(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Wed Oct, 13 2004

Solemn Nod

In his excellent autobiography, "Wings And Warriors: My Life As A Naval Aviator", Donald D. Engen relates the episode of a fellow fighter pilot in deep trouble over North Korea. This man had attacked an ammunition train at low-level. He nailed it with 20mm cannon fire and, just as he flew over it, one car full of explosives went off with such massive violence that he shortly found himself just about out of the jet fighter business.

When he came out the other side of the blast, he discovered a large chunk of 4x4 lumber lodged in the leading edge of one wing, raggedy holes everywhere in the metal work of his jet, and fuel and hydraulics draining rapidly. None of it was very good to his professional eye, and, evidently, he didn't hesitate to get on the radio and express his opinion.

On the combat VHF channel, he started yelling, "I'm hit! I'm hit! I'm going in. I can't make it." He kept it up in one long stream of chatter, with the result that nobody could even offer assistance because he wouldn't stop jabbering on the radio. Meanwhile, he kept the airplane in the air and headed toward the Sea of Japan.

There finally came a moment along his progress in which he evidently took stock of his chances, as well as drawing a breath. As soon as he was off the channel, a British pilot off HMS Triumph was ready. He jumped right on the channel with a bit of cool advice:

"I say, old chap, why don't you just shut up and die like a man?"

John Derbyshire brings that principle point to a rather more... pressing context, in the wake of remarks by Mark Steyn.

~~~~~

I'm off to the Bahamas. Home Sunday.

Oct 13, 04 | 8:02 am
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AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}