Meme, me Ms. von Marx! Tagged, I’m it.
Posted on October 15, 2009 at 10:44 pm by Dr. Jim
A few days ago Missives from Marx tagged me in a post called You Would Never Guess Meme. I’m it. Apparently. MfM wrote:
I’m starting a new meme: you have to tell me something unusual about yourself that I probably wouldn’t guess about you.
Here’s my unusual thing: you probably wouldn’t guess it, but one of the philosophers I’ve learned the most from was G.W.F. Hegel. Reading Hegel was like reaching my own “Copernican Revolution” in philosophical thinking, as Kant put it.
Now, I’m not one for Copernican revolutions. If they want to have a revolution in Copernica, well, that’s fine by me, the government there probably are a bunch of jerks. But why should I get involved? And if I Kant afford the advertised price I won’t Hegel about it. That’s just the kind of guy I am.
Oh well, what is unusual about me? I think I’m pretty ordinary.
Dr. Jim, being a perfectly ordinary St. Mark of Emphasis.
Ok, I admit I’m a little strange, but in ordinary ways. I have a Monkees CD.
What could compare to Missives’ philosophical admissions (confessions?)?
Well, despite my awful liberal politics and what not, I like military and vintage airplanes. I really wish I could get my pilot’s licence. Alas, my eyes are so bad now I really hate even driving…
It all started when I was a kid living up at Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta in the 1960s. My best friend’s dad had a charter air service ferrying people to and fro from the various oil and forestry installations, so I spent a lot of time out at the airport. Ended up getting a few rides, too!
One summer, the forest fires were quite bad and a lot of fire fighting aircraft were brought in, and it was an impressive site. In those days, there were not built for the purpose water bombers. The planes were ex-WW 2 military aircraft converted for the purpose.
They were everything a young boy could like, BIG, LOUD and powerful, with an impressive war record too.
There were three kinds I remember:
From Canadian Military Heritage (DND CT 825)
“Grumman Avenger AS Mk. 3M, 881 Anti-Submarine Squadron, HMCS Magnificent, Royal Canadian Navy, 1950-1952.”
The Avenger was built in WW 2 and used by the U.S. Navy and other allied forces for torpedo attacks on ships and for bombing. For a single engine airplane they are huge, and dwarfed the little light planes out at the airport.
From Wikipedia
A Consolidated Catalina flying boat. According to the Wikipedia caption, this one was made in 1944 under licence in Canada and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (that called the type the “Canso”). These are gawky looking things, and are simply glorious. Because they could land on lakes and take up water that way, they were probably the most effective of the planes used in the campaign against the fires that summer.
And now, my favourite:
Wikipedia.
The famous picture of some B 25 Mitchells on the deck of the USS Hornet, just before the first US attack on Tokyo in 1942.
A few of these North American B25 Mitchells operated out of Slave Lake that summer, and I thought they looked the coolest.
I spent a lot of my youth sticking together model airplanes, and I love going to aviation museums. Oddly, though, I don’t like airshows. The damn announcers get on my nerves. I can’t stand people on horrible sound systems wittering on and on (sports commentators are worse), SHUT UP AND JUST GET ON WITH THE SHOW!
Anyway, I haven’t been to an airshow in years. There is one in Lethbridge every few years, but it never seems to fall on a weekend I am free or willing to put up with the heat (August in Lethbridge can be pretty hot), or the damn announcers. When I go, it rains.
I’ve been to Duxford England and Biggen Hill and seen the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight a few times. Here are a few snaps of the Lethbridge airshow from 2005, the last one I went to with a camera. Most of the pictures I took were of black, blurred dots streaking across the sky… I’m a crap photographer.
I should know what sort of plane this is, but I don’t. Sue me.
My brother Al on the loading ramp of a C-5 Galaxy or (probably) a C-17 cargo plane of the US Air Force. The guy in green is heroically getting ready to bail out lest the plane gets overloaded when Al gets on board.
Meet the Fokkers, well, one of them.
You’ve got mail.
Boeing B 17, Flying Fortress “Sentimental Journey”. Probably wasn’t so polished and shiny during the war. 
The colours just seem to be nice…
October 16, 2009 at 8:12 am
Okay, you didn’t force me to do it, I know, but in the interests of having some fun here it is. Now maybe you’ll think twice before doing something like this again.
October 16, 2009 at 10:57 am
Dr. Jim, With such a love of airplane models in your youth, I bet you sniffed your share of glue… explains a lot. Oh wait, that was me, and my dad, building models of famous monsters of film land.
October 16, 2009 at 11:42 am
I’m working on it — never was very good at tag — I should have something less-than-earthshattering by tomorrow!
October 16, 2009 at 11:55 am
Wel, *sniff, sniff* the paint fumes were pretty good, too…
October 16, 2009 at 12:16 pm
You’re an oxymoron! I love flying in baby aircraft with two seats – my brother has his licence. But I HATE flying in anything bigger. I feel I’ve got no control! I like hats and other headgear too…
October 16, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Well, some might have quibbles about the “oxy” part…
I like little planes, too. It feels like real flying instead of sitting in a long tube between one city and another.
The planes from Lethbridge and Calgary are pretty small (it’s a 35 minute flight). The usual ones seat only 18 and the larger one only about 30. You can get a discount if you help to wind up the propellers.
October 16, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Well bully to them.
Anything bigger than two seats is too big! When I’m sitting next to the pilot I just know I’m in control.
And you’re looking out the front, not out the side.
I’ll go for my most colourful hat in New Orleans. How will you dress your head?
October 16, 2009 at 5:56 pm
My, my how brave the little brother is getting now that he lives far away. You posted that snarky comment after I went to bed. if there isn’t an envelope with my name on the outside and several $50 bills of YOURS on the inside, I’ll post ALL the photos of you when you were little.
October 16, 2009 at 5:57 pm
You have 1 week.
October 17, 2009 at 2:32 am
[...] play along with the tag that was given to me by Dr. Jim at his little tea room and thinking shop (or some iteration thereof). So what is my [...]
October 17, 2009 at 6:43 am
[...] a new meme going. Perhaps in payback for my researching memes for years, I was tagged by Dr. Jim of Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop to reveal something about myself you wouldn’t normally guess. Now, I’m not much of a tag [...]
October 19, 2009 at 6:59 am
Great answer! I used to love planes too. I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid!