Sleepless in Midland

CAF Airsho 2007

There was a fascinating demonstration performed by the pilot of an F/A-18 at the Airsho yesterday.  The plane would aim straight for the ground, then it would tilt sharply upward, and the downward thrust would bring it almost to a stop.  It was fascinating.  Deafening, too.

And the old warbirds appear to be holding up well.  The show begins with a reenactment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and those of us who have seen it many times were crossing our fingers and  hoping the U.S. could  recover from it one more time.  Sure enough, we did.  But it certainly was a reminder that we shouldn't let our down guard.

That F/A-18 demonstration was impressive, but we know there are people in other countries presently working on ways to neutralize U. S. weaponry.  And hopefully the next president will recognize that being ahead of the pack is not a place to get complacent.

Related:  Someone has posted a youtube video of one of the simulated bombing runs from Airsho 2007.  And I look forward to what the CAF Colonel at Streams has to say about the show and his experiences there.

Wartime phone books

We had Ken Burns' war show on tv giving the History Channel a brief run for its money.   And we've got the CAF Airsho beginning Saturday, 9/29/07.  So what better time to review ads from the phone books of 1942 through 1945?

Give him a break.  Folks knew there was a war on, and telephone users were reminded to keep the lines clear between 7 and 10 pm in case the soldier calls home.   And the ladies want to keep looking sharp  -- good for morale.  And be courteous to the others on your party line.

The images were captured today at the MIdland Public Library.

The GM no-work jobs -- Carry on working

There was a string of British "Carry On" comedies that made the college movie house circuit years ago, and among them was a jab at unions titled Carry on at Your Convenience.  (More info at Carry On At Your Convenience Trivia.)

The movie was about union management strife at a factory which manufactured bathroom fixtures ("conveniences" over there).  And one scene was hilarious.  The union had somehow set up a small group of employees in "no-work" jobs.  They merely showed up punched in, and killed time.  They didn't have to do any work, they just hung around until quitting time.  However, one day unbeknownst to them, the union called a strike.  But those employees didn't find out about it until four hours later.  And when they did, they were furious!  They had "worked" for half a day when they didn't have to!  First rate satire.

So this brings us to the GM strike that ended early this morning.  It seems that GM had employees in "no-work" jobs called the "jobs bank."  Their jobs had been mechanized, but GM kept them on in no-work jobs.  See articles from 2005 and 2006:  Jobs bank programs -- 12,000 paid not to work and G.M.'s Jobs Bank Looms as Major Obstacle on Road to Survival.

So here we are in September of 2007, the GM union members walked out, a tentative agreement was reached, and the workers are supposed to go back to work.  But what about those no-work workers?  Are their jobs safe?  Apparently so.  See GM, UAW Reach Contract Agreement, Ending 2-Day Strike (Update7):

"We got the job-security guarantees we were looking for," Gettelfinger said. These include a modified version of the "jobs bank" program that allows UAW members to receive paychecks even if there was no work for them to do, he said.

What a relief.  The details aren't available, but it appears that the no-work jobs are safe.  GM shareholders must be so proud.

Improbable road sights

Just a few photos from an ordinary drive in the desert:  A grinning dinosaur with a cigar smoking caveman, a UFO, and a roadside picnic table.

Actually the dinosaur and caveman are prominent features of the city park in Iraan, Texas, a very pleasant little community.  When there be sure to visit the museum which has on display some of Iraan Archeological Society's photos of area cave art.

The UFO is actually a Lightships blimp cruising along I-10 over Eureka Draw in West Texas.  There probably should have been a message scrolling along the side, but the message board was dark that day.

And finally, way out in the middle of nowhere, a picnic table.  I've stopped there numerous times, and I've never seen another car there.  But that disabled parking spot is what really gets me.  I suppose it was made mandatory by the law authorizing the highway expenditures.  But way out there on a sparsely traveled road one has to question whether it's really necessary.  In case you are wondering, no, I didn't park in that spot.

"Death at a Funeral," the movie

If you haven't experienced a parent's funeral, you will.  And for me, my parents' funerals were times to let go and experience an emotional release followed by an unexpected serenity.  Or maybe a little guilt.

Leave it to the Brits to come up with a movie that will make you laugh at a funeral.  It's Death at a Funeral, and it's hilarious.  And it's great fun to laugh at a situation you've experienced with an entirely different emotion.

Death of a Funeral looks like it could have been a stage play, and the action takes place mostly at a  beautiful British country estate.  It's a family of means, and one might expect the solemn affair a funeral was intended to be.  But it's a family with quirks.  The deceased dad had a secret, and the siblings experience all the conflicts that siblings everywhere experience.  Throw in an amateur, unlicensed, pharmacist who mixes drugs for recreational use.  Add an accidental ingestion by an unsuspecting future in-law.  Pitch in a stranger with a photo album the family might want to buy and bury, and there's a funeral story worth telling.

It's now showing at the Bijou at the Crossroads in San Antonio, where movie goers can order and consume food and adult beverages right there while watching the movie.  (Take smallish bites to avoid spit-takes.)

