#4 engine room boom beach

[callmethehunter]

Maggie and Robert

Here’s a new chapter!  I hope you like it.  Thank you to @firethatgrewsolow​ for feedback and help with editing.  As always, there’s a recap of the previous post, followed by the new material.   RECAP:   After a passionate and funfilled night on the beach with Robert, Maggie now has to face the music…aka her old man, Steve

End of Part 3:   As Robert’s silhouette grew smaller in the distance, she knew that she needed to see him again. She simply HAD to see him before he left for the UK on Saturday.  He was magical.  The passion and connection that she had felt with him during their brief encounter was exactly what was absent with Steve and what she deeply craved.

 When she lost all sight of Robert, her eyes swept over the skies.  The sun was beginning to rise, dispersing the quiet darkness of the night...a night she would treasure always.   She sighed wearily, turning her back to that golden sunrise as she headed back home to a man she did not truly love or even respect.  

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Part 4:  Steve and Schemes

Maggie slowly made her way back to the Bahia Mar just as the dawn lightened the skies.  It was as if the sun was awakening from the depths of the sea to continue it’s restless journey.  There was something about the light and the retreating darkness that made her feel exposed, unable to hide from others or from herself. With each step, closer to Steve, her dread mounted. She replayed the moments with Robert, reliving them as she put one foot in front of the other.  It distracted her from the looming anxiety about having to face Steve and explain where she had gone off to the previous evening.

While she believed that honesty was the best recourse, she decided to make an exception in this case. Just this once, she thought.  She rationalized that it was none of Steve’s business how she chose to spend her time, given that they weren’t married and he had no claim on her.  

They had shacked up for convenience sake. Their initial arrangement had been that each of them paid half of all expenses, which then gradually became Steve paying a larger share.  She had quit bartending at the Elbo Room back in January so she could attend community college.  

But Maggie knew his cash flow came from dealing in weed and acid, not from a 9 to 5 job.  In her opinion, it was easy money since the hippies had started congregating at the northern end of Fort Lauderdale Beach where housing was cheaper, granting Steve access to a booming clientele.

It was the age of tuning in and tuning out.  Timothy Leary advocated the use of psychedelics such as acid as a means to spiritual and personal growth. The drugs  practically came with an endorsement, for crying out loud and added to the Free Love movement that was spreading like wildfire especially now that the Pill was in greater use.  In fact the media was touting last summer of 1967 as the Summer of Love.  

Her internal dialogue was interrupted when she heard her name being shouted repeatedly.  She spotted Steve sitting in the shiny red Camaro, his prized possession. It was one of the only vehicles in the lot this early in the day.  He started the loud engine and practically peeled out of the parking space headed towards her.  

Oh fuck!, she cursed under her breath. Here he comes... The smidgeon of peace that had remained from her magical evening with Robert went flying out the window, replaced by a deep annoyance at having to explain herself to Steve.

“What the fuck, Maggie!” Steve barked as he pulled up next to her. “Where have you been all this time? I was worried about you out there trippin’ all by yourself.” He gestured wildly towards the beach. “One minute you were there, then the next time I looked you were gone. Man, I thought you drowned!  I sure hope it was worth it to keep me hanging like that,” he berated her.

Maggie’s tactic when he became this belligerent was to placate him and act contrite. “Steve, I know...I am so sorry you had to go through all that.  That purple microdot was so strong I don’t even know what all I did, I just remember being at the Jetties, and laying down somewhere looking at the sky...probably for hours.  The stars looked as if they were dripping wax from candles on the beach and the colors were so bright!” 

She ventured a glance at his face, which appeared calmer. “You know how it is, babe, I didn’t mean to worry you.” See?  she said to herself, telling half truths was not really lying, she rationalized again. But in her heart she knew that she was skating on thin ice.

“Yea, I know, that shit’s groovy, man, but you can’t just walk off and not tell me what you’re doing or where you’re going for hours!”   The fact that his voice was back to a normal decibel was promising.

 “C’mon man, get in the car. I’m starving thanks to having to sit there all fucking night waiting on you.” As usual, the crisis had become all about him.

“Steve, seriously, who are you kidding? You know damn well you and your friends were partying all night... You barely missed me, seeing as Shannon the chipmunk was hanging on your every word when I left.”  She wasn’t buying his ”holier than thou, concerned boyfriend” crap. It might work on Shannon but it wasn’t going to work on her.

That must have been what happened, because Steve did not respond as he sped down AIA towards the House of Pancakes.  By the time they pulled into the lot, they had toned it down.  Steve had a short memory, probably from all the weed he smoked, and now that they were going to eat, his self-righteous attitude diminished.  After they were seated, he studied the menu, commenting on what he should order.  

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief.  She had been right in only revealing where she’d been and not who she was with...Only the sexiest and most intriguing man she had ever laid eyes on, she said to herself.  Had she divulged that small yet crucial detail, she would not have heard the end of it.  

Yet Steve was the one who had brought up having an open relationship when they shacked up the year before. They were more like friends on equal footing back then but somehow he seemed to have developed a sense of ownership.  Nowadays he acted as if he was her sugar daddy or had some claim on her.   The longer she allowed Steve to finance her life, the longer she would be in this rut. She had become lazy and complacent.  The realization deeply troubled her and she vowed to take action, once and for all.

After ordering a breakfast platter, Steve mentioned he had been looking at a boat that was for sale at the docks near the Bahia Mar.  It was  last year’s model, a 1967 Chris Craft Cavalier, he said, as if that would explain it.  

“Well, tell me more about it.  I don’t know much about boats,” she added, “except that some have cabins and some don’t.”

“Man, I gotta teach you about the finer details of boating! if I can get this dude to go down on the price. I think he will, seeing as I fronted him 100 hits of acid and some weed last week and he still hasn’t paid me.”

“You know what, Steve? One of these days somebody’s gonna screw you over so bad or you’re gonna get busted by the fuzz, man,” she chided him. “You gotta be more careful, people talk…”

“Maggie, shut the fuck up, you don’t know what I do or don’t do.” He spat out bits of the omelett he was chewing, with how forcefully he replied. “I've been doing this shit since I was 16, so for over 10 years now, I ain’t never had a problem...well, except with a Cuban dude that tried to rip me off one time. But anyway,” he continued, “I don’t have to do shit, you hear?”

She hated when he spoke to her with disdain, belittling her intelligence, sometimes right in front of his friends. Most of the time, she sucked it up and went with the flow, letting it roll right off her back.  But lately, this type of behavior angered her and she had been growing increasingly resentful towards his snide remarks.

  “Fuck you, too, Steve” she countered, setting her toast down on the plate, suddenly losing all appetite.

“Whatever...Look, Maggie, do you wanna go see the damn boat or not? You’re lucky I’m even asking for your opinion seeing that we’re gonna be spending a lot of time on it.”

“Oh really?” she replied, “what if I don’t like boating, did you ever think of that? What if I always get sea sick, huh?” she asked but he just looked at her, mouth agape.

“Steve, you know I don’t like it when the water’s really deep, you can’t just assume I’m gonna feel comfortable on that boat day in and day out…”

“Why not?” he asked incredulously. “You should see the cabin, Maggie. It’s got a full sized bed, mini bathroom and little kitchen. It’s sweet, baby, you’re gonna forget all about that you’re on the water...It’s gonna be like being in a camper on land. You’ll love it, baby.”

She cringed at the familiar way he disregarded her feelings, bulldozing over them and then pretending she had been the one to suggest whatever it was he manipulated her into doing.  This was insanity!  He’s never gonna change!, she realized. 

Almost in a defeated tone, she answered “Yea, maybe you’re right, Steve. Let’s go take a look when we leave here.”   

He reached over the table and patted her hand, “Thata girl. We’ll go right after I pay.”

With that, he signaled to the waitress to bring the check, took a wad of cash out of his pocket, and glanced over the bill.  

Maggie looked out the window and realized they were only a few minutes away from Tugboat Annies.

She mustered up all her courage and nonchalantly asked  “Hey, sweetie, if we were to get the boat, could we dock it over by Tugboat Annies? It doesn’t cost as much as the Bahia Mar and you can pull up through the intercoastal, dock it in the back, and you’re right at the bar....There’s actually a really good band playing this weekend,” she continued, “if we had the boat, we’d look so cool pulling up in it, right?”

She knew Steve well. He was a show off and loved to appear important. The idea that the hip people at Tugboat’s would notice his latest purchase was irresistible to him.   His growing smile told her everything she needed to know, and her heart soared as she thought about seeing Robert again.  She ached with longing for him.  That gorgeous blonde, that sexy man. 

She smiled back sweetly at Steve, proud of herself for having turned the tables and being the one who manipulated the outcome, making him feel he was still in control.  

Her self-congratulation faded as a tinge of anxiety surfaced.  Steve was a narcissist, that much was true, but he was no dummy and he was extremely possessive of her time.  How was she going to manage making contact with Robert while Steve was hovering nearby? How was she gonna pull this one off?  

Different scenarios ran through her mind.  She suddenly realized that the answer lay in having distractions... Lots of distractions.  They would put the word out and invite all his cronies out to the concert, in part to celebrate and party on the boat.  People could step out onto the marina behind Tugboat’s and score, getting their stash for the week in the privacy of the boat’s cabin.  She’d wait to suggest that part later… 

After the waitress brought back the change, she grabbed her bag from the back of her chair, stood and followed Steve out of the diner, this time with a light heart and a bounce in her step.

To be continuied at Tugboat Annies....

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Americans support Black Lives Matter but resist shifts of police funds or removal of statues (Washington Post) A majority of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement and a record 69 percent say black people and other minorities are not treated as equal to white people in the criminal justice system. But the public generally opposes calls to shift some police funding to social services or remove statues of Confederate generals or presidents who enslaved people, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. These findings underscore the mixed fallout after the brutal killing of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police in May. There is increased public scrutiny of police treatment of black Americans, but less unity on broader questions about how to address the country’s treatment of black Americans since its founding. Americans’ confidence in police appears shaken after a wave of national protests following Floyd’s killing. Compared with 2014, fewer Americans say they are confident that police are adequately trained to avoid using excessive force. Meanwhile, more people say recent police killings of black people are “a sign of broader problems” in police conduct.

Opposition grows to US agents in cities (AP) The Trump administration is facing growing pushback—in the courts and on the streets—to sending federal agents to Portland, Oregon, where protests have spiraled into violence, and vowing to do the same in other Democratic-led cities. Far from tamping down the unrest that followed George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, the presence of federal agents on the streets of progressive Portland—and particularly allegations they have whisked people away in unmarked cars without probable cause—has energized two months of nightly protests that had begun to devolve into smaller, chaotic crowds. President Donald Trump’s administration also faces multiple lawsuits questioning its authority to use broad policing powers in cities. One filed Tuesday says federal agents are violating protesters’ 10th Amendment rights by engaging in police activities designated to local and state governments. Oregon’s attorney general sued last week, asking a judge to block federal agents’ actions. The state argued that masked agents have arrested people on the street, far from the U.S. courthouse that’s become a target of vandalism, with no probable cause. The use of federal agents against the will of local officials also has set up the potential for a constitutional crisis, legal experts say. It could escalate if Trump sends federal agents elsewhere, as he says he plans to do, including to Democratic-led Chicago.

New Yorkers ditching city for elbow room fuel housing boom (AP) If the outbreak roars back in New York City, Anil and Joyce Lilly will not be sheltering again in their Bronx apartment. They just bought a house an hour north in the Hudson Valley. “We need more elbow room,” said Joyce Lilly, explaining their move to Washingtonville, New York. “Because we were locked into the apartment for three months, a solid three months, I feel like I’m getting out of prison and I want to run as far away as possible.” New Yorkers anxious after weathering the worst of the coronavirus pandemic are fueling a boom in home sales and rentals around the picturesque towns and wooded hills to the north. Real estate brokers and agents describe a red-hot market recently, with many house hunters able to work from home. “There has been a big uptick from Manhattan people, no doubt about that,” said Steven Domber, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hudson Valley Properties. “Number one, it’s cabin fever, which is wanting to get out of an apartment and having some land if, God forbid, there’s a lockdown again.”

