yay!!

first impressions: Poor Man's Provence

I started reading Poor Man's Provence (part of Baton Rouge's "One Book One Community" thing) yesterday, having finished the mammoth Team of Rivals. I haven't read far enough yet to have been hooked into the story, but immediately I am struck by the plunge in quality of writing; the composition feels poorly assembled, malnourished, strung together by clichés. The sentence "The Atchafalaya is the largest river overflow swamp in all of North America and the largest contiguous forested wetland in the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain" was a fresh breeze of clarity, but then it was quickly negated with the explanation, "I read that somewhere and am not all that sure what it means." Also: I'm tired of reading books about the South written by Yankees on vacation.

It does remind me that I have been negligent in getting out to see the Atchafalaya and "cajun country" just west of here.

one hell of a post-doc

Somehow I sort of assumed that the Apollo astronauts were selected for their skills as pilots and their success in the military. It turns out that they were wicked smart too.

Case in point: Buzz Aldrin, who, after graduating from West Point and serving in the Korean War, earned a PhD in astronautics from MIT. His thesis is titled "Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous". Its dedication reads:

In the hopes that this work may in some way contribute to their exploration of space, this is dedicated to the crew members of this country's present and future manned space programs. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors!

Six and a half years later, he walked on the moon.