Friday Photos

The first Friday photo features the pirates of Somalia, who have finally poked their pirate stick into the wrong sleeping critter, cruising along in their little Somalian pirate boat.

The second picture shows the boat that belongs to the critter that got poked, the critter being the USA and the boat being a U.S. Navy warship that's gone out to deal with the pirates. Granted, the pirates have some nasty toys, so the Navy is going to want to be careful. On the other hand, you gotta think the pirates are way out over the tips of their skis this time.
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The pirates are bringing reinforcements, this as of Friday morning!
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The captain tried to escape and was recaptured, this as of Friday afternoon.
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Pirates not your thing? Here's a Good Friday cartoon.

Just Say No

Dear President Obama,

I would like to start this letter out by saying I would be psyched to hear you speak at any event. If that event were my commencement (unfortunately, I'm not graduating from anywhere this year) or a ceremonial reading of the dictionary, I would attend with great excitement.

As you know you have been invited to speak at many commencement ceremonies, and you have chosen three schools: Notre Dame, ASU, and the Naval Academy. The Midshipmen have responded graciously to your acceptance of their invitation, but then again, I guess they kind of have to. They do work for you, after all.

The rosary clutching masses have rebuked Notre Dame and the university president, for even having invited you in the first place. Ugh, that must leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Maybe you should rescind your acceptance. That would teach 'em, eh?

Now, ASU is refusing to give you an honorary degree. (Even Notre Dame is willing to bestow that honor upon you, even if when you turn over the diploma it comes stamped with protest pictures of aborted fetuses and a prayer for your eternal salvation.) They say your body of work is not such that it deserves an honorary degree. Ouch. That's gotta sting. I would think that being the President of the US merits an honorary degree on its own, even just being a regular old run-of-the-mill President. But the first African American President? Man, that didn't even cut it for them.

So I think you should just say no to ASU, too. Instead, I would like to invite you over to my apartment on either of those two days in May. I'm free both, so whatever works for you. Please bring Michelle, the girls, and your dog, if you have one at that point. I will not protest your arrival, and I will give you an honorary degree from a university I make up. I will print it out at work so that I can use the color printer. It will have several gold stars on it. I will use a color palette that complements the Oval Office so you can put it right there on your desk. It will also come with a "World's Best President" mug.

So, I hope to see you soon, Mr. President.

Sincerely,
Amy

P.S. If you'd prefer I confer the honorary degree upon you at your place, I can swing that too. I've got a free Southwest flight and they fly into Dulles.

Airplane Graveyard

I found a story, not a unique story, but one that is revised and updated periodically, about surplus airplanes and a facility in Marana, Arizona, northwest of Tucson, that is a storage yard and recycling point for commercial planes. The story recounted that the operators of the business stressed that they are not an airplane graveyard, that they are a responsible for maintaining surplus aircraft in operating condition until they are returned to service.

So I decided to go off in search of an airplane graveyard.

Here's a link http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/1426 to an aerial view of Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona. Davis Monthan is sort of a graveyard for airplanes that are U.S. Government property. The images at the link will give some incredible detail to the photo at the right. Take a few minutes to zoom in and out, and grab the page surface to move the vantage point. I found the images amazing.

Davis Monthan is the home to, among many other units, 309 AMARG, the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the people that are in charge of these surplus aircraft.. More about them on Monday. I'll also share an incredible airplane story I found that challenges the recent Hudson River landing.

The New Sweet Sioux

Remember last fall's football game between Northwestern and Illinois was the last go 'round for the Sweet Sioux trophy. The two schools decided to duck any more flack from people who found the trophy objectionable or insensitive or had nothing better to do than bitch and retired the tomahawk that has been the prize for the annual game since the 40's.

There are four choices for replacements for the Sweet Sioux tomahawk. The schools expect to announce the new trophy around each of their spring football games on April 25.

