Poem: A whisper in the night

It starts as a murmur in the dark.
You brush it aside
At first, doubting your own ears.

When it emerges with authority
You no longer know
Which voice is real

And which voice is a doppleganger
Or imposter; soon the bleedthrough
Takes precedence.

You can no longer differentiate
Between your Jiminy Cricket voice
And the one ordering you

To leave your home
And dice up the first luckless person
To cross your path.
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Poem: A whisper in the night

digital art: pictures of life

click to enlarge
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It looks like Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels just got his walking papers in this week's election

Mayor Greg Nickels appears to have come in third in our top two primary. I guess we will have to rename Nickelsville:


click to enlarge


Greg Nickels: "It's time for my bootheels to be wandering"
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Joke: An American Tourist

An American tourist goes on a trip to China where he is sexually promiscuous and rarely uses a condom. Not long after arriving home in the States, he awakes one morning to find that his penis is covered with bright green and purple spots.

He immediately goes to see a doctor. The doctor, never having seen anything like this, orders a battery of test and tells the man to return in two days.

When the man returns, the doctor says: "I've got bad news for you. You've contracted Mongolian VD. It's very rare and almost unheard of here. We know very little about it".

The man looks perplexed and says, "O.K., so just give me a shot or something and fix me up, doc".

The doctor answers, "I'm sorry, but there is no known cure. We're going to have to amputate your penis".

The man says, "Absolutely not! I want a second opinion".

The doctor replies, "Well, it's your choice, of course. Go ahead and get a second opinion if you want, but surgery is your only option."

The next day, the man finds a Chinese doctor, figuring that he will know more about the disease. The doctor examines his penis and proclaims: "Ah, yes, Mongolian VD. This is a very rare disease."

The guy says, “I know that, but what we can do? My doctor wants to operate and amputate my penis."

The Chinese doctor shakes his head and laughs: "These American doctors always want to operate. They make more money, that way. There is no need to operate!"

"Oh, Thank God," the man replies, and wipes his brow.

"Yes", says the doctor, "Don't worry! Just wait another couple of weeks and the penis will fall off by itself!"
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digital art: Istanbul's Blue Mosque

click to enlarge the blue mosque
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Summer reading - some books I read this summer

Here are the books I remember reading this summer. It's a pretty normal mix for me--a touch of Shakespeare, some fiction, some music books, poetry, several expedition books, and a lot of history and nonfiction.


NF - nonfiction; F - Fiction; M - mountaineering/expedition

The Tempest - William Shakespeare (F - more or less, in verse and play form)
The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier - Bruce Barcott (M)
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound - Ben Ratliff (NF)
Moo - Jane Smiley (F)
Julie & Julia - Julie Powell (NF: a cooking memoir)
The land where blues began - Alan Lomax (NF)
The story of Butch Cassady - Charles Kelly (NF)
Searching for the sound - Phil Lesh (NF)
Marvin Bell - Iris of creation (poems)
How to tell a secret - R.J. Huff and J.G. Lewin (NF)_
The last picture show- Larry McMurtry (F)
Montana's righteous hangmen - Lew Calloway (NF)
Memoirs of Fanny Hill - William Cleland (F)
Pop. 1280 - Jim Thompson (F)
In the presence of grizzlies - Peacock and Peacock (NF)
Dark Summit - Nick Heil (M)
Forever on the Mountain - James. M. Tabor (M)
Havana Nocturne - T.J. English (NF)
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The ultimate strap-on: Seattle's Hoppi-Copter personal flying machine. You probably know how this turned out.

By Jack Brummet
All This Is That Technology Editor


click to enlarge - Source: Washington State Archives. General Photograph Collection. Photographer: unknown. This photo was taken sometime in 1950. It resides in Box 6 of the Washington State Digital Archives. The man in the photo is wearing a Hoppi-Coptor, a personal helicopter device developed by Seattle's Horace Pentecost. Ca. 1950. Jack note: this photo may very well be of Horace Pentecost himself.

In the mid-40's and early 50's, a Seattle company--Hoppi-copter--formed by Horace Pentecost, worked to develop a strap-on personal helicopter. The Pentecost Hoppi-Copter was a personal helicopter pack designed to be fastened to an infantryman's back and allow him to work around objective obstacles...you know, mountains, jungles, canyons, forest fires and such.

They made their first test flights in 1945, but as is true of so many flying schemes, landing was a sticky wicket. Landing shock problems proved brutal. In the research I did, there were hints that if you landed wrong, the rotors broke off to became high speed, razor-like shrapnel.

In the late 1940's, Pentecost produced a second, slightly saner version with a seat and landing gear. Two of these were sold or loaned in 1948 to the British Ministry of Supply for experimental flights. Another company bought the patents in 1954 and created a Hoppi-Copter with rotor blade-mounted pulse jets. From the few snippets of information that can be found, it sounds like these versions didn't fare much better.



The HOPPI-COPTER • rear view

According to literature from Pentecost Hoppi-copter, the Hoppi-Copter had a 45 horsepower engine: the rotor had a diameter of 18 feet, and empty, the 'copter weighed 225 pounds and could fly with a gross weight of 450 pounds. It had a maximum speed of 60 m.p.h. and a cruising speed of 45 m.p.h. It's range was about 150 miles. The facts and figures in the Time Magazine article, below, do not square with the information in the company's press releases and brochures...I can't tell which specifications are correct.