Powerful 7.8 quake hits Alaska isles (AP) A powerful 7.8 earthquake struck the Alaska Peninsula late Tuesday, triggering a tsunami warning that sent residents fleeing to higher ground before it was called off without any damaging waves. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 7.8 magnitude quake struck Tuesday at 10:12 p.m. local time. The quake was centered in waters 65 miles (105 kilometers) south-southeast of Perryville, Alaska at a depth of 17 miles (28 km), deeper than an earlier estimate. According to the USGS, since 1900 there have been six other earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 and higher within 155 miles (250 km) of Tuesday’s quake. The largest of those was a 8.2 quake in 1938.

US Navy problems (Bloomberg) The inferno on the $4 billion USS Bonhomme Richard caps a dismal few years for the U.S. Navy, James Stavridis writes. The retired admiral and former NATO supreme allied commander points to a litany of black eyes, including a series of corruption scandals; two deadly collisions involving $3 billion Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; the mishandled prosecution of an accused war criminal; and the coronavirus outbreak on a nuclear aircraft carrier in which one crew member died, the commanding officer was relieved of duty, and the acting secretary of the Navy quit under pressure.

U.S. seeking arrest of Venezuela chief justice, offers reward for info (Reuters) The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Venezuelan Chief Justice Maikel Moreno and announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction for allegedly participating in transnational organized crime. In a statement, Moreno said Venezuela’s judiciary would not accept “tutelage” from a foreign government. The United States charged Moreno in March with money laundering under a round of indictments against Maduro and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of “narco-terrorism” in an escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.

Nearly 40% of Europeans in their late 20s still live at home (Quartz) Do you have fond memories of living with your parents? An attachment to the neighborhood where you grew up? For two in five Europeans in their late 20s, the four walls of their parents’ home is their daily reality. In 2017, 39.3% of young adults in the 28 countries of the European Union still lived with at least one parent, according to data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey. The proportions varied wildly between countries: While only 4% of Danes between 25 and 29 still lived at home in 2017, 75.4% of their Croatian peers did. Economists blame the phenomenon on the 2008 recession and the following European debt crisis, which created a “boomerang generation” that moved back home because they either couldn’t find jobs or were the first to lose them.

Fearing new coronavirus wave, Barcelona limits number of beach-goers (Reuters) Barcelona authorities on Tuesday cut the number of people allowed on to the city’s beaches to 32,000 from 38,000, after crowds flocked to the sea at the weekend despite advice to stay home to curb a local rise in coronavirus infections.

Ukrainian president ends hostage crisis (Foreign Policy) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was forced to record a video recommending a 2005 Joaquin Phoenix-narrated documentary on animal cruelty in order to help free 13 citizens being held hostage in the town of Lutsk. The demand was made by Maksym Kryvosh, an animal rights activist who had seized a bus and began an armed standoff with police with the 13 hostages on board. Shortly after the hostages were all freed, Zelensky deleted the video.

U.S. tells China to shut Houston consulate in move China calls ‘unprecedented escalation’ (Reuters) The United States has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down in three days, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and information, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries. Beijing condemned the order and threatened retaliation. A source said China was considering closing the U.S. consulate in the city of Wuhan. Ties between the United States and China have become increasingly tense since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the beginning of the year.

Hong Kong orders masks indoors in public as daily cases hit record (Reuters) Hong Kong will extend strict social distancing measures from midnight on Wednesday, ordering masks in all indoor public areas including malls and markets, as the global financial hub reported a daily record increase of novel coronavirus cases. Hong Kong tightened social distancing measures in July after a spike of locally transmitted cases and as authorities warned about a third wave of infections. The new order for masks in indoor public places would be for two weeks.

Taiwanese rebranding (Foreign Policy) Taiwan’s legislature has voted to rename the country’s main flight carrier, currently known as China Airlines, and to remove the phrase Republic of China from Taiwanese passports. The increasingly anti-China mood in Taiwan is likely to produce more such rebrandings: The country’s official name, the Republic of China, is now seen as a holdover from a different era. Such moves are likely to produce hysterical reactions from Beijing, reemphasizing the need for Taiwan’s long-term national strategy of decoupling from its largest trade partner.

Crisis hits Lebanon’s hospitals, among the best in Mideast (AP) Lebanon’s hospitals, long considered among the best in the Middle East, are cracking under the country’s financial crisis, struggling to pay staff, keep equipment running or even stay open amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Private hospitals, the engine of the health system, warn they may have to shut down. Chronically underfunded public hospitals, which have led the fight against the virus, fear they will be overrun. Across the country, hospitals and doctors are reporting shortages in vital medical supplies such as anesthesia drugs and sutures. With power cuts that run through most of the day, they pour money into fuel for generators, and many are turning away non-critical cases to conserve resources. “The situation is really catastrophic, and we expect a total collapse if the government doesn’t come up with a rescue plan,” said Selim Abi Saleh, the head of the Physicians Union in northern Lebanon, one of the country’s poorest and most populated regions.

Aid from top donors drops even as need soars (AP) A new snapshot of the frantic global response to the coronavirus pandemic shows some of the world’s largest government donors of humanitarian aid are buckling under the strain: Funding commitments, for the virus and otherwise, have dropped by a third from the same period last year. At a time when billions of people are struggling with the pandemic and the ensuing economic collapse—on top of long-running disasters like famine, drought or unrest—more, not less, money is urgently needed. New virus protection equipment must be bought for almost everything, from maternity wards in African villages to women’s shelters in Syrian refugee camps. During the first five months of this year, overall aid commitments from the largest government donors were $16.9 billion, down from $23.9 billion in the same period last year, according to the new analysis, which drew on data from the United States, the United Kingdom, European Union institutions, Germany, France, Canada and others. Many of these donors—notably the U.K., whose aid commitments have dropped by nearly 50% from last year, according to the analysis—are struggling as their economies contract. The sheer magnitude of the crisis is another challenge as every part of the world needs help—and now.

Power cuts return, adding to frustrations in COVID-weary South Africa (Reuters) Keitumetse Modise was already struggling to juggle her appointments as a freelance beautician while home-schooling her daughter during South Africa’s nearly four-month-old COVID-19 lockdown. The last thing she needed was the lights going out. But after being forced to turn kitchen tables into classrooms and bedrooms into home offices, pandemic-weary South Africans now face an added challenge in the form of a familiar headache: rolling blackouts. Months of pandemic-induced shutdown and reduced demand had actually resulted in uncharacteristically reliable electricity for those stuck at home, as South Africa’s creaking grid was given some respite. Since last week however, with restrictions easing and businesses cautiously reopening, planned blackouts—known locally as loadshedding—are back and with them the frustration of unstable internet, lost revenue and disrupted schedules.

[myhauntedsalem]

Phantom Plane Crashes

Phantom Plane Crashes are a relatively recent phenomenon, but there have been several cases reported. The scenario usually goes something like this: Witnesses see a plane going down, often in flames. They hear the crash and feel the ground shake as the plane impacts. Sometimes smoke and flames are seen, and witnesses can smell spilled fuel. Upon investigation, however, no sign of a crash is evident.

Not only is no wreckage ever found, but no record of a missing or delayed flight is cataloged. So what are these people experiencing?

Here are several of these mysterious reports from around the country.

People in Westbrook, Connecticut were amazed Wednesday morning, January 15, 1997 when they heard that a single-engine plane dive toward the waters of Long Island Sound… and then vanish. According to the newspaper The Day, “The Coast Guard, state Department of Environmental Protection, two rescue helicopters, fire departments from Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Madison, and Clinton, and some marine patrols and private boats searched 100 square miles after a man reported he had seen a plane dive into the water.

“Daniel Bowes of Meetinghouse Lane was having a cup of coffee at about 7:30 a.m. at West Beach on Salt Island Road when he saw a plane flying low over the water, according to Ralph Buck, a captain of the Westbrook Fire Department. He told authorities it looked as if the plane took a nose dive, though he didn’t see a splash, Buck said.

No airport in the area reported any planes missing, according to state police Lt. Cliff M’Sadoques.”

At 4 p.m., the Coast Guard called off the search. No trace of any aircraft was found.

____________________________________________

Three women in the Ovando, Montana, area, about 50 miles northeast of Missoula, reported seeing an airplane trailing smoke, and falling from it were objects looking like parachutes. A ranchwoman told officers she saw a “board-like object” fall from the plane. Sheriff Ed Barrow and a deputy, despite falling temperatures and four feet of snow, made a ground search, joined by a ski-equipped plane which flew over the designated area, but nothing was found.

Two days later, there was a new hope when a boy living near Ovando reported an explosion he had seen on a hillside near his home. He described it as a “big explosion” with red and yellow flames. The time and general location given by the boy agrees with the stories told by the three women, officers said. Malmstrom AFB officials at Great Falls and Civilian Aeronautics Administration authorities all agreed that no planes, military, commercial, or private were missing.

On Feb. 18, Carl Schirmer, coordinator of the Montana search and rescue team announced, “There is nothing warranting any further search. The Sheriff went up where the disturbance was reported to be seen and could not find a thing.” ____________________________________________

“Butler County, Ohio, deputies discontinued a search yesterday afternoon for a plane, which reportedly had crashed in Reily Township near Imhoff and Indian Creek Roads late Wednesday night,” said this newspaper report. “Deputies said an amateur radio operator heard what he thought was a distress call from a plane believed to be flying from Oxford to Cincinnati about 11 p.m.

“About 1:45 a.m. yesterday, George Mosley, 1203 Azel Avenue, Hamilton, his son and two other boys became separated in the same area while coon hunting. During the separation the boys said they saw a white flash in the sky at treetop level, then heard screaming and a crash. Airports in Hamilton and Butler County had no record of any small craft filing a flight plan during those hours. Deputies used a plane and walked the area in search of a downed plane Wednesday night until fog set in on the Reily area. The search was continued yesterday morning and discontinued after nothing was found.” ____________________________________________

Nov. 18, 1955. The first reports told of extensive search parties combing the mountainous region of Dark Hollow, Pennsylvania, looking for a plane believed crashed. The search began after Dale Murphy, civil defense coordinator of Cumberland County, said he received reports from ten GOC members of either hearing or seeing a plane, “probably in trouble,” flying about 1,000 feet.

One spotter said she saw it go out of sight behind a hill, then heard something like an explosion. However, checks with various air control agencies failed to turn up any reports of either a plane missing or in trouble.

Air-sea rescue planes were dispatched by Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts to aid ground crews in the search. The planes were requested after two flares were reported over a deep ravine in Dark Hollow. But the aerial search by the Air Force and the Civil Air Patrol along with nearly 300 firemen, police, civil defense workers, and volunteers found no trace of a crashed plane. But the persistence of flares renewed the searchers efforts.

On the 20th, yellow flares were reported at 1:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. At 9:30 that night Murphy ordered sirens blown on all fire equipment in the region. Fifteen minutes later, another flare arched into the sky. Finally, on the 22nd Nov., the search was halted, and the “ghost plane” became a legend. ____________________________________________

On November 29, 1996, the day after Thanksgiving, a Miami Township, Ohio, resident was unloading groceries from his car. As he walked into his house, something disruptive happened. “The ground shook, and my house vibrated,” commented the gentleman during an interview from his living room three weeks afterward. “It sounded like two concrete slabs crashing together. I could feel the shock of it. My windows and shades even rattled for about thirty seconds. I’d say that the sound shook the house between seven-thirty and eight,” the witness added. “About a half-hour or so later, the Franklin Police Department showed up checking around for an airplane crash.”

