Freuding the Coffee Shop

26Jul08

Which do you think is worse: a guy sitting alone, facing the wall, or the guy next to him writing about it on his blog? But I digress – the real reason I’m writing is to share with you the Phrase of the Day.

PHRASE OF THE DAY!

Butter Continents. Melt a pat of butter in a sauté pan, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

On a more substantiative note, today and Sunday, there is an air acrobatics show at ROC, with military pilots doing ridiculously dangerous things in billion-dollar jet aircraft for shits and giggles. When I first heard about it, the event struck me in a way similar to how monster truck shows do; it sounded like jangling keys to entertain suburban John Q. Public with shiny technology and fire, and on one level that is exactly what it is. And then, earlier today while eating a sandwich in my apartment, an F-someteen roared above my building and described a loop over downtown.

If a motorcyclist is having a good day just by screaming down the city avenues with the wind in his face and the streets left in a blurry wake, then those pilots must be having the times of their lives. I would gladly give years of my life to military service and training for the chance to make supersonic fly-overs of our cities, weaving between the skyscrapers and seeing the arterial sprawl of transportation networks and eras of development like the rings of a tree, first hand, not from satellite photographs or maps or hearsay. What an amazing experience it must be. I have a real respect for the air show, not because I enjoy watching it, but that the people that do enable a life-changing experience for the pilots running it. Seeing the plane over midtown is enough for me, to take a minute to live vicariously. To get some perspective of people in war-torn parts of the world, terrorized by the same machines that could vaporize the buildings around me in an instant if so equipped. I am not above being dazzled by technology – I think it’s great how technology expands human experience, for better or worse, to give perspective and wonder and delight and fear, for better or worse, to our lives.

Neat-o.

Filed under: journal   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: air show, butter continents, perspective, phrase of the day, technology