The second version of the Hoppi-copter, with seat and landing gear.

From Time Magazine, April 7th, 1947:

Ever since Icarus, and in spite of what happened to him, men have dreamed of strapping wings on themselves and taking off like the birds. Airplanes have never completely satisfied this desire. The plane itself does the flying; the man only rides and steers. Gliders are only half the ticket.

Last week the ancient dream showed headline-hitting signs of coming true. At a Philadelphia meeting of the American Helicopter Society, Horace T. Pentecost told about the "Hoppi-copter" (see cut), which he has been developing in Seattle. It is a helicopter* stripped to essentials: little more than a seat, landing wheels and two horizontal rotors revolving in opposite directions. The power source is a 35 h.p. engine with two opposed cylinders like an outboard motor. According to Mr. Pentecost, "the required blade adjustments to render typical three dimensional helicopter flight have been coordinated into a single control handle placed conveniently in front of the operator."

Total weight (not counting Mr. Pentecost): 173 Ibs. The Hoppi-copter should "retail for little more than the better modern motorcycle." Helicopter experts would be more enthusiastic if they had seen it flying, but no performance records have been made available. But the designers have incorporated one important safety feature. Icarus made the mistake of flying too near the sun, which melted the wax that held his wings together. The Hoppi-copter's announced ceiling is a modest 12,000 ft.

* The Icarus apparatus was presumably not a helicopter with revolving wing surfaces but an ornithopter, with flapping wings. [Ed's note: The flights of Icarus and Daedalus were not successful; as for the Hoppi-copter, we have found no data that any of its test flights were actually fatal].

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White House folds on health care public option

By Pablo Fanque.
All This Is That National Affairs Editor



The White House let it be known today they are throwing in the towel on "the public option" in their health care "reform" plan. Between the hysteria on the right and the insanity of the town halls, they just couldn't pull it off. They hinted a possible compromise with Republicans might include health insurance cooperatives. You can read an AP story on the pullback here.

Change.
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Mount Rainier: Beauty and terror

Source: Washington State Archives. State Library Photograph Collection. Photo by L.D. Lindsley - click to enlarge

I have two friends climbing Mount Rainier this weekend. I recently read the best book I'd ever read about it... The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier by Bruce Barcott. He focused on climbing, the native folklore about the mountain, the animals and insects, the history, including a detailed account various expeditions, and of the army plane crash in the 40s that left dozens of bodies buried in the Tacoma Glacier.

If you are fascinated by Mt. Rainier--and it's hard not to be in Seattle, when its massive presence looms over us every day ("the mountain's out today!")--this is a great book to start with. What makes Barcott's book so engrossing is that he digs in to all aspects of the mountain. And tells his personal story of climbing the mountain, and how when he finally summited, he didn't feel much at all. Except anxious. He does a great job describing both the danger and the beauty.


click to enlarge - Rainier from the northwest

The mountain is arguably the single most impressive mountain in the lower 48. It's only the 5th tallest mountain-- a few feet lower than California's Mt. Whitney (14,494'/4418m) and also a few feet shorter than some of the Sawatch Range peaks in Colorado. It is second to Shasta in total volume for a single peak, and only nearby Mount Baker has more glacial ice. In terms of it's high elevation, massive bulk, and 30 glaciers, Mt. Rainier reigns supreme. And it is only 40 miles to the sea level shores of Puget Sound. Because it is so big, and relatively alone, it dominates the landscape, and can be seen from Oregon to Canada.

Climbing Mt. Rainier, by its easiest route, requires you to ascend 9,000 vertical feet! This is actually the same distance as the climb from advance base camp in the Western Cwm to the top of Mt. Everest. Of course, the air is considerably thicker...
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John "Douchebag" Edwards DNA matched to baby mama Rielle Hunter

By Pablo Fanque

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

You won't be hearing much from John Edwards anymore. He is now the next gen's Gary Hart, a guy who threw away national office by "stepping out" on his wife. He could have been Attorney General or VP. He could have even mounted a challenge to Obama.

To make matters worse, he has lied about the paternity for years now, even when it was certain to come out. Good riddance, John. I can't believe I ever thought you were the guy. When did you finally break down and tell Elizabeth?

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The Return of Squeaky Fromme: Attempted Presidential Assassin and top Charles Manson lieutenant leaves prison...

By Jack Brummet
All This Is That Law and Justice Editor

This is kind of a mindf***er! Who'd have ever though Lynnette "Squeaky" Fromme would see the light of day again? I remember the day she tried to shoot President Ford. The only thing that stopped her from killing him was a secret service agent who somehow managed to jam his thumb in front of the the hammer of the gun. And I might add, we came one thumb away from President Nelson Rockefeller. And now she is out. She had earlier turned down parole, but took one this time around.


Gerald Ford with Bill Clinton

Fromme was Charlie Manson's head honcho when he sent his followers on a two-day killing spree in 1969, in which eight people were killed, including actress Sharon Tate (and her unborn baby). The killings were allegedly done to trigger a race war. Fromme did not actually participate in the murders 40 years ago in Los Angeles. She avoided prison and was able to take a shot at Gerald Ford a few years later.



Manson and five others did go to prison for life. But then, Squeaky was also to sent to prison for life. Charles Manson is in the California State Prison at Corcoran and will again be eligible for three years from now. Charles is now 74 and Squeaky is 60.
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