New Mexico Mountain Weekend....

It was a New Mexico mountain weekend filled with history, art, scenic panoramas and...go-karts.

A fun time and hopefully somewhat intellectually stimulating to young Jack who, if he had had things his way, would have spent the entire three day junket racing go-karts at the track in Ruidoso. We did do a fair amount of that, and Jack, the Mother and I had a great time. Jack, being under 16 years of age couldn't drive the super fast karts so Julie and I put in some lap times with him on the "fun track". It was fun...but Julie and I had to give the fast karts a go. And go we did. Julie did well and because I'm a tad heavier in weight I couldn't catch her, but I did catch a glimpse of her ahead, blonde hair pegged straight back by the blinding speed .

Julie and I are history buffs, so Sunday was mostly devoted to a tour of historical sites which abound in the area. Through the mountains we drove down to Capitan and by the Smokey the Bear museum, the original and factual bear cub, Smokey, having been rescued here in 1950. In a sad twist of irony, the picture of Jack and Smokey above was taken with a major forest fire as a backdrop in the same mountains where Smokey was rescued. The fires burned along the entire crest of the Capitan mountains fanned by 30+ mph winds. A fire so large that we could see the smoke overhead when we got home. A distance of over 270 miles.

Our history destination was Lincoln, New Mexico home of Billy the Kid and the famous Lincoln County War of 1878-1881. Lincoln is a great place for history and photography, having changed little since 1888. Many of the historic buildings are now museums with the old courthouse and jail where Billy the Kid was held being of special interest, especially to a ten year old boy. He got to have his picture made with a bullet hole left during Billy's escape...and stand on the exact spot where a deputy sheriff was slain during that episode. The homes in Lincoln range from the original old abode to the territorial style built in the 1870's, but perhaps one of the most interesting structures to us is a large circular adobe tower built in the 1850's as a place of refuge against attacks by the Apaches.

On our return trip we stopped at Ft. Stanton a military post built in 1855 to counter the Apache threat and serving on into the 20th century in a variety of capacities including a German POW camp and tuberculosis treatment center for the merchant marine. It was somber reminder for Memorial Day to see so many flags of various nations in the post graveyard. And then, of course, as a reward for Jack for cramming his head full of so much historical information we......once again raced go-karts before returning to our cottage for a great meal in the cool mountain air.

On the return trip to Midland we could not let opportunities pass for yet more history and art [much to Jack's chagrin......I told him he would thank me in later years]. On the way down from the mountains we stopped in at the Museum of the American West which has a good collection of antique wagons, guns and is now featuring the skelton of Sue, the T-Rex recently found in South Dakota. And a little further down the road in San Patricio we stopped at one of my art Mecca's.....the Sentinel Ranch of artist Peter Hurd. We had a nice chat with the curator of the Hurd Gallery,looked around the gallery and had a chance to nod a brief hell-o to noted artist Michael Hurd, son of Peter Hurd and grandson of N.C Wyeth. We also toured the ranch looking at the suberbly elegant guest homes in anticipation of a return visit this summer.

Then it was a push on to home once again through the flat lands and heat of West Texas. Really a nice short vacation combining all our interests; art, history and racing but most importantly just simple things like enjoying a quiet moment together on the streets of Lincoln.

Memorial Weekend....

We will be in the high mountains of New Mexico for the Memorial Day weekend. While we are gone talk amongst yourselves. And don't forget to remember all those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

With us or against us...

Mohammed in Baghdad who has lived under Saddam offers some advice....

" The new enemy [Islamic terrorists] differs from all the previous ones in that he doesn’t have or even claim to have any constructive ideology. He doesn’t bring us anything other than the seeds of death and destruction “either you surrender to me or I kill you”. As for an alternative ideology, it doesn’t exist. Moreover the willingness to initiate a dialogue was never expressed or shown to be a possibility"
Read more >>>>>

The energy scholar...

Supposed nominee John Kerry has today come out with some specifics concerning his "energy policy". I suspect that the closest scrape that John has had with the energy markets is ordering his chauffeur to go fill up one of his "family's" SUV's. Some of his brilliance....

"Let's make sure our schools are focused on teaching our children, not heating the classrooms and paying for school bus diesel fuel."

Yes John, no matter what other weighty arguments might be delved into on the issue of energy, let's start out with this. Let's do it for the kids!

Kerry says he would spend $10 billion over 10 years on new plants to manufacture more fuel efficient vehicles

Clarify this please John, do you mean you and your wife's Heinz Pickle fortune are going to build plants, or do you mean that the Federal government is going to get into the hybrid car business. The way I understand a capitalist economy...when there is a viable market for hybrid cars, a private manufacturer will step forward and build a plant.

He says his administration would demand that other oil-producing nations increase supply.

Demand away John, but keep in mind that your demands fall on the ears of a group of sellers who don't particuarly like us and don't mind the Great Satan paying top dollar for their petroleum. Personal note John: I'd put "demanding" more oil way down on my list. And by the way, isn't throwing the weight of the U.S. around and demanding that sovereign nations do things with their own assets in direct violation of the liberals credo?


Kerry planned to focus on the national security threat posed by dependence on Middle East oil.

Playing both sides, as he is wont to do, John suggests that we use less of the foreign oil that he is also demanding that we get more of.

John, I'm sure that there is a brilliant man in there somewhere, but perhaps if you had ever had a real job you might realize how utterly full of gibberish you are when it comes to the real world.

Sir Bubba, kinda'......

It's always nice to know a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Now I do. Gen. Tommy Franks will be presented with the award tonight,though due to his lack of British citizenship he will not be entitled to be called Sir Tommy. I know this will matter not a whit to Tommy as he belongs to a higher order....he's a Texan. I hope this means he'll be bringing all his Knighthood pals to West Texas to participate in his favorite pasttime, quail hunting. I'd love to see Prince Chuck again after all these years.

Who We Fight....

During WWII there was a need to perpeputate in the citizenry of the United States a continuing reminder of why such a great national sacrifice was necessary. One of the most effective bits of propaganda that I recall was a documentary series produced by famed Hollywood director Frank Capra called, "Why We Fight". Today we need to know not only "Why We Fight" but "Who We Fight". Former Navy Secretary John Lehman tells us.

"We are at a juncture today that really is more of a threshold, even more of a watershed, than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was in 1941. We are currently in a war, but it is not a war on terrorism. In fact, that has been a great confusion, and the sooner we drop that term, the better. This would be like President Franklin Roosevelt saying in World War II, "We are engaged in a war against kamikazes and blitzkrieg." Like them, terrorism is a method, a tool, a weapon that has been used against us. And part of the reason we suffered such a horrific attack is that we were not prepared. Let's not kid ourselves. Some very smart people defeated every single defense this country had, and defeated them easily, with confidence and arrogance. There are many lessons we must learn from this.

We were not prepared intellectually. Those of us in the national security field still carried the baggage of the Cold War. We thought in concepts of coalition warfare and the Warsaw Pact. When we thought of terrorism, we thought only of state-sponsored terrorism, which is why the immediate reaction of many in our government agencies after 9/11 was: Which state did it? Saddam, it must have been Saddam. We had failed to grasp, for a variety of reasons, the new phenomenon that had emerged in the world. This was not state-sponsored terrorism. This was religious war.

This was the emergence of a transnational enemy driven by religious fervor and fanaticism. Our enemy is not terrorism. Our enemy is violent, Islamic fundamentalism. None of our government institutions was set up with receptors, or even vocabulary, to deal with this. So we left ourselves completely vulnerable to a concerted attack.

Where are we today? I'd like to say we have fixed these problems, but we haven't. We have very real vulnerabilities. We have not diminished in any way the fervor and ideology of our enemy. We are fighting them in many areas of the world, and I must say with much better awareness of the issues and their nature. We're fighting with better tools. But I cannot say we are now safe from the kind of attack we saw on 9/11. I think we are much safer than we were on 9/11; the ability of our enemies to launch a concerted, sophisticated attack is much less than it was then. Still, we're totally vulnerable to the kinds of attacks we've seen in Madrid, for instance. We face a very sophisticated and intelligent enemy who has been trained, in many cases, in our universities and gone to school on our methods, learned from their mistakes, and continued to use the very nature of our free society and its aversion to intrusion in privacy and discrimination to their benefit.

For example, today it is still a prohibited offense for an airline to have two people of the same ethnic background interviewed at one time, because that is discrimination. Our airline security is still full of holes. Our ability to carry out covert operations abroad is only marginally better than it was at the time of 9/11. A huge amount of fundamental cultural and institutional change must be carried out in the United States before we can effectively deal with the nature of the threat. Today, probably 50 or more states have schools that are teaching jihad, preaching, recruiting, and training. We have absolutely no successful programs even begun to remediate against those efforts.

It's very important that people understand the complexity of this threat. We have had to institute new approaches to protecting our civil liberties-the way we authorize surveillance, the way we conduct our immigration and naturalization policies, and the way we issue passports. That's only the beginning. The beginning of wisdom is to recognize the problem, to recognize that for every jihadist we kill or capture-as we carry out an aggressive and positive policy in Afghanistan and elsewhere-another 50 are being trained in schools and mosques around the world.

