United 93

I saw this film today and as you may have read, it's very intense and realistic. I couldn't discern a political slant, which was refreshing; if there's a 'theme' (other than being a retelling of a story most are familiar with), it's that we were all unprepared together. Nobody in the film is portrayed as a buffoon. All the air-traffic controllers, pilots, stewardesses, military people are hard-working, doing the best they can to deal with something for which there seems to have been very little contingency planning for.
Up until the end of the film, the passengers themselves are almost a sidebar to the story. Most of the action takes place on the ground, as the horrific events of the day and their implications gradually become apparent to all those trying to manage the crisis. Trying to figure out what's happening and what to do, trying to discern good information from bad... I distinctly remember following the news that day and hearing rumors about 12 planes unaccounted for and possibly hijacked. All of it seems so clear in retrospect but on that awful day, it was anything but.
In the early part of the film, hardly anyone seems willing to even believe a single hijacking, much less four, had taken place. It had been over ten years since the last one. Much of the early going has to do with air-traffic controllers routinely directing flights, doing their jobs, which even under the most ordinary circumstances appear incredibly complicated. Something like 4200 passenger flights are in the air at any given moment in the US.
The passengers of United 93 are a very ordinary, anonymous group and no attempt is made, as in 'Airport' type films, to flesh out their characters or even identify them by name. They're old and young, skinny and fat, some using laptops and others content to just sit... a group like we've all seen dozens of times when we've flown.
I won't go into more detail about the end, though we all know how it ultimately ends, other than to say from this retelling, the passengers very nearly succeeded in retaking the plane. Whether they would have survived past that is a matter of conjecture. But they did succeed in a more important way. On that confused and confounding day, they joined the police and firefighters and rescue workers in New York and Washington as the real heroes of the moment. To this day, I think most people are almost in awe of their spontaneous bravery and resourcefulness, and we all wonder whether we would have done the same in their places.
When the film ended, you could have heard a pin drop in the theater. I've never sat in a movie theater that quiet before.

computer gripes

I don't consider myself inordinately stupid, but I feel that way when I am constantly told by companies and websites that installing or downloading or even viewing whatever is 'easy.'
Flipping a light switch is easy. Starting a car is easy. Toasting bread is easy.
There is nothing easy about these computer-related activities. I can just imagine the computer geeks snickering behind their hands as us ignorant peons try to figure out their 'easy' instructions.
I suppose ever since the introduction of those first computers back in the 40's, every generation has considered their technology terribly advanced. (See 'Star Trek' or 'Apollo 13'.) And so it is today. But I have to believe computers are still in their infancy, relatively speaking.
The problem so many times is that the '1, 2, 3' steps that are so often put forward assume that everything else is in place for those steps to go through and they almost never are. Oh wait, do you have an anti-virus program? (And who doesn't?) Well, that needs to be disabled. Trying to send a pic somewhere, use it as an avatar, or whatever? Wait, this program only accepts jpg, gif, and pdq files. Or didn't you know that? Oh, and we forgot to mention, it can't be more than 6 kbs. And getting tech support... slitting wrists would be infinitely preferable. 'Click on this, open this, type in this... it still doesn't work? Well, there must be something terribly wrong with you!' (Okay, slight exaggeration there.)
The other problem is that the computer nerds constantly assume that everyone knows as much, and should know as much, about computers and software programs as they do. Nope, we don't. That's why we have you. When you have a mechanic work on your car, you don't need a dissertation on the complexities of the internal combustion engine, you just want him to fix it. And you sure don't feel like getting under the hood to help him repair the timing belt.
Yet that's what most people are expected to do when it comes to computers and computer programs.
The day computers get to the point where you can say, as Mr. Spock would, "Computer, do this!" and it does, then THAT will be easy. Till then, let's call it anything but that.

