Ϋίίά άίίά ΫίίΫ Ϋίίά άίίά ΫίΫίΫ ίΫί Ϋ Ϋ άίίά Ϋ Ϋ άίίά Ϋ Ϋ ίΫί ΫίίΫtm Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋίίά ΫίίΫ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ ΫίίΫ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ ίΫ ΫίίΫ Ϋ ίίίΫ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋάάί ίάάί Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ ίάάί ίάάί ίάάί Ϋ Ϋ Ϋ άάάΫ ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί RANDOM THOUGHTS MAGAZINE (C) 1994 D.P. McIntire Ί ΜΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΉ Ί Issue XV - May, 1994 by D.P. McIntire Ί ΜΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΉ Ί RANDOM THOUGHTS MAGAZINE may be distributed freely via CBBS, the Internet, Ί Ί or other networks such as FidoNet. It may be used by System Operators of Ί Ί CBBS' as a door, bulletin, or by any other means at their disposal. It Ί Ί may also be distributed via CD ROM diskette without copyright violation. Ί Ί ANY OTHER DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PUBLICATION IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE Ί Ί CONSIDERED AND PROSECUTED AS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAWS. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE OF RANDOM THOUGHTS... Ί Ί (1) The airline flight from hell: a true story. Ί Ί (2) The Letterman mystique. Ί Ί (3) Richard Nixon: my thoughts. Ί Ί (4) Baseball in North Carolina, Part II. Ί Ί (5) Parting Thoughts. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί THE AIRLINE FLIGHT FROM HELL: A TRUE STORY. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ On 20 April, 1994, at 4:10 p.m., my grandfather, Paul McIntire, died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the result of a massive stroke and brain swelling, exactly the same manner which killed former U.S. President Richard Nixon. I was home at the time my sister called me from her home in Ohio with the news, and immediately decided to fly home that evening to pay my respects and to attend the funeral. I hastily made arrangements to fly from my new home in Raleigh to Pittsburgh that evening at 7:35 p.m. Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) is about seven miles from my home, so getting there in time wasn't a problem. Getting my ticket wasn't too difficult, nor was getting my baggage taken care of. It would be the least trouble I would have that evening. First off, my flight was delayed twice. The first delay was announced at about 6:30 - the flight would be delayed 15 minutes. Okay, no problem... it would give me a little extra time to roam around the airport, a place I'd not been to before in three months in Raleigh. The second delay was announced at about 7:20, backing the flight up until 8 p.m. Again, I was in a situation where I really wasn't bothered by it, as the later my arrival in Pittsburgh the better - a friend was picking me up at the airport, and wouldn't be arriving there until around 9:30 anyway. Finally the time came to board the plane. I'm one of six people prepping to board the flight. I hand the attendant my ticket, and take a step toward the terminal. "WAIT!" I hear. I'm puzzled... is my ticket printed wrong? Do I look like a terrorist? What's the problem? "Mr. McIntire, excuse me, but we have to have someone escort you to the plane..." I think I said something brilliant like "Huh?" I found out why soon enough. The plane, as it turned out, was one of the smallest in the airline's fleet (I won't mention the airline by name, but let's just say it's name was very similar to the name of my old bulletin board system, AMERIBoard - give you a hint?), a little 30 seater that reminded me quite a bit of the plane used in the movie Major League - it had two propellers, one of which I noticed had some form of adhesive on it in large quantity (the props weren't moving as I walked toward the plane, and I at this point was inspecting the aircraft much more closely than normal). I boarded the plane and was given a window seat - I prefer the window as I like to look out the window at clouds - in this case, I was seeing trees. The flight started innocently enough - 5 adults and one infant, headed to Pittsburgh for various reasons, as the sun was setting into the horizon. I won't get into too much elaborate detail, but here's just some of what went on during the flight: (1) The pilot decided to take a 55ψ left turn, and as a result the infant and her mother, sans seat belt, wound up in the aisle; (2) The attendant caused me great strife - every time she would go up the aisle I could feel the plane vibrate; (3) I drank rather heavily (I don't drink normally) because I was scared as hell the plane was going to crash; (4) One of the engines appeared to have completely shut down at one point, though the plane remained in no apparent danger; (5) I was told upon landing that my luggage, which I'd watched go on the plane as I was walking to board it, was in San Antonio, Texas; (6) The seat I was in wound up in the lap of an elderly lady sitting behind me - I wasn't reclining at the time. (7) The vibration of the plane was such that I couldn't sleep, read, or drink my beer without spilling it all over myself; and (8) The plane's altitude never went over 10,000 feet - I could see treetops at various points throughout the flight, which I don't normally see. I must say, however, that on my return flight, with the same airline, I was treated rather well, the plane flight was fantastic (what I remember of it - for the first time in 76 flights I fell asleep on the plane), and I was pleased with everything overall. ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί THE LETTERMAN MYSTIQUE. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ David Michael Letterman, age 48. Host of "Late Show with David Letterman" and almost certainly the new undisputed king of Late Night television. We know he's originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, know his mother went to the Olympic games in Lillehammer. The avid fans know that he once was married, once was heavily involved with Merrill Markoe (one of his chief writers in the early days), and that a woman infatuated with him keeps breaking into his home in Connecticut. What else do we know about him, though? The answer is "Not Much". In a rare situation, Barbara Walters interviewed Letterman in 1991, and was almost completely shut down: she couldn't get much out of him. The reason is that Dave, for all his bombastic comedy, is a very, very private person. Much like Johnny Carson before him, Letterman is almost hermitlike in his lifestyle when it comes to the public eye. He gets speeding tickets often, joking about them on his program, that we know. What we don't know is the kind of car he owns, who his friends are, what he likes to do in his spare time, etc. "The Letterman Mystique", much like Carson, just adds to his popularity. Think about it: if you knew that David Letterman, for instance, loved to eat Cottage Cheese and Borscht for breakfast, you wouldn't be so smitten with him, would you? Of course not. That's part of the reason Jay Leno didn't hit it off as well as NBC would have liked: we knew him before he took the Tonight Show over simply because NBC publicized the hell out of him - from a personal angle, the wrong way to get it done. Letterman was ballyhooed as well, but in a much different, and much better way. I've recently thought that I could do a television program similar to Letterman's, perhaps could even be as funny as he is doing it from time to time (not that I'll ever get the opportunity to try), but I'm afraid I would never be as popular, as "The Letterman Mystique" would prevail over all. ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί RICHARD NIXON: MY THOUGHTS. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ Richard Milhous Nixon was our nation's 37th President, serving from 20 January 1969 to 09 August 1974. He will go down in history as the first man (he undoubtedly won't be the only) to resign the Presidency of the United States. Had he not resigned, he would have become the first President to be removed through the impeachment procedure. When he resigned, I was a young child of maybe five, six or seven (I don't reveal my actual age, as I feel it no ones business but my own), I asked my mother what he had done that was so bad that he had to resign: "he lied to us" my mother, a perpetual Democrat, said. Twenty years have gone by since then, and I have read over a dozen books on the subject of the Watergate scandal: from Will by G. Gordon Liddy to the heralded Silent Coup. The one book that should have been written but wasn't is one that now can never be written - the one by Nixon himself admitting and defining his role in it all. We will never know the complete truth about Watergate now that Nixon has died, and it is sad indeed. I personally think, granted from a hindsight perspective, that Nixon got screwed royally, even if he did know about the break-in before the fact. He surely wasn't the first President to be involved in such a scheme, he just happened to get caught at it, that's all. FDR bugged his own office the same way RMN did - no one ever subpoenaed his tapes to see what he did while in the Oval Office, even during minor scandals. Richard Nixon's foreign policy legacy will last at least a generation; his views on international affairs were widely respected, and he had an uncanny ability to gague the views of the Russians, Chinese and Japanese. He had a grasp on international affairs like no President before or since has, and his death is truly a loss to our country solely on his foreign policy experience. The only person alive in America whose foreign policy expertise even compares with Nixon is Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger (and Kissinger was a "German Import", Nixon was "home-brew"!). The next President to pass shall likely be either Ronald Reagan (aged 83) or Gerald Ford (aged 81). When either of them pass, they shall be remembered fondly, but Nixon in my opinion deserves every bit of praise he has received since his death on April 22nd - it's a shame that we didn't give it to him while he was alive. ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί BASEBALL IN NORTH CAROLINA, PART II. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ I recently attended my first minor league baseball game, pitting the home town Carolina Mudcats versus the Nashville Xpress (that's not a typo, there is no "E" in this particular Xpress). I honestly don't even remember the score of the game I had such a good time... I do know Carolina lost though. The day of the 50› hot dog is over I'm afraid, even in the minors. I did buy a few for myself and my party, but they cost about $ 1.75 each... not too bad I suppose. Coke cost $ 1.50 for a regular size cup, and I think we all spent about $ 20 or so on eats (we hadn't eaten dinner, so that's pretty cheap all things considered). Ducats for the game cost $ 6.00 a piece, and despite arriving for the game just an hour before the opening pitch we still managed to get seats right behind home plate, about 15 rows up. A foul ball or two was going around our section each inning. I noticed a bunch of children at the game, which made me feel good about the state of baseball. I calculated the cost of an outing of four to a minor league game vs. that of a major league game. Here's what I came up with, using the lowest possible numbers I know of for similar items: MINORS MAJORS TICKETS (4 seats, within a stones throw of home plate) $ 16 $ 64 HOT DOGS (2 per family member, or 8 total) $ 12 $ 24 SOFT DRINKS (1 per family member, or 4 total) $ 8 $ 12 SOUVENIERS (1 hat, program & pennant per family member) $ 19 $ 28 PARKING (1 vehicle) $ 1 $ 5 ====================================================================== TOTAL $ 56 $133 Tells ya somethin', don't it? ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ» Ί PARTING THOUGHTS. Ί ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ May is here, which means that summer has for all intent and purpose finally arrived. I'm finding out that summer in Raleigh works out to 90ψ temperatures and lots of sunshine. It's only May, and I'm already having the best summer I ever have after 20 plus years in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where 75ψ temperatures aren't the norm until June or July... I like it, and I wouldn't leave North Carolina at this point if they tried to kick me out of the state. - end -