Neanderpundit

Tam links to a sort of hover-cycle thing.

Looks like it woud be a hoot; it’s always a pity that the laws of physics are such an undiscovered country to most inventors like this.

Speaking of stupid high speed craft, I once did some work for a manufacturer of airboats. I wrote a family of programs that cut the poly skid plats that got bolted onto the bottoms of the boats, and they took me out and let me drive one around.

Let me tell you, those suckers are not easy to drive. The center of gravity is about six feet over your head, and it’s as easy to flip one over as it is to trip over an untied shoestring, Still, I kind of got the hang of it, eventually.

Riding oin it was even more fun, though. And there was precious little alcohol involved when the owners of the company invited me to jump out of the boat onto an alligator, and i complied.

The gator in question was small, about five or six feet, (which is a very small gator) and it probably felt- to the gator- as if a house had fallen on it. It was in far more danger from me than I was from it. And I grabbed it’s face while my companions laughed and wrapped.

This being prior to digital photography except among the very wealthy, no camera was available at the time, but I will always have the memory of having that unhappy gator on my lap in the bow of that airboat, then slicing the electrical tape off it’s snout and lowering it headfirst over the side.

With Burton and Taylor

Is as lovely a piece of production as one can imagine.

Don’t know if its the process of coming down off the painkillers that makes me especially vulnerable to the sentiment of it, but the actors, the cinematography, the truth to the original, combines to make it an incredible experience.

In the sunset of my life, maybe Alzheimners will give me the gift of watching these incredible pieces with fresh eyes, for the only thing this lacks is the surprise of hearing each sparkling bit of dialog for the very first time, not knowing what comes next.

of many hospitals, this one was among the best, albeit populated by people whose grasp of the obvious was tenuous at best.

“take off your clothes and put themin the closet there’

“all of them?”
“yes, everything.”
“Um..”
“What?”
“It’s my hands. They’re operating on my hands”
“we still need you naked. I’ll leave the room if you’re..”
“Look. I have zero modesty. If you’d like to see my wedding tackle, just ask, I’m only too happy to show it to you. But theyre operaing on my HANDS. I have a shortsleeved shirt, I shouldnt even have to take THAT off”
“no, you have to be naked, those are the rules”
“And after this, when I’m naked, and both of my hands are effectively giant tootsie Pops, will you be pulling up my underdrawers for me?”
“No, we will leave you so you can dress yourself”
“…”

The medical profession may have something of a clue as to how to cure people, but what they have in skill they lack, utterly, in common sense.