The Long Telegram

This is the view of Mt. Shasta as we left California...for the last time.

Happy day. I helped the “hard worker” put signs up, but he did not think that digging holes was the way. We just used a post thingy to jam it into the ground. I was the one with the presence of mind to use a tape measure to straighten them in relation to the sidewalk. At the end, it looked like a row of disused telephone poles…they were leaning different directions and were at different heights.

The last part of the day was spent on board tractor…I was ostensibly flattening dirt yet again, but it was not doing much more than throwing up dust. I think I looked a little like a small brown man. I used high pressure air to dust myself off. Apparently I missed some on my face…since Cora instructed me to shower before we went to town.

We got dinner makings and a few other items of necessity. Dinner was going to be tortellini in pesto sauce, Cora volunteered to cook…unfortunately, when we arrived home and the tortellini was almost done Cora discovered that the pesto had a neat little patch of mold on it. Yuck. Fortunately, a family friend makes pesto and the IN-Laws had some…It was probably better than the store bought!

We’re watching Deadliest Catch, prior to my going into seclusion to read a Cold War book. This one is called Cold War, Cool Medium. The author basically compares the maturation of Television with the growth and maturation of the Cold War. He spends a lot of time on McCarthy. It turns out McCarthy only had a little over a four year run…and the author suggests that Television, as an industry, was scared of him at first, but as his witch hunt progressed, television as a whole industry began to bow their backs, as did intellectuals and professionals alike. McCarthy was an idiot and a bastard, and his name has become intertwined with “witch hunt.”

As you know, my latest question involves Containment as a large part of the question. Containment was what the US attempted to do to the Soviet union as it attempted to spread communism. Everytime the Soviets attempted to move into some country, the US would show up and try and win over the inhabitants. Containment was the idea of George Kennan, whose "Long Telegram" said as much. He was a diplomat in Moscow in the mid-1940s.

Well, I am sorry, this got a little long, I guess I should go ahead and make another blog specifically devoted to my Cold War ruminations, and NO, I will not tell you where it is, I have enough trouble keeping names straight let alone my handle on American History.

Thank you for being patient, here are a few more photos.

This is the B-47, the back bone of Strategic Air Command (SAC) for a decade. 2000 were built. I love these 6 engined behemoths.

This is me coming out of a B-36, SAC's 10,000 mile bomber. She had 6 turning and 4 burning, which referred to the 6 propellor engines and 4 jet engines. It was the Big Stick. There are now only four complete examples left. I have seen 2 of them.

Originally designed as a daytime fighter (no radar) this little sportster (F-100)was modified to carry an atomic bomb in Europe in the mid to late 1950s. The pilots would basically fly a suicide mission...sure they would loft it (like tossing a baseball underhanded) but still, the likelihood of coming back in a hot war situation was...well, it wasn't.