Anyway, Steven Latham has made a documentary about Jim called The Last Editor which will run on PBS. It's a wonderful recounting of Bellows' life, based on his new book of the same name. Bellows launched the careeers of Jimmy Breslin, Tom Wolfe, and Gail Sheehy among other notables, and shaped the modern American newspaper as much as anyone alive today.

Linda and I went down to a screening in Beverly Hills Saturday night. We had a great time, and bumped into former Herexers Diane Shah, Ann Salisbury, Alex Ben-Block, Joel Sappel, Neal Koch and Saul Daniels among others. Oddly enough, when we stopped at a swanky dive bar in Santa Monica called Father's Office, we ran into Linda's former colleague David Berglass and his wife, and had a good time catching up. I had to promise to bring back the message board on the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Alumni Home Page.
Comments 12:33:27 PM    

NASA science officer and fellow Western Reseve Academy alum Kathy Clark was there, and we had fun at a party for Lee at the Patrick AFB NCO club on Cocoa Beach, which eventually moved into the bar where lots of Right Stuff people were walking around. Had a good talk with a Navy medical officer who was standing by as part of the Shuttle team, and with Watts Wacker, another WRA alum and former head of SRI, the Menlo Park think tank.

Sadly the launch had to be postponed when a hydrogen line developed a leak: current plan is for a launch today at about 1:30 PM PDT, winds permitting.

With the launch postponed, I used the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center, a theme-park-like public display of the equipment and programs that NASA undertakes. I particularly enjoyed the Rocket Garden, where you could see the legendary Redstone, Titan, Saturn et al. The Redstone is so primitive looking, that you quickly gain respect for what it took to get in a capsule strapped to that early rocket.

Friends Tony and Cindy Sekura drove up from their Florida winter home, and we had a great time going to the IMAX movies, eating hot dogs and otherwise doing the NASA tourist thing.

My old Nikons came along on this trip, and I had fun taking pictures of everything from rocket ships to alligators. The 300mm Nikkor I bought for the penguin trip to New Zealand last fall came in handy, and I was able to get a photo of the Shuttle sitting on pad L-39B.
Comments 10:49:09 AM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures