basilwhite

2008-05-07 Melissa's Graduation


On the Dulles Airport tarmac waiting to leave for Knoxville for my sister Melissa's graduation. Very little sleep last night. Too excited. On a puddle-jumper that smells like puke, in front of a woman changing a baby's diaper. The bathroom has Handi-Wipes in the sink to let you know that the lack of running water in the sink is a deliberate act by United Airlines. We deserve what we tolerate.

Knoxville's 500 miles from me and about the closest I'll fly. Any shorter and I'll drive. It's faster. A guy fatter than me boards the plane wearing a shirt reading "My Balls Itch" with his wife rolling behind him on a wheelchair. She gets out of the wheelchair and walks to her seat. No one told me I could be rolled to the plane. I need to get a frequent flyer card.

We haven't moved 100 feet before Mr. My Balls Itch starts complaining about Washington DC politics and the Presidential campaign. Why are all the politically astute Americans living in Knoxville working at the tire store? We'll never find Osama if we don't stop the tire store brain drain.

Melissa picks me up. She's an airport employee and hands me funny workers compensation and safety info. The primary advice the airport authority gives to staff is to pretend they're somewhere else.

The Hilton concierge is missing a lotta teeth, but he knows where the pawn shop is so he's still better than average. I give Melissa the jewelry I made her and we go to lunch at Tomato Head and shop for her graduation outfit. Melissa apologizes for taking me girl shopping but I have years of purse-holding and chair-sitting experience.

Virtual Age and Life Expectancy Calculator

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/VirtualAge.php

I'd be five years younger if I didn't drive >20,000 miles/year.

Yawns: Rich and young, but frugal


They drive hybrid cars, if they drive at all, shop at local stores, if they shop at all and pay off their credit cards every month, if they use them at all.

They may have disposable income, but whatever they make, they live below their means, in a conscious effort to tread lightly on the earth.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-05-04-growing-smaller_N.htm

http://criticalthoughts.wordpress.com/category/action/

I hereby request that one of you propeller heads publish a wiki for book notes by ISBN that allows for page notation syntax so that a user can enter an ISBN and see other user notes by page. No copyright problems because you have to have the book for the notations to make sense!

My class notes on "Story," by Robert McKee.
Lotta useful links on this book at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ABookSources&isbn=1592575382

Notation syntax is (PAGENUMBER)"P"(PARAGRAPHNUMBER)"L"(LINENUMBER)(IFCOUNTFROMBOTTOM=YES)"b"
...so 4P3L2b = Page 4, Paragraph 3, Line 2 from the bottom of the paragraph. 4P3L2 (with no b) is Page 4, Paragraph 3, Line 2 from the top of the paragraph. Also "&" applies the notation to the subsequent value, so 18P2&4 applies to paragraphs 2 and 4 on page 18. "-" indicates a range. One of you geeks get on this and we can network socially by our book notes! Geek squee!