This problem goes back a long way. We have been asleep. Just by chance about six months ago, I picked up a book by V. S. Naipaul, one of the great English prose writers. I love to read his short stories and travelogues. The book was titled Among the Believers (New York: Vintage, 1982) and was an account of his travels in Indonesia, where he found that Saudi-funded schools and mosques were transforming Indonesian society from a very relaxed, syncretist Islam to a jihadist fundamentalist fanatical society, all paid for with Saudi Arabian funding. Nobody paid attention. Presidents in four administrations put their arms around Saudi ambassadors, ignored the Wahhabi jihadism, and said these are our eternal friends.

We have seen throughout the last 20 years a kind of head-in-the-sand approach to national security in the Pentagon. We were comfortable with the existing concept of what the threat was, what threat analysis was, and how we derived our requirements, still using the same old tools we all grew up with. We paid no attention to the real nature of this emerging threat, even though there were warning signs.

Many will recall with pain what we went through in the Reagan administration in 1983, when the Marine barracks were bombed in Beirut-241 Marines and Navy corpsmen were killed. We immediately got an intercept from NSA [National Security Agency], a total smoking gun from the foreign ministry of Iran, ordering the murder of our Marines. Nothing was done to retaliate. Instead, we did exactly what the terrorists wanted us to do, which was to withdraw. Osama bin Laden has cited this as one of his dawning moments. The vaunted United States is a paper tiger; Americans are afraid of casualties; they run like cowards when attacked; and they don't even bother to take their dead with them. This was a seminal moment for Osama.

After that, we had our CIA station chief kidnapped and tortured to death. Nothing was done. Then, we had our Marine Colonel [William R.] Higgins kidnapped and publicly hanged. Nothing was done. We fueled and made these people aware of the tremendous effectiveness of terrorism as a tool of jihad. It worked. They chased us out of one place after another, because we would not retaliate".

Address by Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman
The U.S. Naval Institute 130th Annual Meeting and Annapolis Naval History Symposium (2004)

>Book 'em Dano....Murder One! It's my sad duty to inform you that Kono played by Zulu is dead. Or is that Zulu played by Kono? Kono was the crime fighting protege of Kam Fong played by Chin Ho.....or is that Chin Ho played by Kam Fong?

Actually actor Zulu, who played Kono, was really named Gilbert Francis Lani Damian Kauhi and he died May 3rd at the age of 66. I found this out tonight while following some inane link from James Lileks to the very bowels of the Internet. I was shocked, I had not heard. But I suppose that other events took precedence, though why I won't conjecture. Suffice it to say I'll miss Kono, Zulu and Gilbert; we were all close. I took the photo above in Hawaii in 1974. while Zulu, Kono, Gilbert and I were watching Prince Charles play polo on the North Shore of Oahu. People of a certain age will remember that this was at the height of popularity of the TeeVee show "Hawaii 50" and occasionally we used to see the stars around the island. Zulu played Jack Lord's sidekick. I used to see Jack at the supermarket in Hawaii Kai. He looked exactly like he did on TeeVee, except worse. Zulu looked exactly the same, except better. Will miss you Brah, Geev 'um!

High octane B.S......

I've heard it all now. I caught just about 4 minutes of the big network news lead story before I headed out to little league baseball tonight. And this was about 3 minutes too long.

The story was this, "Democrats blame Bush for high gas prices...." I thought that perhaps my tinnitus ridden ears were deceiving me, but no, there was talking head Kerry, lips moving on that horse face, spewing out something blah, blah, blah about the Republicans being at fault for $2 gas. My question to you is this. Have they gone completely insane? Do they really think that they're talking to morons? Even the common folk who send mass emails about vetoing "big oil", I suspect, remember it was the liberal Democrats who have consistantly voted against a national energy policy that would give a few more incentives to us energy producers here in the heartland to develop more Amerkan oil and gas. And wasn't it the liberal Democrats who led the fight against drilling in ANWAR, the artic oil fields, to develop more Amerkan oil? And am I wrong or wasn't it John Kerry hissownself who has a chip in his platform suggesting that we raise the gasoline tax by the small sum of 50 cents per gallon. Payable by you the voter who is assumed to be so stupid as not to remember just who proposed this tariff when it comes time to pay at the pump. The same John Kerry who uses more than his share of fuel powering a fleet of SUV's and a plethora of mansions that "his family" owns.

Have I been living in an alternate parallel universe these last several years or have the Democrats gone completely whacko? This was the most bizarre utterance I've heard from them yet. Or perhaps in turning off the TV I missed the meat of this well thought out arguement. Perhaps their theory now is that since they believed that the war in Iraq was promulgated for the sole reason of obtaining cheap Iraqi oil, Dubya ought to now be delivering the goods. How tragic that oil is at an all time high. I'm going to think about this further as I drive my big car around to empty the tank. I'm going to be filling it up on May 19th.

Don't buy gas on May 19

MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

That was the subject of a recent mass forward email I received from a friend, similar in nature to several others that have passed through my inbox since the price of gasoline has gone up so much. Pardon my saying so but these emails are the most immature, assinine drivel that I've ever read. Generated by wishful thinking SUV drivers I suppose. Somehow my friends forward this palaver without a thought that people they know are in the oil business....like me.

The email in question seeks to have everyone not buy gasoline for a day, thus punishing "Big Oil"...I suppose the same nameless, faceless "Big Oil" that started the war in Iraq.

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES

I don't know who calculated this....but he or she is an idiot. Actually I'm betting "Big Oil" would welcome a couple of days for suppply to catch up with demand. But since even, it seems, the most moderate and normally sensible people hold "Big Oil" responsible for having to pay more to drive on important trips to secure their Starbucks Latte, let me explain a few things.

1] Important, remember this: Crude oil is at an all time high. "Big Oil" relies on crude oil stocks to make gasoline and the crude oil market is a truly global one, primarily controlled, still, by OPEC...and OPEC is, still, primarily controlled by the Saudi's.

2] You won't believe this but trust me. If it hadn't been for "Big Oil" over the years you'd be paying buckets full of money more for gasoline today. "Big Oil" has spent trillions of dollars since the '30s opening up new fields of supply in such places as Saudi Arabia, the North Sea, Iraq and Malaysia. If they hadn't and you had to rely on home grown Amerkan oil provided by small operators like me, well it wouldn't be a pretty picture for your wallet. We don't have enough oil or cheap oil in this country to support your driving habits. "Big Oil" provided the world with a sea of cheap oil.

3] For the last 15 years, the average price for West Texas Crude was $18.30. In December of 1998 it was $8.65 a barrel, so cheap it didn't even pay for us small guys to pump it out of the ground, so cheap it put 10's of thousands in our area out of work. At $8.65/bbl. no sane person in Amerka drilled any new wells. Except "Big Oil" who provided all the cheap oil and gasoline you wanted. And, by the way, where were the emailers decrying that oil was to cheap and putting Amerkans out of work? I guess I wasn't on that list.

Why is gasoline so expensive all of a sudden? Well...see #1 above, crude oil is more expensive. And why is crude oil so much more expensive now? Who's to blame. There are a number of reasons.

1] Impoving economies around the world. And not only in the U.S. and Europe, but in economies of banana republic and third world countries that in the past have not needed so much energy. Globalization for better or worse is working. You, indirectly, are paying for your cheaper Wal-Mart goods with higher fuel prices here at home. China is sucking in petroleum supplies at an amazingly higher rate to fuel the factories that make your cheap Wal-Mart 10 Pack of underwear and India needs more power to fire up all the computers that are doing your H&R Block tax returns. You get cheap undies but have to pay more to drive your Lincoln Navigator to go get them.

2] Gasoline plant shortages. Chronically there is a shortage of gasoline refinement capacity. Though overshadowed by high crude prices now, the dearth of gasoline plants exacerbates the problem causing wider swings in gas prices when crude oil prices move. Gas plants are expensive, high liability items and no one wants one in their vicinity.

3] The Saudis. I could have said OPEC, but the Saudi's lead that pack, and the Saudi's are worried, and we should worry about the Saudi's. This price rise could be the Saudi's reply to G.W. Bush for his actions in Iraq...a way to vote against him this Fall. They know he means business about change in the Arab world and that means them...the Sheiks, Emirs and Kumquats who collect all the oil royalty checks. They'd rather things didn't change. And somewhere in the price mix is something you'd rather not hear. The Saudi's know that their production is declining. Without the weight of oil weatlth, they are back to being mere sand beggars. From some inside sources in Saudi Arabia, I have learned that more and more of their oil fields are being "water flooded". This means injecting water into the oil formations to float the oil out. This is what you do when production starts to decline. So....rather than sell off all their oil and it's power at lower prices they may have decided to take the market price to a new level. I'd do the same. To get the same total check every month sell less at a higher price. It keeps them in the game longer.

4] You...and Me. As much as we don't want to blame ourselves, I have to. We Amerkans are still fuel grubbing wasteful people on the whole. I was in gas station lines in 1973 and saw the huge oil boom of 1979 go bust in 1983. Nothing much has changed since. In my home two TV's and two computers and a PlayStation often run at the same time with no one watching, we think nothing of driving 2 miles to the store for a few items. Detroit is building muscle cars again. We waste to much energy, because it's been cheap for to long.

In conclusion I have good news and bad news. First the good news. There is plenty of oil left in the world. As we say in geologic terms....one buttload of it. The bad news is that most all of the easy oil, read that cheaply produced oil, has been discovered and is being produced. The oil in the future will cost more to find and exploit for use. So, although, prices flucuate, be ready to continue paying more. So turn off one of your TV's, turn your thermostat up to 78° get a GEO Prism and stop sending me emails about evil "Big Oil". In 10 years you may really be glad there around to spend the bucks it takes to drill a well 20,000 ft. deep, 30 miles out at sea.

