Cometary

It was a night jump in 1997. No gear, just an M-16A2. I stepped out of the C-130 and the air was dead calm. Looked over to my right side as I was falling and I saw the comet Hale-Bopp just brilliant and refulgent in the sky. It was icily beautiful and seemed like I could reach up and touch it; we were far enough away from civlization that there was little light pollution. I watched the comet all the way to the ground and had a nice, soft landing in some sand where I stayed for longer than normal to take it in a bit more.

As we all made it to the rally point the spirit was hushed, much quieter than paratroopers usually are when together. Everyone had been awed by the sight of Hale-Bopp ablaze above us and I think we all felt smaller than usual. The typical paratrooper bravado had been tamped down a little and the conversations were deeper as we waited to head back to base proper.

That was a good fucking night. I miss that life sometimes.

ATGM

He shot down a helicopter with an anti-tank missile. Damn.

Wash Sale

I’ve even seen this talismanic status explicitly stated quite often. There are tons of tweets and articles saying that the mask-wearer is donning a mask to “show they care.” Honey, hate to tell you, but the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn’t give a rip that you care. It’s going to slide through your never-washed cloth mask like a Javelin through a T-72.

Winey

I don’t think it all tastes the same but I can’t reliably tell the difference between any of it. I prefer sweeter and less bitter wines, for sure. But I’ve had $200 bottles of wine and $10 bottles and if you switched the labels, I wouldn’t be able to discern that at all.

Mort

With so many cash sales, it remains to be seen what effect this will actually have on the market. I don’t have a solid prediction here that I’d trust. Market is too chaotic and too many factors at play.

Near Use

Virtual conferences are a huge mistake because they are nearly useless.

Park Bench

“RADIAL NEUROPATHY Common causes include sleeping with the arm slung over a park bench (โ€œSaturday night palsyโ€), compression in the axilla by improper crutch use (โ€œcrutch palsyโ€), or fracture of the humerus damaging the nerve as it travels in the spiral groove.”

That’s from the neuroanatomy book. You know, if I were a doctor, it’d never occur to me to ask a patient if they came in with radial neuropathy, “Did you sleep with your arm slung over a park bench last night?”

I just would not think of that.