Super Sonic Dad

Digging through the big box of family photos:
Here's a picture from the mid-60s, when my dad worked for Boeing. Not only that, he was there during the exciting development of the Boeing "SST" or "Super Sonic Transport". The thought of the day was that planes are getting faster and faster, so it's only reasonable that going beyond the sound barrier will be an everyday occurance by 1980, so we better get on the band wagon now. And so they did. My dad was in charge of the graphic design of the program, secret high-level plane design, and making presentations to big wig clients overseas who wanted to buy the plane. They even gave him a white lab coat that said in big letters "USA" in red and "SST" in blue.

In this picture foreign dignataries wait for a presentation to start (note easel in background) while a woman-folk waits to get coffee. This hanger was the largest building in the world, until Johnny-come-lately Kennedy Space Center came along.

My dad took the picture with his Polaroid "Land" camera. After the shot was taken, he had to pull out the exposed paper, but it in a little slightly-curved container and stick it in his armpit. That's why the container was slightly-curved. You've come a long way, baby.

Unfortunately Boeing's plane never quite got off the ground, while the French Concorde ruled the trans-sonic skies. But it turns out dad was right all along, as the Concorde is now grounded, due to it's massively expensive expensiveness. And my dad still has a cool bathrobe he got out the deal that says "USA" in red and "SST" in blue.

ps Dad, be sure to chime in if I've distorted any of the facts regarding your roll.

Shot Pudding

I've finally started using one of my local shotput rings again, now that I'm recovering from injury yet again (wrist injury on throwing hand, from Olympic Lifting nine $%!& months ago). Reminds me of Lance Deal's '96 quote that he's like James Brown: "you have to keep coming back, coming back, coming back." It also reminds me that I work at a day job as a graphic designer only so I can fund my shot put career. It's important every once in awhile to step back and put things in perspective.

Anyway, I approached the ring, all excited and ready to throw, only to find that it had been covered by about 2-3" of dirt, mud and pebbles, all topped with a gigantic dog turd.

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer and didn't even remember this annual rite from previous autumns. I could've used a frikkin' snow shovel this time, for &%@&?!sake.

So out came the towel, scraping away the goo, inches at a time, until the towel became solid with dirt and grime. Then another towel, then another. Then I had to beat the towels against the nearest fence, but found that to be a decent discus exercise;)

After 1/2 hour of this, fingernails aching, I was ready to throw on the slick and still muddy surface. Unfortunately I couldn't turn out of the back with confidence due to the existing mud and moisture. So I put down a scrap of towel on the ring, underneath my left forefoot and turned on that. It worked! At least until I put so many holes in the towel it didn't work anymore.

But I thought that's a neat trick I'd pass along to y'all. Illegal for competition I'm sure, but helps in practice during inclement conditions, when you have enough to battle as it is.

Post Mortem:
I love the internet for helpful feedback like this, from Mohamad Saatara:

Christian,
I saw your post on the ring. We have a lot of trouble in Flagstaff with dirty rings due to inclement weather, and we devised this system that seems silly but actually works great:

Get an industrial mop, and a snow shovel (if you don't have access to a snow shovel you can use a regular flat head shovel), and make a mix of about 5 gallons: 1 small bottle of bleach (more if the ring is very dirty or muddy), and water. The bleach gets ride of the algae and other organic matter that make the surface slippery.
[etc etc blah blah won't bore you with the next two paragraphs on ring care]
I hope this helps and best of luck with your throwing.
Mohamad Saatara
NAU Track and Field
Associate Head Coach

ps (If you're actually still reading) I love having my own blog. It's time to abuse it and drive everyone away. If this post doesn't do it, the one below will. heh heh.

Jessica and Nick: Splitsville!!!

I don't usually pay no mind to what the stars are doing, but this one has me reeling. I thought, as did the rest of the nation, that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's marriage story would continue for the rest of their lives, like they vowed. But all is now a shambles.

A quote from the wire (Gosh I love MSN Entertainment):
The couple's reality show, "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica," which chronicled their daily lives in a new California home, turned them into stars. The show, which ran for three seasons, made Simpson infamous for her dippy-blonde moments, including the time she confused the tuna she was eating for chicken, or when she eschewed Buffalo wings because "I don't eat buffalo."

(cue rim shot. You can't make shit like that up.)