A disproportionately large number of race car drivers come from North Carolina -- usually from towns with names that end in something-something-Falls or something-or-other-Gap. In the mountains that border Georgia and Tennessee you can find plenty of road signs that look like the snapshot of a cracking whip and speed limits of thirty-five.

Everything that can be said about the world's largest airshow has been said, and some of it twice. The Rocket Racing league is off and rolling, blue mountain is still the preeminent supplier of advanced navigation systems, and Fox River Brewing makes a pretty damn good beer.

“My dad died yesterday…”

Standing in the rain in Seattle freezing my ass off and wondering why I was drinking road tar with steamed milk, and why I paid six bucks for it, provided me what my alcoholic friends refer to as a moment of clarity:

I'm not in Kansas anymore that's for damn sure. Two sugars, and thank you Dorothy.

My house on the mountain is mostly glass, when it comes right down to it.

It all started with a phone call that never happened. Like so many things that simply didn't occur, it's an event that's hard to forget because of the hole it leaves in an otherwise seamless history.

Ah, Absinthe. Favored by poets, madmen and a few scientists if I'm any judge. Van Gogh loved the stuff, so did Hemingway. It's also illegal as hell at present, but that's not our issue here. Without getting all Pulp Fiction on you, it breaks down like this:It's legal to have it, it's legal to drink it, it's just not legal to sell it.

Went to see Ben Folds last night at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. Ben, in case you've never heard of the dude, is part Bruce Hornsby, part Burt Bacharach: piano, drums and bass. Sparse, richly layered and beautifully lyrical.

I have a friend who checks the weather every morning on TV, and another who looks out the window. They get much the same answer.

... Long haired freaky people need not apply. Well, I guess it's no longer an issue. Yup, that's right. After 15 years of wearing a ponytail your local scientist got a haircut.

Well, I want it back, anyway. As part of Going Back To The World (as John Galt would have it) I have finally gone to the Dark Side and not only purchased a television but installed a satellite receiver.

Holy crap, Batman!

Well, it takes some getting used to. Being single again, that is. I've been meaning to write about this whole experience for a while, but it always comes out either too bitter, too sweet or just too much.

I've been accused of being 21st Century Amish and not liking technology unless if benefits me directly, which is only the truth. And what's wrong with that I ask? Take the latest electronic excess: LED and HID lights for cars.

Well, a bunch of you knew this one was coming ...Packet radio was never intended to be the plague that it's turned into. Who'd have guessed? Now, I like my cell phone. When I need to call someone, I turn it on, make a call and turn it off. Works great. It's like having a fold-up portable phone booth I can stick in my pocket. Of course I won't turn it on in:

I'm having a hard time reconciling what I know of Iraq with what I see on Fox News. Probably comes from being an overeducated sort, but when I think of Iraq what comes to mind is Babylon, the great Islamic scholars who preserved the treasure of Greek thought during the Dark Ages of Europe, and of course all the stars that begin with Al-something-or-other.

Coming through Hartsfield in Atlanta is more a rite of passage than a point of embarkation. America West 702 out of Atlanta was to deliver Jerry and I to Phoenix, thence to LA to begin the drive out to Mojave.

You know, I'm undecided on this one. Should we be in the business of policing the world? Probably not. But if so, how do we pick the places to go? We didn't intervene last year in Rwanda, and many more people were subsequently killed.We didn't jump into Angola, either. Kuwait produced naturally occurring hydrocarbon compounds and makes for a simple economic justification. But why Kosovo?

It's not often I get email from lawyers I don't know. Ignoring the proverb to keep friends close but enemies closer, the engineer in me finds it more reasonable to keep enemies at a reasonable distance -- say 500 yards with a scope and no wind.

I remember something about the Constitution and not being tried twice for the same crime. But, since The Law is something of a mixed bag these days, and since Amazon doesn't carry La Cosa Nostra for Dummies, I'm pretty much lost. Here's the story:

I've got an old album, by Jean -Luc Ponty on both vinyl and CD.