"The Brave One" - the movie

Jodie Foster seems to like the action hero role, and what star wouldn't if she can do it convincingly?  It's the old James Stewart "everyman" who gets sucked into a extraordinary situation, and in this movie Jodie plays the victim of a brutal crime who takes matters into her own hands.  If you are inclined to see the movie you'll probably see it regardless of what I say, but here's the spoiler alert for those who haven't seen it yet:  Spoiler alert!

I seldom see first run movies, but I was in another city, and a relative and I saw two movies in one afternoon, one of which was The Brave One.  And it was a pretty good movie.  There were a few movie cliches, and the basic theme had been done a few decades ago by Charles Bronson, but it held its own.

So Jodie and her fiance go for a walk.  The fiance is presented to us as such a likable guy that anyone who has seen the commercials knows that his role is to be the homicide victim.  They stumble into a circumstance in which three thugs attack them, beat them, kill the fiance, and video tape the whole ugly scene.

And Jodie buys a gun.

A gun is probably seen by the Hollywood set as a device that transforms psychology, a device which can change an ordinary, decent citizen into a person who in the blink of an eye can become a mad murderer.  And in the hands of a crime victim, like the one Jodie plays in the movie, a gun must turn her into a killing machine, a vigilante bent on cleansing the earth of scum, one or two thugs at at time.  Doing what the cops can't.

But a satisfying movie needs the good guys prevailing over the bad guys with little or no consequences.   And this was a satisfying movie.  To someone who doesn't regularly see movies in theaters, it was interesting to hear audience members react to certain scenes.  The movie makers created some frightening scenarios, and the audience can feel the terror that subway riders might feel when a couple of menacing creeps start harassing passengers.  But we're comforted, because we know Jodie is packing a piece in her purse.  And the audience applauds the screen as the tables are turned, and a bad boy buys a ticket to eternity.

Okay, a minor quibble.  The investigators say they found 9mm casing where she's done her thing, but Jodie's gun looked exactly like a .45 caliber Sig Sauer P220 ST.  And her reconciliation with the lawman was a bit contrived, but hey, it's only a movie.

All in all, it was very entertaining.  And it will be interesting to see how well it scores in the competition for ticket dollars.  There's action, there's excitement, there's revenge, there's good conquering evil.  But  Death Wishes 1thru 5 came out when the NY crime rate was much higher -- didn't Rudy Giuliani clean all that up?  Anyway, we'll see how audiences take to it.

Officers down in Odessa

Residents of the Permian Basin have been overwhelmed by the news of the shootings in Odessa in which two police officers, Corporal Arlie Jones and Corporal John (Scott) Gardner were killed, and another officer, Corporal Abel Marquez, was  hospitalized from wounds received in the shooting.  That sort of thing just doesn't happen out here.

It's difficult to come up with anything appropriate to say in a situation like this, however long time friend Suzanne S. Hildebrand of San Antonio helped out with an email:

As a former TCLEOSE commissioner and the wife of a 46 year career lawman, I have been to far too many funerals of our first line of defense.  The number one killer of Police Officers in this country is domestic violence.

I like the way you write about law enforcement, and I wanted to encourage you to address the horrific events of last night. I'll never get used to these things, each one causes me pain and I get so damn mad because so often the woman won't file charges and the drill starts all over again. I'd love to know how many other domestic calls have been made to this couple's residence.  Seldom are they first timers.  Anyway, I'm just distraught and you're the first person I thought of.

Suzanne, I really respect your passion and commitment, and your words say it so much better than I could.  Thanks for letting me post them.

And our sympathy goes out to the families of the officers. See Odessa reels from loss.   And a fund has been set up for the officers' families.  For information about that go to the Odessa Police Department website.

Modern day maladies

The English language is in a constant state of evolution in this digital age, and our lexicons need to be continuously updated.  Cell phones, digital televisions, new products, new medications and all other forms of new stuff have created new symptoms, maladies and conditions, all in desperate need of a name.

So to assist in this endeavor, here are some of those new conditions, with names, to wit:

Cellulard -- Accumulation of fat cells in the posterior due to physical inactivity, especially calling on the cell phone to someone in the next room rather than walking to them.

Tele-phony -- That stranger who looks right at you and talks as if you are a friend but instead is talking to someone else on a hands free phone.

Digital divide -- You're still  married, but you haven't looked at your spouse since you got high definition television.  Syn: digital divorce.

Phone drunk -- Inattentive driving while talking on the cell phone.

Viagra Full Monty - That four hour predicament the commercials warned about.

Carpal tunnel channel changer - Aching hand from constantly flipping to different channels with the remote.

Celliflower ear -- An ear deformity resulting from excessive cell phone usage.  Similar to cauliflower ear.

DVT-TV -- Deep vein thrombosis due to sedentary tv watching.  The couch potato disease.

Lead head -- Diminished brain capacity due to chewing on Chinese lead painted toys.

Toll Road Cookies -- Tiny bits of data left in your brain each time the state public relations team tries to convince you that toll roads are a good thing.  A  propaganda byproduct.