Later that same night, a visit to the Franklin Police Department to inquire about the Franklin search with Lieutenant Massey revealed some conflicting information. “I believe your witness is mistaken,” Massey said. “Our search and rescue operation didn’t begin until 9:07 p.m., which was in response to the county-wide advisement of a possible plane down in the area.”

The search and rescue mission was enormous, and was conducted by several police agencies from the Warren and Montgomery County areas. The search began at 8:49 p.m. when the Miami Township police headquarters received a telephone call from the FAA Flight Service Station located at the Dayton International Airport. Apparently, Rescue Coordination Services advised the Miami Township department of the detection of an ELT beacon (Emergency Locator Transmission), which had originated from an area two miles west of Dayton General Airport. Strangely, the ELT signal was not received locally, as would be expected, but rather was detected by orbiting satellite.

Once the rescue operation was enacted, the search crews raced into an area west — and then later south — of the Wright Brothers/South Dayton General Airport. The reasoning behind the initial change in the search locations is that the ELT signal was evidently changing position, appearing first approximately 15 miles to the northwest of the Wright-Brothers Airport, and then was strangely tracked to a distance of over two miles west of the airport.

At 9:17 p.m., Springboro and Miamisburg units on foot began to detect the profuse smell of hot burning rubber. Strangely, a third location on State Route 741 is also where a second area resident complained of an explosive sound heard, also between 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. No physical evidence is known to have been recovered that would indicate there was an aircraft emergency resulting in a crash, as no known debris has been found.

The entire state of affairs regarding the mystery ELT signal, loud booming and crashing sounds heard by independent witnesses from two locations, the visual observation of an object with one red light, the uncertain chain of events at Post 83, the radar track announced to the police agencies by the Dayton International Airport, the smell of burning rubber, the subsequent denial of certain reporting procedures by the DIA which were later found to have occurred, the lack of log entries maintained by DIA operators, the subsequent inquiries as to how the calls were handled by C.A.P., and the involvement of Langley in announcing this to Flight Services are various issues that remain unresolved in this tangled, complicated drama.

[mazinwerayan-blog]

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Students Fainting From Hunger in Venezuela’s Failing School System https://nyti.ms/37NRFHQ

Students Fainting From Hunger in Venezuela’s Failing School System

Children ask teachers at the entrance of one struggling primary school if there is food before deciding whether to come in.

By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen Herrera | Published Nov. 30, 2019, 5:00 a.m. ET | New York Times |Posted November 30, 2019 |

BOCA DE UCHIRE, Venezuela — Hundreds of children filed into their school courtyard to hear a local Catholic bishop lead prayers for their education.

“We pray for the youths who are on the streets and can’t come to school,” said Bishop Jorge Quintero, addressing the Augusto D’Aubeterre Lyceum school in the beach town of Boca de Uchire on a steamy morning in October. “There are a lot of them.”

By the end of the 15-minute ceremony, five children had fainted and two of them were whisked away in an ambulance.

The faintings at the primary school have become a regular occurrence because so many students come to class without eating breakfast, or dinner the night before. In other schools, children want to know if there is any food before they decide whether to go at all.

“You can’t educate skeletal and hungry people,” said Maira Marín, a teacher and union leader in Boca de Uchire.

Venezuela’s devastating six-year economic crisis is hollowing out the school system — once the pride of the oil-rich nation and, for decades, an engine that made the country one of the most upwardly mobile in the region. These schools in the past provided children even in remote areas with a solid shot at the country’s best universities, which in turn opened doors to top American schools and a place among Venezuela’s elite.

Hunger is just one of the many problems chipping away at them now. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years, depleting the ranks of students and teachers alike. Many of the educators who remain have been driven from the profession, their wages made nearly worthless by years of relentless hyperinflation. In some places, barely 100 students show up at schools that once taught thousands.

The collapse of the education system in Venezuela is not only condemning an entire generation to poverty, but risks setting the country’s development back decades and severely stunting its growth potential, experts and teachers say.

“An entire generation is being left behind,” said Luis Bravo, an education researcher at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. “Today’s education system doesn’t allow children to become meaningful members of society.”

The government stopped publishing education statistics in 2014. But visits to more than a dozen schools in five Venezuelan states and interviews with dozens of teachers and parents indicate that attendance has plummeted this year.

Many schools are shuttering in the once-wealthy nation as malnourished children and teachers who earn almost nothing abandon classrooms to scratch out a living on the streets or flee abroad.

It is a major embarrassment for the self-proclaimed Socialist government, which has long preached social inclusion. The situation is in sharp contrast to countries that Venezuelan leaders have held up as role models — Cuba and Russia — both of which have managed to shelter the primary education system from the worst effects of a comparable downturn in the 1990s.

Students began skipping school in Venezuela shortly after President Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2013. A fall in the price of the country’s main export, crude oil, combined with Mr. Maduro’s ill-timed effort to double down on price and currency controls sent the economy into a recession from which it has not yet emerged.

Some Venezuelan children are staying home because many schools have stopped providing meals or because their parents can no longer afford uniforms, school utensils or bus fares. Others have joined parents in one of the world’s biggest displacement crises: About four million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015, according to the United Nations.

Thousands of the country’s 550,000 teachers did not show up to classes when schools reopened in September, according to the national teachers’ union, ditching their $8 a month wages to try their luck abroad or in Venezuela’s booming illegal gold mines.

In Venezuela’s most-populous state of Zulia, up to 60 percent of about 65,000 teachers have deserted in recent years, according to estimates by Alexander Castro, head of the local teacher’s union.

“They tell us that they prefer painting nails for a few dollars than work for a minimum wage,” Mr. Castro said.

To keep schools going, the remaining teachers often teach all of the subjects or combine different school years in one classroom. Nearly all of the one dozen schools visited have slashed working hours; some open for only a day or two a week.

In the village of Parmana in Venezuela’s central plains, only 4 out of 150 registered students attended school in October. The four students, of varying ages, sat in the same dilapidated classroom without electricity, practicing everything from the alphabet to algebra as the school’s sole remaining teacher tried to encourage them with a dejected smile.

The rest of the village’s children have joined their parents in the fields and fishing boats to help feed their families.

In the country’s second biggest city of Maracaibo, a sign outside a dilapidated school without electricity recently read: “Please come to classes, even without uniforms.” The children ask teachers at the entrance if there is food before deciding whether to come in.

Maracaibo’s biggest school no longer has any functioning bathrooms. It was designed for 3,000 students; only 100 now show up.

Half of the teachers didn’t return to work after the summer holidays to a school in the town of Santa Barbara outside the capital of Caracas, forcing the principal to enlist parent volunteers to keep the classes going.

On the other side of the capital, in the town of Rio Chico, most of the rooms in a local school are boarded up for lack of students and teachers. When the remaining pupils arrive, they first ask the whereabouts of the school’s cook, the teachers said.

Mr. Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez, made the expansion of public education one of the pillars of his popular “21st Century Socialism” campaign.

For a decade until 2013, the country made steady improvements in school enrollment thanks to generous school meals and handouts of food, utensils and cash to parents and children. Mr. Chavez built hundreds of new schools.

Mr. Chavez’s populist policies, however, had focused more on the quantity of students in school rather than the quality of the education. Then, as the country’s coffers ran dry, his government’s educational progress unraveled.

As attendance collapsed, Mr. Maduro continued to claim his government was focused on education spending despite the “brutal economic war” waged by his enemies.

“In Venezuela, not one school has closed or will ever close, not one classroom,” the president said in a televised address in April. “We will never deny access to education.”

To boost the ranks of teachers, Mr. Maduro in August promised to send thousands of the ruling party’s youth members to the classrooms. Education experts say few of these untrained activists will add any pedagogical value or even make it to schools.

At the same time, Venezuela’s pool of real teachers is drying up. The number of graduates at Venezuela’s main teacher training center, the Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University, fell 70 percent from 2014 to 2018.

Venezuelan teachers have been among the worst affected by the country’s economic collapse, as gross domestic product shrank by two thirds since 2013 and minimum wages fell to $8 a month.

Mr. Maduro’s de facto dollarization of the economy this year allowed many public employees in Venezuela to supplement their official salaries in nearly worthless local currency, by charging in dollars for their services.

His backdoor liberalization of Venezuela’s controlled economy, however, brought little benefit to public schoolteachers in poor communities, whose pupils’s families have little access to foreign currency.

In Boca de Uchire, the Caruto family has stopped sending its nine children to a nearby school when the cafeteria doesn’t open.

“I can’t send them to class hungry,” said José Luis Caruto, a 36-year-old unemployed father of two.

His sister, Yuxi Caruto, 17, was the last in the family to drop out from school, discouraged by the unaffordable bus fare. She tried taking up studies again at a local community center, but its teachers stopped showing up after two weeks of classes.

She now spends her time taking care of her 1-year-old son.

“I want to learn to do the math and read and write rapidly. I’m scared that when my son grows and starts asking questions, I won’t know how to respond. But right now, we don’t even have enough to eat.”

______

Sheyla Urdaneta contributed reporting from Maracaibo, Venezuela.

[goatsandgangsters]

What to Do When Your Car Conks Out (50s AU; Chapter 4)

(ao3)

The sun had long since set, the sky overhead dark as an oil spill. The early October air nipped at their skin, but it wasn’t cold yet. It might have been a peaceful, quiet evening, if they hadn’t been determined to shatter silence where they found it. Engines rumbled around them, thrumming and humming and left to idle. Headlight bulbs illuminated the grassy field, throwing their shadows into long, distorted shapes. Underneath the laughs and jeers and shouts, Wynonie Harris crooned from a car radio.

Vito brought the beer. Al brought the energy. And everyone who was anyone showed up to soak it all in and chug it all down.

Across the hood of a car, two boys arm-wrestled, a crowd around them cheering with jibes and bets and winner-gets-another-bottle. The loser’s hand thunked down against the metal, the on-lookers jeered, and the loser surrendered his place to another contestant. A group of girls crowded around a different car, talking and laughing amongst themselves with a haughty unapproachability as they traded cigarettes and secrets. And then there were the cars no one looked at, parked at a distance, the headlights off and pairs of occupants busy.

“Is this what you do every weekend?” Meyer asked. His legs dangled off the hood of Charlie’s car, soles of his shoes hitting the bumper. He watched the spectacle with a look of skepticism, the frown at the corner of his lips magnified by the headlights and shadows playing off his face. 

Charlie smiled as best he could, with his lips around the neck of a bottle. He cocked his head back for a swig, the taste of beer warm and heavy on his tongue. “Not every weekend.”

He’d been palling around with those guys and Billie since high school started. Sometimes they met at the beach, or he spent Friday night crammed into a lacquered booth with his friends until the diner closed. They spent nights with necks craned up at movie screens, or throwing rocks at bottles by the pond, or racing down back streets until their tires squealed. They even snuck into the city from time to time, if they thought they could get away with it (even though Charlie always came home to trouble).

But Meyer was apart from those memories, just as they were apart from the center of the action. Those sharp eyes of his were alert, tracing each movement through the crowd. “So you just… what, exactly?”

Charlie scratched behind his ear, frowning. “We gotta be doin’ somethin’, exactly?” Far as Charlie was concerned, they spent too much time doing what other people said they had to do. It was a nice change, sitting around, drinking, smoking, girls giggling and engines revving and their raucous laughter echoing up into the night sky. They could set it all to music, make symphonies from the chaos.

Beyond the walls built of light and tire and laughter, the field stretched on into darkness, until it turned into roads and streets and homes, into parents with their quiet evenings and quiet living rooms. The lights from the nearest houses were pinpricks in the distance. Charlie preferred the noise.

“I’m just trying to figure it all out,” Meyer said.

Charlie threw him a fond grin. “You’re always figurin’ somethin’, Little Man.”

