Simple Tricks and Nonsense

I've had a couple inquiries from Loyal Readers as to my whereabouts and condition; apparently, the lack of tributes for the plethora of recently departed celebrities (which, as you all know, are usually like catnip for your humble host) has them worried about me. Your concern is much appreciated, folks, but rest assured that I'm alive and doing fine... mostly. I seem to have entered into another of those periods when I'm insanely busy at work, constantly chasing around on the weekends, and too damn exhausted in the evenings to accomplish anything more thought-intensive than shoveling food in the general direction of my mouth. This has been the pattern of my life for several years now -- somehow, I've managed to land myself in an industry that booms in the summertime, right when most people are finding ways to take it easy -- but I still haven't gotten used to it, and I honestly don't think I ever will. I'm easily distracted and inclined toward procrastination at the best of times, and when things get like this... well, blogging isn't the only thing I haven't managed to keep up with. And I'm feeling pretty damn frustrated about it, too. This isn't how I used to imagine my life was going to be. It was supposed to look a lot more like this:

Glamorous space babes offering me cocktails while I pursue galactic adventures aboard my somewhat phallic-looking rocketship? Yeah, wouldn't that be lovely... anyhow, I'm taking a mental-health day tomorrow, and among all the other items on my to-do list, I hope to get a couple of those tributes written. Keep your fingers crossed for me...

(Incidentally, more images like the one above can be found here. If you're into this sort of thing. Which obviously, I am.)

Posted by at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Just a note for any local readers who may be looking for something interesting to do this weekend: a pair of World War II-era bomber planes are going to be in the area, on display and open to the public for tours. It's the same pair I've written about before, the B-24 and B-17 that are owned and operated by The Collings Foundation out of Stow, Massachusetts. As an added bonus this year, they've brought along a "little friend" -- a P-51 fighter, just like the ones that used to escort the bombers on their missions over Europe 65 years ago.

Even if you're not into airplanes per se, I urge you to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see three functioning pieces of an increasingly distant moment in history. Take your children, if you've got them, and help them understand that history isn't just a list of dates in some dry-as-dust textbook, that it's composed of real events that happened to real, breathing people. Nothing makes that point more strongly, in my opinion, than something like an ancient airplane that still flies and smells of oil and exhaust and hot metal, something that still lives. When you're around objects like that, it's easier to imagine what our grandparents -- or great-grandparents, I suppose, for the kids today -- experienced and felt and accomplished. You can sense the past in ways you just don't get from a book or a sterile specimen sitting behind velvet ropes in a museum somewhere. I find it exhilarating, myself.

Speaking of exhilarating, if you can afford it, you really must look into booking a flight experience. My dad and I went for a ride in the B-24 a few years ago, and it was one of the flat-out coolest things we've ever done. I can't gush enough about it. It was also a great bonding moment for a couple of grown men who often can't find anything to talk about, if that gives you any ideas.

But if the flight experience is beyond your means, at least go for the walkthrough tour. The Wings of Freedom tour will be stopping at the Heber City airport tomorrow through Sunday, and then will appear at Provo's municipal airport on Monday and Tuesday. I understand the walkthroughs will be offered from 1000 to 1700 hours (that's 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., for you civilian types). In the meantime, you can click that photo up there at the top and be treated to a ridiculously huge view that's almost -- but not quite -- as good as seeing the real thing...

Posted by at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's been a busy, busy week here in the Proofreader's Cave, and I haven't had the time to even think about blogging, let alone actually do any (very frustrating, especially with today's pair of celebrity deaths -- one expected, the other shockingly not -- practically screaming for my attention). But I would like to briefly note the passing on Tuesday of one of Salt Lake's leading citizens, Sam Weller, whose eponymous Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore has long been the literary epicenter of the city. Sam didn't actually found the store, but he did change its name when he took it over from his father in 1946. In a painfully ironic twist, he was forced to retire 12 years ago -- leaving the store in the capable hands of his own son, Tony -- after losing his eyesight. That's always struck me as an impossibly sad fate for a bookseller, and just a little too uncomfortably close to that old Twilight Zone episode that starred Burgess Meredith. You remember, the one called "Time Enough at Last," the one where the bookworm survives a nuclear war and looks forward to finally catching up on his reading now that there's no one around to bug him, but then he drops his spectacles and they shatter, leaving him blind as a bat. Ugh...

Anyhow, you can read more about Sam's life and his store here. He was 88 years old. I have more to say about my own experiences with Sam Weller's Zion Books, but it'll have to wait. Like Burgess Meredith pre-apocalypto, I simply haven't the time right now...

Posted by at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Courtesy of Lileks:

People! It takes all kinds to make a world. I just wish sometimes they’d go off and make one of their own.

Posted by at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)