The Art Crowd...

One of the things that Julie and I shared in common from the beginning was our love of art. In fact our second date, the day after our first date, was to the Celebration of the Arts festival in Midland. And by gosh, we were there again today.

This time as a married couple with child. Jack went a little begrudgingly, but we think he had a good time playing on the super sized blow-up amusements that seem to keep getting bigger and bigger. You know the ones. Put a kid in a velcro© suit and throw him up against a velcro© wall sticking him to said wall 7 feet up. Fun. But not having developed our apprecitation of the finer things in life, we were glad he had fun.

Our fun was browsing the art and seeing friends and artists again. We have made a habit of buying at least one painting from our good friend Helen Pogue each year and today we bought two. Helen is a true artiste, painting varied subjects and with several different styles but we love her stock in trade....landscapes and buildings of New Mexico. We have five now. They compliment our house very elegantly.

My big treat was visiting at length with Woody Gwyn [above] who over the last decade has gotten to be a friend. For Midland High grads, he is the artist who painted the mural over the stairs near the main entry hall. The mural was painted when he was youngster in high school and since he has gone on to great things. Today Woody relayed to me how he got started on the road to better things in the art world. It seems he conned noted artist Peter Hurd into granting him an interview at his home in New Mexico...thinking that Woody was an established artist. Mr. Hurd was astonished to see an 18 year old boy step out of the car, but being a gracious man talked with him anyway and advised him to skip college and instead attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. Which Woody did and after long years of work he is now nationally known, his works hanging in finer homes and museums including the Presidents home in Crawford where he did a commissioned work of the ranch for George and Laura Bush. I always enjoy talking with Woody, a very esoteric and funny guy, and we hope to be able to accept his invitation to visit him and his wife at their home in Galisteo, New Mexico this summer.

And no, we didn't buy an original Woody Gwyn. The one in the photo above is priced at $32,000. I didn't feel to humiliated though, as Woody told me, "Hey I can't afford my art either".

Tent People....

I went to another funeral today. This time for Joe Martin, an old friend from high school. JoJo, as he was called by most who know him back in those days, was the little brother of a friend in my class. Although as I was ahead a grade for my age, Joe was only 2 months younger than me. 54 is entirely to young an age to leave the mortal world without a fight.

And Joe had had a fight on his hands the last several years after suffering a stroke during an operation. An over achiever, Joe did not let his frailty conquer his spirit. Though he really didn't look the part he had been a star running back at Midland High School and at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. He had been senior class president in high school and voted "most friendly". And he was. He obtained an M.B.A. from SMU and became a CPA. In his last days he had obtained another passion, for art, and in spite of his limitations was attending painting classes at our local junior college. And he was good...and prolific. His sister told us that his garage was lined with his work, all done in only the past several years.

The memorial service for Joe was as I prefer. Not too long but meaningful with stories and laughter offered by friends and family. The service was conducted, coincidentally, by Julie's friend Jan Reid who had married us only months before. And instead of the usual well meaning homily that I barely hear Jan's words were wisdom to my ears. Jan's remarks were that we are merely tent people here on this earth, transient visitors just passing through in temporary quarters until we are called to our permanent home. Perhaps this struck me so because I have actually lived in tents on occasions in my life and I can identify with the luxurious feeling of relocating to more stable quarters....or perhaps as I get older and more of my friends, family and acquaintances leave this earth it seemed to me to be a comforting thought.

Comforting also was the renewal in seeing old friends at the reception held afterwards at the home of Joe's sister Suzanne. Old friends of my family and friends from my high school days that I had not seen in decades. Laughter was endemic and it seemed even in his passing Joe had bequethed us all with the title "most friendly". Thanks JoJo for touching us all.

Mothers.....

It was a grand day, spent with a plethora of Mothers.

As promised young son Jack awakened me at 6:15 to watch the Spanish Grand Prix live and, of course, to prepare the Mother in our lives breakfast in bed. A simple repast, by her request, but accentuated by a grand red rose from our garden. Then every Mothers dream on her special day...we all watched the Grand Prix in bed.

The main event of the day was a lunch put together by Julie with Mothers galore. My Mom, Julies Mom, Mom Julie and her kids, Julies Dad's cousin family and mutual family friends of both my parents and Julies. I have to say, that Julie is a fine and doting Mother...and daughter/daughter-in-law. Bundles of roses awaited all the Moms and her choice of the outside patio at one of the better resaurants in town was superb. The weather and the setting were perfect. Like dining out in San Francisco. Ok, minus the water and view, but fine none the less.

The only drawback to the day was the Big Gold Dog vomiting at my feet as I sat at the computer checking my messages this morning, but not even this could dampen a glorious day. I'm blessed with having some first class Mothers in my life!

What hath I wrought.......?

It's great to have family interests. As a regular reader of Streams could discern in the last several months postings, one of my interests is sports car racing. Not normally an interest that would consume all members of most American families. I have tried to nurture this by interesting Jack in Grand Prix Racing on PlayStation2, by introducing Julie to the beauty, power and grace of Shelby Cobra's and in our family attendance of the Chaparral Racing exhibit at the Petroleum Museum. But perhaps I've gone to far!

Julie not only has not nixed my future plans for a Cobra.....she heartily endorses it and wants one soon.....so she can take it to the Panoz Racing School at the Texas Motor Speedway. Jack is now competing with me for time on the PlayStation and he's getting to be quite the little driver. And, of course, we all have matching Chaparral Racing T-shirts.

So I suppose it should not have come as a complete surprise this Saturday morning at 7:30 to be awakened by a 10 year old voice saying, "Hey Dub [he calls me Dub, short for "W", which is short for Wallace], wake up, the qualifying rounds for the Spanish Grand Prix are on TV live and Ralf Schumacher is about to drive." He knows that Ralf is the driver I use on the PlayStation version and that Ralf and I hold the Circuit de Catalunya PlayStation lap record. So arise I did to watch Ralf with an admirable qualifying drive which put him at pole postition #6.

And so this Saturday evening I must go to bed fairly early as Jack has promised me that he'll be getting me up at 6:30 tomorrow morning to watch the race live. And, of course, this will give us a chance to fix Mom breakfast in bed.......while she watches the race.

But if you're not ready for bed yet, catch the official Formula 1 website. It's a great site with all the info, pictures and data you need....plus track graphics. Try "mousing" over each turn for a picture, looks just like PlayStation2!

Look....it's Ron Ely!

Sometimes we can see things a multitude of times but not see the entire thing at all. The other night I was watching the last hour or so of the movie South Pacific on The Turner Classic Movie channel. One of my all time favorites. Great music, great photography, interesting cast and nostalgic as it reminds me of my time in the South Pacific. So as I watched the full credits unfold, imagine my surprise at seeing the part of the navigator on the PBY "The Bouncing Belch" played by none other than Ronald Ely. Who later became Ron Ely of teevee Tarzan fame.

Interesting because about the time he became Tarzan famous....he had been living in Midland. I carried his groceries out for him several times when I was working a summer job as a stocker at the old Furr's Supermarket here. Seeing as how we were old chums, I wonder why I've never recoginized him in South Pacific before......I've seen it 20 times.

Photo......shop

I've had several nice suprises arising from my Chaparral Racing photos. Last week I was contacted by Paige Summer of the Petroleum Museum saying that she had seen the website and asking if they could use some of the images in their newsletter and possibly the website and some printed material. I was glad to offer them to the Museum and so today I stopped by to allow her to download the digital images into her computer. We had a nice chat during which she added that current Indy 500 winner Gil De Ferran had also seen the website and was interested in prints of my shots of he and his son sitting in the Chaparral. Glad to oblige...so I'll be sending some to he and his wife in Florida.

This proves out some sage advise I was given years ago by a friend Steve Northup, a former combat photographer and now an instructor at the Santa Fe Workshops. In conversation I had asked Steve what was his one secret to taking good photographs. Without blinking Steve said, "take all the shots you can, don't ever let anyone see the really bad ones, you will no doubt take some good ones, and a few great ones and someone will eventually want some of them". Good advice, not that I consider these great shots......but at least someone wants them!

Heroes and Wusses.....

The following comment is from college student Hans Zeiger and was sent to me by another patriotic American, Bob Barker, who commanded an artillery battery at LZ Falcon in 1965 that fired over 18,000 105 mm howitzer rounds in just three days supporting my comrades surrounded by North Vietnamese troops at LZ XRay, Vietnam.

Heroes and Wusses
By Hans Zeiger
May 3, 2004

There are two kinds of Americans in this generation. Former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman was one kind; he fully earned the title of American with his life and earned the distinction of hero with his death. Tillman spilt his blood last Friday after a gun battle with terrorist fighters along a distant road in Afghanistan.

We need only read the vitriol of Pat Tillman's enemies at home to understand that this generation is deeply, intensively divided. In college newspapers and youthful Left-wing internet sites, Pat Tillman is no hero, but a "dumb jock," "Rambo," "baby killer," and an "idiot" who "got what he deserved."

If Pat Tillman was one kind of American in this generation, the notorious Rene Gonzalez, a graduate student at University of Massachusetts at Amherst is another kind. Gonzalez had the audacity to write a column in the April 28 issue of the University of Massachusetts Daily Collegian accusing Tillman of "acting out his macho, patriotic crap, and I guess someone with a bigger gun did him in." His sacrifice, wrote Mr. Gonzalez, "was not heroism, it was prophetic idiocy."

