lines in the sand

Farmers in Space

Our feel-good movie for this week was The Astronaut Farmer, which does leave you feeling good, inspired, heart-warmed and all that.  Walking out of the theater I remarked to the Mrs. that I'd never seen a sci-fi chick-flick before.  Okay, that's an exaggeration.  The film is about relationships and family and stuff, but is centered on very manly individualism.  And James Bond has better science.

The very first shot shows Charlie Farmer's (Billy Bob Thornton) obsession as he rides his horse across the opening credits wearing a surplus NASA spacesuit, helmet and all.  If you can enlist others, like the wife and kids, in an obsession you get to call it a dream and turn it into one hell of a family project.  The project, of course, is building a rocket out in the barn so Charlie can ride it into space.  In some sequences I felt like I was watching project Mercury all over again (yes, kids, I was alive then.)

The story is pretty standard fare about a man standing up to difficulties, derision and bureaucrats to do something he believes in.  The only surprises are the premise itself, spoiled in the title, and an uncredited cameo by Bruce Willis.  But the story is told well.  Thornton's Farmer is a quiet, determined, thoroughly lovable father whose wife, Audie, is so faithful she could be mistaken for a Boy Scout or cocker spaniel.  But Virginia Madsen makes Audie's devotion real so that's not a problem.

The film itself is a family project - it was written by identical twins Michael and Mark Polish and directed by Michael, an FBI agent is played by Mark, and the two little Farmer daughters (ha ha) are played by Jasper and Logan Polish.  I predict ten years from now Logan will be breaking hearts.

If you want to feel good, go see this.

Flight of fantasy

Last Saturday we went to my favorite Central Florida attraction, Fantasy of Flight located about half way between Disney World and Busch Gardens.  Kermit weeks, the owner, claims to have the world's largest private collection of vintage aircraft.  The picture here shows four different war machines:  in the center is a Nieuport 17 from World War I flanked by a P51 Mustang on the left and a Supermarine Spitfire on the right.  Above that you can see a German V1 buzz bomb.  The bits of red showing around the Nieuport belong to a Fokker DR-I, the famous triplane the Red Baron died in.

There was a meet and greet with one of Kermit's aircraft restorers, Ken Kellet.  Ken flew the Nieuport and his own Sopwith in the movie Flyboys, a movie released last fall that you probably didn't see.  Not many people did.

My highlight for the day came after Kellet's talk.  I chatted with him a little about the movie then mentioned I was working on a fiction project that has a barnstormer flying a deHavilland DH4 and wondered if one existed within a day's drive.  He said the closest one he knew of was about 350 feet from where we were standing.  He pointed to a double door at the back of the hangar that had a velvet rope to discourage curious visitors and told me to go in there and turn on the light if I had to.

As instructed, I stepped over the rope and through the door.  The light was already on and I found myself in the wood shop filled with old airplane parts and several restoration projects.  This DH4 dominated the room. It isn't a deHavilland but is a replica of one built in America after the war for mail service.  Four of these were partly built when Kermit bought two of them and Peter Jackson a third.

The other highlight was supposed to be watching Kermit fly the DR-I but mechanical problems prevented that and we had to settle for this P51:

More here and here.

T plus 45 Years

45 years ago today I saw my first rocket launch.  John Glenn was riding it.

Rand saw it too, but he must have lived a couple of time zones west of here then as he was still in his pajamas.  I was wearing gym shorts (don't picture it) in a Jacksonville schoolyard and was the first to spot it in the sky while everyone else was looking through a science class window at their television.

Seen a lot of them since.

High Finance

Let's see-- two thirds of my readers are engineers and the other one does physics.  You all should enjoy this.

Bears

I've had this conversation on many topics, haven't you?

The usual first lines are:

• Executives make too much money.
• Corporations make too much money.
• The rich don't pay enough taxes.
• Too many immigrants come to America.
• Etc.

Just ask, "What is the right number, then?" and nobody seems to know.

Tally's Folly no Mistake

Last night we went to the theater. The play was Tally's Folly, a romantic comedy for two players. I first read the play about 10 years ago and used a monologue from it in an acting class, but had never actually seen it performed. The Mad Cow Theater did a pretty good job with it.

The year is 1944. Sally Tally is a nurse in Lebanon, Missouri, single and approaching middle age (31!) Matt Friedman is an accountant from Springfield, who wants to try and change that single part. The conversation takes place in a run down folly, a Victorian boathouse, sort of a gazebo on the water.

They started out angrier than I remembered from reading the play. It eventually becomes evident that Sally's anger is from fear, fear of having to reveal a secret. But Matt's demons come out too, and when all is exposed... well that would be telling, wouldn't it?

We hadn't been to a Mad Cow production before and came away quite impressed. Jay T. Becker and Erin Beute as Matt and Sally were polished and quite enjoyable despite some accent distractions -- Matt's Jewish/Lithuanian came and went while Sally's Missourian sounded more hillbilly than 'richest family in town' (okay, it was a small town, but still...). One other bothersome thing was that they seemed about the same age, but a significant issue in the story is that he is more than 10 years her senior.

This is a good lead up to Valentine's day.  What's theaterese for chick flick?

Hooray, God!

Coyote doesn't think God took the Colts side against the Bears Sunday night and seems a little piqued that coach Tony Dungy would give Him any credit.  I doubt Tony thinks He took sides either.

Winning at sports, business, even politics takes a set of values that makes someone take risks, make sacrifices and work harder than most of us can even imagine: call it character.  Some, like Tony Dungy (and Bears coach Lovie Smith, too, for that matter)  may find that character through their faith and feel gratitude for it.

Maybe that faith is an accident of DNA.  Or maybe God just created us with the ability to develop those character traits, but isn't really interested in us.  Or maybe He is interested in us and there can even be a real personal relationship between an individual and God.  In any of those cases is being thankful for it a bad thing?

Storm Victim

I shot this photo about three weeks ago at Lake Beresford near Deland. In the center you can see the Beresford Lady, a side wheeler that has been taking tourists on the St. Johns River for several years. I was hoping for an outing soon myself, but the storms that blew away a good bit of Central Florida the other night left her on the bottom of the lake.

I'm really more concerned about what was behind me, though. The shot was taken from the parking lot of the Sunrise Fishing Club and Bar, which I just recently discovered.  It's a great place for a sandwich, a brew and local color and sits right between the sunken Lady and Hontoon Island, which was pretty devastated that night. Does anyone know if the place is all right?

Disconnect

Read the screens and look at the faces.

HT TJICistan

Libertarian Conservative Credo

I have some trouble with the term libertarian conservative, but Arnold Kling has a Request For Comment for his Ideological Affirmation Task Force  (IATF RFC) that tries to define what LCs believe.

I can go along with most of it but have a suggestion (he asked.)

Item number 3 reads

Government must be kept in its place. We hold government officials to high standards of competence, honesty, and fairness. However, we do not confuse government with family. We do not confuse government with religion. We do not confuse government with business. We are conscious that any expansion of government responsibility, however well-intended, crowds out those institutions that are the true bulwark of our society.

What's missing is

We do not confuse government with society. It is one of many institutions that has a role within society and should limit its activities to that role.  It speaks or acts for society only in those things that require force or a unified action, like settling disputes or protecting citizens from foreign and domestic predators.

Kling says "Government must be kept in its place" but needs to say what that place is, not just a few things it isn't.