4P1:Universal human experience wrapped in a cultural expression.
12P3:The satisfaction of painful emotions through experiencing their meaning.
12P4:A fresh model of like with an emotional meaning.
15P4:What do you know about yourself? Why do you react to life the way you do? Write that.
16P3:Desire, forces of antagonism, action, crisis, climax.
18P2&4:People, places and things are more than they seem. Insight into inner lives of individuals and groups. Embrace the listener. Build story out of ashes of climax of previous story.
19P3:Who are these people? What do they want? Why do they want what they want? How do they go about getting it? What stops them? What are the consequences? How do the consequences change them? Loop again to beginning.
21:Declare something you love about what it means to be human and write with the above formula.
28P3:Squeeze what it's like to be human out of every detail.
34P2b:Every event is in a story for a reason.
41:Story=my life. Act=climactic set of scenes. Scene=joke of sequences of action and reaction that changes one of my states of being irreversibly.
62P2L4:"Most...human mind."
99P2:What can you create that you'd wait in line in the rain to see?
110-111: Thinking determines the sensory experience of the story. The story is the sensory experience. So stories aren't intellectual, but intellect drives the shiny objects and beeps and whistles. How would I provide meaningful emotional experience to an illiterate? Emotional experience through sensory experience. Creating emotional experience with sensory experience is the intellectual challenge.
114P1:Never explain. Only prove.
115:The better you say one thing, the more meaning people will get.
119-120:Idea versus counter-idea with setup and punchline.
137P4&5:A protagonist has willpower that sustains desire through conflict and creates meaningful, irreversible change.
138:A protagonist knows what they want today, tomorrow, next week, next year, and at life's end, and discovers new stuff they want.
139:A protagonist believes they have a chance to get what they want and convinces others to also believe that the protagonist has a chance to get it.
140:A protagonist pursues what they want to the end of their human limits. Therefore, what you want is what you're willing to go to the end of your human limitations to get.
140:Act toward an outcome in such a way that no one can imagine any other outcome.
141:Remind people of themselves in a way that makes people want you to succeed.
142-143:You don't have to get people to like you. You just have to remind them of themselves.
143P4:Start solving a problem of achieving a goal with minimal, safest action.
144P1b:In stories you start by using the minimal, safest action to solve a problem or achieve a goal and the world responds antagonistically.
147: 1) Goal -> 2) minimal safest action -> 3) antagonistic reaction (intrinsic or extrinsic) -> 4) action with greater risk (loop 3 to 4 as needed) -> irrevocable success or failure
148P2b:Reality is how the world reacts to you, so acceptance, understanding and respect creates a world of acceptance, understanding and respect for people whose worlds you occupy.
149:A protagonist has to risk losing something worthwhile.
151:Plot idea:A self-actualized person descends down Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, enticed by the needs just below them.
153P1b:If I were who I wanted to be, what would I do?
177P4:If I were this character in these circumstances, what would I do? How would the world respond? What's the opposite of that? Write the opposite.
179P3:The gap between expectation and reality isn't just the substance of comedy, but also the substance of story.
196P1:The unconscious desire is the transcendent desire in harmony with and unrefuted by any conscious desires or differences among them.
206P4:What's the worst possible thing that could happen? how could that turn out to be the best possible thing that could happen? Or vice-versa?
234P1b:Punchlines:surprise, increased curiosity, insight and new direction.
237P2:Watch this conflict. You expect this result, don't you? Watch this unexpected reality. Insight is the audience's reward for paying attention.
238P3:Don't speak. Act with insight. Don't quote. Describe insightful action.
241P2:How can the payoff set up the next payoff?
250:3-prong choice with a "no choice" choice.
249P2:All choices are betwwn two irreconcilable goods or the lesser of two evils.
255P2:Story idea:A couple both afraid they're losing the other. Fear breaks them up. Both motivated by avoiding fear. Through-line is "relationships take courage even when all the other elements of a relationship are in harmony. Without courage, you're nothing."
257-259:React to the motivation you want them to have for what they said and did.

http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/21/fun-from-yesterday/

http://mightygodking.com/index.php/feed/

http://www.vawatchdog.org/feed2.xml

Eagle Drags Goat off Cliff - Watch more free videos

I spent April 17-19 2008 with my son at West Point, as he starts this summer at Marion Military Institute in their West Point prep program. Thanks to a West Point work colleague of mine, I have a useful map. There's multiple guard lanes for civilian versus Government visitors, so I keep driving on autopilot through the Government lane even though I'm not on the job and have no ID with me. So far they've been very forgiving.

Contrary to advance reports, the Hotel Thayer is in fact not a dump, but very nice. Crossed swords and cannons embossed on the elevator doors. The face of Pan carved into the ends of the ceiling beams. Great view of the rugby field. Maybe in the morning it'll be full of cadets being yelled at by a PT sergeant. Breakfast and a show.

We're at Schade's Restaurant just outside the campus waiting for dinner. For New York, West Point is full of barbecue joints, both on and off campus. However, as a Mississippian, my son refuses to eat New York barbecue on general principle.

The next morning, Bill presses his pants and I put on a suit. My Army war hero boss at work has been counseling me on my appearance, so I arrange my necktie down to the beltline in accordance with my training. All the parents and kids sit in the admissions office briefing room quiet and eyes-front, waiting for something to happen. The parents look more nervous than the kids.