This so-called "idiot" died so that Mr. Gonzalez and his fellow left-wing radicals could call him names in the free press. Tillman rejected a $3.6 million NFL contract to take up service in the U.S. Army following September 11. When Tillman left his promising career in pro-football to defend America in the war on terror, the Department of Defense wanted to market him as their poster-boy, but he refused the glory by turning down thousands of invitations for interviews and photo ops. He sacrificed his life and his fortune, but he did not give up his sacred honor.

Honor is a rare thing in this generation. But Pat Tillman had it. He had it when he went quietly into the Armed Services, for he knew that there is no place for self-adulation among the fellowship of patriots. He had it on the field of battle, for he was convinced that the cause of liberty is just. He had it in his final breaths, for Pat Tillman understood that the fight is eternal. And his dead patriot body may be homebound, but still, in the courts of America's God, his soul has honor.

Yet there is a despicable brand of person that thinks nothing of a hero. Mr. Gonzalez stands for the wusses of American, as do the folks at Indymedia.org, a nationwide media network for the dissemination of radically left-wing alternative news. "Indymedia.org has 50 local chapters in the United States," writes Ben Shapiro in his column this week. "Forty-four of them made no mention of Pat Tillman's death. The other six celebrated it."

"Pat Tillman is gone good riddance," read the banner above an article at the Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Indymedia site. The Washington, D.C. Indymedia site proposed this headline to sum up Pat Tillman's death: "Dumb Jock Dies for Pipeline in Afghanistan." Portland, Oregon Indymedia pitched in with, "Privileged Millionaire, Blinded by Nationalist Mythology, Pisses Away the Good Life," "Cottled Sports Star Allows Nationalism to Foster Jingoistic Irresponsibility Resulting in His Death," and "Capitalist Chooses to Kill Innocents Instead of Cashing Check."

In the ongoing experiment called America, the war on terrorism is this generation's war. But there is another battle between ideas about honor and courage and virtue and faith that must be fought in the minds and souls of young Americans. This great spiritual battle was more pronounced in the days of Vietnam, but neither side has yet won. Whether character and honor shall win out in the minds of young Americans will forever determine whether we as a nation can continue to champion liberty and justice in the world.

Ultimately, it is a question of our responsibility. Someone once told me that if someone violates your freedom, you will fight to defend it. But if someone takes away your responsibility, you will be indifferent to the coming seizure of freedom.

I worry more about the loss of responsibility in my generation than I do about the loss of freedom itself. Rene Gonzalez and Indymedia stand for an America without duty, honor, and heroism. But as long as there are Pat Tillmans in America, we can survive.

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Hans Zeiger is a student at Hillsdale College and president of the Scout Honor Coalition. www.hanszeiger.com

Back Home....

It's been a busy week, mainly spent moving my office and buying new accouterments to go therein.

For the last 6 years I've been in association with EGL Resources, a conglomerate of petroleum geolgists, engineers, and landmen [hence the EGL] and it's been a great association. I couldn't have asked for a better group to bunk with.....and teach me a few things about the oil and gas business. We drilled some wells, bought some wells, bought minerals and had our share of successes and failures, but most importantly it's been singificant in the close relationships we all formed. I'm grateful for their help and support.

But it's time to move on with a new venture I've been working on for almost two years. And time to move back to the oldest office building in town, the Petroleum Building. Built in 1928, it's among the prime reasons that Midland developed into a major player in the oil business, for when it was completed it was the only office space in West Texas near the huge newly discovered oil fields of the Permian Basin. The major oil companies located their staffs in the building to manage their new discoveries. And so with the headquarters personal here, Midland grew when so many other oil field boom towns had their day and then faded. It's a historic building and, I think, a beautiful one compared to the modern glass boxes. Built in a sandstone desert style art deco, it has retained it's charm complete with the painted mural in the lobby.

This marks my third tour in the building. The first came in 1979 when I lived in Dallas but was hired as a real estate consultant by the then owners who were going to construct a 45 story modern office building next to the Petroleum Building. I was flown out on their plane every week to work on the new structure and had an office on the ground floor. But the big oil boom of the late 70's and early 80's was soon followed by the big oil bust of the mid 80's so the new building was never built. My second expeience in the building came almost 20 years later when I started with EGL Resources which had just formed, The building was owned by one of our partners.

And so now I'm back for the third stay this time on the SW corner of the third floor floor. A great space overlooking the park at Centennial Plaza and with tree tops right outside my windows. We were fortunate to get this office as it adjoins my partner Del Sloan and and is adjacent to the two engineers who will also be involved in our new venture, Embar Power LLC. Julie has been helping with the decorating and we never knew it would be so hard to find the appropriate furniture. But we're particular. We finally found a rather old Mission Style desk at an antique store that suits my taste to the "T". The file cabinets were another matter. I had thought that with some diligent searching we could locate the old style wooden ones to go with the rest of the motif. But alas none were to be found, so I had to settle for stock wooden models from Office Depot.

But it's starting to look rather good and I'm excited to be embarking on this new phase of my career. Particularly excited since today I got word from the representative of the two large corporations that are involved in our new venture that they are preparing a letter of intent to signify their handshake agreement on our deal. Hard to believe that after two years of research, stops and starts and toil that our dreams could actually be coming true. We're not ready to announce the project yet, but it involves gas, electricity and a new use for an under utilized fuel. Stay tuned.

Bookish

Usually I don't participate in the latest quirky participation game, quiz, or list passed around on the Internet or email, but since I'm a great believer in books I'm taking the cue from Tim Blair and passing this one on.

Here are the instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Here's mine and believe it or not....when I opened my book, it fell open directly to page 23, strange.

"What do you mean, 'probable'?, Lovell asked, "did they survive or didn't they survive?"

This page 23, 5th sentence quote is from "Lost Moon, My Perilous Voyage on Apollo 13" by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluge. A reference book that was sitting on my desk, a remnent of Jack's school history project on that subject. We'll be looking forward to reading yours.

The death of Oldsmobile....

I read today that the final days had come for Oldsmobile Americas oldest car company, a significant American brand, in business since 1897 and a part of General Motors since 1908. Sad it is and also a lesson in letting a brand with a huge and loyal customer base just slip away.

Back in the good old days of my youth getting an Oldsmobile meant you had moved up a notch in the social and economic conundrum. Until I was 16 we had been a two Chevy family...sedan and station wagon. But with one son headed to college and another soon to go, my Dad decided that with business going well, the lady of the house deserved a better means of transportation than the usual Chevy Bel Aire wagon. She got a nicely fitted out 1967 Cutlass Supreme. And it was nice inside and out, a fairly luxurious med-sized sedan with a big V-8, power windows [a real extra in those days] and well built. Though a family car it was fun to drive...not that I got the opportunity much, it was to nice a car for a teenager, or so the theory went.

After I was on my own, out of the Army and had run through my sports car craze [MGA, Triumph Tr-6, Corvette, Porsche] the first "regular car" I owned in Dallas was an Oldsmobile Cutlass. A beautiful 1976 Black on Black Coupe that was a joy to drive. However, having been gone from Texas for years, I forget that one never wants to own a completely black car here, thus the reason for the sale of the car within a year and a half...and the fact that I found another Corvette.

It was shortly after this period, in my opinion, that Oldsmobile started it's slide to obscurity. The cars started to have a cheap feeling about them and new exciting design was non-existant. They became the classic econoboxes of the late 70s and early 80's. They became the ride of choice for Grandma and Grandpa on a retirees budget. In truth, almost the entire American auto industry fell into this glum depression, but most car makers eventually recovered and starting making models that had, in some form, an air of glamour to them. Cars that young drivers could identify with, which like it or not, is what makes auto lines popular. I can't think of one exciting, glamorous or snob appeal car that Olds has made in the last three decades. And there apparently was no major attempt to revive the brand, no glitz machines, no sexy advertisements, no appeal to snobbery. Oldsmobile had just become the national generic plain vanilla car. No small wonder that the official reason cited for the end of production was lack of sales. Sizzle sells and the fire under Oldsmobile died years ago. To bad.

Step-Dadhood.....

Track [Jack at left] and History Project

It's been a busy week for a kinda' new Step-Dad. Full of baseball, track and history fair projects. Not complaining here.....really love doing it, but they seemed all to come at once. In fact they did.

Baseball: Jack is an above average little league player and gets his chance to show it and improve with a practice every week, and this week four games within 6 days. He goes to the game at about 5:30, we show up for the game by 6:00 and don't get home until 8:00. He pushes through with his homework and sometimes his chore of "pooper scooping" before the game, so by the time we get home it's time for him to shower up and think about bed time.

Track: Jack's school participated in the Christian Schools track meet this last Saturday. A meet of all the private schools in the area. They worked hard and we fit track practice in once a week, wedged into the baseball schedule. The meet was great fun. I'm glad we had a good time [we really did!] because Jack had to report to Ratliff Stadium in Odessa at Zero Early Thirty, 7:30, in the morning and we didn't get home, sunburned and tired, till around 6:00 that evening. It was a good time watching the kids run, spending the afternoon with one of my partners who also had a daughter in the meet, and later in the day, betting on the runners with Paul and my Father-in-Law Don. [not real money....this was a Christian track meet]. Jack did well, winning his 50 yd. dash prelims but losing in the finals. I got to have my first "losing is OK" talk with him, and explaining that not all of us have "fast twitch muscles" like the Neboh kids who won everything. Genetics is important. Their mother is from Kenya and was an Olympic medalist in the hurdles.

