winsor

I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but do you drink? Of all the drugs you could do, booze pins the "bad" meter. It has a lethal dose, is physically addictive (and can result in fatal convulsions during withdrawal), results in chronic physical damage if used in excess (much beyond the prophylactic glass of wine a day), throws a wrench in the works where coordination and judgment are concerned, and generally leaves a lot to be desired. People who smoke cigarettes have been more of a threat to me historically than people who snort cocaine, so far as I can tell. Having a heavy smoker on a big way getting hypoxic and taking out the base constitutes a near-death experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm not recommending one take much of anything psychoactive when skydiving or doing much else. I stick with OTC pain killers and eschew such things as antihistamines that interfere with operating machinery, etc., as a matter of course. However, as far as illegal drugs go my major concern is that if someone does something stupid and requires the services of a coroner, it is best that they show up clean of anything that could be construed as contributing to their demise. People have been known to do enough dumb things without benefit of intoxicants that hoping that they will somehow behave themselves better when they couldn't pass a drug screen is an exercise in futility. I have known enough World Champion class skydivers who were reputed to indulge in Illegal Substance A, B and/or C, but that they had the good taste to keep it out of my face. Booze and dope are bad for you - that's a given. About the only drugs worse than ethanol from a skydiving perspective are depressants and tranquilizers, such as barbiturates, methylqualone, the cyclidines, any of the Thorazine, Librium, Valium family, and maybe Xanax. If a high dose of something is likely to leave you in a drooling stupor, you should likely avoid doing any of it before jumping. Should DZs crack down on drug use (and I include alcohol)? Being a narc is a full-time job, and very few DZOs of my acquaintance have enough resources to spare to take on that task. A public and enforced policy whereby jumpers and staff are grounded for reported consumption substances that affect coordination - to include Rumple Minz and Benadryl - would be as much as I would expect from any DZ. I wish the pivotal concept was that of responsibility, but it's more about exposure to liability these days. Blue skies, Winsor

If you want to stay clear of cigarettes, go light on the beer. Alcohol triggers the craving for nicotine and lowers your inhibitions. You may be weeks past the last urge and think you're in the clear, but after a few beers a cigarette seems to grow out of your hand. Marlboros are a nastier jones than narcotics, so don't get complacent. Good luck. Blue skies, Winsor

What about them? They're dead. People die in this world. Iraqi's were dying by Saddam's hand, by the Iranians, and because of internal ethinic conflict and anti Saddam resistance. Some Marines, soldiers, sailors, coasties, merchant marines, and airmen would have died during traning accidents, in accidents on leave, and due to foul play. What if they had found WMD? What about the dead ones then? If you want to find WMD, I suggest you look at North Dakota, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and New Mexico for starts. If possessing WMD is a legitimate basis for a preemptive strike, we're in deep kimchee. Blue skies, Winsor

Howabout we say that the Iraqi's have a better chance of being free. The intellegence was wrong, and because of that we were wrong to go to war and we should admit that. I supported the war, and without the hindsight, I still do. Now we have to ensure that the Iraqi's get the best chance possible at a happy, healthy and stable existance. Something they've never had. We should ensure that Iraq has the opportunity to have a stable, democratically elected government like the other Middle Eastern countries such as, uh, Paki... no, that was a coup, Saud... no, that's a kingdom, Iran... no, I'm not sure quite what the hell that is, uh, Bah... nope, Yem... nope, uh, damn. I'm sure there has to be one. Wait a minute, Iraq can be the paradigm of Truth, Justice and the American Way in the Middle East! All they have to do is stop blowing up everything in sight, hacking people's heads off and they can live in the suburbs and drive SUVs! It's all pretty obvious, I mean, who wouldn't want that? We must be right about this, since I think we have used up our allotment of being wrong for quite a while. Blue skies, Winsor

At the ceremony, combat operations were promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel.

