In "Why is there a Nazi Blimp over Manhattan?"

er, to clarify: I have recollections of seeing PHOTOS OF the Graf Zeppelin in Weimar, pre-Nazi livery but that could just be wishful thinking.

At the very least, the Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127) and the Hindenburg were regular vistors to NYC in the 1930s. All the images of the last visit, 1937, of the Hindenburg I was able to easily locate feature the swastika roundel on a flag-shaped background, unlike this pic. However, the ships' livery changed regularly and therfore a record of the livery and visits should help to ID the ship. I have recollections of seeing the Graf Zeppelin in Weimar, pre-Nazi livery but that could just be wishful thinking. looking solely at the image, I think it's from the first visit of the Hindenberg to NYC in 1936: http://www.signalalpha.com/html/historical_audio___video.html http://www.signalalpha.com/HindenburgOverNYC_09May1936.jpg

In "Turkmenbashi is dead."

I DEMAND A BASHELEGY FROM THE BEESBASHI!

In "What's a vote worth?"

That Rodstrom ass gives new meaning to the word motherfucker!

In "In 1895 in Co.Tipperary Michael Cleary began to believe that his wife was in fact a changeling."

Fascinating. I wonder if there are similar cases in the US among descendants of Gaels or rurally-settled emigrants at around the same time.

In "Meet Dave Rat"

I have met Dave Rat, circa 1985, and certify him as an intereting rock-n-roll character. He was behind (as I recall) a couple of compilations of mostly California-based non-hardcore punk bands circa 1986-1987, both entitled "Rat Music for Rat People." When I met him, it was the height of the hardcore circuit, such as it was, and he told me he was working on a memoir which would compare it to the historical juke-joint circuit (if I recall correctly). He was acting as the road manager for a band called "Tales of Terror." He was the first adult I ever spoke to who correctly identified the US punk underground of the time as the future of the US music business, and I am not surprised to hear he hooked up with the Chili Peppers.

In "Giant meteorite hits Norway."

Yes. Meterorite strike, nope. Big flaming meteor, yes. Sometime in the late eighties I had taken a cab out to the outskirts of town to my parents' house, knowing that they were out of town. I'd called ahead for a pizza and had planned on spending a night in the air-conditioned house watching some movies. However, I forgot my keys. So I hung out in the driveway until the pizza showed up and went to the back porch to eat it before walking someplace I could cab back into town from. As I sat on the dark porch eating pizza and feeling like a dope, the night suddenly brightened, as though someone had turned on an arc light in the distance. Looking around for the source of the light, I eventually cast my eyes skyward where I watched a brilliant greenish fireball with clearly visible firey flickers rolled across the sky for several seconds. No bang or rumble followed it, so I assume it burned up very high in the atmosphere. Someone I told the story to once speculated that the meteor must have had a high copper and phosphorus content.

In "The world's largest landing craft is offloading now."

Greatest post ever. I love the faux-victorian ragsheet tone throughout.

Greatest post ever. I love the faux-victorian ragsheet tone throughout.

In "Curious George: Who's Dumb to You?"

I think most Washingtonian jokes with the Canuck at butt are affectionately intended. Californians, now, there's some real animus. As a Hoosier, i can also state that it is Kentuckians that the Hoosier casts aspersions upon. The Monkey? Well, clearly: The MeFite!

In "Lost in the Sahara"

lovely, thanks much. Bring the wrecked kites, any kind, alll times!

In "Marathon's Story. "

i chuckled at a scene in one of the Battlestar Galactica episodes that aired all at once on scifi recently. A small landing party drops out of jumpspace into a swarm of cylons, and a character shrieks, "they're everywhere!" before dying.

In "Sokath! His eyes open!"

mwhybark, at Seattle. His glass unfilled!

In "Curious George: Bluetooth WiFi network?"

Don't buy the 650 with the intent of using Shadowmite's hacked wifi drivers. There are many specific caveats with respect to the model that he developed the hack for, and he is quite upfront about them. I believe he developed it for the Sprint model, and it is (was?) established that the hack does not work on the Cingular model. You'll need to determine if the Verizon distro is the same as either or a new flavor all its' own. I was able to use a USB cable to connect to my wifi network by connecting the Treo to my Mac and using the pay-only internet sharing feature in the Mac version of The Missing Sync, but that is suboptimal. Much cooler is Shadowmite's hack that reactivates DUN, allowing you to use the phone as a wireless modem for your BT laptop. Only do this, however, if you have unlimited data.

In "The beverage tasting institute, "

Interesting site, thanks very much.

In "Guitar Wolf's"

My buddy Matt has a nice remembrance up about gigging with the Wolfs. He just saw them in NO and they covered one of his songs. Bummer.

In "Did your ancestors fight in the American "

great link, Panleth. I can't pass the link due to the form, but I found the two I knew of and one I did not. The war appears to have shattered the lives of my ancestors; when the war started, there was a family group of about fifteen living in one town in Missouri, who'd been there for about two-and-a-half generations, fifty years. After the war, there was only the patriarch and his youngest son. All the others had left or died of disease. My family was ignorant of this until a distant relative did some research and shared. Guess what? My family's tradition of moving far, far away from one another and losing touch appears to be a pattern partially created by the war. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in having family behaviors that may be inherited responses to the war.

In "Tranquility base, the eagle has fucking landed."

Thank you, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you izz.

In "MofiMefiMeet"

'launchend?' My typos grow ever more baroque.

In "The Toymaker"

Nice link! New to this papercraft seeker, even!

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