Jul 24th 2012 07:54 am More or less

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Speaking of the beach, they didn’t find Amelia Earhart. Seventy five years ago this month, Ms. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in her attempt to become the first female pilot to fly around the world. Not knowing the minute details of their disappearance over by far the broadest expanse of water in the world has driven a nation bonkers ever since. Based on refuse located on a Pacific reef, the latest attempt to learn more seemed promising. However, an initial ocean search of the reef and surrounding waters to locate wreckage of the aircraft has come up empty.

Who was the first pilot to fly around the world? Hugo Eckener, in 1929. Whogo? Hugo Eckener was the pilot of record aboard the Graf Zeppelin, the first manmade thing to fly around the world. In 1930, aviator Wiley Post became the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe in a fixed-wing aircraft, along with navigator Harold Gatty. In 1933, Post, aided by a newly developed autopilot and other prototypical navigation equipment, flew around the world alone, becoming the first person ever to accomplish that feat. It’s hard to exaggerate the public’s fascination with aircraft and aviators in the era of the Great Depression. Of course, this was before airport security checks.

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

49 Responses to “More or less”

  1. Brenty on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:03 am #

    Thanks for the Earhart update, Jimmy. I’ve been reading about the stuff they’ve been finding on that island, (ie: cosmetics, mirror, compact, etc.). Maybe the wreckage is further out!

  2. sandcastler on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:05 am #

    As to the retro cartoon, been in those three months for over fifty years. ;-)

    Yes JJ, those were the golden years of flight when every pilot packed a weapon.

  3. Dave in MA on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:25 am #

    Actually, Ms. Earhart wasn’t allowed to land to refuel because the island authorities signaled to her that it was suspicious that she was trying to simply “fly around the world” and as a result she kept going until she ran out of fuel. It was later determined that the island authorities had used incorrect log placement when lighting their signal fire and had spelled things wrong as a result, causing the miscommunication. The rest of the island inhabitants, who had been stranded there for years after an ill-fated three hour tour, ostracized the person who had tripped over the burning logs, causing them to roll out of formation and to form a different word, and he was banished to the far side of the island, never to have another coconut cream pie again.

  4. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:30 am #

    sandcastler, I suspect you and John…and Ghost, among others…will always be in those years! Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

    Jimmy, I love the bell summons idea, but I fear it won’t work in this household. I’ve been tinkling the little devil all morning and have yet to get any kind of response!

    The Earhart mystery is just one of many! Wiley Post went down in Alaska, as I recall, and was never found. Nor was the late Hale Boggs, congressman from Louisiana who also disappeared in Alaska. And then there’s the mystery of the airplane that simply disappeared into Lake Pontchartrain on final approach to New Orleans’ Lakeside Airport. It just disappeared off radar, poof, and no trace of it was ever found. The Lake, as I recall, is only 23 miles across at its longest point!

    All these airplanes disappearing…I’m still trying to find the remote controller to the DVD player!

  5. Jeff in Ann Arbor on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:33 am #

    Sandcastler – me too! Happily, the redhead is tolerant!

  6. Dave in MA on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:42 am #

    Mindy, that remote was on the plane that disappeared.

  7. Woodrowfan on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:42 am #

    Mindy, Wiley Post never disappeared, he and Will Rogers were killed when their plane tried to take off from a lake in Alaska.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post

  8. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 8:54 am #

    Oh, okay, Woodrowfan, but Wiley has never been seen since, so, in that respect, he did disappear. :)

  9. John on 24 Jul 2012 at 9:19 am #

    Woodrowfan,trust me, you can’t win an angument with The Mindy. I’ve been trying for years. I…oh, never mind, there goes that {Bleep} bell again.

  10. Bob, near Mark on 24 Jul 2012 at 9:31 am #

    That remark about Wiley Post was a wily post.

  11. Galliglo in Ohio on 24 Jul 2012 at 9:50 am #

    All of you are just TOO witty for me. I don’t come awake until after i have had my coffee and surfed the web (including this blog!).

    Interesting that JJ talked about aviation today. Last night I started reading a biography of Ernie Pyle. Fascinating! I did not realize that he was (1) an aviation columnist or (2) a roving columnist (ala Charles Kuralt) before WW II. Included in the book are several quotes from his writings – lyrical…

    I must of heard about him when I was very young and I always admired him. But I had admired the hero – I am now learning about the real person, and I am admiring him all the more.

  12. sandcastler on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:08 am #

    Mindy, just knew you would jump on me for that commment. Ahhh, the joy of having these old bones jumped. ;-)

  13. Burns on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:41 am #

    I don’t know about Wiley Post, but Glen Miller disappeared on a relatively short flight across the English Channel during WW2.

  14. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 11:16 am #

    Evelyn J. Soames-Burlap also disappeared while flying a hotair balloon across Philadelphia in 1879. A heavy wind came up, blew the lighter than air craft west and it disappeared into a heavy smog while Ms. Soames-Burlap played Vivaldi on her violin.

  15. John on 24 Jul 2012 at 12:18 pm #

    If you keep in mind one of Renee Descartes’ most famous postulations, you can better understand Mindy. Which is a long way from fully…

  16. Boise Ed on 24 Jul 2012 at 12:25 pm #

    Dave in MA, that was a great story. Love it!

    Bob, near Mark, great pun!

    Alabamans all: you’re featured in today’s http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip

  17. TruckerRon on 24 Jul 2012 at 12:54 pm #

    I’m still trying to figure out how all those poor minorities drive, buy liquor, and smoke without photo IDs. I thought only the Amish were affected by such requirements!

  18. Dave in MA on 24 Jul 2012 at 1:08 pm #

    Now now TruckerRon, we’ll have no facts to mess up our mind set, ya hear?

  19. Bob, near Mark on 24 Jul 2012 at 1:18 pm #

    Those voter photo ID laws are blatant discrimination against the vampire community!

  20. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 1:23 pm #

    Vampires at Virginia polling stations, Bob near Mark,[at least in the rural areas where voiting reforms have only recently limited dead people voting not more than twice per election] are allowed to present an oil painting in a cameo locket for identification. Some discussion was given to blood typing but it appears that those vary from meal to meal.

    How in the world did we get on vampyres???????

  21. Galliglo in Ohio on 24 Jul 2012 at 2:15 pm #

    Mindy – that is SOOOOO good !

  22. Robin in Fl on 24 Jul 2012 at 2:16 pm #

    Speaking of aviation etc: RIP Sally Ride: a true inspiration to young women (and to a whole generation)

  23. John on 24 Jul 2012 at 2:21 pm #

    Mindy is part vampyre, Galliglo, so she’s up on those things, with so much at stake, as it were. Garlic, anyone?

  24. Dave in MA on 24 Jul 2012 at 2:26 pm #

    …. at stake ….

  25. Dave in MA on 24 Jul 2012 at 2:26 pm #

    groan

  26. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 4:05 pm #

    Dave, I should explain that John is the Ponce of Puns. And that’s the Spanish definition, not the UK version. He actually embarasses me when he calls me a Vampyre. After all, it was only that one time…

  27. CW in 617 on 24 Jul 2012 at 4:14 pm #

    Whenever I hear about flying around the world, I immediately think of James Thurber’s “The Greatest Man in the World.”

  28. Mark in Boston on 24 Jul 2012 at 4:37 pm #

    I didn’t expect the Spanish definition ….

  29. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 4:55 pm #

    Or Wrong Way Corrigan…

  30. TruckerRon on 24 Jul 2012 at 5:17 pm #

    My 14 year-old just sent me a URL for a very silly song… but it’s worth watching to the end. It makes my point about typing with thumbs vs talking!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpctWHSc5XU

  31. TruckerRon on 24 Jul 2012 at 5:23 pm #

    Oh, some sad news for those who remember the show:

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/07/jeffersons-star-sherman-hemsley-dies-at-74/

  32. Floyd in Nashville on 24 Jul 2012 at 5:23 pm #

    …or Wrongway Feldman, for that matter….

  33. Ghost Rider 6 on 24 Jul 2012 at 6:15 pm #

    To show how common these disappearances actually are, on quite a few occasions I’ve taken off in an aeroplane for a three hour cruise (…a three hour cruise…) and disappeared for several days. Fortunately, I always find myself.

    Did you know that “airscrew” is an aviation term? Not to be confused with “air crew,” except maybe on most commercial carriers.

    Difficult, Mindy? Moi? Actually I’m quite easy.

  34. Galliglo in Ohio on 24 Jul 2012 at 6:48 pm #

    Oh, my… methinks there is some mania going around… is it catching? LOL

  35. Mike in 96 on 24 Jul 2012 at 7:45 pm #

    In 1945 the Coast Guard build a LORAN A station on Gardner Island which was decommissioned 2 years later. The British had moved a few folks onto the island a couple of years before WWII. From the information on this web site the crew had a few spots they frequented with the local girls. Some of the items found may have been “Gifts” ?

    http://loran-history.info/default.asp

    Scroll down the left side to “Gardner Island” and check out some of the pictures. There were only 2 crews ever stationed there. Anyway some interesting history.

  36. Bob, near Mark on 24 Jul 2012 at 7:52 pm #

    My favorite “Wrong-way” character is Wrong-way Goldfarb, from the novel and the 1965 film “John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!”, by William Peter Blatty (who also wrote “The Exorcist”). The stars of the film version were Richard Crenna, Shirley MacLaine, and Peter Ustinov. My first exposure to Blatty’s work was his 1960 book, “Which Way to Mecca, Jack?”, which I read during an extended hospital stay in 1962. The book tells of his childhood and of his service in Lebanon in the US Information Agency. The book’s opening line is, “My mother was an Arab, which would make me part-Arab, except that my father was an Arab, too. But already I digress.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Peter_Blatty

  37. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 9:57 pm #

    Mania? How so? Or should I ask, more so than normal?

  38. Galliglo in Ohio on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:01 pm #

    Mindy, it’s all good…

  39. Mark in TTown on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:05 pm #

    Boise Ed, you just reminded me why I haven’t read Doonesbury in years. for those people who can’t obtain driver’s licenses or non-driver ID’s, why not put the pictures on the Snap benefits card? It would then be a government-issued ID and reduce the fradulent use of the card as well. In Alabama I believe the non-driver’s ID cards don’t expire. At least the one they issued my mom doesn’t. So you pay once for a lifetime ID. How much of a burden is that? Asking for a picture ID to prove identity is not Jim Crow because everyone who wants to vote will have to follow the same process.
    Whoops, soapbox time. Sorry, all.

  40. Mark in TTown on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:06 pm #

    And I am not implying everyone needing an ID is on government benefits. I am saying that putting a picture on the card would make providing the required ID easier on those who have one.

  41. Ghost Rider 6 on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:16 pm #

    Mindy, did you ever get any response from tinkling the little devil?

  42. Mindy on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:29 pm #

    I didn’t say that. Did I? Those words?

  43. Ghost Rider 6 on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:54 pm #

    “I’ve been tinkling the little devil all morning and have yet to get any kind of response!”

  44. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 25 Jul 2012 at 4:48 am #

    Is today’s card strip available in day-glo velvet?

  45. Mindy from Indy on 25 Jul 2012 at 5:31 am #

    @Rick in Shermantown, Ohio No, no, you’re thinking of Elvis. This is high-class – a TAPESTRY – only available at the finest gasoline dispensing locations. (Yes, that is the voice of experience you hear, we had both the painting and the tapestry when I was growing up.)

    Loving all the puns and word-play from the past couple of days. Thanks for the laughs – it’s already been a loong week.

  46. Dave in MA on 25 Jul 2012 at 6:28 am #

    Mark in Boston, NO ONE expects the Spanish definition!

    GR6, airscrew, not to be confused with the mile high club……….

  47. Leary on 25 Jul 2012 at 6:59 am #

    I retired and I have been so busy that I’ve not had time to visit here in a while… Such a witty bunch and so much to learn… I must come back more often. I love the good-natured punching and jabbing.

  48. Russel Trojan on 25 Jul 2012 at 7:57 am #

    Dave in MA, you beat me to the Spanish definition line … I’m surprised nobody else picked up on that.

  49. Bob Ball on 25 Jul 2012 at 8:05 am #

    The public interest in aviation was great enough in the early 20th century that it produced a group of specialists in newsrooms. My stepdad was aviation editor at AP, my dad at the Detroit News. My stepfather was a founder of the Aviation Writers Association. My mom got a corsage from Amelia. My dad worked for Pyle before he went to Detroit. How did my mom attach to two aviation writers? That’s another story.