EVERYBODY knows that!

The Picture of the Day, so far as I'm concerned. It's a Handley-Page type 42 airliner, being refuelled in India sometime in the 1930s. It's got a flag on top, and what appear to be bus style windows that can slide open. One supposes they didn't fly the flag while in the air, although I've seen paintings of exhibition flyers doing just that. They may have opened the windows in flight on hot days, though. It's a low altitude plane, and only went 100mph or so.

It looks like they just landed on an open field outside the walled city. If you look, you can see the ground crew dumping gasoline into the open topped tubs, and men operating the manual pumps that send the fuel through the hoses in the foreground. They wanted four-bladed props, but apparently had to settle for bolting two wooden props one atop the other. There was a time when just going somewhere in an airplane was an adventure in itself.

You can see the plane in flight here. It looks like something from TaleSpin. There's this neat period between the Wars when big planes went from being contraptions to being proper vehicles, and this comes from close to the end of that transition.

*****

Going places by air used to be more fun than it is now, even in my lifetime. I remember when the jetway was just at the really big airports, and you generally had to use those rolling stairs, and walk across the tarmac. I honestly liked that better, I think, especially at night or in the rain. There's something neat about deplaning onto the field, and hearing and smelling the airport at work.

The last time I went to San Jose I had to use the stairs. They had the stairs, and the yellow and white striped canvas walkway, which was just neat. It felt like being in a 1960s movie.

*****

Does anyone know this fellow?

He dressed in what looks to me like a home-made Tiger suit, then climbed to the top of a lighthouse to protest pornography. He's got a website at http://4myduke.com/ where he'd like to sell you his book.

*****

I've been on a "Franklin" watching spree of late. For some reason it's really captured my imagination. Beaver reminds me a great deal of myself :)

A Public Service Announcement

Should anyone wish to serve process on Sibe, Ion Otter points out that he's going to be enjoying the hospitality of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department on Domestic Violence charges for the indefinite future.

SWIS ID: 648342
NAME: REDDICK, ROSS HERBERT
DOB: 09/18/1979
BOOKING DATE & TIME: 02/05/06 17:18
CHARGES:
163275 DV COERCION - DV


From their website:

Civil Process Unit
503 251-2412

Marshall Ross
503- 251-2516

This Unit includes Civil Process, Extraditions, and Mental Health
Transports. These units carry out mandated duties of the Sheriff
(principally ORS Chapter 206). This program is responsible for
enforcement of civil court orders, the service-of-notice process in
civil lawsuits, the provision of care, custody and transportation of alleged mentally ill persons, and the performance of interstate prisoner transports.

Just give 'em a call, and they'll serve process for you. Tell all your friends and relations! :D Feel free to copy!