I-gotist -- An egotist flaunting his I-phone before learning that he overpaid for it.

Crime in the city

The city of Midland, Texas, had 562 reported burglaries of a habitation in the year 2006.  Using the 2005 number of 38,881 housing units, each such unit had about about a 1.4% chance of a burglary last year.  But not all houses and neighborhoods are the same, however, and some are more susceptible than others.

I was strolling through the local blogs and ran across entries from Stew and JessicasWell about a recent city council vote denying the application for a new apartment complex because of objections from the people who would be neighbors to the new complex.  (Read the newspaper report at Mywesttexas.com).  The major reason for objection was that there was a documented higher than average crime rate around some local apartment complexes.

Not all apartments are the same, but some complexes have higher crime rates, and the surrounding neighborhoods suffer too.  Someone suggested that the reason for the difference might be that some apartment managers were more discriminating about who they accept.  Uh oh, there's the "d" word.  Is it legal to have income requirements and do background checks for prospective renters?

Some of the citizens of this fair city are downright paranoid.  I'm one of them.  I'm currently in the process of trying to make my residence a little more secure than it has been.  And  although it won't keep someone from stealing from me, I've been documenting serial numbers from everything in the house that has one.  It's a tiresome endeavor, and ideally it will have been a huge waste of time.  But not everyone does this, and property that isn't marked or for which the owner hasn't recorded the serial number is for all practical purposes lost forever if it's stolen.  And here's something that is frightening:  Many gun owners haven't bothered to record the serial numbers of their guns.

If you haven't already guessed, I fall on the side of those people who want to keep their neighborhoods safe from crime.  I certainly can't blame the prospective neighbors of that apartment complex for opposing it.  Kudos to the City Council for recognizing the need to preserve an existing neighborhood.  And the objecting residents would probably tell those who want them to make the sacrifice for the greater good, "You first."

And for the builders, keep in mind that the local industry is cyclical and has always had it's booms and busts.  Remember all of those cliches:  trees don't grow to the sky, what goes up must come down, and boom comes before bust.  If someone says "it's different this time," recruit them as an investor and get the money up front.

Addendum:  That 2006 burglary number was reported by the Crime Analysis Supervisor at a recent meeting between residents of a subdivision and members of the Midland Police Department.  And the City of Midland website has a link to an always interesting and sometimes frightening crime map updated each week by the highly skilled people in the police department's Crime Analysis Section.

A guy's guide to public restrooms

One of the big news items of the day is the revelation that Sen. Larry Craig had pled guilty to some charge related to foot and hand gestures allegedly made in a public men's room.  So apparently there are men out there who don't know the unwritten code of conduct in public restrooms.

A review is in order.

Once you enter a public restroom don't talk to anyone.  If an acquaintance tries to start a conversation, ignore them.  If  you can't ignore them, at least control the topic of conversation and never talk about anything but football, baseball or basketball.  Soccer may be acceptable in some jurisdictions.

Don't make eye contact, and don't look at any body parts other than your own.  Don't wear dark glasses, because others won't know that you aren't looking at them.  Dark glasses might be acceptable if you are carrying a white cane.

Now the most important part.  If you are sitting in a stall and someone in the adjacent stall tries to play footsie with you, zip up and get out!  Don't say "May I help you?", "Excuse me?" or anything else that might be construed as friendly banter or else you could be be arrested for soliciting, or worse, solicited.  Don't be rude or you might get arrested for disorderly conduct.  Simply evacuate the premises as fast as you can.  You've stepped in a trap, and the only thing you can do is try to get out before the jaws slam shut.

Finally, homework.  Watch this youtube video titled Male Restroom Etiquette which dramatizes rules of the men's room in a very eloquent and instructive manner.  Consequences of rule violations are probably more localized than depicted, however.

Gotta love those cartoon bad boys

Whether it's Beavis, Bart or Cartman, those bad boys of the toon world have tickled us like no humans could do.  If these were live action characters acted out by real humans they couldn't be nearly as entertaining simply because they would be real humans -- thespians, actors pretending to be someone they aren't.  Actors have feelings  and opinions, and we would be awash in them with personal appearances, celebrity sightings and tabloid photos.  But with the cartoons, what we see is all there is, and we are spared the histrionics.

So when Paris goes to jail, Lindsay gets nabbed, or Owen rides the ambulance, we have to hear about it nonstop.  Forget the whales, save the celebrities!  But with the toons, we know we can expect irreverence with a big dose of humor.  And they know their places:  on their shows and not the news.

Enough editorializing, now to the point.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone have inked a deal with Viacom which will not only produce more Southpark episodes but will provide computer users access to those naughty kids at Southparkstudios.com:

"Three more years of South Park gives us the opportunity to offend that  many more people. And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South Park for the first time, now we can offend people on their cell phones, game consoles, and computers too. It's all very exciting for us."
- Matt  Stone, August 27, 2007

One more thing.  Toons don't outgrow their characters either.

Via Blowing Smoke.