"Let me see here
Kids, planes, and runway strikes
Flashy pimps and family fights
Spotted dogs and blood-shot eyes
Our space captain laughs and tries
To understand the scheme of things
But just in time the scene has changed
The bus is here, bring the beer
Sherman's reading Shakespeare
..Out here on the road again
With mad dogs and Englishmen
-Leon Russell
Sitting in the Sky Club, packed cheek to jowl with Fuller Brush salesmen.
Like the guy next to me in coach flying from DTW to ATL, there in our exit row (the plebian's Comfort Plus!). He brought some kind of thumb drive so he could watch Fox News, continuously, while I tried to concentrate on Reflections on the Revolution in France, the only book left on my kindle that I haven't already read. Images of ICE police dragging brown people out of the homes, news that Mexico took less than a day to cave to the tariff threat (but memories are long, my friend. We'll see how all that plays out). Zero mention of the coup, of Musk and his unelected computer flunkies taking over the exchequer and randomly cutting off payments to charities they deem undeserving. Like the Lutheran Church's entity that runs retirement homes in one of the Dakotas. Not sure if North or South. They're interchangeable.
If you live in Fox land, it's like the coup never happened.
Watching the end of American democracy could definitely drive one to drink, which I refuse to do here even though it's free in the Sky Club. To much to do today. I have a trial on Wednesday that's coming down the tracks like a freight train. I need to start leaning into being perfectly prepared for these sneaky Miami bastards on the other side.
But always, this national distraction. Did you see that our new Transportation Secretary, the guy who replaced the erudite and witty Pete B., opined that the DC plane crash was caused by changing the name for that place with all the windows in front of the plane from "cockpit" to "flight deck"? Astounding. We are a global punchline.
The guy next to me on the way from Elmira to Detroit was a very experienced corporate jet pilot in his late 60s, full of flying stories and information about flying regs I didn't forget because I never knew. He had the Fox News app on his phone, and started in about Biden gutting something or other until my reticence signaled he should leave that alone. He lives right over the hill in Pennsylvania, because of course he does.
A pity.
And it's all seeped into our home, such that DJT and Elon are the sole topic of conversation, sucking the oxygen out of the room and killing any thoughts of romance. I love P to distraction, but we sound like two talking heads on MSNBC over our coffee, not that I ever watch cable TV anymore.
On the bright side, I received my grades this week from NYU--I have a 3.5 after one semester. The old guy's patting himself on the back.
Time to walk down to the gate for the short flight to TLH, then down to the farm for a night before a very full four days of work in PC. Missing P quite a lot right now--Wyldswood isn't Wyldswood without her.
Onward.