Leasing Larry

Larry Autrey was one of the most peculiar people I ever met while working in the car business. And yes, that's saying something. He worked for Dad for years in the leasing department, hence the sobriquet, 'Leasing Larry.' No one was quite sure what to make of him and there was constant questioning, particularly among certain salesmen, of his sexual orientation. In retrospect, the whole thing reminds me of the Saturday Night Live sketch, 'It's Pat!' where no one was ever sure one way or another whether Pat was a man or woman.
Larry and I got along well and had several long conversations in the time we both worked at the Lincoln-Mercury store. To me, he didn't seem so much overtly gay as just odd. He had a very strange way of speaking. When upset or pumped up or excited, Larry spoke in rapid-fire bursts, using expressions that were unique to him. I don't think he had made them up, but they were obviously phrases that he'd used his whole life. The worst thing he could call anyone was 'a monkey-faced baboon.' To experience absolute delight was akin to 'dancing naked through the sweet peas.' Sudden shock or surprise might lead one to 'faint and fall over backwards.'
He had a million of these sayings. After one meeting with Dad that I attended as well, Larry was so overcome with enthusiasm that he cornered Dad and I and unleashed a barrage of almost surrealistic images in his inimitable way- "Gordon, we're going to make this work, we'll be skipping through the tulips, I don't care if it harelips the governor! The rest of those fools might have their eyes crossed and their tongues hanging out, but not us!" And on and on. Dad just smiled and nodded agreeably.
The most bizarre conversation I ever had with him was in his office and he was telling me about new salesmen he observed. I'll never forget his words. "I see these young men come in, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And I see the fear in their eyes. And I tell them, you have nothing to fear from me. I'm here to help you."
I thought, okay. And excused myself.
If nothing else, Larry was quite the exception to the stereotypical car salesman. He was optimistic, clever in his own way, and weird. Which was a nice change of pace at times. Or as Larry himself might say when something met his approval, "Well, that's marvelous."

political mystery tour

This is part of an article from the London Times-

Condi goes on magical Beatles mystery tour Sarah Baxter

THE long and sometimes winding road from Birmingham, Alabama, where Condoleezza Rice bought her first Beatles record, to her friend Jack Straw’s door in Blackburn, Lancashire, covers 4,200 miles. But the American secretary of state will have another figure in mind when she visits him there later this month. Could somebody please explain why there are “4,000 holes” in the foreign secretary’s Blackburn constituency? Along with millions of others, Rice was puzzled as a youngster by the lyrics of A Day in the Life on her copy of the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: I heard the news today oh boy Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire And though the holes were rather small They had to count them all Now they know how many holes it takes To fill the Albert Hall “I never understood that Beatles song. Perhaps now I’ll get the chance,” Rice said last week. She is due to visit Straw’s constituency as part of the special relationship they have developed in office. The foreign secretary toured Rice’s childhood haunts in Alabama last October — and sealed the visit with a kiss in front of the cameras. Now the world’s most powerful woman is joining him on a magical mystery tour of the northwest of England. Rice, 51, describes herself as a huge Beatles fan who is excited about visiting Liverpool as well as Blackburn. “Who doesn’t know Liverpool who is my age?” she asked. “The very first album I bought was by the Beatles.” The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is putting on a gala concert in her honour, hosted by Roger McGough, the Mersey poet. He once formed part of Scaffold with Sir Paul McCartney’s brother, Mike McGear. But it was John Lennon, the other half of the Beatles’ songwriting partnership, who penned the mysterious lyrics about Blackburn, according to Hunter Davies, the Beatles biographer. The answer to Rice’s childhood question is that Lennon was inspired by a newspaper report on a council survey which found not only that there were 4,000 holes in Blackburn but also that there was one-twenty-sixth of a hole per person living in the town. Should the secretary of state wish to return home with a souvenir of her visit, she could pay £1.3m for Lennon’s part of the lyric sheet which is currently on sale at Bonhams, the auctioneers. There was a follow-up article a few days later after Dr. Rice had arrived, which I cannot locate. But there was a press conference where the '4000 holes' reference once again popped up. Rice was questioned if she now knew what the line referred to. The dialogue went something like this- Rice- 4000 holes? Jack Straw- It's from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band... Rice- (silence and blank look) Straw- There used to be a lot of potholes in the streets. A man went around with a clipboard... Rice- (still silent and not comprehending) Straw- The Beatles wrote a song about it. Rice- (finally getting it) Oh yes! Yes yes yes...