Watching the cadet basic training video, "West Point Summers Are Challenging." Shots of Fort Knox and senior cadets helping non-commissioned officers train boot camp recruits, SERE class, Foreign exchange cadet program. The video has two functions. It shows fun things cadets do, and the subtext is that kids might call parents and cry about how challenging West Point summers are, whereupon the parents and children remember that they were warned in the video. I want to teach here in the Federal Liaison Program. If they can whip me in line, they'd have nothing left to fear from the rest of the Executive Branch.

The civilian briefer lady tells us the town's all abuzz with the Pope's arrival. Considering the 3-hour trip yesterday through the Papal Mass traffic to pick up Bill at the airport, I'm ready to confess my sins.

The admissions officer for the southeast region (Maryland down) addresses us. He explains how each Army service is habitually associated with a post, so he's a Fort Benning guy. He talks about his wedding at the 82nd Airborne Chapel after meeting his sweetheart across the street from Ft. Benning at the Palomino Saloon.

After a different cadet takes each one of our kids, the briefer talks to the parents about medical qualifications and disability evaluation. I work on the military disability evaluation system at work and can't stop laughing at the irony.

A mom asks what cadets do for fun. The briefer talks about the Concrete Canoe Club, where cadets make canoes out of concrete.

A junior talks about a day in the life of a cadet - delivering and reading the Wall Street Journal, memorizing the menus for the next three meals, formations and classes. Four classes, lunch, free hour after lunch for briefing and training and naps. 2 afternoon classes. Every cadet is an athlete. Constant fitness checks and remedial fitness programs.

He admits that the cadets don't like to parade but the locals feel disappointed if the cadets don't parade every few months, and locals start pestering the cadets about when's the next parade, and that's their cue to parade.

He also says the plebes and yuks (sophomores) complain that they don't get enough sleep, but it's no one's fault but their own because the plebes and yuks just choose to stay up late until they finally choose sleep and then their grades magically shoot up. He says West Point's one of the largest colleges in the world, as the campus includes artillery ranges and goes out 15 miles in one direction.

They all get clearances, so this 20-year-old has already seen things in DC I'll never hear about. He talked about how experiencing leadership made learning leadership a personal experience for him, because being led taught him to spot good and bad leaders and what he was going to do and not do once he was a leader, and now he's bragging about his subordinates like a proud dad. This is the part of Army leadership that makes me want to steal all these cadets and give them all VA jobs.

He's talking about the Plebe Club dance where the plebes got to wear civvies and dance with girls bussed in from Sarah Lawrence. He explained cad-dating, where you can date other cadets, but only in your own class. Later on the parents walking tour, I wonder aloud to our yuk (sophomore) tour guide about what it must be like to be a guy from a civilian college bussed to West Point to dance with girl plebes. The yuk tells me that they only bus girls in for dances and the girls submit to it to work off court-ordered community service hours. Sometimes you serve because the judge gave you a choice. I think maybe this is a lie they tell cadets and/or they tell tourists.

Plebe rules include keeping your hands cupped, keeping your mouth shut, eyes forward, and serving drinks and cutting the dessert in equal pieces by the number of cadets at the table who want dessert. Even in the mess hall the Army's teaching geometry.

Parting message is that it's all down to the cadets desire and decisions, so he's letting the parents know that it's down to what their kids do and want. Also to send candy and letters.

Our tour-guide yuk leads us through the academic buildings and barracks (NOT dorms, barracks). The strongest selling point I've heard so far about the academics is how phenomenally small the student-teacher ratio is. That matters a lot to me personally, having only failed classes held in auditoriums.

Our Yuk walked us through the library and showed us all the class rings from every year, including the rings of the three five-star alumni, Bradley, MacArthur and Eisenhower.

We walk under the D-Day Arch, topped with a relief of a lightning bolt breaking a swastika. Hell yes. Then we see the parade grounds with the statue of Washington that cadets deface at graduation.

The dining hall is straight out of Harry Potter. Condiments sorted by height. We assemble at the field and wait for cadet formation before they go to the dining hall for lunch. A band plays a march as the cadets file into the dining hall. I don't fault their hooah attitude. A band of noncommissioned officers marching me into lunch every day would convince me that I could single-handedly conquer Asia.

The superintendent's former boss is my current boss. Our yuk says the superintendent is in Morocco supervising deployed cadets. Later my boss tells me that's where he was born. Our yuk says we can eat at the O-Club or Grant Hall but he's never known a single parent to eat at Grant Hall, so I eat at Grant Hall. The parents remuster at 1245 at the Admissions office. I now want to teach here.

I'm sitting in the Admissions building in the Class of '56 room, reading the course catalog under a Life magazine cover of '56 alum Norman Schwarzkopf hugging a female POW. After my tour and reading the course catalog, I get it now. I get how West Point is not the War College or ROTC. The course catalog biases material toward independent thought and political science, using the Thayer Method of less class work and more homework that requires students to prove what they learned by applying it in a context that they didn't learn. My guess is that West Point interviews flag officer alumni like Schwarzkopf and asks them what skills they learned from West Point that they used as flag officers, then West Point alters their curriculum to teach those skills. If I was Douglas MacArthur and I had to rebuild Japan from scratch, the curriculum West Point teaches is what I'd want to know. The curriculum may seem strange to cadets, because it's only now at my current stage in my
career that I would use many of the skills that these kids are learning at half my age, because only now am I giving the occasional order to people who give orders to someone else.

For example, freshman English is a semester of comp and a semester of literature. The entire year of Sophomore English is philosophy: how to build your own personal philosophy, maintain an awareness of your philosophy and how to express it. Your entire junior year is how to infer philosophy from literature. Your senior year is how to communicate your own philosophy in text. That curriculum is exactly what I would want if I needed to rally my senior subordinates so they could rally their subordinates and I needed a literary reference that moved me personally, like Yeats' poem about how the circle doesn't hold. If all you care about is making generals, you can teach English as a tool of philosophy and not worry about how well your second lieutenants can type a report.

Bill briefs me on his tour. He says the barracks are like office space with beds. Bill tells me that he told his tour-guide cadet that Bill was starting at MMI in their West Point prep program, and the tour-guide cadet found an MMI grad who told Bill that MMI is much harder than West Point, which seemed to be exactly what Bill needed to hear. Now that Bill has put his eyes on the prize, the rest is up to him. All I have to do is send letters and candy and stay out of the way.

Now I know why Michelle Obama's been low-key thus far.

She doesn't want to detract attention from her husband.

I'm not even down with the mochacino, but Michelle Obama is SMOKIN' hot.

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/atom.xml

I'll add the LJ clicky link later.

LJ clicky link: http://www.livejournal.com/friends/add.bml?user=dailyshowblog

Wow. The Navy won't fly a plane to DFW to get its own stranded recruits to basic training.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/business/11air.html?em&ex=1208059200&en=419c43cbf8c706c3&ei=5087%0A

==========================

DALLAS — On Monday, Karin Peyregne was in Mobile, Ala., kissing her husband and two young sons goodbye, on her way to a base near Chicago for basic training in the Navy.

Unfortunately, she was flying on American Airlines, and connecting through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. She joined thousands of other travelers here, and in other cities like Chicago, who were stranded as American canceled more than 3,000 flights through Friday because of maintenance inspections ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Her group has lived off U.S.O.-supplied food and drinks, available to military in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport since Tuesday. They also were given cash from another organization that helps soldiers, and have used meal vouchers from American.

They ran out of clean clothes long ago, since the Navy told them to carry nothing with them because they would be issued military attire. They showered in discount hotel rooms, paid for by the Navy, then donned their only outfits again.

The ordeal, if nothing else, will prepare Ms. Peyregne’s band of stranded recruits for boot camp.

Ms. Peyregne, the oldest of the group, quickly became the den mother. She has kept the group together, moving from hotels to the airport, and she has planned meal times. The airline’s food vouchers are valid only at airport concessions, so “if we want to eat anything, we have to go back to the airport, get a shuttle, go back through security,” she said.

The week’s best meal was at Chili’s, she said — she had chicken strips, French fries and a salad. The worst was a warmed-up frozen pizza.

Ms. Peyregne plans to make a career of the Navy, in airplane maintenance administration. After her Navy training, she said she would be fixing problems like those at American.

"I wish I could straighten them out," she added.

==========================

At least our recruits are learning survival skills from somebody. They'll need that training in case they join a competent organization that takes care of its own. Wal-Mart can't keep the hiring freeze on forever. Those greeters are dying every day and we need new meat on the front line.

Look on the bright side. Once they get to Chicago for basic training they'll be born-again hard. The drill instructor'll yell at them, and they'll say, "you can't scare me, I survived the Dallas-Fort Worth Applebee's Death March of '08."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/business/11air.html?em&ex=1208059200&en=419c43cbf8c706c3&ei=5087%0A

----- Original Message -----
From: White, Basil, CIV, WSO-SOC Staff Office
To: 'Hugh.Scott2@va.gov' <hugh.scott2@va.gov>
Sent: Sun Apr 13 13:35:51 2008
Subject: Re: You Know The Economy Is Bad When...

Wow. The Navy won't fly a plane to DFW to get its own stranded recruits to basic training.

At least our recruits are learning survival skills from somebody. They'll need that training in case they join a competent organization that takes care of its own. Wal-Mart can't keep the hiring freeze on forever. Those greeters are dying every day and we need new meat on the front line.

Look on the bright side. Once they get to Chicago for basic training they'll be born-again hard. The drill instructor'll yell at them, and they'll say, "you can't scare me, I survived the Dallas-Fort Worth Applebee's Death March of '08."

Servite veteranem,

Basil


Very Respectfully,
Basil White
Basil.White@wso.whs.mil
(703) 989-4117 cell


----- Original Message -----
From: Scott, Hugh (VACO) <hugh.scott2@va.gov>
Sent: Fri Apr 11 16:00:05 2008
Subject: FW: You Know The Economy Is Bad When...


Tim Cooper, 23, enlisted because the truck driving and other work he does around Baker, a town in the Florida panhandle, was getting scarcer every month. “The economy’s so bad, I just decided it was a better move to go to the military. I’ll always have a job, benefits,” he said. He wants to be a weapons system specialist on a submarine.

“I’m ready to get to boot camp or get back to my babies,” Ms. Peyregne said. She left Mobile with $10 in her pocket.

-----Original Message-----



Navy Recruits Face a Hardship Test at the Airport
By JEFF BAILEY and MARINA TRAHAN MARTINEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/business/11air.html?em&ex=1208059200&en=419c43cbf8c706c3&ei=5087%0A <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/business/11air.html?em&ex=1208059200&en=419c43cbf8c706c3&ei=5087%0a>

DALLAS — On Monday, Karin Peyregne was in Mobile, Ala., kissing her husband and two young sons goodbye, on her way to a base near Chicago for basic training in the Navy.

Unfortunately, she was flying on American Airlines, and connecting through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. She joined thousands of other travelers here, and in other cities like Chicago, who were stranded as American canceled more than 3,000 flights through Friday because of maintenance inspections ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration.

As of Thursday night, Ms. Peyregne (pronounced PURR-in), 25, and a group of six young male Navy recruits she was traveling with to the Great Lakes Naval Station, were still stuck in and around the airport here.

They are learning one of the harsh realities of air travel these days. Because flights are full everywhere, there are virtually no open seats available on other airlines when something goes wrong. And more cancellations could roll through the airline industry as the F.A.A. steps up its scrutiny of carriers’ compliance with safety directives.

The group of new recruits arrived Tuesday afternoon in Dallas from New Orleans to connect to a flight to Chicago. But that flight was among 460 canceled that day. Wednesday and Thursday brought no relief. Friday, they will be waiting — hopeful, yet skeptical — to see if a promised 8 a.m. flight materializes.

“I’m ready to get to boot camp or get back to my babies,” Ms. Peyregne said. She left Mobile with $10 in her pocket.

Her group has lived off U.S.O.-supplied food and drinks, available to military in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport since Tuesday. They also were given cash from another organization that helps soldiers, and have used meal vouchers from American.

They ran out of clean clothes long ago, since the Navy told them to carry nothing with them because they would be issued military attire. They showered in discount hotel rooms, paid for by the Navy, then donned their only outfits again.

“I’m a little O.C.D. when it comes it neatness,” Ms. Peyregne said. “This is definitely not good for me.”

Her chances of flying out Friday morning are not great, either. American, which canceled 1,094 flights Wednesday and more than 930 flights Thursday, said it expected to cancel an additional 570 Friday, with 170 of its 300 MD-80 jetliners back in service by Friday morning. The airline is inspecting and, in many cases, rewrapping and reattaching wiring bundles inside wheel wells on the MD-80s.