History Project: The St. Ann's School history fair was this week. Next year we won't wait till the last day to complete the project. I got to have my first "sports is good, but school comes first" talk with Jack about this. Jack chose the Apollo 13 story as his topic and had done some bit of preliminary work, getting his story board planned out and then emailing my brother who is a Deputy Director at NASA for some web based resources. But the actual construction, printing of pictures and some research was left to the Mom and Me. It looks good, Jack is proud of it, and we got to have an entire Sunday afternoon and on into evening bit of family time.

And tonight, well tonight we get to have our first homecooked, sit down actual familly dinner together in weeks. We get to review Jack's school work and rest. We'll need it.....there's a baseball game coming up soon.

Ranger Tillman....

Pat Tillman gave up a $3.6 million dollar contract as the starting safety with the Phoenix Cardinals to serve his country. Pat was killed in an ambush Thursday while serving with the 75th Rangers in Afghanistan. His coach Dave McGinnis said he felt both overwhelming sorrow and tremendous pride in Tillman, who "represented all that was good in sports."

No coach, that's not quite right. Pat represented all that's good in America. Maybe that's why he left professional sports. And perhaps his death will serve as a reminder that there are some things more important than who wins the Superbowl, or the NBA Championship or the money that come with these. They are called life and liberty.

Julie Moore....

Julie Moore died Sunday at the age of 75. Julie was the wife of Gen. Hal Moore who commanded the 1/7th Cavalry at the battle at LZ Xray in Vietnam. A battle immortalized in the film We Were Soldiers. Mel Gibson played the part of then, LTC. Moore and with almost equal film time the part of Julie was aptly played by Madeleine Stowe. This was a good thing, because Mrs. Moores role in real life was equally as important as her husbands.

I met Mrs. Moore for the first time in November of 2001 at the Washington D.C. reunion of those who survived the battles in the Ia Drang. I introduced myself as a good friend of We Were Soldiers author and correspondent Joe Galloway and was surprised to hear her say that she knew of me and then she proceeded to relate several things about my life that Joe had apparently told her. She was one of those persons whom you instantly feel you've known for a very long time. The photo above was taken on that occasion with my friend Bruce Crandall, who was played by Greg Kinnear in the film.

Over the last three years I saw Mrs. Moore again once and talked to her twice on the telephone during times I had occasion to call Gen. Moore. I'm still humbled that in those times she treated me as a friend of long standing and asked me about current situtions in my life, how my family was and sent a personal note wishing "my" Julie and me the best in our then upcoming marriage. I can see how all those who served under Gen. Moore in Vietnam idolize her, they way they do her husband. And I feel anguish for Gen. Moore, her surviving children and people like Joe Galloway to whom she was more than just a close personal friend, she was a guiding star in their lives.

I won't say anymore, Joe has expressed the feelings of many in his newspaper column. There will never be another Julie Moore. Julie Moore, by Joe Galloway

Chaparral Racing....A tribute

Some things don't change. Like a newly licensed teenaged boy's interest in cars. Fast Cars. For me and my friends, when we starting driving at age 14, those cars were Chaparrals. For two reasons. First, they had just burst upon the racing scene and they were winning. Secondly, they were built right here in our smallish hometown by a young, good looking bon vivant named Jim Hall. Frankly, some of our friends were more interested in hot rods, suped up jalopies and drag racing. This group would later become fans of "The Dukes of Hazzard" and NASCAR. We were interested in sports car racing. We would later become international sophisticates. In the then newly released 007 films, James Bond drove sports cars. That's where we wanted to be.

In those pre-media madness days we followed Chaparrals around the world the best we could by reading Road and Track, Sports Illustrated or by the mention in our local newspaper. We had Chaparral models, Chaparral slot cars, Chaparral posters and pasted Chaparral logos, when we could find them, on our car bumpers. On the occasions that we saw Jim Hall around town he was considered more of a luminary than any Hollywood movie star. We wanted to be like him.

And so this weekend I have been in heaven. It has been a weekend long occasion to honor Jim Hall, his cars and his place in racing and automotive history. Jim's engineering of the Chaparrals was revolutionary at the time, but so effective that it is common place today. Among these are his use of aerodynamics and his development of composite fiber bodies. The model "2J" was so effective it was banned from racing due to complaints from the competition.

Jims vision and achievements are finally getting the honor they are due from his hometown. The newly built Chaparral Gallery at our Petroleum Museum will tell the story of Chaparrals engineering marvels, racing achievements and house all of Jim Halls cars. A wise man, Jim kept all his machines together, housed in the shops where they were built south of town, functional and sparse. The new Gallery is anything but that. It is a magnificent place where frankly I had expected less. And the weekend celebration has been as equally stirring. And as noted by a fellow local Blog correspondent, the cars will be maintained in running order so these great machines will not be allowed to become just static pieces of art.

On Friday I had the good fortune to be seated in the front row, directly in front of Jim, at an afternoon forum discussing the Chaparral's history and significance. The panel consisted of almost every driver who piloted a Chaparral including luminaries like former world driving champion Phil Hill and the current Indy 500 champion, Gil de Ferren. Vic Elford was a star on the Porsche factory team when he accepted an offer to drive the Chaparral 2J, where he blew the competition away until the car was banned. Franz Weiz built engines for Chaparral from almost the very start and on through the Indy car team. He is still in Midland building Indy Series and Formula I engines to this day. He's a genius. The surprise of the day was the appearance of an unannounced panelist, the racing super legend and Jim's old competitor and good friend, Dan Gurney.

Saturday was a day aimed at acquainting the general public with the Chaparral story, and so I took Julie to see the cars and look around. And look around she did, getting excited about a Shelby Cobra that my friends at Panoz Racing had for sale, and with that in mind signing up for the Panoz Racing School at the Texas Motor Speedway. We're thinking September. We also had the opportunity to have a final chat with Vic Elford, a jovial Brit who has lived in the U.S. for the last three decades.

The whole weekend was special for me, but two occasions stand out. One was being able to walk through the exhibit after the forum concluded and chat with Gil de Ferren, his wife and two children. I had followed Gil's career from the time he signed on with the Chaparral Indy car team until he retired last year after winning at Indy. I was able to ask him questions about several races and to make the comment that I thought that he was the best road course driver on the Indy circuit and one of the most unlucky. He agreed. A nice, smart, likeable guy and a devoted family man.

My second, and the most memorable, event occured this morning at the old Chaparral garage complex south of town. I, along with about 20 others, was able to stand not 10 feet away from Jim Hall as he climbed into a Chaparral racer for the last time and drove it out to it's permanent place of retirement. I hope you might take the time to look at a few photos from this memorable experience, and watch a short video clip I shot of Jim driving out of the garage. It's a piece of history. View the photos at: Chaparral Gallery Opening

The War....

"We're a nation at war, and every day we read about the deaths of young Americans like Henry T. Waskow. We're at war but it hardly interrupts our lives. No one demands sacrifice of us.

In Henry Waskow's America, there were scrap metal drives and war bond drives and Victory Gardens, and food and fuel rationing. There was a draft that took 15 million American men into uniform and sent them into harm's way. Women took their places on the factory floors. Everyone had a part to play.

In the strange wars we're fighting today, only one thing seems certain: Until everyone begins paying attention to the wars, and to the threat that global terrorism poses to our way of life, and until all of us begin making some small contributions, we cannot hope for victory."

Thus writes Joe Galloway in his latest column. As you will read, Capt. Waskow died in Italy during WWII and his death was chronicled by the great story teller of the War, Ernie Pyle. This story has always had special significance for me because decades later, after my Regular Army service, I commanded the same company, "B" Company, 1st Bn. 143rd Infantry of the 36th Division, the Texas National Guard. Part of the 36th Airborne Brigade when I had it.

Sentimental connection not withstanding, I could not agree with Joe more on the importance of his message. With the news media full of finger pointers, the BlogWaves full of sites pro and con, the impassioned arguments for and against this and that concerning the "war" on terrorism....the tone and activity of daily life in America has not changed one iota. Whether one is for or against the actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, life for the average person has not been affected. While the troops in those theaters live daily in mortal fear for their lives, our biggest concerns at home revolve around complaining about the price of gasoline for our new SUV or trying to decide what new high tech digital device to buy.

Perhaps the Islamists are right in assuming that our own decadence and apathy will consume us.

This and That.....

9/11 Commission: not that we watch that much TeeVee network news, but now we've about given up on watching any at all. The blather coming from the TV set is too much. From Democratic Senators, Congressmen, "victims" and newsmen. The tone has been of "what did the Bush Administration do wrong, withhold or lie about". Someone to blame instead of finding things to fix. If the purpose of the commission is to assign blame, then the facts are exceeding clear on that point. Dubya and his folks had only been in office for 9 months prior to 9/11. Bill Clinton was in office for 8 years prior, during which time mayhem was perpetrated against the US at the World Trade Center I, the US Embassy in Africa, the USS Cole and Kobar Towers. What did Clinton do? Treat it as a crime, point his finger in the air and promise to bring those responsible to justice, fire a missile at the Afghani desert. Might someone on the commission focus on the failure of that administration to do anything decisive about the problem that was obviously brewing.

