tbrown

Charlie Rangel is a crazy old man, and I say that as a spiritual, if not actual Democrat. He's old, senile, and just plain full of shit. The notion that politician';s children would EVER be subject to the draft is pure bullshit - and he should know it, because we do. We need look no further than our current Commander in Chief, who evaded the draft by signing up for the Air National Guard at a time when the waiting list was over 3 years long. Funny how he just got in. Hell, I knew a guy who joined the guard in upstate NY inspite of a long waiting list and his old man was little more than an Asst. District Attorney. But the oldest son had served a tour in Vietnam and come home a junkie and the old man decided he'd had enough of THAT bullshit and one son was all they were getting. Fuck Charlie Rangel, I hope he dies soon. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

BA-Lony !! One of the oldest statues of a beautiful woman in human history is the prehistoric "Venus Willendorf" and it's a statue of a pregnant woman. My wife was pregnant twice having our two kids and she was always beautiful (and ready for some action). Now, I have heard of some morons who have actually had affairs because their wife was pregnant and they could only equate "sexy" with anorexia. But that only proves what a bunch of idiots they were as men. Pregnant may not be "cover girl" sexy, though I think Demi Moore did a pretty good job of challenging that notion as well. But it IS waaaay sexy to any man who's willing to broaden his horizons and grow up into adulthood. WC, I bet you're looking just more & more beautiful by the day. Bet your hubby thinks so too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Krisanne, happy belated birthday (honest, I didn't log on yesterday at all...). Hope the hangover's not too bad. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This is exactly why we have a Bill of Rights amended onto our Constitution, to protect the rights and liberties of our citizens from whatever majority opinion may be in vogue at any given time. But the fact that those rights exist on paper hasn't always been much help to Native Americans, Black Americans, or most infamously to Japanese Americans during WWII. I would hope not to see that mistake repeated, where loyal American citizens wer interned in camps simply for who they were, rather than anything they had - or actually had NOT done (their sons fought in the 442nd Nisei Regiment, the most heavily decorated regiment of the entire war). We can still lose this war by betraying our own values here at home. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Perris or Elsinore! Eloy of course has a wonderful Holiday Boogie, but the So. Cal scene should not be overlooked and may be easier for you to get to. You should probably check out both dropzones, usually they knock about $2 off their standard lift prices (currently $22) from Xmas Eve thru New Year's Day. Elsinore has 2 Twin Otters, Perris has 3 (unfortunately the Perris Skyvan is still down with a blown engine the last I heard). If you're a belly flyer, you'll really like the load organizing at Perris, it's excellent, plus they have The Bombshelter, a full service bar & restaurant right at the dropzone. No promises either, but the word is that Perris will be flying loads with their DC-9 over the holidays, so if you've ever wanted to make a "DB Cooper" dive, this could be your chance. So if you're wife's going to Oregon, get her squared away and then catch a flight down to the LA area (and try to avoid LAX if you can, Orange County and Long Beach both have wonderful airports that are much closer to the dropzones anyway. Definitely check out flights on Alaska and Jet Blue airlines. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'd still fuck her. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sometimes there are no people so precious as the ones we've lost. We hear pretty truisms about "death is a part of life", and it is, but nothing ever prepares us for the loss, even when we're expecting it. As skydivers, we do, or will, know a lot more people we've lost than most people. For some of us it will finally hurt so much that we'll leave this sport, and for those of those who do, or will, that's alright too. And for some of us who are younger, these may be our first close up experiences with losing anyone. I've known probably two dozen people or more who have died in this sport alone, along with friends who have died in auto or motorcycle accidents, two who were murdered, and one brother who died of cancer at 35. My parents are both close to 80 and hanging in there, I worry sometimes about my wife's health, and thanks be to God our two daughters are well and enjoying life. What was the prayer in that film, "The Village" ? I think it was "We are grateful for the time we have." Be thankful for all the living friends, lovers, spouses, and family we have, and TELL THEM, while we're all here. Happy Thanksgiving everybody, with a lot of love. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Replace clutch - $1000.00 Replace clutch at 30,000 miles ?!? Get RID of the piece of shit ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Happy birthday to a fellow November Valentine's kid ! Hope to see you out at Perris again sometime soon. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Ok, seriously, that's pretty cool...I wonder if I could log it as an AN-2 jump? It's better than a AN-2, as Viking sez, it's a MI-24. Methinks it has a tailgate. A few years back they used a bunch of these to support a 300 Way world record attempt in Russia (built to 297). So it's most definitely a jumpin' chopper ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The parent in me says "I'm too scared to fuck up on this one, so I'll take my kids out of the situation." I hate doing things because I'm scared - but there are some things that are not worth gambling your principles on. It's not even acting out of fear. It's rational and responsible. Which doesn't mean you can't be compassionate, or even make some kind of a difference. It's just knowing where you can try and where you shouldn't. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So how come everybody invites OJ over for Thanksgiving year after year ? 'Cuz he's so good at carving the white meat ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I sort of knew her roomate, who was good lookin', but a real bitch. Anyway, one day I get a phone call and she introduces herself and says her roomate told her I can help her go make a skydive. "Oh sure, we can do that", sez I. When I actually met up with her, she was more beautiful than I could even believe. The sparks didn't fly all at once though, it still took us another month to start getting together. But that was 26 years ago and we're still together. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The Cars - Let the Good Times Roll Beasty Boys - Fight For Your Right to Party Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today Grateful Dead - Scarlet Begonias>Fire On the Mountain (recorded live) Rolling Stones - Happy Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You Beatles - I'm Down Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Most of those 800 ft are snivel. When I want it to open quicker, I grab my rear risers and yank them, this almost instantly ends the snivel. I've tried that once or twice with my 210 Pilot - it really works, you can even feel a little g force, like the older canopies used to give you. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Option two is kind of a combination of 1 and 3.... not really committing to either. The choices are rather limited. To agree with kbordson, the evidence for evolution (genetics, DNA, fossil record, etc.) is overwhelming. Whether or not you interpret God having a hand in it is pretty much a matter of belief. If you believe in God, he really did an elegant job of it. If you don't believe in god, it's still pretty elegant. And with or without God, it's not over yet, there is more to come, long after we're gone. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I dunno...I've been achey and exhausted all weekend, sore throat, stuffy nose. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but it does seem it might have made me sick in addition to having a sore arm with a big bruise. I haven't had the flu in years, maybe I'll just go with luck next year instead of feeling like this. I will admit that every 3rd year or so a flu shot will kick my butt, with aches and pains in my lower back and generalized crumminess, but never enough to miss a day's work (heaven forbid). My shot this year gave me an achey arm for a few hours, but other than that I'm good. Also there's a rotten chest cold going around this month, which had floored a lot of the Perris crowd. Fortunately this cold stays in the chest and doesn't go upstairs to the head, so jumping was possible. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I find it impossible to imagine what it would be like to be one of thousands of jumpers all crowded together under round canopies. How they did it, not just in the movie, but in reality is almost too incredible to fathom. I suspect that many of the chutes were carrying dummys, but even so...simply amazing. Today that would be done with computers. Nope, no dummies. Unlike modern day films like Pearl Harbor, or even Band of Brothers, computerized animation hadn't been invented yet. I remember when the film came out in '77, the word was that they used real live British paratroopers for the jump scenes. If you look closely at the canopies, you'll see anti inversion mesh below the canopy skirts. There was definitely none of that back in WWII. The movie rigs had steerable canopies and they were probably jumping from around 1200 ft, which is standard for military static line. The guys who jumped in the real thing were using 28 ft silk canopies, that were supposedly steerable by "slipping" air with the risers. In real combat conditions they were getting out at 400 - 500 ft. Some of them got out so low they never opened. I once knew a Normandy veteran of the 101st, Carl Beck, who I believe is still living. Carl told me he stepped out the door, had the slammer opening of his life and about a second later the slammer landing of his life. Normandy was a night jump and Carl was seriously wounded within hours of his jump and that was pretty much the end of the war for him. Carl was one of the veterans who jumped a square canopy into the 50th anniversary observances in 1994. In 2004 he served on the ground crew, as his health no longer permitted him to jump. According to the accounts of the Market Garden veterans, their jump was a daytime jump and to their surprise nobody was waiting on the ground to shoot at them. Their jump was about the only thing that went right with that operation. By the way, did you spot the malfunction in the movie ? There is one guy coming down under a reserve, next to a line over malfunction on his main. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Good for you, now just keep getting them every year. I used to get some nasty flus, but started getting the shots when I turned forty. Have not had a single nasty flu now for eleven years. It never ceases to amaze me that every year at work, some poor slob will miss a whole week, then come back with a horror story about terrible headaches and hurling his or her guts up and wishing they could die. But when I suggest that maybe next year they get a flu shot, they rear up and say, "Oh I NEVER get flu shots !" All I can say is "Well obviously not...". People used to think that smallpox inoculations would turn them into a cow. It's the same thing now and every bit as silly. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