American, the airline hardest hit by the F.A.A. crackdown, inspected the planes two weeks ago and thought it had done the work properly. But the F.A.A., after scrutinizing nine of them on Monday, ruled that the bundles had not been properly wrapped and fastened to prevent chafing of the wires. Chafing could cause a wire to short, and thus interrupt power to some backup systems. In the worst-case situation, sparking could ignite fuel vapors and destroy a plane.

“We failed to get it right,” Gerard J. Arpey, American’s chief executive, said in a press conference on Thursday. The MD-80 is the workhorse of American’s route system; representing close to half its total fleet of big jets. And the extensive cancellations overwhelmed the airline’s ability to accommodate passengers or to even answer its telephone calls at times.

Other airlines that fly MD-80s were reinspecting the wiring bundles this week, too. Delta Air Lines, for example, said it had made adjustments to about 20 percent of its fleet of 117 MD-88s, an updated MD-80. That resulted in a handful of cancellations Wednesday and Thursday morning. But by Thursday evening the airline’s operations were back to normal.

The ordeal, if nothing else, will prepare Ms. Peyregne’s band of stranded recruits for boot camp.

Tim Cooper, 23, enlisted because the truck driving and other work he does around Baker, a town in the Florida panhandle, was getting scarcer every month. “The economy’s so bad, I just decided it was a better move to go to the military. I’ll always have a job, benefits,” he said. He wants to be a weapons system specialist on a submarine.

Mr. Cooper was the flushest of the seven recruits, bringing $60 from home. “That was gone after Wednesday morning,” he said, as he bought food for himself and others who had no cash.

Ms. Peyregne, the oldest of the group, quickly became the den mother. She has kept the group together, moving from hotels to the airport, and she has planned meal times. The airline’s food vouchers are valid only at airport concessions, so “if we want to eat anything, we have to go back to the airport, get a shuttle, go back through security,” she said.

The week’s best meal was at Chili’s, she said — she had chicken strips, French fries and a salad. The worst was a warmed-up frozen pizza.

But organizing the group has helped keep her mind off her own children, Christopher, 3, and Hayden, 1, who will be tended by her husband, Jeff, and his parents.

Leaving them was not easy. When her family dropped her off on Monday at the Navy recruiter’s office, “the baby started crying as soon as I got out of the car. It was really, really bad,” she said.

“But I’m a big girl — I know what’s best for my family.”

Ms. Peyregne plans to make a career of the Navy, in airplane maintenance administration, and figures her family can move wherever she is stationed.

This week, on airport and hotel televisions, she has followed the travails of the MD-80s — the wiring bundles, the clips, ties and clamps that need to be just so. After her Navy training, she said she would be fixing problems like those at American.

“I wish I could straighten them out,” she added.

Jeff Bailey reported from Chicago and Marina Trahan Martinez from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

The difference between thinking you know what you want and knowing what you want is knowing how to identify the details of getting it.

Just back from Fort Unusable. Lots of employees there with their little girls. I guess it was 'Bring Your Daughter To War' Day.


Army Holds Annual 'Bring Your Daughter To War' Day

I break stuff because I assume that when something doesn't work that I'm not using enough force. Then I interact with it more forcefully until it doesn't work for anyone. Like the time I broke an exhibit at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

Printed on top of the exhibit are the words "How Strong Is A Vacuum?" The exhibit was a four-foot high wood box with a metal handle on a cylinder. The handle weighed one pound, then you turned on the vacuum power under the cylinder. The sign said "Press the vacuum button and pull with all your might!" Okay.

I turned on the vacuum. I bent my knees and straightened my back and grabbed the handle with both hands. My friend mcoletti yelled "Stop!" But it sounded like he was calling to me from really far away. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of the threads of a metal bolt tearing through plywood.

It lifted off the ground, so I stopped pulling. But it didn't lift straight, just up at one corner. When I let go the exhibit stayed up on the one threaded bolt at an obviously improper angle.

I caught myself patting the broken exhibit like it was a bird whose neck I had broken and I was trying to position it into a lifelike shape before leaving.

Then my friends decided that I had learned enough science for the day.

But I did learn how strong a vacuum is. 0.8 Basils.

I am now a reference standard.