Back in the ring of arm-wrestlers, Vito took his turn, hamming it up as he squatted opposite the current victor. He kept shooting hopeful glances over at a girl with dark hair in a severe bun, who huffed her cigarette without an ounce of interest, not that Vito seemed to realize.

“I bet you every nickel in my pocket Genovese goes down in ten seconds!” Charlie shouted across the crowd. Despite the noise, his voice carried and people listened. Vito took the challenge, the way Vito took every challenge—with great gusto, great stupidity, and prolific swearing.

“He hates it when anybody’s doubtin’ him,” Charlie explained as Vito propped his denim-clad elbow and grabbed the other guy’s hand.

“Can’t imagine that,” Meyer replied in that wry tone that always made Charlie smile a little wider.

But, to his surprise, it wasn’t Vito’s hand that slammed down on the hood. Almost immediately after grabbing his opponent in his wide, meaty grasp, Vito forced the other down against the car with a thud that must have hurt.

Still, Charlie didn’t care as Vito—hollering with victory—bounded over, sticking out a thick, sweaty palm to claim his winnings.

Charlie cocked a grin over his shoulder at Meyer. He shifted to fish through his pockets, dropping everything he had onto the hood of his car—his keys, a half-empty and battered carton of cigarettes, a square lighter, and a pack of Sen-Sen.

Vito stared at it, vacant. “The fuck’s this, Luciano?”

Charlie snorted. “What, you think I got any change on me?” He ducked as Vito jabbed at his shoulder, Charlie shoving him back, laughing. “Hey, that’s on you, you oughta check these things before makin’ a bet!”

“You fuckin’ wise-ass, you owe me? You got that? You fuckin’ owe me that shit,” Vito said, grabbing fistfuls of Charlie’s shirt.

Charlie opened his mouth to tell Vito to cool it, but Meyer cut in with a firm, “Why?” They both turned in surprise. Meyer’s cool eyes lock on Vito, before he said as matter-of-fact as if answering a question in class, “He lived up to your agreement. You’ve got every nickel he had on his person.”

“Fuckin’ wise-ass punk,” Vito scoffed. 

“Hey! Ain’t my fault you got rocks for brains, Genovese!” Charlie called, but Vito stomped off without turning back. Charlie spat into the grass, leaned back against the hood, and forced himself to chuckle, to lighten the mood a little. “Boy, he was mad, huh?”

Meyer, however, didn’t seem impressed. “And this is what you do for fun.”

“You see the look on his fuckin’ face, though?” Charlie grinned. Even with his neat sweater and pressed slacks, Meyer wasn’t as square as he acted; Charlie’d seen it. He knew Meyer better, just not all the particulars yet. Silently, he held out the half-empty beer bottle in offering.

Meyer raised an eyebrow. “No, thank you. I’ll pass.”

Charlie downed another sip. “Don’t want you havin’ a bum time, is all. Seein’ as I dragged you here.”

“Seems only fair,” Meyer said. When Charlie cocked his head, Meyer continued, with some reluctance. “Considering you’re not having much fun either. Sitting here with me. Instead of with your friends.”

“Who says bein’ with you ain’t fun?”

In the glow of headlights, Meyer seemed to smile. Seizing the opportunity, Charlie slid across the hood, nudging Meyer with his shoulder. “So, now you gotta tell me—what’s it you do for fun? Besides workin’ and buyin’ groceries and bein’ smarter than everyone in the entire world.”

Meyer smirked. “That about sums it up. The last one is particularly time-consuming.”

“Figured,” Charlie chuckled, dragging his fingers through his hair. Their shoulders bumped again. “But I mean it, you gotta have fun in there, right?”

Meyer shrugged. His hands twisted in his lap. “I work a lot. And when I’m not, I help my mom take care of my sisters and my brother. I guess that’s not ‘fun’—not that I mind, only that it’s not… you know, driving with your feet around an empty field or whatever it is you do.”

“Eh, you done it once, you done it a thousand times.”

“I think I’ll pass on trying at all.” Their eyes met and shared a silent laugh.

Slow, chewing over his words as he chose them, he said, “Well, I guess we gotta—I mean, I’d wanna—” Christ, the words were all stuck in his throat. Meyer looked up at him, questions in the angles of his little face as Charlie stammered. He cleared his throat, ripping at the label on his beer until it pried away from the green glass and curled in on itself. “You oughta have some fun, is all. Ain’t right, doin’ nothin’ but workin’ all the time. So I figure, me’n you, sometime we could—”

“HEY! You gettin’ in on the action?”

His head shot up. Through the crowd, Al’s broad shoulders cut a path towards them, his brother a step behind with his hands in his pockets and an easy, sauntering gait. Vito trailed along with a deep scowl. Around them, the crowd started to take notice, drawn by the boom of Al’s voice.

“Maybe I ain’t in the mood tonight,” Charlie called back with a grin pulled taut.

“Not in the mood? What, you sound like the broad I was with last weekend!” Al snickered with a flourish of his hand, part conversing, part ringmaster.

Charlie took another swig from the bottle. “Yeah, well, lookin’ at you, I can’t say I blame her. Don’t know how you get anybody in the mood, face like that.”

There were a few laughs from the onlookers; Al laughed too, but there was an implicit threat to it. They teased and they taunted one another all the time, but it was different that night. Al kept shooting glances at Meyer, expecting an explanation, expecting Charlie to close ranks where he belonged, not keep sitting away from the goings-on with some stranger whose hair had never even held pomade.

“Speakin’ of,” Frank said, voice smooth as the gentle flip of his hair, “What happened to that girl you couldn’t stop talkin’ about? She’s all by her lonesome tonight.” His eyes flicked over to Meyer. “Unless you’re otherwise occupied.”

Charlie scoffed. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, before pulling a smirk and saying, “Maybe I already got what I came for. No need stickin’ around after, huh?” It wasn’t true, nothing happened with her, but he hid it behind an easy grin and a reputation. Meyer’s presence beside him seared hot in his senses, but Charlie stared forward, determined not to look over.

“So? There’s plenty other girls. C’mon, Luciano, no sittin’ out all night,” Al said, waving Charlie to them with a wide arc of his shoulder. But he didn’t budge. “What, you a wet blanket all of a sudden?”

“Nah, I just need a break from smellin’ Vito’s aftershave.” He grinned nice and easy; his hand clenched tighter around the neck of the bottle.

There was a round of laughter from everyone but Vito, who scoffed and cracked his knuckles.

“Oh, is that what I’m smelling? I thought you hit a raccoon on your way here.” Charlie’s eyes—and everyone else’s—snapped onto Meyer. He shrugged, reached over and took the bottle from Charlie’s grip, and raised it to his lips in a definitive gulp.

The smirk spread sharp across his face. “Well, he gotta wear somethin’ strong to cover the stench of his personality.”

Meyer snorted. “It’s not working.”

He was a natural. Something like pride filled the space between Charlie’s lungs.

Vito glowered, his face growing more and more like an overripe tomato by the moment. “Who the fuck is this kid? Your math tutor?”

Al laughed louder than the joked warranted. “You finally learnin’ what 2+2 is?”

“Yeah, I think it adds up to ‘fuck you,’” Charlie shot back.

“Actually, it’s four.” And before anyone could note Meyer’s comeback was even worse than Charlie’s, he added, “Coincidentally, the same number as Al’s IQ. On a good day.”

More and more people drifted away from their own conversations to watch, a ripple of excitement and laughter passing among the onlookers. They loved a good show. And someone challenging Al or Vito without any repercussions was novel entertainment. Anyone else would have been grabbed by the shirtfront and chased off by now, tail between legs and lip bleeding, while Al and Vito laughed over their regained pride. But Meyer just cut into them, remark after remark, unruffled.

“You got some kinda problem?” Vito snarled, advancing towards Charlie’s car.

Billie stepped into his path, one hand up. With an easy, teasing grin, she said, “Look, the kid just doesn’t know what a dick you are, that’s all. He’ll get used to it; all the rest of us did.”

“The fuck’s with all of you tonight, huh?” Vito snapped. Billie had a gift for good-natured mockery that usually silenced even Vito when he was getting out of line, but he was riled up that night. “You havin’ fun ridin’ my ass like this?”

Meyer and Charlie exchanged a glance. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even open his mouth, but Charlie knew—he knew—exactly what Meyer was asking by the curve of his mouth and look in his eyes: should we drop it?

But this felt too good to give up, joking with Meyer like that, the way their words bounced off each other, back and forth, pinballs and paddles. Charlie answered the question on his face with a large smirk, never breaking eye contact with Meyer. “Vito, nobody wants nothin’ to do with your ass.”

“Or do you mean his face? I’m having difficulty telling the two apart.” Meyer’s eyes stayed locked on Charlie’s. Though the crowd laughed and hollered, they might as well have been all alone, sharing a private joke between the two of them. He almost couldn’t hear anyone else, couldn’t see anything besides the way Meyer smiled, the dip of his eyes over Charlie’s face, the fingers that fidgeted on the neck of Charlie’s beer bottle.

He didn’t see Vito shove past Billie and didn’t see his knuckles until they pounded into the soft spot below his collar.

“You gonna shut him up?” Vito said, glaring down at Charlie. “Or do I gotta do it, Mussolini-style?”

“Excuse me?” The bright laughter vanished from Meyer’s face. His face turned to stone as he sat up straighter.

“I’m not gonna let some smart-ass fuckin’ nobody crack wise—”

“Hey!” Charlie’s body moved on instinct. Before he knew it, he’d sprung from the car and closed the gap between them. Vito stood inches away as Charlie glared down at him. Distantly, he heard the crowd “oooh” in anticipation, but it barely registered. The blood rushed in his ears.

“I don’t like you talkin’ that way to my friend,” he growled.

“He started it!” Vito’s ugly face contorted into a scowl. He spat. “Fuckin’ kike, you heard him.”

His fist slammed into Vito’s jaw. The crowd gasped. Vito staggered back. Charlie’s chest heaved with each breath, hand coiled tight, every muscle tense and alive.

Vito cupped his face and glared. “The fuck?”

“Apologize to my friend,” Charlie said, low, teeth grit.

“I’m not apologizin’ for shit—”

He raised his voice. “Apologize to my friend.”

“No.” It was Meyer this time. The whirring in Charlie’s head quieted, the crowd seeming to freeze. He turned to Meyer, who jumped from the hood and stood firm beside him, eyes shuttered and hard. “I don’t want his apology,” he said, each word sharper, more precise, than any of Charlie’s knuckles.

He glared at Vito, ice in his gaze, for one long moment. Then, abrupt, he turned and walked away to the passenger door. “It would be best if you took me home now.”

Charlie hurried after him, fumbling as he dug the keys out of his pocket.

They didn’t speak as they climbed into Charlie’s car. Meyer stared straight ahead as Charlie backed out, turned the car around, and drove across the empty field towards the road. He kept shooting glances, licking his lips, heart thudding with words he thought he should say. Meyer’s face remained blank, unreadable.

They didn’t speak at the red light, or the next one, or at any of the stop signs. Charlie’s pulse quickened with the passing silence, until he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Fuck them, right?” he said, with more confidence than he felt. His knuckles strained tight around the steering wheel.

Meyer stared straight ahead. He maybe blinked, but Charlie couldn’t even be sure of that.

“That was outta line, what Vito said. I mean, he’s a real jerk-off. Jerk-off-and-a-half. You know what, he’s like twelve jerk-offs, all in one. Twelve whole jerk-offs, in one fuckin’ body, you know what I’m sayin’?”

If Meyer knew what he was saying, he sure didn’t give any indication of it. Or that he was hearing Charlie at all.

He swallowed. “You sore at me?” he asked, and hated the way it sounded—scared.

Meyer sighed, hard and heavy. A reaction, at least. “I would appreciate if you didn’t fight my battles for me,” he said at last through tight lips. “It may surprise you to know, but I can take care of myself.”