At the time I kept thinking of the scene at the beginning of "RoboCop," where the fully robotic cop was being demonstrated in its beta form. The robot tells the executive, who has picked up a pistol, to drop his weapon. After the executive drops the weapon, he is repeatedly instructed to drop the weapon or face the consequences. The unarmed executive is thereafter blown to smithereens. The Onion had a poignant bit where the US warned the Iraqi government that they weren't fooled by their compliance, and further adherence by the Iraqis to UN mandates would be interpreted as an act of war. I wish it had all been a joke. Blue skies, Winsor

Negative, he's still a war criminal who invaded another sovereign state (Iran) that presented no threat. Even though their leaders were nasty buggers who had no respect for human rights, he shouldn't have invaded. Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that heads of state that invade other sovereign states without a justifiable casus belli are war criminals? I'm pretty sure that Saddam Hussein was convinced that Iran was at least thinking real hard about possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction, and that they probably had some terrorists around somewhere at some time or another. Gee, you make an unprovoked attack sound like a bad thing. I think that Saddam Hussein is simply misunderstood, and agree that he should be set free if he promises to behave himself. Blue skies, Winsor

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I could never figure out the fixation with big knockers in the US of A. My concept of perfection != huge. A long time ago I concluded that two groups of females were off limits for dating - models and actresses. Since looks are pivotal to a model's livelihood, it is an obsession necessary to the profession. An actress' living is dependent upon playing a role convincingly at the drop of a hat, so you never know quite who the hell you're with really. Both groups tend to be crazy, and a real pain to be around for any length of time. I must admit that getting stuck on an elevator with a group of Ford models was pretty intense. My father worked one floor below their agency, so going to visit him was often like being in a Robert Palmer video, and these women were cheerful, friendly, stomp-down gorgeous, and REALLY smelled delicious. As far as looks go, there is a threshold of attractiveness that must be met, beyond which attitude rules. There are some perfectly nice women that I simply can't imagine even kissing (or would rather not think about it). There are others that look good in photographs, but whose personalities are so repellent that they are entirely uninteresting. I have met many women that were the embodiment of perfection, each in her own way, and no two alike. I wouldn't worry about comparing against some kind of commercial standard. It doesn't mean much of anything, and just leads to unhappiness. Blue skies, Winsor

I had the perfect opportunity to do so and blew it - under a 7-TU (round). I was landing right next to Mullins' tent, and saw Anne at manifest. I considered yelling "hey, y'all, watch this!" so she'd expect to see someone swooping something loaded 3.5:1 or whatever, but thought the better of it. I then got creative with my landing, burying the toggles instead of pulling down or risers. This, of course, put me into a sink instead of a flare. I don't regret the broken foot. I do regret that I didn't say "watch this!" before I broke it. Maybe next time. Blue skies, Winsor

I don't know specifically what is the mechanism, but it seems to be a combination of things. I have videoed a few tandems, and noted that having them eat something right before jumping reduced the rate of barfing to zero. Many had not slept well or had a good breakfast, and the rush of adrenaline on top of nothing but coffee did not seem to do good things. I imagine hypoglycemia played a part. A couple of oatmeal cookies or a banana about a half an hour before boarding the plane appeared to be sufficient to ward off the ill effects of the jump. Be advised that this is ancedotal, and I haven't seen fit to perform a rigorous analysis of quite what gives. In addition, if someone is seriously hung over from the party celebrating the same event as the tandem jump, all bets are off. Thus, some of the comments about not eating seem about right. Throw in a mess of adrenaline and pound down a few glasses of wine (some glasses are bigger than others, and some wine seems to have emetic qualities all its own) and the old inner ear may well rebel. Blue skies, Winsor