Voice from Iraq: Weak hearts who do listen to the major media may be wondering if the cost is worth the effort in Iraq. Perhaps we should listen to more Iraqis like Mohammed who is there.

"And I don’t care what those ‘political experts’ on the newspapers and TV channels, say about the ‘occupation’, deteriorated security and ‘unemployment’. You can’t understand this, because you never experienced real fear this long. Let me tell you about it, as I’m one of those who passed Saddam’s filthy test of life.The statue fell and with it, horror fell. You don’t know what it means to be scared to death most of your life, brothers and sisters. I knew that and I faced it during the reign of evil and darkness. I was afraid to talk, I wasn't allowed to think and I wasn't allowed to feel…I wasn't allowed to love. .......Yes, it’s the 9th of April. I lit the 1st candle today to celebrate my 1st year, as a free man and no one will prevent me from celebrating."

Spring has sprung....Spring srang very early this year and consequently so did my tasks around the well groomed grounds of the estate. Well groomed because I toil like a Trojan this time of year. Today it was the mowing, edging etc., tomorrow I'll be digging up two dead Youpon Holly trees and replacing them along with 8 more Indian Hawthornes. It's work, but I have to say that with the toil and the recent rains, the backyard and tasteful mexican brick patio have never looked better.

Another sad passing.....

Emmy Award winner Jack Smith has died at the age of 58 after a bout with cancer. Many people recognize Jack from his years as an ABC News TV correspondent, where he covered strife all over the world and more recently as that networks technology reporter. He was the son of legendary broadcaster Howard K. Smith. By all accounts Jack had a stellar career in journalism.

But many of us who knew him, or knew of him, count his exploits and survival in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965 as the true measure of the man. I wouldn't say that I knew him, but I had met him, chatted with him, and took the photo above at the Ia Drang survivors reunion in 2001. Despite his illness, Jack was the featured speaker at this years reunion just last November. He wanted to be with the people he treasured the most one last time. Jack is on the left with his old comrade Bud Alley. Jack was a soft spoken, calm and thoughtful man which belied the terrible violence he had endured.

For those who saw the Mel Gibson film, We Were Soldiers, the movie action in the Ia Drang in November 1965 ended with the 1/7th Cavalry being airlifted out after their 3 day struggle to survive. What is not shown, but reported in detail in Joe Galloway's book "We Were Soldiers Once and Young", is what happened to the 2/7th Cavalry and other units that came to the rescue of the encircled 1st Battalion. Ordered to march several miles to another helicopter landing zone named LZ Albany, these units were caught in a fearsome ambush that resulted in some of the heaviest casualties of the war. Some platoons were virtually wiped out. Jack, while pretending to be dead had a North Vietnamese soldier use his back to support a machine gun while firing at American soldiers, was wounded by an American grenade fired at the machine gunner and then survived the night listening to the enemy shoot his wounded comrades only yards away. Jack's piece for The Saturday Evening Post magazine Death in the Ia Drang Valley [scroll down] is one of the best, most terrifying, riveting and personal accounts of the Vietnam War ever written. I hope that you will take the time to read the article. Without a doubt it proves Gen. Shermans comment that is often misquoted as simply..."War is Hell".

Jack was a very close friend of some of my good friends, and I had hoped that my path in this life would cross his again. This is not to be, but the memory and legacy of his life will be celebrated and remembered by a great many people.

Our First......

The rainstorms that drenched Midland all weekend had not let up Monday morning. The sky was heavy and thunderstorms in the forecast all day.

Sylvia Munoz has just finished writing a card to her son, Robert, who is stationed in Iraq. She's watching television alone when a story on the news catches her attention.

She hears the words Sadr City, Iraq. The name grabs her ear. The Shiite-majority neighborhood in recent days has been torn by some of the most severe violence it has witnessed since it fell to Americans a year ago.

Eight U.S. soldiers died in the conflict, she hears.

"Something made me feel weird about it," she said.

So she next calls her son Gilbert, who recently returned from Iraq himself. She asks Gilbert to look up some information on the Internet.

As she hangs up, she sees two men pull up to her driveway. They were military officials delivering the worst news, not that they had to say a word.

"I knew what they were going to tell me."

And so I learned from The Midland Reporter-Telegram early this morning that the first soldier from Midland had been killed in Iraq. Robert Arsiaga was actually from Greenwood, a rural community once, that now in most ways is really a suburb of the City of Midland. His sister is also in the Army, while his two brothers are Marines, one, as stated above, having recently returned from Iraq. To quote a book, or perhaps a movie in my memory......."Where do we get such people?"

First Lady, Laura Bush was in town visiting her Mother, and made a point to visit Mrs. Munoz at her home. About all I can add is that my heart is heavy with grief and sadness for Roberts family. My heart having been through this before with comrades, personal friends and loved ones some 30+ years before in another time and place.

And then the rains came.....

What a weekend! Friday, the Mrs. and I stepped out for a couple of hours for Jack's Little League opener [he won]. When we stepped back in we almost stepped on, well the mess a sick dog makes when he can't get out into the backyard. Not able to hold it any longer his canine bowels just let go right on the living room floor. Sparing you the details of the mess, I'll just say that the smell was overpowering and it took almost an hour to clean it up. We'll be calling our carpet cleaners on Monday.

Saturday I engaged in manual labor, digging up 10 sickly shrubs and replacing them with new Indian Hawthorne. Lovely. And then the rains came. In West Texas it either makes an attempt to spit a few drops of rain, or it vomits copious quantities. This was the later. A few stray thunderstorms around 10 p.m. and then the main event starting at 4 a.m. Hard rain for four straight hours. This is always a welcome event as, for some reason, rain water makes the lawn grow 100% faster than using city water. But for the past year the joy of heavy rains at the Bedford Dr. estate have been tempered with dread. We have a roof leak. Well, actually, several now. Luckily, before retiring, we had set out our strategically placed bowls and towels. Unluckily, upon arising they were full and overflowing. So for most of the morning we cleaned, mopped and dried out the pantry in the laundry room and other damp spots.

The only humor in the situation resulted in the photo above. Through the deluge we could see a figure across the street, doing what in the downpour? Well, fertilizing the lawn of course. I'm not making fun of our friend Matt, had I not done my yard already I would have probably been out doing the same thing. [note the waves from the flooded street about to break over the sidewalk!]. More rain is expected tonight......and thunderstorms all week.

[Roofing note: lest we appear completely ignorant/indigent, we did have a roofer out to look at repairs three weeks ago. I'm still waiting on the quote....they appear to be three weeks late]

Cobra Update: The Mrs. opines that she'd like to have the Cobra too!

Family entertainment....

You never know what you'll come across on a daily basis. We are recompleting an oilwell in Andrews County, Texas and I have spent the last two days at the well site monitoring the activity. It's looking pretty good thanks. Today we decided to go into the town of Andrews for lunch and to bring some hot chow back to our hard working crew.

It was a moment of serendipity. A friend on my recent fishing trip had been telling me that he recently bought a Shelby Cobra, and I was quite jealous. On the drive to the well, I mentioned the car to my partner Del, who is also a road racing fan, and we spent some time talking about the history, setup and specs of the original Cobra's as built by Carroll Shelby. Then.....not more than two hours later as we were driving through Andrews we saw it. A Cobra sitting in the Ford dealers parking lot. We stopped. We summoned a salesman.

After the sales guy told us about the car and determined that we were not crazy people he offered to take us for a spin. Well, no said we, we rather had in mind driving it ourselves. This rather flumoxed the sales guy. He wasn't supposed to allow that. But Del and I are rather smooth talkers and after Del explained that he used to have Porsche's which he has driven on the German autobahn, and I casually let it drop that I had attended the Bob Bondurant Racing School, we were in. I was up first. Strapped into the racing style harness, double check the position of the clutch and brake pedal [both far to the left] and I was off. If you've never driven a small light car with 500 horsepower in a 427 cubic inch engine, it's an experience you should try to have someday. Driving mainly in town, I didn't set any speed records but I did have the opportunity to be knocked back into the seat when I punched it in second gear. This is the original and most genuine Muscle Car of the genre. It was hard to get out of the seat.

So now I'm back in Midland trying to convince the Lovely Bride that really and truly the main reason that I might consider buying the car is that it would be a great family togetherness experience. After I get an enclosed trailer for the Cobra we could spent countless hours of quality family time traveling the country racing at vintage car events. I think that family time is most important and this car is only a goal towards that end. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

Spring Miscellania....

It seems to me to be the earliest Spring we've had in West Texas in my memory. As you can see by the photo of our patio above, the foliage is well on it's way to looking like summer. The grass is almost green all over and the shrubbery has it's new growth well underway. However the large trees have yet to catch up. The pecans are just now starting to bud, which actually is a good thing for the lawn......letting much more sunshine in early in the season. Timely and beneficial rains have helped along with a very mild winter all in all, with only one bitterly cold spell that I can recall. But, being West Texas, you never know what's going to happen. We had a very large snow on Easter weekend some 8 or 9 years ago.

My fishing trip was a grand success as usual. No fish, due to very windy weather, but no mind, fishing on the fishing trip is secondary. We always just take up where we left off the previous year in our story telling and asking how the people we asked about last year are doing. We ride in boats up and down the river, take photos, play cards and do some minor hiking up the creek that runs into the main river. Sleeping there with 4 or 5 guys out on the enclosed porch is hell for me. The beds are Army surplus steel cots really and are about 6 ft. in length.....I'm over 6'2". Then there are several guys who are terminal snorers, but who always swear that they don't do that anymore, and do. But all in all a great trip. And the big surprise when I returned home was that the "Lovely Bride" and "Wonderful Step-son" had done all the yard work, cleaned the house and painted one of the bathrooms that had been next on my to do list. Marriage is wonderful.

There was, however, a slight pause in our happy family reunion last night. A misunderstanding caused by my slight misstep of almost burning the house down. Further explanation is necessary. Julie had made a delightful chicken dish and had cut the skin off of the chicken halves. Being the frugal sort and wanting to provide our dogs with extra chicken enrichment in their diet, I had put the skin in water to boil, thus making a healthy dog chicken broth. Then, wanting some quality time with young Jack, I proceeded to the PlayStation2 in his room for some Grand Prix racing. I was 6 laps into the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang when we heard screeming from the direction of the kitchen. Something about, HELP!, SMOKE!, FIRE!. Racing continued. I was .05 seconds behind Michael Schumaker in his Ferrari with only several laps remaining, so obviously I couldn't pit. More screams. Something like COME IN HERE RIGHT NOW! Only 2 laps to go, surely a reply to the screams could wait, so I had Jack yell, "What do you want?". This, obviously, was a mistake as a very upset wife soon appeared in the door with one of those looks that said, "Buster, You'd better get off that toy, now". I did.

It seems that I had left the dogs chicken broth on a little to long and the water had all evaporated leaving burning chicken fat in the pan. I'll admit that there was a lot of smoke, greasy chicken smoke, and it had enveloped at least half of the house but, there was no actual fire. As I told Julie, "Baby, if there had been a fire, I would have quit racing and come to the kitchen. Well OK, a bad fire. But when you have a shot at winning the Malaysian Grand Prix, you can't just stop for small things". I realize now that this too was a mistake.

But things are now back to normal, wedded bliss reigns, the chicken smell is mostly gone from the house, and tonight I won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone by a sizeable margin, with no interruptions.

Will you miss me.....?

I'll be gone for the weekend, fishing right here. It's my annual "Let's Go Fishing" weekend on the Colorado River with a good group of my old fraternity brothers. A pilgimage really since this is the 29th year of it's occurance. I started going in 1982, I believe, and although I have missed making the trip some years I do my damnest to go. Next year, being the 30th anniversary there is talk of going possibly to Costa Rica or some other more exotic fishing locale. On the 25th anniversary, the group went "fishing" at Lake Tahoe.

I don't know many people, except possibly military groups, that have had such a long standing annual affair. Most of my buddies are from either Dallas or Houston, and strangely of the 16 or 17 in attendance most all are either in the medical field or real estate. Besides these two factions there's one engineer, one attorney and me, in the oil and gas business. It's great to not only catch up with good friends, but to hear the news from the big cities, especially Dallas where I lived for so many years.

The website linked above is actually a joke [if you couldn't tell]. A joke website that has been my tradition now for 4 years. But, the picture is real, of the fishing cabin where we stay. Owned by the Carpenter family of Dallas, they consider it a cabin. I suppose that when you own insurance companies, have freeways named after you and you built a whole new super city near Dallas [Las Colinas] you consider something like this magnificent house with two full time cooks, situated on several miles of river front and surrounded by a 10,000 acre ranch....a fishing cabin. Me, I consider it a fishing mansion. For the first several years that I attended we stayed at some maggot infested rat trap called "Lemon's Camp". God it was awful. The kind of place that smelled like the prior guests had cleaned their fish in bed. So thanks to the Carpenter Family, and our attendee Doug, who is on one of their boards for allowing us to stay in their cabin for the last 10 years.

Last year, I had to assure Julie that this was not some kind of wild "guy" thing. All but one of us is married now, and besides we're of an age where a wild time is motoring up and down the river in the big pontoon boat. Sometimes I think that I won't go, but it's worth it for the camaraderie, the excellent food, fishing and to me just to get outdoors in a gorgeous place and take some photos. But I will miss my little family. Julie, Jack and the dogs and I'll be more than ready to come home on Sunday. See you then.

Here are photos from last years trip: Let's Go Fishing 2003
And the 2003 humorous Fishing Foundation website

Images..............Update

Less than 24 hours after completing the story yesterday concerning my "photo duties", I received the following email from Joe Galloway.....

"spent two hours in studio being interviewed today by Oliver North for his "War Stories" program on Fox. his producer would like 5-6 of best LZ XRay digital pix emailed to him. might also toss in 4-5 best of the b&w images from other parts of Nam."

Can do! For those intesested, Joe tells me his War Stories on Fox will probably air sometime in May. I'll update when further details are known.

Images.....

As mentioned here in the past, my close friend Joe Galloway wrote the 1994 NY Times best seller, We Were Soldiers Once and Young later made into the Mel Gibson film We Were Soldiers. In the year preceeding the movie release Joe made the decision to publically display for the first time some of the photos he took during the battle at LZ Xray in 1965. Consequently he had the photo department at "U.S. New and World Report", where he was senior writer, scan his negatives in very high resolution, put them on a CD and ship them to me for use on our website and in printing them for sale.

For the last two years I have been the keeper and processor of these digital images for use by those media, educational institutions and individuals whom Joe authorizes use to. Frankly at times, like before the movie premiered, I have spent considerable time and effort doing custom reformatting, resizing, cropping and cleaning the images. But it sure has been worth it. I've met some really interesting people, along the way.

Prior to the movie release I worked directly with the Paramount Pictures media people providing some of the photos they used in their advertising. I talked on the phone with producers at The Today Show, The History Channel, 60 Minutes II, and even sent some hard copy images FedEx to Dan Rathers home in Connecticut. I had several images blown up to poster sized proportions to take with me to a book signing with Joe and co-author Gen. Hal Moore [Mel Gibson's role]. For magazines, to name just a few, I've emailed or ftp'd images to "The VFW Magazine, "Soldier of Fortune Magazine", "The Digital Journalist" "The Alabama History Magazine" and "The Hong Kong Foreign Journalist Magazine".

And because of Joe's generosity, it is not only to the large scale media that we have provided photos. I have sent custom digital image files to a student at Texas A&M doing a research paper on Vietnam, to cadets at West Point and the Air Force Academy and to an aspiring journalist in Kansas City who had her story on Joe's tours in Vietnam picked up for major newpaper publicaton. We sent photos and personal stories to a high school student in Mountain Home, Arkansas who won an award for her essay on Vietnam and had her story reprinted in the local paper. She sent us a copy. I have sent complimentary photos to Privates, Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, and Sergeant Major's who just wanted a photo or were going to use them in unit displays, awards or visual programs. Two Four Star Generals have our photos in their offices. I personally gave one to General Tommy Franks here in Midland and one to my friend the SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Tom Hill. And........one that I sent to Washington for a Medal of Honor ceremony was presented to President Bush.

I bring all of this up because today I was at it again. This time for Joe's publisher, Random House. It seems that they are going to reissue the book in mass market paperback form and want to use new photos to spice up the cover and to better illustrate the storyline . I spent the better part of the morning downloading and setting up the publishers in-house file transfer system on my computer, talked to Ron the publisher and away went more photos. As I said....it's work, but great fun and somewhat of a thrill to see something that I had a minor hand in come out for public consumption. But, of course, the greatest thrill is sending a photo or two to the soldiers who were actually there.

Photo courtesy, Mrs. Julie Craig

When pet worlds collide..!

It's a well known fact that I love animals. I am only half kidding when I say that I know more animals I like than people, and the perpetual quote at the bottom of my emails states, "The average dog is a nicer person, than the average person". So we run a small menagerie of canine, avian and reptilian specimens. Two dogs and at last count 6 desert box turtles, not to mention the assorted species of birds we feed and way to many squirrels. All the creatures are very welcome, except the squirrels who became a detriment when they started to eat the house.

I must exude some turtle like pheremone because all the turtles in our collection have quite literally wandered up to our home. One was actually waiting at the front door when I opened it one day, and two came strolling up the driveway when I was working out front, just as if they knew they were supposed to show up here. Maybe they heard that I'm a very gratuitous turtle feeder. Canteloupe, bananas and occasionally strawberries in season. Tres, the Big Gold Dog, has always gotten along very well with the turtle population, his plan being to basically just ignore them, even when they walk over his feet while he's dozing on the sunny patio.

But then came Julie's dog Daphne. Daphne is, to put it mildly, rather raw and untrained in her habits. Wild is another way of stating it, or possibly, as Julie thinks she is in need of medication for dog attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was an interesting study in dog behavior traits when Daphne moved in, disturbing Tres' well ordered existance. He tried to ignore her too, but it soon became obvious that this wouldn't work, so he took to turning tail and going whereever she wasn't. They were like two children vying for our attention. Whatever Tres had, Daphne wanted [rawhides, bones, rope toys etc.], whatever Daphne had, Tres definetly had to have. They took to hiding things from each other, or better yet burying them in the backyard.

We have put Daphne on a strict training regimen, and she's actually showing some improvement. But what was worrying me as Spring approached and the turtles came out of hibernation was "how would Daphne react"? She had been sniffing around their holes and even pulled one out before he was ready. Thankfully, after a stern "NO" and a swat on the snout with a rolled up newspaper she seemed to have gotten the message that the turtles were off limits. Until....Julie gave our big male turtle Bob [L. Bob Smitherman, in full] a strawberry yesterday. L. Bob loves fresh fruit. But now that Bob had a strawberry Daphne decided it was her favorite treat too. The photo above graphically shows the confrontation.

Give this round, and the strawberry prize, to L. Bob. Julie helped decide the standoff with another short rap with the newspaper. However, perhaps, a better lesson for young Daphne would have been to leave L. Bob to decide it for himself. Turtles are amazingly fast at times, and L. Bob has got a powerful bite which would have left a lasting impression on Daphnes nose.

Merde en Francais
So now France seems to be in the sights of the Islamofacists. According to a letter purportedly written by a local arm of the peace loving group Al Queda, the letter warrns that, "We will plunge France into terror and remorse, and we will make blood run to your borders." Further describing France as as a country of "wine, pigs, loose morals and nudity," the letter warns that "France will not be secure in its own country nor at its interests abroad."

I cannot help but agree with the assesment of France's morals, and I certainly don't want to see bloodshed, but I wouldn't mind seeing some remorse from the French, for once. Some remorse for believing that if perhaps we were just more respectful of Islam, or just nicer to Arabs, or perhaps sold their dicatators more weapons that then they'd go back to their goat skin tents and leave the civilized world alone.

And what has brought on this sudden vengefulness against the French. They have outlawed the wearing of the Muslim head cover in their schools. Actually more of a "political correctness" move than a slam agains Islam, since religous symbols of all varieties were banned, be they Christian, Jewish or Hindu. Hopefully, the attacks won't happen, but it would be very interesting to see the reaction from the Left if a European country were attacked just for being PC. Who would they blame the violence on then? Oh, I know, somehow the U.S., but sane people would know that they were full of Limberger.

La oveja de España....

Moooooo! says the Spanish cattle to the Islamic wolf,
Please don't eat me, just let me graze peaceably in my field.

Baaaaaa! say the Spanish sheep to the Islamic wolf,
take all my wool, but please don't eat me.

And so another once great empire joins the Neville Chamberlain school of international appeasement. The film clip of British Prime Minister Chamberlain in 1938 is hard to forget, smugly announcing after the Munich conference with Hitler that he had achieved "peace in our times". Just two short years later London was under the Blitz and the free world was in mortal peril.

So now, the majority of Spanish voters have chosen a leader who was against the liberation of Iraq and who like the other once great empires of France and Germany don't understand that this was only one front on the war against terror or that it is a war and a fight to the finish. Mr. Zapatero "vowed that fighting terrorism would be his first priority as he sets about creating an administration that will work for peace." A grand aim, peace, but an oxymoron as long as the Islam fundamentalist movement is alive and naive cowards back away from fighting it. One imagines that what he really means is preventing terror in Spain, the rest of the world be damned.

Terrorism is a faceless thing and the perpetrators are rather amorphus to the general naive public, but terrorism has goals, purpose and demands. Will terrorists in the U.S., Australia, or Spain be satisfied until their demands are met?

We demand that....
*you declare that there is only one true religon.
*you swear true allegiance, in the strictest sense, to Allah.
*only the word of Allah be shown on your TV.
*women should stay at home, or be covered from head to toe in public
*you not drink alcohol in tapas bars.
*women should be stoned to death if they fornicate outside of marriage.
*men be allowed to fornicate outside of marriage with no penalty.
*you repent for the actions of the Crusaders 800 years ago.

Apparently the sheep in Spain think that these terms just might be acceptable......

Iraq: Good news...and some bad

Before my good friend Joe Galloway fled Washington D.C. for the sunnier and more pleasant climes of Kauai for a weeklong vacation he filed this story. Some good news not typically reported in the "mainstream" American media, but worth considering. The bad news being the caveat of what might still lie ahead.

Good news (and bad) from Iraq

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

The best news: Between February 19 and March 2 not a single American soldier was killed in Iraq.

This is testimony to the fact that the American military units operating there - even in the midst of a huge movement of soldiers as the old U.S. force of 130,000 is replaced by a fresh new force of 110,000 - have ground down the opposition Sunni guerrillas to a much more manageable level both in terms of numbers and effectiveness.

This wasn't achieved with a few big battles or a few massive sweeps, but rather by a slow, steady weeding out of the bad guys, taking them down or out by ones, twos and threes and primarily doing it with information provided by Iraqis who want to see an end to this war and a future for themselves. Read More >>>>>>

Ten Years.......

It's been rough and rocky travelin',
But I'm finally standin' upright on the ground.
After takin' several readings,
I'm surprised to find my mind`s still fairly sound.

Willie Nelson

It was 10 years ago today that alcohol last touched my lips.........and gullet. Actually ten years and a day, though the anniversary is about one's first completely sober day, so today's the day. I won't go into the whole story with it's sordid details, but I will say if I hadn't given up drinking I would be long dead and gone today. I had had an alcohol related seizure that nearly killed me in 1992 but soldiered on in my miserable condition for another year and a half before something happened and a touch of sanity prevailed.

I will not pat myself on the back one bit for it was family and a few close friends who stuck with me through the deep dark years and it is they who deserve the credit. They and the people at AA who never gave up on me. Those good folks who, at the time, I thought were self righteous idiots of the highest order and who are now some of my closest friends. They are akin to my combat veteran friends, close beyond belief. For too, they are combat veterans also. We share the same horrific stories, the same amusing stories, the stories of friends lost along the way and the friends who have never really recovered from the battle.

I quote Willie Nelson because this stanza from his song "Me and Paul" seems to pretty well sum up my feelings. And because I had the good fortune to meet Willie in 1996 and spend several hours talking with him. One of the subjects was alcohol. Willie had given up whiskey a few years earlier [though he admitted to still smoking herbal remedies] and we both shared the stories of our close calls, misery and amusing andectotes of our drinking history. And, by the grace of God, even after all the abuse I put my body through, my mind and body is still fairly sound.....in some peoples opinion.

The most fitting word for my state today is gratitude. Not only would I most assuredly not be here today, I would not have the wonderful life, wife and step-son, family and friends that I possess today. Thanks to everyone.

Martha, Martha, Martha....!

Personally I'm more than a little shocked that Martha Stewart was found guilty today. Not that she was innocent, just that a jury of her lesser peers would find her so. I would have thought that a jury would have a hard time arriving at a unanimous guilty verdict for America's homemaker.

I do have mixed emotions. I like Martha's style and it's nice to see a divorced housewife make it big. Too, it seems to me that there are bigger fish to fry in the prosecution of corportate criminal mischief. I lost very nearly five figures when my Enron stock took a vacation from existance and many people lost their life savings.....my preference would have been to go after those guys and save Martha for later. But on the other hand, being a law and order conservative, I don't believe that anyone should profit from playing fast and loose with the rules, which Martha undoubtedly did. The saga of Martha is not over though. There will be appeals. Even though she lost $120 million today when her stock plummeted, I suspect she has enough cash left to remain unincarcerated until the next decade.

I know Martha will be busy until the final determination however, so I've decided to pitch in occasionally with some helpful household tips in her absence. Later I'll give you my recipe for a lovely peach parfait and then discuss some options for recovering your car seats with chenille. Stay tuned.

Drain Cam©.........

I won't go into the cause of why we had the Roto-Rooter© guys out to the estate several days ago. Or....the cost involved which was in the three figures. I'll only say that I'm impressed with their services, being one who several years ago thought that the company was only involved in the most basic of services. To wit: Roto-ing and Rooter-ing. Actually they do quite alot more now.

The estate is about 50 years old now and Roto Rooter has been out before so I'm on a first name basis with our service technician, Jose. It's a story for another time, but it's a blessing to live in a town this size and be able to get the same guy to continually come out to work on the equipment of modern life, whether it be electrical, air conditioning or plumbing. They know the history of the equipment and where it is located without a lot of questions asked. All our service guys are nice hard working folks and besides shelling out big bucks for the privelage, it's nice to see them. I even trade photos with my A/C guy, K.C.

Anyway, back to the point. I was really impressed that after cleaning out our lines and installing a drain cleanout point which we lacked, they brought in the high tech plumbing equipment and ran a digital Drain Cam all the way down the line to look for root incursion. It was really a sharp clear picture of our main drain line in it's totality, and being a digital guy, I thought just pretty darned cool. You can check out the results at my latest Mirror Project submission

Fly by the pound.......

In reaction to a recent commuter airline plane crash the
FAA is now recommending that the airlines weigh passengers before boarding. It seems that extra weight in the tail section of the doomed aircraft contributed to the crash.

If my recent experiences of being squeezed in between super-sized travelers are any indication, I think this may be an excellent idea. In fact this may have real promise in readjusting airline rates.....and as an incentive for supersizers to lose weight. Ticket prices could be based on the fliers weight. So as not to be to insensitive, the tickets could be named like clothing is sold. Small, Medium, Large, Xtra Large and Wal-Mart size.......XXXLarge.

This seems quite equitable too. Even though all passengers are taking up [in theory] only one seat, an aircraft uses more fuel to haul heavier loads, and aviation fuel is a very large component of the bottom line cost of a ticket. Why should a 195 lb. man pay the same as a 350 pound traveler? Could this also spawn whole new sectors of air travel? Weight Watchers Air, Lean Cuisine Air.....and "I'm Sorry Sir, you are over our weight limit, may I refer you to Golden Corral All You Can Eat Buffet Air?"