The Doctor

Actually, the way to a man's heart is between his third and fourth ribs. :)

Looks like old Scott finally earned his picture on the wall at Pancho's, if it still existed. We'll miss you, Scott. Legendary Pilot Scott Crossfield Dies in Crash Thursday, April 20, 2006 RANGER, Ga. — Legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of a single-engine plane in the mountains of northern Georgia, authorities said. Searchers discovered the wreckage about 1 p.m. near Ranger, 50 miles northwest of Atlanta. The Civil Air Patrol identified the body found inside as Crossfield. There were thunderstorms in the area Wednesday morning when air traffic monitors lost radio and radar contact with the Crossfield's Cessna 210A, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane had left Prattville, Ala., around 9 a.m. that day for his home near Manassas, Va. Crossfield's son-in-law, Ed Fleming, told The Associated Press from Crossfield's home on Thursday that family had been notified his plane and body had been found. The airplane carrying the 84-year-old pilot crashed in a remote and heavily forested gully about 10 miles from Ranger. Oris Hendrix, who lives about a mile away, said she had heard the plane having trouble in the storm. "He was trying to turn and he just went down," she said. "You could tell the motor was having trouble. You could tell the motor cut off." Among the small community of test pilots, Crossfield was a legend, said veteran test pilot Fred Griffith of Shelter Bay, Wash. "This guy was a gentleman and an aviator. That's the top of the line," said Griffith, a test pilot for 40 years. "There's pilots, there's drivers. An aviator is something else. That's the best I can say about anyone in this business. "I don't know anybody who was more respectable than Scotty Crossfield." In the early 1950s, Crossfield had been one of a group of civilian pilots assembled by the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the forerunner of NASA. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager had already broken the speed of sound in his history-making flight in 1947. But Crossfield set the Mach 2 record — twice the speed of sound — in 1953, when he reached 1,300 mph in NACA's Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. In 1960, Crossfield reached Mach 2.97 in an X-15 rocket plane launched from a B-52 bomber. The plane reached an altitude of 81,000 feet. At the time, Crossfield was working as a pilot and design consultant for North American Aviation, which made the X-15. He later worked as an executive for Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation. More recently, Crossfield had a key role in preparations for the attempt to re-enact the Wright brothers' flight on the 100th anniversary of their feat near Kitty Hawk, N.C. He trained four pilots for the Dec. 17, 2003, flight attempt in a replica of the brothers' flyer, but poor weather prevented the take-off. Among his many honors, Crossfield was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983. Vaya con Dios.

My pleasure, Dorian.

William Gates. No college degree, and little money in his pocket. But we need to reopen the Texas wells, and drill in the ANWAR. OPEC successfully got us to cap our wells in the early 80's (thanks, Pres. Carter, you dope!). Let's get our wildcatters back out there!!

But, when a bloke says he's "pissed to the eyeballs", how come he's just jolly drunk and not angry? Granted, he'll end up spending most of the night in the loo. But again, far from angry. In the Queen's English, "pissed" means "drunk". On this side of the pond, however, it means "angry". Where that transmogrification occurred, I have no idea. Hmmm... Now, to think about it a bit more, they do sometimes tell people to "piss off", which means "go bother someone else". Usually, they tell someone to "sod off", which has nothing to do with their lawn. To quote William S. Burroughs, "Language is a virus from Outer Space." Let's continue to treat it as such. Now, let's all get pissed! :)

Hear, hear!! :)

wax

I said nothing! Noth-ing!!

^ is a dear, dear friend. :)

I can't help it that my mind's in the gutter. It's attached to my body...

"Ethel"? That reminds me of Ray Steven's "The Streak"! "I yelled 'Don't look, Ethel!!', but it was too late. She'd already been mooned!"

Oh, man... Rummy, dear, you kill me!

kinky

Thanks!

links

Laughing my butt off! I got 6 emails overnight offering "miracle" hair growth pills.

I still love to ride, and part of me wants to continue competing. :)

Mark the calendar, love!

Ridin' pretty high, little buckaroos! I've got two different 2nd-line managers chewin' ass on my 1st-line mananger, in the hopes he'll quit me. I figure I'll win in the next two days.

With all that bilge the damned Iranian "president" has been spewing of late, his whole friggin' country should be a glowing glass factory, and not a moment too soon. Modern drills can pierce a quarter-mile thick crust of nuclear glass (very brittle), so what's the bloody problem?! And please, don't dredge up the "fossill fuel" argument. It's specious at best, and completely unprovable. It is a renewable resource. The bloody dinosaurs had little or nothing to do with the process.

I drive a Dodge Durango. I also have horses. I also attend Ren Faires. I have a lot of crap to haul about, regardless of the event. It is convenient to have such a large vehicle to transport my crap from point A to point B, but it galls the bejeezus out of me to pay $50 a tankfull. If sweet crude oil were indeed over $100 per barrel, I could see the pump prices. But the current crude price does not warrant the pump prices we're burdened with!! We're being screwed, Mr. and Mrs. America. And we're not even being afforded a courtesy reach-around. Your Kindly Libertarian American Indian Wild-Eyed Pyrate!!!!, ~ MJ

YAR Radio!

Fighting with a my second SATA hard drive. I like the extra 320 GB, but it's being a pain.

Ummm, ahhhhh.....

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