And a Happy Birthday to you, from one Birthday Boy to another. That Amazon's a scamp though, ain't she ?? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That's not really necessary.....I'll 'fess up to 51 and you can just take me word for it, how's that ? For once, I'm speechless. Thanks so much to everyone for the b-day wishes, and aspecially to Amazon for stirring up this pot (I'm as tall as she is and she even picks ME up !). Love y'all & hope everybody cops a little breeze for the weekend. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Excellent point Wendy, I like to rant about Health Nazis and Bible Nazis myself from time to time. But as for just calling somebody a plain and simple Nazi, no. The Nazis were a really extreme bunch when you consider the things they did. So unless you're talking about things like the forced deportation, enslavement, and planned exterminations of entire peoples, simply for who they are and not for anything they've done, or talking about systematically killing people with physical or mental problems, lay off the Nazi label. Very few people have ever even approached the Nazis for the scope and thoroughness of the horrors they inflicted on the world, before most of us were even born. I don't think anyone really appreciates just how lucky we are to have been born into this world AFTER the Nazis were defeated. Those guys were THE Evil Empire - and they almost won that war. That's the scary part. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Q: How can you tell if a grizzly bear's been around overnight ? A: Their poop smells like pepper and is full of little metal bells. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Friday morning and I'm still gloating. Of course today's also my birthday, so I'm just brimming with gloatmentude (might as well take the opportunity to coin a new word as well). Gloat out. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Next time, try climbing up a tree. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !