The Wandering Minstrel

I went to the surgeon today to get my sutures removed. He only took half of them out, promising to finish the job next week. I’m a little disappointed since the son-of-a-bitches stitches itches all the time. If you’re morbidly curious about the appearance of the wound today, along with the pathology report, click below.

October Sky

Posted by Minstrel on 20 Apr 2008

I missed this movie the first time around. I’m glad that I decided to get it after hearing the recent remarks made by the true-life rocket scientist, Homer Hickam, who wrote the story which was made into “October Sky.”

Hickam was asked to comment on the recent downing of a disabled satellite by the U.S. Navy:

It’s a great day for the United States of America, it really is, and I’m going to be watching and listening to see which of these Presidential candidates do what I’m about to do and that’s to send out congratulations to the Captain and crew of the Lake Erie — they are true rocket boys and girls, I want to tell you, and in a country with its priorities on straight, we’d be planning parades for them all around the country because not only have they knocked down that bad boy, which was up there with all that nasty hydrazine on it, they have demonstrated that we have managed to field a defensive picket line out in the Pacific, and I know that the Japanese and the Taiwanese and the South Koreans especially are going to be lining up to purchase this SM-3 missile and it’s really going to put the Chinese and the North Koreans especially on notice that we are not defenseless and we are quite capable of defending ourselves.

NOTE: I replaced Hickam’s quote with what he actually said during the interview. Thanks to Alex Terry, who pointed out that I was quoting an internet hoax which badly paraphrased Hickam’s original interview. See Ms. Terry’s comments below.

My usually reliable source, unfortunately, had this one wrong. My apologies to Homer Hickam.

I really enjoyed the picture. I was in my teens when the USSR launched Sputnik and I could relate to the story line. If I were to have written a review, it would have been quite similar to this one that I purloined from the IMDB website:

It was 1957 and Russia had just launched Sputnik. I was almost 12, and I remember my father pointing up into the October sky as we tried to catch a glimpse of the Earth’s first artificial satellite orbiting overhead. Thus the title “October Sky”. In West Virginia the son of a coal miner became intrigued with rockets and space travel and, in spite of his father’s urgings that he accept his fate and become a coal miner too, eventually won the national science fair competition, and a college scholarship, ultimately became a key member of the space exploration team of NASA. A wonderful and inspiring story, and a superb film of that story.

Everyone was good in the film, but Chris Cooper as the miner boss and stubborn father was far and away the best in “October Sky.” Although “rockets” is the theme, the film is primarily of the struggle of children trying to break out of the cycle and become more than just another coal miner. As an epilog we learn that all four of the “rocket boys” went to college, the father died of mining-related disease, the teacher of Hodgkins disease, and the whole town and mining operation was sold and shut down in the next decade.

Workin’ in the Garden

Posted by Minstrel on 19 Apr 2008

With all the necessary tools and stuff . . .

gardener

Gun Permit

Posted by Minstrel on 18 Apr 2008

I got nothin’ today. Friday and a busy work week only excuses I have. Meanwhile here’s a cartoon:

Meanwhile, at the Democratic Debate . . .

Posted by Minstrel on 17 Apr 2008

I know, I know, giant douche and turd sandwich was intended for the 2004 presidential election, but I see history repeating itself here. For us bitter, clinging-to-our-guns little people, both of them are losers.

Wayne’s Word:

They’re Both Bad

As more and more Americans express their disgust over Barack Obama’s recent comments that small-town Americans “cling to” gun ownership and religious faith because they’re “bitter”, his Democratic opponent is trying to turn up the heat. Hillary Clinton tried to express her support for the Second Amendment over the weekend, leading Obama to fire back: “She’s running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment. She’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley”.

American gun owners have for years understood the elitist concept of special privileges for the few. The same few who look down their nose at the people who respect basic American traditions like flying the flag, going to church, owning a gun and believing in the Bill of Rights. Obama’s statement is a crack in the door that gives all of us a peek at how the ’special’ people look at the rest of us. Americans can read that code.

The truth is, both Obama and Clinton have long anti-gun records. Hopefully Obama and Clinton will continue to point out how anti-gun the other one is. It just makes my job that much easier.