Charlie’s brow furrowed. “Hey, nobody’s sayin’ you can’t. Sure as fuck not me. I mean—I seen you at work, remember?” He laughed a little in spite of himself, nervous. “You’re like a tiny Tony DeMarco.”

Meyer’s face did not move much, but he thought he saw a small crack at the corner of his lips, the faintest hint of what might have been a smile. Charlie took the opening while he had it.

“Look, I only did that ‘cause… Well, if you and Vito went at it, Al would’a stepped in, and then his brother’d get in there. Figure I could put a stop to it, before it all got outta hand,” he explained. “They’re assholes, okay? And they don’t hold back. Or fight fair.”

“It’s fine if they don’t, I can take it,” Meyer said, a little too fast.

Charlie smirked. This kid sure was something else. Smarter than anybody he knew, but with more guts than all of them combined. And he never tried to be anything he wasn’t—just himself. “Alright. Next time, you can clock him in the face.”

Meyer glanced at him, shadows of street lamps spilling light across his face. “Next time?”

His throat tightened, a self-consciousness simmering in his stomach as Meyer looked at him like that. “Unless you’re so mad you don’t wanna see me ever again?” Charlie tried to sound like he was only kidding. The car came to a stop at a light.

At last, Meyer smiled. Charlie let out a sigh, relief in his lungs, heart beating once more. “There we go,” he smirked. “Forget those assholes. How’s about I make it up to you?”

Meyer hummed in thought, leaning his head back against Charlie’s seat. “I’m a little concerned about how you plan to do that.”

Charlie waved a hand at him. “Nothin’ to worry about, all on the level. We could go for a ride someplace, if you wanna drive? Or hell, I’ll even taken you to the drive-in. You wanna see that new Cagney picture?”

“Just the two of us?” Meyer asked and Charlie nodded. “Alright, a drive. Next weekend?”

“You got yourself a plan,” Charlie beamed.

“You do have other friends, you know. You don’t have to pal around with me.”

Charlie snorted. “Yeah, we’ll see about that Monday morning.” He was already dreading it. Sure, it was only Vito, but he still sided against them in front of everybody. “Besides,” he tacked on to ignore that thought. “You’re better’n them all anyway.” He threw Meyer a grin as the light changed.

“Why’s that?”

He sure was full of questions, that little Meyer. “Because—See, thinkin’ about it—Well, I think you’re pretty cool, alright?” Charlie blurted.

Meyer laughed out loud, quick, sharp, and surprised. He whipped around to stare at Charlie, the disbelief evident on his face, before he regained his composure and his smirk, the corners of his lips twitching up into a teasing smile. “I thought you said I was square,” he reminded.

It was good to see him grinning. Like everything was back to normal, the two of them laughing like they’d been all night, trading jokes and jibes. Maybe it didn’t look normal to everybody else, but it felt natural to Charlie—an instinct he knew. He returned the smile.

“Yeah, well, you are a square. But you’re cool, too. Does it gotta be one or the other?” Charlie rambled, drumming his fingers against the wheel. “Don’t look at me like that. You can be both, alright?”

Meyer shrugged with a chuckle and settled back against his seat. “Alright. You’re the expert.”

“Thank you.” Charlie paused. “Wait a second. You callin’ me square?”

[thorsstorms]

Savior Pt. 4

Thor x Reader

Word count: 3.4K

Summary: After saving you from an attack on NYE, Thor can't forget about you. He wants to be near you, to get to know you, to be in your everyday life.

Warnings: kissing. slight angst.

Masterlist

Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

We were ready to go past security at the airport and it was already 7:45. Thor still wasn’t here yet. I kept telling them to wait, that he would show up. The the matter of fact was, I didn’t know if he would show up. After all I don’t know him that well, but I thought well enough to know he was loyal. He wouldn’t say he would come while not planning on it, right? I looked around in circles watching all entrances. Waiting to catch a glimpse of his tall form over all the others here.

“(Y/n)..” Lauren looked at me with sad eyes.

“No, he said he would come.” I snapped back at her, already feeling anxious. We started to drift towards the long security line, maybe he would show up while I was still in line. 

Nothing. I tried to not let my emotions show. I kind of feel stupid after waiting for him. I felt stupid for thinking that I could have been something more to him. My emotions consumed my thoughts and I didn’t even realize we were sat at the terminal. It was now 8:10 and they are starting the boarding process. We were in zone 4, so we probably had ten more minutes before boarding. I watched out the windows. The morning was rainy. I could see the dark clouds looming over the airport, threatening to pour any second. As soon as I stepped into the on boarding tunnel, I could hear the rain padding against the metal. We stepped on the plane, and started down the tight rows to our seats farther towards the back of the plane. Of course we’re sat so far back where it’s the loudest. I sat down in the window seat with Lauren next to me, then Anthony in the aisle seat. My mother was sat a few rows ahead of us. I stared out the window at the pouring rain and watched as the clouds lit up with silent lightning. We were sat on the tarmac for about 20 minutes before a loud boom of thunder erupted from the sky. The pilot immediately came over the intercom saying that they will have to wait till the storm passes because of being struck by lightning during take off could be dangerous.

I sighed and pulled out my phone to plug in my headphones and watch a movie that I previously downloaded. I briefly took my phone off the airplane mode option because we weren’t taking off yet. A few text messages started to come through now that I was connected the LTE again. I didn’t recognize the number, but I proceeded to unlock my phone and open them. My eyes scanned over the words and my heart skipped a beat. I grabbed Lauren’s arm quickly and tightly with my phone free hand, but my gaze stayed locked on my phone screen trying to read the messages. Her attention was now directed towards me and my grip on her forearm.

“Ow, what?” She yelped, frustrated from her conversation with Anthony.

“Lauren it’s him. The storm! It’s Thor,” I told her finally meeting her eyes. She looked at me confused before I showed her my phone screen. The texts were Thor saying that government officials showed up at the Stark tower and put it on lock down till they finished an official debriefing of the events on NYE, and came up with a game plan. In the text it explained that it continued into the morning because Tony was very Stubborn and won't cooperate. This was his way of getting my attention. Before I knew it my blind happiness was clicking the ‘Call’ icon. It rang once before it answered with an urgent hello.

“(Y/N) have you left yet? I’m sorry,” I could hear his apology was real.

“You are making it a bit hard to do so,” I said giggling, completely forgetting that I was just feeling betrayed by his absence this morning. I looked out the window as a loud clap of thunder shook the skies. I smiled into the phone, once again feeling speechless because of him. “You are so extra Thor.”

“I must make it up to you. I will come to you when you get settled at your home. Okay?” Thor said reassuring me that he will go the extra mile to see me. I repeated ‘okay’ quietly. Looking down at my hand in my lap, picking at my nails. I could feel Lauren’s eyes boring into the side of my head. I lifted my head and glanced to her giving her a look to wait a minute before she starts asking questions.

We were silent a for a minute, before I reminded him that I cant leave if he keeps up with this storm.

“Oh, you are right.” I watched out the window and the rain slowed to a stop, no longer seeing the clouds light up. I heard the pilot come over the intercom a few moments later telling all passengers and flight attendants to prepare for take off.

“I have to go now Thor.” I spoke into the phone. He started to say something back, but the engines turned on and picked up speed. They grew very loud and I just said into the phone, “I’ll text you when we land, goodbye.” And hung up.

I looked again to my friend next to me and gave her a shy smile. She just rolled her eyes at me snuggled into Anthony’s arm when the plane started to slowly move toward the runway. I settled into my own seat, leaning my head against the window. I plugged in my headphones again and turned on some music to try and drown out the sound of the rumbling engines.

I woke up by Lauren ripping out my earphones and I heard the Captain say we are to be landing soon. I straightened up in my seat and lifted it back into an upright position and tied up my earphones in my bag that was now shoved under the seat in front of me. I double checked my seatbelt, and looked out the window. You could see everything. Not a cloud insight. I could see clearly everything below us. I felt relief flood over me at the sight of my home state. Vowing to myself and then vocally to Lauren next to me that it’s going to be awhile before I go on  another trip. And if I do, it’ll be at a beach.  

We landed smoothly, or as smooth as it can be, and proceeded through the lines to exit. We followed the crowd towards baggage claim. My brother was the one to pick us up and gave me a crushing hug when he saw us. He’s younger than me, but 6’4 and solid muscle. He may only be 18 but he definitely didn’t look it. He and Anthony loaded our bags in the bed, and then we all hopped in the truck. I was definitely not without struggle.

After a quick 10 minute drive we arrived out our house and Lauren and Anthony immediately took off to go home. My brother was kind enough to grab our bags from the truck while my mother helped me inside the house. As soon as I was sitting, I grabbed my phone and quickly sent a message to the number Thor had text me from saying I was home. I looked around my house from my seat on the couch and was so glad to be home. The feeling of arriving to your house after a long vacation, or in this case a short but insane vacation, is indescribable.

My mother went to her room to do her own thing, and make some calls about our safe arrival. I looked down at my phone waiting for a text to come through from his end but nothing was happening. I turned on Grey's Anatomy on Netflix to pass time. Throughout the rest of the evening we had visitors pop in and out of the house, some family and some family friends, all coming to see that I was alive and well. It was nice to see everyone, but my mind never cleared of my phone in my pocket. I was hyper aware of every ding that came from it, immediately grabbing at it and ferociously looking to see what it was. Many were texts and tweets to me saying they were glad I was back safe. I began to grow impatient with his lack of response.

Around 8 PM I decided to send another. It said that I was getting tired from our day of travel and was going to bed soon, I hope to hear from him. I sent it and hobbled to my room with my crutches. My dog was following behind me.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I was already feeling extremely tired. My emotions for the day were a whirlwind. I was anxious and upset, then ecstatic and relieved, and now confused. I tried to clear my mind of Thor. I tried to dream up a million excuses as to why he hadn’t text back yet, but none seemed to fit.

-

It had been three weeks. Three weeks since I returned from New York. Today I was getting my full cast removed, and it was going to be replace with a boot and a knee brace for extra support, as well as starting physical therapy.

I waited for Thor to text back for three weeks. I finally got a bit worried and decided to call the phone at the Stark tower. A man picked up after the phone system let me through to Thor’s Quarters, but it wasn’t him.

“Who is this?” I asked curiously. My heart was beating fast and my head didn’t know what to think.

“Uh, Sam. Who is this?” The voice retaliated.

“My name is (y/n). Um.. is Thor there?” I was confused as to why he answered the phone.

“Oh no, I heard this phone ring from across the hall, but he went back to Asgard a while ago.” I don't know what came over me, but my immediate reaction was to hang up the phone. My eyes opened wide realizing I just hung up on the person that could answer my questions, but I was scared to come to terms. I stared at the phone in my hand as if it were a foreign object. I dropped it on to my bed, not wanting to even be near it. My head was spinning so fast, I felt nauseous. Of course he went back to Asgard. Why would he take the time to stay here when it’s not his home? I sat down at my desk and just looked at my phone laying there. I felt tears spring up to my eyes but I’ll be damned if I left them fall over a guy. I know better than to get attached to a guy I had just briefly met. I let myself wallow in my defeat, feeling stupid, for about an hour.

My mind went through a couple stages. Denial, there’s no way he would just forget about me so fast. Anger, he lied to me. Depression, was I not good enough to have him stick around? Of course not. He was a god. And then Acceptance, I cannot change what has happened or what decisions were made, only learn to move on from it. Regardless, the heartache I felt was horrible.

I stood up from my desk chair and wiped under my eyes where stubborn tears had fallen against my will. I vowed to myself to not let this ruin my myself. I don’t need someone to depend on or spend every minute with. I have been doing things on my own for a very long time now, my head just drifted to far down the line with him in mind.

The next week I started my spring semester in college. I engulfed myself in my school work, and my full time job as a nanny. Between the kids and school work, there wasn’t much time for thinking about men. He managed to stay off my mind for a while. My mother warned everyone that came in contact with me not to bring up New York. Of course there were random news broadcasts about the Avengers and their most recent missions, but none ever mentioned Thor’s name. He really must have left.

I was a couple weeks into the semester and sitting in my Nutrition course writing notes from a lecture. My professor liked to keep the door open, but I get so distracted easily it made it a bit harder for me with people walking by.

A loud group of friends were walking by and caught my attention. They were talking loudly with no regard for classes in the hallway that were in session. I turned my head to look out the door at them.

“Did you see ‘em,” one girl asked.

“No, I’m going down there now to see if he’s still there. I want a picture with him!” Another girl said. They started to walk further away but I could still catch their loud voices.

“What the hell is an Avenger doing in OKC anyway?” My blood ran cold and my pen dropped from my fingers. I felt the blood drain from my face.

‘There’s no way,’ I thought to myself. After thinking about it for a minute I turned back towards the front of the classroom with a urgent look on my face. If he’s really here, he must be getting attacked by college students. He would stand out like a sore thumb. I made eye contact with my professor who was now looking at me, eyeing me. He gave me an ‘are you okay?’ look and I just panicked again. As quietly and as quickly as I could, I gathered my things and stood up from my table. I sent him an apologetic look but he just waved me off as I walked out the door. While speed walking down the hall and down the stairs I pulled out my car keys from my backpack and secured my phone in my pocket. I came into the main building and examined my surroundings. There was a gathering group of people by the coffee shop, not to far from the main entrance doors. I pinpointed the Asgardian stretching tall among the others. Luckily, he wasn’t drawing to much attention because he was in regular clothing. He was stood there looking in circles around the group of students just smiling politely and saying hello over and over, probably enjoying the attention.

I was stood frozen at the bottom of the stairway watching what was happening. I was in a strong trance watching this until a group of guys coming down from the stairs bumped into me, sending my keys flying. They gave me a short and quick, ‘sorry about that,’ but otherwise ignored me because they were to focused on the out-of-place Avenger.

I quickly grabbed my keys from the ground and stalked toward the growing crowd. I had to shove a few people out of the way, but otherwise it was pretty easy to get to him. His back was now facing me, probably overwhelmed with so many people.

With no time to contemplate my actions, I quickly grabbed his hand and yanked it in my direction. I felt his rough callused hands resist against my small hands. He snapped his head in my direction. I didn’t even turn to look at his reaction. Instead I pulled him out from the crowd by his arm, and immediately headed for the doors leading to the parking lot. My legs were moving fast, speed walking to the exit. I could hear his slower footsteps following suit behind me.

“(Y/n)! I have come to see you as soon as time allowed it.” I heard his words behind me. I ignored him and continued to pull him towards the parking lot. I felt his hand give mine a tight squeeze as I opened the doors to the outside. His hand on mine felt amazing. I couldn’t deny the heat that flowed through my body when I touched him. Without slowing my steps I turned my body sideways to look at him. Anger consumed my thoughts.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Coming here like that?” I thought it was incredibly stupid of him. He could have waited till I got home. I didn’t wait for his reaction. I let go of his hand that had returned the tight grip. We made it to the truck. I hopped in the drivers side and started it while he opened the passenger door and just stood there looking at me. Frustrated I turned my head towards him and sternly told him to get in. After he closed the door, I looked towards him. Thankfully I was driving this my brothers truck today, I don’t think he would fit in my own car with out his head touching the roof and knees in the dash.

“Where have you been.” I spoke shortly. My face showed anger, but my heart felt urgency. My heart was begging for an answer that made sense. My arm rested on the center counsel and his hand came to rest on mine. I picked up my arm to pull it away, but he pulled it back to him to interlace his fingers with mine. I succumbed to his actions, loving the feeling anyway.

He looked at me with despair. He knew what he put me through I could see it in the look on his face. His thumb rubbed circles on the back of my hand while he gathered his words.

“Asgard needed me.” He looked at me gauging my reaction, and when I didn’t give him one he continued. “The beings that attacked New York. During the battle I injured their leader. And they sought revenge on me by threatening my people.” I could see he was telling the truth. His shoulders tense and a pained look on his face at the thought of Asgard attacked under his rule. “It took awhile to take care of.” He looked up at me, meeting my eyes. I immediately felt bad for being selfish. He saw my face change to sympathy but he quickly denied my feelings.

“But that is no excuse for my lack of response. I should have sent you a message at least. It was unfair of me.” He finished again looking shamefully down towards the floor boards.

“Thor..” I started, but didn’t know what to say. “Your people needed you. I understand that,” Accepting his reasoning. His eyes raised to mine. His beautiful irises captivating my consciousness.

“Can I kiss you now?” He said with a hopeful tone.

“I’d like that,” I replied leaning in to meet his lips. His lips molded with mine for the first time in a long time. A shock wave ran through my body at his passionate touch. His hand came up to my jaw, elbow resting on the center counsel that was dividing us. He deepened the kiss, his tongue fighting against my own. I could feel his remorse. A stray tear escaped my eye and I didn't even know I was crying till I tasted the salty drop. Thor pulled away, but kept me close.

“Why the tears my love?” He said gently wiping his thumb across my cheek. No more tears followed, but my chest felt lightweight at his presence. I turned to rest my head on his shoulder while him arms snakes across my back in a side hug.

“I just missed you.” I spoke simply. I enjoying the feeling of him and his embrace. We both looked up from each other out the windshield. There were two students standing there staring at us, one with their phone out. When they saw we were looking, Thor gave them an annoyed face and they scurried off. I giggled to myself at how innately protective he was. I sat up straight and put the truck in reverse.

“Where to now my love.” He ask curiously. He watched my movements with caution as I operate the vehicle, not understanding quite how it works yet.

“We, are going home.” I replied heading out of the overcrowded parking lot.

[gamingherorisingkingdom-blog]

Top 10 Technique For Mobile Gamings

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 7. Three-way Town - A strategy challenge mobile video game with city-building components, developed by Spry Fox and also released in 2012 for mobile phones. The combination of technique as well as puzzle develops a difficult and also fascinating gameplay, extremely recommended for those of you who are trying to find ingenious technique games.

 8. Samurai Vs. Zombies Defense - Safeguard your town from the zombie strike! Samurai Vs. Zombies Defense was launched in 2013 by Glu, and also is everything about approach - hire allies and also build defenses to protect your individuals versus the zombie mass.

 9. Iron Desert - In Iron Desert you are the commander, leading your forces to eliminate versus pitiless adversaries in the black desert. This game was released in 2014 by My.Com BV, as well as is without a doubt an addicting battle video game.

 A Tap4Fun game, released in 2014, which takes area in the old city of Sparta. The video game incorporates both technique as well as role play simulation and also has remarkable graphics.

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[spideyxchelle]

love is universal. it spans time and distance. and sometimes, on the rare occasion that love doesn’t quite get it right the first, love spans for more than one lifetime. this is that story.

in this life they are called Adla and Phoenix. in their last they are called Peter and MJ.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5]

Adla hated the war. It swept her elder brother, Jonanthan, into the navy and radically changed her life overnight. Everyone knew about the European War-- her father quietly called it the War to End All Wars-- but, living in California, it had felt a world away. She had never expected it to come to her doorstep. Until, the Germans broke treaty and President Woodrow Wilson declared war. 

It was 1918 and Adla hated the world. She hated that men were dying in the thousands and families were being ripped apart and new, lethal gases strangled men in their sleep. She hated that in a world where peace was always an option the allied and central powers chose war. She hated, hated, the war. 

Every man she knew under the age of twenty-five had been shipped out to fall on their swords for freedom and country. And with every passing day, more and more mothers got a flimsy little folded up flag for their son’s bravery abroad instead of a safe welcome home. Adla hated the war and prayed that Jonathan came home as flesh and blood and not as a symbolic flag. 

After he was shipped out, Adla puttered around in San Francisco with the rest of her family, looking for anything to do to help the war effort and to bring their boy’s home safe. And then, six months after Johnny had up and gone to fight some European’s war, she saw a posting for the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. A factory that war hiring out women to make munitions and build ships, what with the boys away at war. 

So she packed up her few meager belongings, contacted a boarding house for girls from Adla’s neighborhood and hopped a train north to join the war effort. 

It was hard, long and tiresome work but Adla didn’t mind. It felt nice to be needed and to get her hands covered in grease. Steeped in the sweat and the roar of machines, Adla could almost forget that men were dying across an ocean. 

The other ladies in her unit, affectionately called the grit girls (as there were only 10 or 15 colored women working at MINSY), pulled up their breeches each and every day and built as fast as they could pump out engines and motors. 

Dina, one of the boarders and grit girls, was the one that after four months of hard labor decided they all needed a night out, a break from the rest of the Rosies breaking their backs day in and day out. 

“Don’t ya miss dancing, Miss Adla?” Dina dipped under Adla’s arm as she dipped hot metal into the water tub, cooling it down. It gave a high-pitched hiss. 

Adla rolled her eyes, “I have to get into work early tomorrow, Dina. Put don’t let me stop you from having a good time.” 

Stella clicked her tongue and smirked at Dina, “What did I tell you, Dina. Adla isn’t one much for fun.” 

Dina pouted prettily at Adla, appealing to her soft heart, “Come on, Miss Adla. I promise you’ll have a swell time. Besides, some naval officers are gonna be coming around. They’re docked here for the rest of the week until the repairs on their ship are all finished.” 

Adla felt a tickle of irritation welling in her head. She yanked off her welding gloves and pulled back her goggles, wiping the sweat off of her forehead, “Dina, I don’t have time for soldiers.”

“Sailors,” Dina correctly, grinning coyly, “They’re in the navy, Miss Adla, and so they’re called sailors.” 

She tossed her discarded gloves at Dina who squealed with laughter, “Call them what you like, I won’t be going.” 

Stella plucked her goggles off and leaned her hip on the table, appraising Adla with her eyes, like she was trying to figure out some deep rooted reason why Adla was averse to fun. She swore she wasn’t, but with her brother away at war she would never forgive herself if she wasted time being frivolous when she could be spending that time working to help him. 

She squinted in an attempt to be intimidating at Stella who only shook her head, “Adla, you work like a dog. The factory is closed at night. There is no reason for you to not come, besides your own stubborn ass.” 

Dina giggled at the expletive. Adla tried not to roll her eyes and failed. 

Stella pulled her goggles back on and reached for her a bucket of bolts, “Come or don’t come. That’s on you. But just because there is a war going doesn’t mean you get to give up your life to it. You only have one life, Adla, make sure you live it.” 

And it was those words that stuck with Adla for the rest of the work day and she slaved away over her work. They rang in her head like a taunting prediction. Yet, while her head told stay at the boarding house, her heart beckoned for her to go. 

Like some siren song. 

As a child, her father used to tell her a folktale about a siren that led sailors to their deaths. Loreley was her name. Sometimes, as a child, she used to pretend she was that siren when they went to the beaches just beyond San Fransisco and she would sing for her own sailor to fall into her deadly trap. 

She was not deadly as that siren was, but perhaps, for the night, she could ensnare a pretty young naval officer-- she could almost hear Dina’s shrill voice correcting her that they were called sailors-- into a dance. It would not be like the fairytales of her dreams, but, in war, sometimes a dance could be enough. 

She threw on her finest red dress and attempted to pin her wild curls up in some form of a reasonable hair style and went down to the dance hall. 

As she entered, the swell of lively music and upbeat chatter filled the room. Men in uniforms and girls in pretty dressed were everywhere. Adla tugged on her dated dress and scanned the room for her friends. She spotted Dina first. She was drenched in blue velvet and looked absolutely dazzling and the young officer that was hanging on her every word seemed to think so as well. 

He had the same tall, broad look that Johnny had and the same color skin. Or, maybe, she was just wishing to see her brother in every officer here. It had been nearly a year since she had last seen him and every proud sailor could have been her brother or maybe they knew him. 

She tugged the longing to see her brother from her heart. Tonight she would not be Johnny’s little sister; no, she would be Adla and Adla alone. 

Adla crossed to Dina and cleared her throat. Her friend spun around and squealed, throwing her arms around her friend, “Oh my dearest Miss Adla, you made it!” 

She muffled a laugh in Dina’s shoulder and unwound herself from her friend’s vice-like grip, “So it seems.”

Dina remembered the officer beside her and giggled again, “How rude of me. Miss Adla, this is Officer Herbert C. Jenkins of the United States Naval Forces. Mr. Jenkins, this is Miss Adla. She works with me over at the shipyard.”

“Is that so?” Officer Jenkins mused, smiling indulgently no doubt for Dina’s sake, “Well, Miss Adla, thank you so much for helping us boys stay safe out on the water.” 

Adla shook her head, “It’s my job, officer.”

He nodded his head and opened his mouth but before he could speak all of the joy was suddenly vacuumed out of the room. Dina’s eyes were blown wide, looking over Adla’s shoulder toward the entrance. Adla’s eyebrows knit in confusion and she turned around to see what all the fuss was about. 

There, standing in the doorway like some kind of ghostly apparition, was an officer. A white officer. 

No one spoke or moved until his congenial voice boomed, “Don’t stop your party on my account, please. I’m just looking for one of my subordinates, Officer Jenkins.” 

Dina’s hand grabbed for Herbert’s hand and Adla saw him look down at her fondly. He kindly removed his hand from Dina’s and rose it so that the party crashing officer could find him easily. “Admiral Beckett, over here, sir.” 

Admiral Beckett’s eyes snapped to Officer Jenkins and Adla felt the urge to turn around, to hide her face from him. After all, she wasn’t looking for any trouble. 

The party slowly came back to life as Admiral Beckett clicked across the room to Officer Jenkins. Adla could feel the tide of the crowd being more cautious than before, but, as this looked like official naval duty business, people tried to forget Admiral Beckett was even there. Which gave way to music and laughter once more. 

Admiral Beckett came up beside Adla, his eyes sorely focused on Officer Jenkins, but she did not look at him. There was a grin to his voice when he asked his fellow sailor, “I went looking for you earlier, Herb. You didn’t come to the officers’ dinner.” 

Officer Jenkins cleared his throat, “No offense, Phoenix, but the other officers aren’t as welcoming to me being there as you are.” 

“That’s ridiculous,” Admiral Beckett roughed out, “You’re an officer in the United States Naval Forces. Those bastards don’t have to like it but they sure as hell have to accept it.” 

Officer Jenkins laughed, “Phoenix, you came all the way down here to make a stink?” 

“No,” Admiral Beckett replied, “I came all the way down here to see if you were alright. And maybe have a drink. It was sort of stuffy back at headquarters.” 

Dina’s lip curled in a smile. Adla could tell she was feeling more and more at ease in this stranger’s presence the more he talked. She extended her hand to shake Admiral Beckett’s, the gaul of it almost had Adla yell, before Dina said, “My name is Miss Dina Staten, Admiral Beckett, and we’re happy to have you here with us.” 

Admiral Beckett straightened, Adla felt it happen as he accidentally brushed her shoulder, and shook her hand. It was a polite enough gesture, but Adla could see how tense he was and that he could tell eyes were on his every move, “Pleasure, miss.” 

She preened and tucked her hand back in Officer Jenkins’ hand, “And this is my friend, Miss Adla. She never comes out, you see, because she’s very-” 

Dina kept speaking, her mouth moving a mile a minute, but Adla could barely hear above the buzzing in her ears as she lifted her eyes and met Admiral’s Beckett’s for the first time. His eyes were warm and friendly but then they exploded into large and alarmed, as if the sight of her had given him a proper fright. She worried, stupidly, about the dated dress and the state of her curls. 

But then his eyes softened and his lips fell open just slightly, like he was forcing himself to take in air, like she had made him breathless. Adla rolled her eyes at Dina’s antics and corrected, “Just Adla is fine, Admiral Beckett.” 

The sound of her voice had his whole face lighting up in delight, which she counted as odd, and he smiled sloppy and lazy, like an untrained puppy, “Phoenix, please. Admiral Beckett is so formal.” 

“Phoenix,” Dina pipped in, “Like those birds?”

“Yes,” Phoenix nodded. He hesitated to look away from Adla, she could tell, but did give some of his attention back to Dina, “It’s said, they, uh, rise from the ashes. Death is never permanent.” 

Officer Jenkins laughed and whispered to their small group, “Phoenix is big on names and their meanings. Drives all of our men crazy.” 

Phoenix pocketed his hands and gracefully took the teasing, “Herbert means illustrious warrior, miss. So, your sailor should be fine, if names have meaning.” 

“But if names have meaning,” Adla jumped in, “Then, does that mean you’re destined to never die?” 

He tore his eyes to Adla, drinking in the sight of her. She tugged on her dress nervously to make sure it was hanging right. His eyes were so fiercely drawn to her, she could see him cataloguing every piece of the moment, storing it away for some safe place. He licked his lips, “Technically, it means I will die. Just be reborn.” 

Adla’s blood went cold. 

Dina sighed, “Oh, that sounds so romantic.” 

“Less romantic then you’d think,” Phoenix mumbled. He drifted slightly closer to Adla so their shoulder’s were brushing. She felt her skin heat up and her slid her eyes to him aghast. He was playfully and pointedly not looking at her, giving his attention to Dina where she liked it best. Adla knocked imperceptively into his shoulder. He knocked her right back. 

Adla bit her lip to stop from gawking at him. 

“What do you mean?” Dina swung her and Officer Jenkins’ entangled hands. 

Phoenix glanced at Adla with a smirk and, then, said to Dina, “It sounds lonely, don’t you think, miss?” 

“Oh no,” Dina shook her head, “Not at all. Not if you have someone to share it with.” 

“What does your name mean, Miss Adla?” Phoenix asked, whirling the question on her as if he had not heard Dina speak.

Adla did not stop herself this time, this time she opened gawked at him, “Excuse me?” 

“Your name,” he repeated, “What does it mean?”

Dina giggled. Adla ignored her. “Justice. It’s a Tanzanian word.” 

“Is that where you’re from?”

“No, sir.” Adla raised an eyebrow, “I’m an American. Born and raised here.” 

Phoenix flushed, “I didn’t mean to insinuate-” 

“Dina,” Adla said, dismissing the sailor, “I think I ought to get home. It’s getting late and we have first shift in the morning.” 

“Adla,” Phoenix whispered apologetically. 

“Officer Jenkins,” Adla turned to the bewildered officer, “It was a pleasure making your acquaintance.”

He fumbled and tipped his head, “Ma’am.” 

Lastly, she turned to Admiral Beckett and sniffed, “Admiral.” With that, she gathered what was left of her confused state and stormed across the floor and out the double doors. The night air nipped at her skin and she yanked her trench coat tighter around her shoulders. 

The click of her heels against the pavement at night was the only sound she heard until-

“Miss Adla!” Admiral Beckett’s voice rang out, disrupting the steady fall of her steps. She regained her stride and he called again, “Miss Adla!” Again, she did not stop walking. Finally, he caught up to her and wheezed, “Christ, Adla, will you slow down?”

She whirled on him and crossed her stringy arms, “Admiral Beckett, you didn’t strike me as the type to follow a lady home without her consent.” 

“That’s not,” he sighed, “I didn’t want you to part thinking so...little of me.” 

“I hardly know you, Admiral,” she cleared her throat.

His face got a strange, whimsical wisdom, like her statement itself was ludicrous and hysterical. She wanted to smack his arm for looking so pleased at the situation. “Of course,” he chuckled, “You don’t know me at all.” His face pinched up in glee. 

“Admiral, do not try my patience.” 

“Or what?” he laughed, “You’ll kill me?”

Her throat closed up and she could almost hear the squealing of horses in the distance. Like their kicks and screams were coming off of the water. Adla turned her nose up, blocking out the strange sensation that she had been here before, perhaps not exactly like this, but the moment was familiar. “Don’t,” she hushed, “Don’t say something like that. Men are dying in this war, Admiral.”

His good merry sobered up, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of  the situation. I am a sailor, miss.” 

Again, a ringing sensation, of another moment and another time, whispered in her ear: 

I don’t want a soldier or a martyr. 

Adla swallowed, “My brother is a soldier, Admiral Beckett.” 

“Phoenix,” he said softly. “Please call me, Phoenix.” 

“Phoenix,” she relented. 

His smile was blinding. “You know,” he took off his hat and ran shaky fingers through his floppy hair, “I’m sorry we left the dance.” 

She clutched at her coat, “Why?”

“I would’ve asked you to dance,” he said. And it sounded so simple. So like a fantasy that she laughed. He looked startled by her good humor, “Adla?”

She covered her mouth to muffle the laughter, “I’m sorry, but, Admiral Beckett-”

“Phoenix,” he said more fiercely.

“Admiral Beckett, you’re white.” 

He flushed a deep red and straightened his uniform, “And?”

“And,” she went on, “even if I thought you were nice and kind and handsome...its just not reality.” 

“Don’t start,” he grumped. 

“Excuse me?” she narrowed her eyes.

Phoenix shoved his hands angrily in his pockets, “You never remember. You talk about reality but you don’t even remember your own.” 

She felt the hairs on her arms stand up, “Have we met?” 

“More than once,” his eyes searched hers for some kind of clue. She stared back, transfixed, but helplessly lost. “More than once,” he repeated, reaching for her hands, and, like an idiot, she let him take them. She did not worry about if anyone saw them or if what he was doing was proper and good. Adla was too taken in by his eyes and the overwhelming sadness buried there. 

Adla swallowed the lump in her throat, “I don’t....I’m sorry. I don’t remember ever meeting you.” 

His face fell and he dragged his hands out of her own. She blindly reached for the contact as it slipped through her fingers. “Adla, I’m so tired.” 

“Tired of what?” she asked, her voice attentive and unusually sweet. 

He looked down at her hands that were still reaching out for her own. He laced their fingers together and she felt a surge of energy she could not explain. Phoenix gripped her hands like a life line, “Of doing this over and over again.” 

“What?” she stepped closer. “The war? Going into battle?”

“No,” he said, obviously exasperated, “I mean, yes, the wars, but...I-”

He closed his mouth and she took another step closer until they were maddeningly chest to chest. “I don’t understand. Phoenix I-” And, like he had done it a hundred times before, he kissed her. Near the docks. In the moonlight. 

Adla’s eyes opened in shock, her body screaming a warning that this could only end badly, but then the softness of his mouth entreated her own and she was lost. The hands that were clinging to his own knocked off his hat and ran in wonder through his hair. It was thick and soft and so, so familiar to her. He made a desperate noise and clung to her, his hands running up and down the expanse of her back. Her spine arched into it. 

Until she heard a dog bark and she was dropped back into the moment and the dock and Adla tore herself away. Phoenix’s mouth was still puckered like he could hold onto the kiss a minute longer. 

She covered her mouth in shock, appalled at herself and her behavior. She had moved here for the war effort, not to kiss admiral’s passing through the port. Adla was better, more focused than that. Even if her mouth still tingled from his kisses. 

Adla turned her back on him and wiped away at her mouth. “Oh my god,” she muttered.

“Adla,” Phoenix’s sad voice said her name. 

“Oh my god,” she said louder and turned around to stare at him. “I shouldn’t have...you shouldn’t have...I got carried away, sir. I’m so sorry.” 

She saw his heart break in his eyes, “You got carried away? Adla, please, I’m not mad or angry or...please, don’t run away. I’ll...die.” He said that last word like it was a terribly tragic joke. 

“Such sweet words,” she spat bitterly. “You’ll die? I told you not to joke about that.” 