The four suggestions for the new series trophy include the following:
• The Land of Lincoln Trophy ­- A replica of Lincoln's stove pipe hat mounted on a piece of White Oak (Illinois' state tree).
• President's Trophy ­- Recognizing the four presidents associated with the state of Illinois ­ Lincoln, Grant, Reagan and Obama.
• The Popcorn Bowl -- Named after the Illinois state snack.
• Graham-Grange Fire Bell (original series trophy started in 1941 was a fire bell) -- Named after two of the greatest players at each school ­- Otto Graham of Northwestern and Red Grange of Illinois.

The Presidents Trophy, I'm OK with that. It's a bit of a stretch, but's it's ok.

The Land of Lincoln thing, that sounds totally lame, a giant license plate, maybe?

The Popcorn Bowl is of too little relevance to merit further comment.

That leaves us with the Graham-Grange Trophy. I can pirate a big chunk of information or redirect you to http://hailtopurple.com/grahamgrange.html Hail to Purple has done a great job showcasing this as the most desirable choice.

You can vote for one of these four choices by clicking here.

You can also nominate your own. This has possibilities. Let me know what you come up with.

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American Idol

American Idol has proven me wrong for years. I keep on cranking about it, but I end up sitting next to Mrs. PFOS and watching some of the shows. Sometimes I use it as an excuse to go do something else, but other times it's pretty entertaining. As for American Idol's commercial success, Kelly MyLifeWouldSuckWithoutYou, and Carrie Underwood, stunning to see and hear and the youngest performer ever invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry, are proof enough that they find performers with this show.

This year's crop is pretty talented, though there are some unusual participants.

As I'm writing this last Tuesday, I've so far seen Snoopy the American Slum Dog and Megan Joy. Snoopy --ok, I'm insensitve, his name is Anoop --seems to have ridden the Slumdog popularity to get this far. I'm not saying that he's not good, I think he is, but in the past there hasn't been a lot of buzz or tolerance for singers of Indian ethnic origin. I thought he was OK tonite, but the Gang of Four drilled him.

Now this Megan Joy girl, she's amazing. She displays the body rhythms of dancing Elaine Bennis and, prior to tonite, Holiday Inn Lounge singing ability. Tonite she sang a Bob Marley song and I liked it. The G4 absolutely assaulted her; I thought she would break down in tears.

Third up was Danny, the guy whose wife died. Every time I've seen him, and there haven't been many, he seems to be talking about his emotions, their emotions, old emotions, new emotions, gak, he's like a singing chick flick.

Fourth singer was Allison, who is 16 years old and is going to be a big star. She looks like a combination of Charo and Wendy the Hamburger Girl. She's a prodigy and she's gonna make piles of cash.

A word about the Gang of 4, the judges, here. Paula is more bizarre than ever, like somebody's weird aunt who's always trying to show how hip she is. Simon is funnier than ever. Randy is pretty irrelevant, and Kara is getting bored, although I'm sure she's pulling down enough cash with this gig to assuage the tedium.

The blind piano player guy is singing now. I like this guy. He sings great, and he is a pro level piano player. A bit more of my insensitivity, for a blind guy he handles himself on stage with great physical grace.

Next up, some guy named Matt proving he's not Cold Play. G4 ain't buying, either. Following is Lil with the big voice singing a Celine song. She sucks and G4 makes a lot of excuses for her, just like they did the last time I saw her. Except Simon, who says she screwed up. Lil's kids are in the audience, and the whole show is taking a weird, uncomfortable turn.

Adam Lambert is next and he is doing the best "Play That Funky Music White Boy" I have ever seen. Each of his performances that I have seen has screamed star quality. I would bet on this guy.

My investment partner informed me that there are Vegas odds on this show, seriously. Adam Lambert is even money as of right now. Compare that with Snoopy at 20:1 and Megan at 60:1.

A nice guy named Kris Allen sings next. The G4 likes him a lot, blah blah blah.

We just found a casino that's giving 3:2 for Adam Lambert, and we've found a new reason for American Idol to exist.

In the time since this was written, unusual Amy Joy was voted off the island ( whereupon she started flapping her arms and cawing like a crow, what was that!? ) and there is a new round of sing for your supper coming tonight, and Sparty got steamrolled and I'm not wealthy and basking in the glow of winning. Congratulations to Two Gun Pete, my investment partner, who had NC.