If you’ve seen the 2003 film Station Agent, with Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, and Michelle Williams, you should recall the great scene in which Finn and Joey drive Joey’s food truck alongside a moving train, videotaping it. Finn was a train buff, and train chasing is a thing. It is a joyous scene in a wonderful film, and when Joey exclaims “We’re train chasing baby!” he speaks for us all.
I thought of it when I read Sam O’Brien’s post in the DMC (UK) today:
One of the Mrs and my many trips to Heathrow from Sheffield where we book a hotel room to plane spot. Just bought a new toy and must say I’m very impressed.
[OC note: Plane-spotting is a hobby consisting of observing and tracking aircraft, which is usually accompanied by photography. Besides monitoring aircraft, plane-spotters also record information regarding airports, air traffic control communications, airline routes, and more. Needless to say, these people are utterly insane but harmless.]
Here are some of the (72) comments on Sam’s post.
Mark Daniels: OK, you cannot just post a photo of your new telescope and tripod without sharing the details…
Sam: My apologies. How foolish of me. It’s the Nikon rubber-armoured scope with a Victiv NT70 tripod from Amazon.
Alex Boucher: Can I please ask which hotel that is?
Sam: Renaissance, bud. Bloody fantastic for spotting.
Alex: Awesome. Cheers.
Sam: Get the executive room/suite. Then you get access to the lounge with free food and booze.
Craig Harris: I’ve seen a few hotel set-ups with tripods, but not for this purpose.
Angela Stone: Tell me you watch BigJetTV!
Sam: Sure do. My 1-year-old loves it.
Mark Gerrard: How can anyone watch that idiot? He knows nothing about aircraft.
Mike King: Bit strong. He’s only 1!
Ray Lee: Ahh The Renaissance. Back in the day, when Concorde still flew, it would set all the car alarms off in the hotel carpark as it took off.
Wiki Dave: I remember, when I was a lad, we used to go on the roof of the Queen’s Building and tick them off in our Ian Allen books. Happy days and only cost the bus fare.
Adam Palfrey: This looks great. Amazing to do it as a couple!
Sam: It’s brill mate. Got a 10-year-old who usually comes and a 1-year-old, but they’re both at my mums so we can have some alone time.
Paul Sengupta: Just you two and the aeroplanes. How romantic! On a similar note, I once took a date to the top of Car Park Three to watch the Concorde take off. She was impressed.
Simon Parkes: Sir, I do believe you should be entered for the “lifetime dullness achievement award”.. this is pure dullness, I doff my cap to you.
Sam: Why, thank you good sir!
Dave Woodard: It’s posts like this that make me realise I’m still a long, long way from reaching the upper echelon of DMC posters…I literally bow to you sir.
Another brilliant puzzle today, IMWO. It’s by Sid Sivakumar, whom I think I saw at the tournament I entered last summer in NYC. Seemed like a nice guy. He’s an MD/PhD student at Washington U in St. Louis.
The puzzle theme was “pay raise.” So in the theme answers various terms for money were lodged in the answers with a letter in each one jumping, or “rising,” into the word in the line above it. This happened seven times. Then — as the final kicker — the seven letters that were jumped over, when read in order, spell PAYBUMP. I am so impressed when the wordplay works on different levels at the same time.
So, e.g., at 39A the clue was “Zoë Kravitz, to Marisa Tomei,” and the answer was GOD[DAUGH]TER. The five letters in the brackets spell DOUGH, except the O appeared in the space above the A, and the A was part of PAYBUMP. Have I confused you? Imagine how my students feel. (Chillax, this won’t be on the test.)
Anyway, did somebody say Marisa Tomei? Hey, Girl! — it’s been too long — how ya been? Grab a Diet Shasta — George is back — the fridge is full. You vote yet? Sit, if that dress will let you.
And here’s goddaughter Zozo. Another beauty. We’re here in the back, Zo! Grab a Fresca and join us. Hey, readers, did you know Zoe’s folks are Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, both of whom are half Jewish. The math is too hard for me (Hi Judy!), but she identifies as Jewish (albeit secular) — so let’s claim her! Shalom, Babe!
It was our first concert of the season and the NJ Symphony was in fine form, as usual. The showpiece was Rimsky-Schmimsky’s Scheherazade, widely regarded as one of the most difficult symphonic pieces to spell. And a piano concerto by Moe Zart was a terrific opener: #17, with Israeli-born Inon Barnatan at the keyboard. Outstanding. The average age of the audience for the Sunday afternoon series is about 95, so I’m sure he would have gotten a standing ovation if the audience had been able to get up. Instead you had the entire concert hall going “Oy, Yetta, help me.”
The applause at the end was so strong that Barnatan sat back down for an encore. I thought he said he had to go work at a car lot after the concert, but Linda said I misheard him — he said he was playing something by Scarlatti.
This is something else, but you’ll get a taste, if you’ve got 2:12.
Thanks for popping in. See you soon!
The Wellington Files 