All the way from Yemen! Imagine that. What could it be?

Also perhaps stupid, another ship was seized by pirates off the coast of East Africa. Again, what am I missing? You have the combined fleets of most of the world's mightiest countries out there, satellites, drones, helicopters, Mach 2 fighters and other magic stuff we don't know about, and still they can't stop those stoned teenagers from grabbing gigantic ships with their tiny boats. Amazing. Rick Macherat

posted by Rick at 12:36 AM

Post  #2495.   My favorite.      Just today, we were both reminded .. well, here it is anyway. So Seattle. He's a little lumpy, she's lovely and smitten. It's raining, and who cares.


This photograph was taken by Seasun. He takes a lot of them, and they're all here. You'll want to click on this one to enlarge it.Rick Macherat

posted by Rick at 12:41 AM

Post  #2494.   Dress Code.     In a really high-end restaurant, be on the safe side and dress as you would for the funeral of a close elderly relative. Also, anytime you attend an event in a location noted for its soaring, world-class, cutting-edge, awe-inspiring, New York Times-impressing architecture, you might want to wear something, say, dignified. Unless it's in Seattle, of course.

Rick Macherat

posted by Rick at 1:41 AM