you must mean 335HP? Likely not. The idea behind turbocharging aircraft engines is usually to avoid power dropoff with altitude, rather than to increase power overall. Higher power settings generally entail higher heat generation and dissipation requirements. Since most air-cooled aircraft engines have a tough time staying in the green zone on the oil temp as it is, upping the temperature is likely to require an overhaul just that much sooner. As far as heat generation goes, I would be leery of any turbocharger installation without an intercooler. IIRC, adiabatic compression of air at altitude can result in temperatures much higher than at sea level, to the detriment of performance and engine life. Having been impressed with just how much it costs to keep aloft a normally-aspirated aircraft with fixed landing gear and a fixed-pitch prop, I am not easily assured that an added bit of complexity won't result in crippling costs. I consider shaft-powered superchargers to be a bad idea in general (e.g. those on the GSIO engines, found on Twin Bonanzas and Queen Airs, that have failed catastrophically all too often). I agree that turbochargers are the way to go for altitude flight with recips, and that a pilot that knows what he/she is doing is critical if the engine is going to survive. A panacea it is not - there is no free lunch (if God had meant man to fly, He would have given him more money). Blue skies, Winsor

psi Looms? That's likely "Cyalume." My guess is it comes from "cyano," as in cyanide, but I haven't investigated quite what chemical reaction results in light emission. I would, however, advise against eating the stuff. Blue skies, Winsor

Anyone that believes Mrs. Kerry has any involvement with the management of Heinz is seriously misinformed. Anyone trying to make political points from it is . Ah, for the good old days where political jokes didn't even have to stand for election. My favorite bit of brand-name recognition associated with the White House was a former president, who said "I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln." IIRC, I blew soda out my nose when he said that. Blue skies, Winsor

Wingsuits. t Excuse the stupid less than one year in this sport newbie question. But do you think someone will land a wingsuit in the near future? If so then is that the way this sport is heading, i.e., landing w/o a canopy. I'm sure someone will land a wingsuit in the very near future. Landing a wingsuit is no big deal. The trick is surviving it. Blue skies, Winsor

FWIW, "ich bin ein Berliner" means "I am a jelly donut." "Ich bin Berliner" in German means "I am a Berliner" in English. The article is significant; it's like the difference between saying "I am Danish" and "I am a Danish." Blue skies, Winsor

A Catholic priest, a Baptist minister and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender says "what is this, a joke?"

"Yes, after all they spend all their time naked and just reproducing like rabbits. You know being the savages they are and all. Can you pour some more tea for me, James"? One does NOT address servants by their given names, nor does one enquire regarding the ability to perform their duties. Thus, it would be "more tea, Ruggles." Blue skies, Winsor

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Mark Kruse came up with a fundraising idea to cover medical expenses resulting from someone' landing that didn't go quite as planned. The basic idea was that we all pitched in ten or twenty dollars, which went into a pot. Craig was to put half of a freshly cut habenero pepper in his mouth. If he could somehow keep it in his mouth for (I think it was) two minutes, he got to keep half the pot and the rest went to medical expenses. If he lasted less than two minutes, all the money went to medical expenses. I was made the timekeeper since I was wearing my NASA chronograph, so Mark put the pepper in Craig's mouth and called time. Craig immediately chewed it up and swallowed it, thus earning his half of the pot the hard way. As Craig sat in front of the hangar with tears streaming down his face, I went into the restaurant to get something to deal with the damage he had inflicted on himself. I got him a chocolate muffin, and the guy in the restaurant wouldn't let me pay for it. He considered it first aid. As Craig ate the muffin, someone asked him if he would do it again. He though for a moment, grinned and said "yeah!" I must admit, it wasn't boring when he was around. BSBD

Well, we saw that when guns were banned and confiscated in England, that gun crime went up! So we figured we'd try the opposite approach and give everyone an automatic machine gun, so that crime would go down. An armed society is a polite society.

"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."

Identical twins are, in effect, clones. The question reflects a Dark Ages mindset. You'd have to refer to theological treatises ca. three-digits AD to get a definitive treatment of the subject. Blue skies, Winsor

The four stages of Tequila: 1) I'm rich 2) I'm good looking 3) I'm bulletproof 4) I'm invisible

W. C. Fields