The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+1 -- November 9, 2018 -- Nothing About The Bakken

Note: I am taking a small break from blogging about the Bakken today. I will post some energy stories and I will post the NDIC data that is released today and any really important Bakken / energy news but other than that. The rest of this page: nothing about the Bakken. It's for the archives for the granddaughters. If you came here for the Bakken scroll down or to the sidebar at the right.

Updates

Update 6: From wiki, re: Twin Peaks (The Return), 2017. On ShowTime; 18 episodes though it was filmed as one long movie, but it was cut into 18 pieces ... see one of many clips.

The series garnered critical acclaim, with praise centering on its unconventional narrative and structure, visual invention, and performances.

Many publications, including Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, and Esquire, named it the best television show of 2017.

The film journals Sight & Sound and Cahiers du cinéma named The Return the second-best and best "film" of the year respectively, sparking discussion about the artistic difference, if any, between theatrical film and TV series in the era of streaming.

Update 5: whenever I meet a veteran, I always ask what him/her what assignment he/she enjoyed most. Today, one of the F-16 pilots I met said Aviano, Italy. He and his family had been stationed there for three years. I told him I was sent to Aviano (while assigned to a base in Germany) for one month for a temporary duty assignment. I brought my family (wife and two daughters). I said we really enjoyed the food. He said the food was delicious but the problem: it was all Italian. He was serious. LOL. He was comparing his Aviano experience to that of Germany. He was correct: in Germany one could get almost any type of cuisine. Turkish food was particularly prevalent.

Update 4: a real gentleman -- I knew him well; incredibly kind and a great friend of my father's.

Update 3: the books I am enjoying --

• The New Journalism, Tom Wolfe
• The God Problem, Howard Bloom
• The Peabody Sisters, Megan Marshall
• Aeneid, Virgil, translation by Frederick Ahl
• Genesis, the Bible

I was disappointed in the latest issue of The London Review of Books. One article was interesting, on Graham Greene, but it turned out to be lacking.

Update 2: I am pretty much taking the day off from blogging about energy, or politics, or the market.

I haven't watched a bit of television today or listened to any news. I heard earlier that the market was down but have no idea what it is doing now. I see that natural gas was up a bit today and posted a note about that earlier. I'm in a great mood.

Except for a couple of driving assignments later this afternoon, between now and tomorrow morning, I'm completely free.

For the past hour or so, I continued a project I started earlier this week, going through the pilot episode of Twin Peaks (television; David Lynch; Laura Palmer; yes, that Twin Peaks) scene-by-scene, taking notes, to see how well put together this pilot was: to see how David Lynch introduced no less than two dozen characters that were there for the duration; to see a handful of one-time appearances (I find it interesting to see which characters did not continue in the series and which did, including the Log Lady); to see how he introduced story line after story line in this one episode. Wow, there were so many subplots. How he integrated the music. His fascination with young beautiful women. His fascination with really quirky visuals.

Update 1: this is where I plan to be this Sunday morning. The manager personally invited me to come in Sunday for a free breakfast for veterans at McDonalds. Because of the glare, it's a bit hard to read, but there it is. I plan to take Sophia.

Original Post 

Sorry for the delay in posting today. Veterans Day events at the schools.

If you came here for the Bakken, please feel free to skip this post. Lots of meandering. Rambling. Nothing about the Bakken.

I'm in a great mood and off my meds.

So, I will post stuff and then update, instead of a lot of separate posts.

Thank you to all fellow veterans -- all gave some, some gave all.

See Sergeant First Class Leroy A. Petry at this site, Medal of Honor recipient. The speaker at one of the events I attended today spoke with Sgt Petry this past week. The speaker asked Sgt Petry if he would have done anything differently, knowing the outcome. Sgt Petry, losing his dominant right forearm in the firefight trying to toss a live grenade back at the enemy, only said this, "I should have used my left hand."

Our oldest granddaughter was kind enough to take a photo of me after dropping her off for school -- the background isn't all that impressive but I'm thrilled we got the photo:

The flight jacket in the photograph above was the first flight jacket I was ever issued, and for the most part, it was the only one I ever wore for thirty years. It's a cold weather flight jacket. I believe, but I forget, I think I was later issued a warm weather flight jacket. It is customary for flyers to turn in their flight gear upon separation from the Air Force, including of course their custom-made helmet, but I was allowed to keep everything, including the helmet, which I believe was valued at $300 in 1983. I guess after 30 years in the service they don't ask for any personal gear back: I didn't have to turn in anything.

Back in 1982 or thereabouts, I completed flight training in San Antonio, and returned to my home station, Grand Forks Air Force Base with flying orders in my hand(s). Those orders were my ticket for issued flight gear: including cold weather gear for North Dakota. I still have all of it. The flight jacket was previously worn by a "Major Baird," a B-52 weapons system operator (WSO or "whizzo".) See photograph below. The original insignia on the jacket was that of a major; at the time I was issued the jacket I was a captain so I had to take off the gold leaves and replace them with silver bars.

Some years later, all flyers (first, just the pilots; and later, all those on flight status -- WSOs; flight surgeons; flight nurses; etc) were issued a WWII-like leather jacket -- as an incentive to keep pilots on active duty. I refused to take one. I didn't like freebies and I didn't like bribes. I loved the Air Force and would have stayed almost no matter what.

But about two years after I was "eligible" for one of those highly sought-after jackets, a junior medical officer was able to talk another junior procurement officer into obtaining a jacket for me. These were highly controlled; one had to personally sign for a jacket. how he was able to pull that off, I will never know. But, in the end I did get a jacket.

As long as I'm rambling, the rest of the story.

The WWII-flying jackets were incredible. But a lot of flyers wanted alterations. It turned out that tailors in South Korea and in Turkey made the modifications. I was stationed in Incirlik, Turkey, at the time and had my jacket modified. There were six major modifications, including additional pockets, a fixed lining, and a removable lining. The Turkish tailor drew up a piece of paper with the six modifications and one simply checked which of the six, one to six, modifications one wanted. I took all six; I've long forgotten what they all were. One included a fur collar. Faux fur, no doubt. LOL.

Stateside a 3-star general officer was aware of this. He sent me his jacket from Washington, DC, and told me which modifications he wanted. He only wanted three or four. I duly checked off the ones he wanted on the Turkish checklist.

I was mortified when the tailor returned the jacket to me with all six modifications! As noted, these jackets were controlled and even a general officer was not going to be happy trying to explain why he wanted a new jacket and then on top of that explaining why he modified official Air Force gear. I assume that was frowned upon.

I did not think he would notice but was it the better part of valor to tell him or not?

I inserted a heartfelt letter of apology when I mailed the jacket to him, assuming my career was over.

It turned out he was thrilled with all the modifications and thanked me profusely, including the fur collar, of which I think he was unaware was one of the options.

More photos later, perhaps.