Tethered At 100,000 Feet. Need A Vacation? The Work Week. Leo The Lion.

Up, Up And Away. Bat Sh-t Crazy. Increase Productivity By Going To Four Days? The Roar Of A Lion.

A post from the past mentioned this interesting idea which has now come to fruition. The company, Space Perspective, has officially joined the privatization of space exploration, enjoying an infusion of capital from NASA and other investors. Below you can see the massive balloon and the tether suspending the small capsule that handles a pilot and up to eight passengers. The six-hour roundtrip includes two hours hovering at 100,000 feet with the promise of incredible views of earth. Similar to a hotel or restaurant opening, I think I will wait awhile for the ‘break-in’ period before I book my flight. I volunteer S², who can bring the food; JP, who can bring the wine; CA, who can bring the smile; GW, who can bring the navigation (and beer): and LM, who can just bring it! These five would be a great test flight group. 🙂

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THE HEADLINE OF 2020 from the Wuhan Convention & Visitors Bureau: “Let’s Meet in Wuhan”. Can you just imagine the conversation? “Honey, I’ve been thinking. After this long and tough year, we need a vacation. Once we get the vaccine, let’s to to Wuhan!” Good luck to the Wuhan tourism board with their new campaign to woo visitors to their city.

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My European friends and business associates always were bewildered by the amount of hours Americans worked and our lack of vacation time. I think things have changed a bit in some parts of Europe, where in years past many of my associates always took most of the month of August as ‘holiday’. With the ever-changing economic landscape along with the pandemic, many governments including Spain and New Zealand are considering a four-day work week with shorter work days. Their reasoning and thought process is to boost productivity and employment. I for one always considered a four-day work week problematic for many business sectors, but if anyone can pull it off it would be the Spaniards. Speaking of cutting back service, and knowing that the U.S. Postal Service is in deep financial trouble, would anyone object to your home mail service being cut back to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? I could care less if I don’t receive my mail on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. You?

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We could all use some pointed and direct inspiration. These are some of my favorite military quotes:

• “When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll end up as the Pope.’ Instead, I became a painter, and wound up as Picasso.” -Pablo Picasso
• “May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t” – General George S. Patton
• “Go f**k yourself.” – General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, after being asked to be a German ambassador by Hitler.
• Dec. 23, 1944 – “Battle of the Bulge” – An entire U.S. armored division was retreating from the Germans in the Ardennes forest when a sergeant in a tank destroyer spotted an American digging a foxhole. The GI, PFC Martin, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, looked up and asked, “Are you looking for a safe place?” “Yeah” answered the tanker. “Well, buddy,” he drawled, “just pull your vehicle behind me…I’m the 82nd Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are going.”
• While interviewing an anonymous US Special Forces soldier on his sniper skills, a Reuters News agent asked the soldier what he felt when shooting members of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The soldier shrugged and replied, “Recoil.”
• “If there is a god, he’ll have to beg for my forgiveness” – Written on the walls of a concentration camp by an anonymous victim of the Nazis.  
• “If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you” – Genghis Khan
• “Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.” – Douglas MacArthur

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We have all seen the opening credits with MGM movie content, with the massive roar from the lion. They probably use SGI or some other magical software now but many years ago, little to my imagination, MGM actually brought a lion into one of their sound studios. Call me crazy but how did these two guys draw the wrong straw to 1) make the lion roar and 2) not get mauled?

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I leave with a statement from my father, who only enjoyed my editorialization to a point: “Son, when you have made your point, STOP TALKING”.

Adios, pay it forward, stay safe and have a Funday Sunday!