Who2 Editorial Blog
Notes and Commentary from the Editors
Friday, July 03, 2009
Palin Quits: the Transcript
Here's the transcript of the surprise announcement from Sarah Palin today: she's quitting as of July 26th.Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 9:02 PM 0 comments
T Minus 13 Days and Counting
Counting down to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin during training for aircraft ejection at Perrin AFB in May, 1968.
What I like about this shot is how low-tech things seem. Aldrin's helmet looks like an old football helmet (and may have been -- who knows?) and the rest of his rig is pretty much canvas and steel. Here's an even better shot:
NASA describes the scene this way: Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. paddles to the shore of Lake Texoma during training at the U.S. Air Force Air Defense Command Life Support School, Perrin Air Force Base, Sherman, Texas. He sits in a one-man life raft.This is just about 14 months before the flight of Apollo 11, and dude is out floating in a football helmet and a rubber raft.
He was dropped into water after making parasail ascent some 400 feet above the lake. Purpose of the training is to prepare pilots for possible ejection from aircraft during flight. 6-7 May 1968.
And that's how they went to the moon.
Labels: Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 10:28 AM 0 comments
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Meet Cookie Crum
Here's the fascinating story of Cookie Crum, a 77 year-old lady from southern Oregon who was recently inducted into the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame.Cookie, now retired, was once known as "Queen of the Hell Drivers," back when she was an 18 year-old stunt rider on the carnival circuit. It's a good tale.
Labels: Cookie Crum
Posted by Mr. Hehn at 11:42 AM 0 comments
Medgar Evers Born Today in 1925
Today would have been the 84th birthday of Civil Rights organizer Medgar Evers, had he not been murdered in 1963.Evers was a black World War II veteran and a college graduate who sold insurance throughout rural Mississippi. He made headlines in 1954 when he tried to get into the University of Mississippi Law School at a time when segregation was strictly enforced.
And he was shot in the back outside his home for his very public work for the legal rights of African Americans.
Labels: Medgar Evers
Posted by Mr. Hehn at 10:06 AM 0 comments
T Minus 14 Days and Counting
July 16th, 1969: launch day for Apollo 11, the ship that put the first men on the moon.Who2 will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 for the next three weeks, right through splashdown on 24 July. We'll have a photo a day, mostly from the marvelous NASA history archives, along with assorted notes and commentary.
And plenty of salutes to Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, the three stud astronauts who flew to the moon in a cramped command module, drinking Tang, sleeping upside down, and working a flight computer about as powerful as the gadget that now triggers the "fasten seatbelts" chime in your 1998 Corolla wagon.
They were the right guys for the job.
On to photo number one, from way back in 1961:
That's Neil Armstrong during his days as a NASA test pilot, next to X-15 #1 after a research flight. The X-15 was a rocket-powered aircraft 50 feet long, a "missile-shaped vehicle with an unusual wedge-shaped vertical tail."
NASA calls the X-15 "the most remarkable of all the rocket research aircraft." It was typically launched from a B-52 at 45,000 feet and went up from there. The plane set an unofficial world altitude record of 354,200 feet in 1964, and the speed record for winged aircraft -- a modest 4,520 miles per hour -- in 1967. It was retired in 1968.
Only three of the crazy things were built, and Armstrong was one of 12 test pilots. Michael Adams, one of the 12, was killed in the 1967 crash of X-15 #3 after the plane went into a spin at 200,000 feet.
By then, Armstong was already preparing for the ride of his life on Apollo 11.
Here's a wider shot of Armstrong and the X-15.
(Photos courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.)
Labels: Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 9:40 AM 0 comments
A "Festering Pile of Garbage"
Yowch!Jim Derogatis takes down the new Jonas Brothers album Lines, Vines and Trying Times.
Worst of all -- and finding a nadir amid such a festering pile of garbage is no mean feat -- is the attempt to go gangsta rap via the almost comically awful "Don't Charge Me for the Crime." A collaboration with Common, who amazingly tops even the embarrassing pandering of last year's "Universal Mind Control," this endless dud offers one howler after another.
The reason why posters of these goobers adorn the walls of so many teenage girls is obvious, at least if you think for a moment like a teenage girl. But why anyone of any age would want to listen to them remains as big a mystery as any of the shenanigans of the business world. And all we can do is hope they go away as soon as possible.
Labels: Critics, Jim Derogatis, The Jonas Brothers
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 7:51 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Kevin Jonas is Engaged to a Woman from New Jersey
"She said yes, yes, yes, like 500 times super fast in a row."He was the first to reach 21, and he'll be the first to lose his purity ring.
Kevin Jonas is engaged. He proposed to 22-year-old Danielle Deleasa on Wednesday, says People.The magazine describes Deleasa as a "former hairdresser" and says the pair met in May of 2007 while vacationing with their families in the Bahamas. She's a Jersey girl, just like Jonas. Or rather, Jonas is a Jersey boy. But not a Jersey Boy.
They're both from the state of New Jersey, is what we're trying to say.
"It was Kevin who eagerly pursued her after meeting her and then spotting her walking on the beach with a flower in her hair," says the story.
More Kevin Jonas photos here.
Labels: Danielle Deleasa, Hairdressers, Kevin Jonas
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:06 PM 0 comments
"You Want to Have Him On the Site in Neverland"
"You want to have him on the site in Neverland. That's where Elvis is at Graceland.""On the site." Hah!
The MJ story has moved along to tasteful speculation on whether Neverland can become the next big-money Graceland.
The problem is that the county won't let Jackson be buried there, even with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulling strings.
Perhaps it's time for a few well-placed bribes, with the promise of a small cut of future key-chain and snow globe sales.
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 4:35 PM 0 comments
So Long, Karl Malden
Malden said he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football, joking that he was "the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking."Actor Karl Malden has died at age 97.
Malden won an Oscar in 1951, as best supporting actor in A Streetcar Named Desire. His heyday was the 1970s, when he starred with Michael Douglas in the hep cop show The Streets of San Francisco and began a lucrative 21-year run as the "Don't leave home without them" pitchman for American Express traveler's checks.
He also did a fine job playing sensible General Omar Bradley (opposite George C. Scott as the not-so-sensible General George Patton) in the Oscar-winning 1972 film Patton.
Here's a taste of Malden's old AmEx routine, followed by a short spoof from late-night host Johnny Carson.
Labels: George C. Scott, George Patton, Karl Malden, Michael Douglas
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 2:20 PM 0 comments