“Would it grieve you, if I died?” he said boldly. “Do you think you would feel it?” he said even softer. His words had the undercurrent of an apology. 

“I don’t even know you!” she shrieked. 

“Liar,” he closed the distance between them, his mouth slanting over hers and, she hated herself, but she opened for him. Their tongues exploring the other lewdly. “God damn it,” he clutched at her waist and she squeaked in pleasure, “Remember me.” 

“Admiral Beckett,” she sighed into his lips, “I think I’d remember you if we’d met.” 

He made a noise against her mouth that sounded like a sob of frustration, but she realized coldly he was crying. He was swept up in something that she was not privy to and the power of each passing moment was starting to frighten her. 

She pressed her hands against his chest, slowing down the frantic pace of their kisses, making each new one more lingering and softer than the last. “Phoenix,” she hummed, “when do you ship out?” 

“The end of the week,” he rumbled, his hands fisting in the fabric of her dress, searching, unsuccessfully, for skin. 

Adla’s breath hitched pleasantly. “Where are you boarding?” 

“On the ship, in my cabin. Why?” he kissed a hot trail down her neck and began to suck at the sweet pulse point there. Her stomach rolled over in liquid pleasure. 

Her breath came in heavy pants, “The dock is no place for this, Admiral?”

“No place for what?” he pulled down her dress slightly to expose her collar bones and, then, he lavished kisses there. 

“This,” she said, swatting at his head to get his attention away from her body and on to her voice. “Phoenix,” she chastised him, “We can’t do this here.” 

His dark eyes lightened and his senses came back to him all at once. He looked around, really taking in their location, and he turned a violent red, “I’m sorry. I...I have no excuse,” he laughed. It was a bright sound. It warmed her already hot insides. “You just...” he grabbed for her waist and tugged her close, “Alda, you have no idea.” 

She felt the press of him against her dress and rolled her eyes, “Trust me. I know.”

“We can’t go back to the ship. I don’t want my men thinking its okay to drag their sweethearts back to the boat.” His mouth wandered down her throat again, his hands an anxious and familiar friend. 

She pushed them away and took a bewildered and bedraggled step away from him, struggling for breath, “We can’t go back to my boarding house. The ladies will all lose their minds.” 

“Let them,” he groaned, taking a distracted step toward her.

She lifted her hands and pressed against his chest to keep him from getting any closer, “Your brain, Admiral Beckett. Use it.” 

“It seems, miss,” Phoenix’s eyes glimmered with amusement, “We are at an impasse.” 

Adla tipped her chin back to give off an air of authority and, mostly, to hide the grin that was threatening to explode across her mouth. There was something about Admiral Beckett that had her on the edge of a cliff, moments away from taking some dangerous plunge. She knew it was ridiculous and she was being frivolous, especially during the war, but he had her mind fuzzy and her hands warm. And there was another inching feeling that she didn’t know well enough to name bubbling inside of her and it swept over her as easily as his smile did earlier that night. 

Beautiful boys, she thought, were the most dangerous kind. 

“So it would seem,” she nodded. 

His eager hands pressed against her hips, “And we can’t go to a hotel.” 

“Heaven’s no, think of the scandal,” she teased. 

Admiral Beckett barked out a laugh. She liked making him laugh. She liked that his eyes crinkled at the creases in his face when he did so and his face scrunched up in pure, unadulterated joy. “Oh how I’d hate to be scandalous,” he remarked. 

Adla stole a kiss. The stars twinkled above them, almost like a spotlight on this moment, like the entire universe was watching with bated breath to see what happened next. “Perhaps,” she rolled the word around in her mouth, making up each word as she went along, “We could go to the shipyard. It’s late. Nobody is gonna be there at his time of night.” 

He raised his eyebrow in sharp curiosity, “Oh?”

She nodded, “Mhmm. And we’ve got a gramophone there. A nice one.” 

“Well,” he slid his hand into hers, “I did say that I wanted that dance.” 

Adla bit down on her bottom lip, keeping her excitement from showing, “So you did, Admiral.” 

It took them the better part of an hour to get back to MINSY. And it took Adla five more minutes to pick the lock on the gate. Admiral Beckett watched on impressed, “Where’d you learn to do that?” 

“My brother,” she hummed, sticking the pin she had used to open the lock back in her hair. “Johnny. He had a talent for trouble and I was always his silly kid sister chasing at his knees, wanting to do everything he did.” 

“You?” Phoenix feigned surprised, “Trouble? I doubt it very much.” 

She pushed open the gate and pulled him inside, “You shouldn’t tease a lady, sir.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, dropping an easy kiss on the fabric bunched up on her shoulder. 

She lifted his head from her shoulder and brought it down on her lips, taking whatever kisses she could from these jolly sailor boy. Adla knew that she was playing with fire here, tonight, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t care that he was a white officer that would probably die at sea. She wanted these moments from him like a fever. It spread through every part of her body and made her ill with wanting. 

Against her lips, he mumbled, “What about that dance?” Her laugh bubbled against his mouth and he gazed at her in utter softness and fondness, “What? You promised.” 

She shook her head and dragged him into the Rosie’s office where all the ladies gathered to eat their lunches. There, in the corner was a beautiful, genuine gramophone. Adla looked through the records and Phoenix came up behind her, dropping kisses against the curve of her neck as she looked through the artists. “How do you feel about,” she panted, “Nora Bayes?” 

“You want to dance to war propaganda?” he seared against her throat.

“No,” she arched into him, “No, I just like the way she sings.” 

He reached his hand for the record in her hands and cued it up on the machine. The usual buzz and scratch of the machine echoed in the room and then triumphant, sickeningly American horns blared. Patriotism in a song, perfectly packaged to get boys to sign up and die for country. 

He turned her around in his arms and swayed with her slowly. It fought against the very impulse of the song, to gallop and cheer. They were the softness in the eye of the storm of war. He whispered in her ear as Nora Bayes began to sing, “Johnny get your gun, get your gun, get your gun. Take it on the run, on the run, on the run. Hear them calling you and me. Everyone for liberty. Hurry right away, no delay, start today. Make your daddy glad to have had such a lad. Tell your sweetheart not to cry, be proud our boys in line.”

Adla ran her hands up into his hair as they danced. Each word feeling more and more tragic as the song scratched on. Those poor, proud little Yanks going over there to die. She felt her eyes well and she clutched him closer. He all but clung to her. 

“Do you think,” she heaved, “What I mean is...are you afraid?” 

Another voice, unfamiliar and gentle banged at her subconscious: 

MJ, he’s scared. He thinks he’s gonna die.

Phoenix hid his face in her neck, and the record played on and on, “I’m always scared. It doesn’t get easier.” 

“What doesn’t?” she asked innocently.

He dropped a kiss on her head, “Nothing. Just...you know, its tough. Being a soldier.” 

She scratched the back of his head with her nails, a comforting gesture, “Sailor.” 

“Right,” he chuckled, “Sorry.” The song scratched to a finish and only buzz filled the room, like white noise. He held her tighter and they swayed from the sheer strength of their hug. “I am sorry,” he clarified. 

“What for?” she nuzzled into his cheek. 

He seemed to choose his words carefully, “I’m sorry that this war is going to hurt you. I never wanted that. I didn’t know.” 

“What are you talking about?” she pulled her head back to look in his eyes and her heart wept from the agony swelling there. A sadness so deep, so old and so profound she could not help but get swept up in his devastation and feel it herself. 

He brushed a lose curl out of her eyes, “Nothing.” His mouth descended on hers, probing and right. She had kissed a few boys in her day, before the war had stolen all of them away, but she had never kissed a man. And Phoenix was a man. Strong and righteous and funny and perfect. 

She knew what came next. It wasn’t proper, she thought, even if she wanted it, wanted him so much she was bursting at the seems. 

Adla sighed against his mouth, “We shouldn’t.” 

“Mm,” he moaned back, “There it is.” 

It was a peculiar thing to say, but for some reason it set Adla’s hands tugging at his hair and pulling him back to the standard issue cot in the corner where the girls’ sometimes napped during their breaks. It was narrow and ill-fit for two people, but as he pressed against every crevice of her body, Adla didn’t care. 

“We can stop,” Phoenix offered. “I know this isn’t proper. We don’t have to-”

“Would you shut up and touch me?” Adla snapped.

He needed no more encouragement. It was frantic and heady and all-consuming like she had heard from the giggling girls at the factory that it would be. And once they had brushed aside enough of their clothes to push together it was freedom. This was what they were fighting for in the god-forsaken war. This bliss. This was the American dream. Adla saw it now as he pushed stars in her eyes. 

Every stroke brought them closer to dreams. Reality was far less beautiful. And when she broke apart, the cry of his name on her lips, Phoenix tumbled after. 

The basked in the sensation of each other, after, their hands pressing into one another for want of just the simple pleasures of touch. 

Phoenix shuttered, “I love you.” 

Adla huffed, nuzzling her nose into his shoulder, “You’re just saying that.” 

He tilted her chin up to kiss her lips. It was breathtakingly sweet, “Whatever you say.” 

They spent the next week on that cot, blocking out the world around them. Every night they snuck into the little office that was their haven and every night they lied to themselves to pretend that this could last forever. 

It wouldn’t. 

Their last night before he shipped out, as they lay together, Phoenix ran a finger down her sternum. She snuggled him in delight in her half-asleep state. “Adla?” he whispered, but she was too tired to properly respond. She was in that perfect place between dreaming and wakefulness. That was when she heard him muse, “Maybe distance helps. I’ll be overseas when it happens and, god, Adla, I hope you don’t feel it. Or if you do....its not like Russia. I couldn’t stand to...if I could spare you this pain, you know I would.” 

His voice was so faint she could almost imagine that she dreamed it, but those words stuck with her as they woke the next morning and he kissed her closed hands. It shook her to the core and forced her mouth against his in one final, beseeching kiss. “On your way, sailor,” she clung to him. Phoenix took a pin, some kind of medal for valor, off of his uniform and pressed it into her fist. She shook her head, “Phoenix, no.” 

“Adla,” he cleared his throat, “I’ll likely die over there and, well, it would give me some comfort to know that you have a piece of me after I’m gone.” 

“Don’t think like that-”

He closed her hand over the medal, “Grant me this kindness, will you?” 

The medal was cold and uncomfortable in her hand. It was nothing like the warmth of the man standing before her, solid and proud. She didn’t want the medal, she realized in shock, she wanted him. 

“Stay,” she commanded.

He sucked in a breath like he knew this was request was coming, “Adla.” 

“No. Damn you, Phoenix. Stay.” 

He stepped back, “Abandon my men? I couldn’t. I can’t...that’s not...” He struggled, “That’s not how this goes.” 

“Why not?” she gawked at him. “Why not?”

“Adla, don’t make our last moments this. Please. I beg of you.” 

“You know you make no sense, Admiral. Talking in circles. Saying nonsense. Talking about Russia??”

He stiffened, “What do you know about Russia?” 

“Nothing.” The medal in her hand warmed to the touch and she wanted to throw it in his face. He looked half-relieved and half-distraught that Russia meant nothing to her. She knew that they were fighting against Russia in the war. Perhaps, she thought, that was what he meant by Russia. Perhaps that was where he was going to fight, where he thought he would die. 

“Adla,” he grabbed her upper arms, an embrace so passionate and strong that her knees almost gave out. “Adla, I promise you. This...this is not the end.” 

I promise you– I fucking promise you, Em– I will find you in the next life.  

“But it is,” she yanked herself from of him. “You have to go. And I have to stay. And that’s the way this works. That’s what you’ve chosen. So, on your way, sailor.” 

He looked like he wanted to say so much more, like there were truths playing at his lips screeching to be let free. Instead of telling her them, instead of giving her the answers she wanted, he tipped his head, put on his hat and left her behind. 

Once he was gone, she stumbled backward into the cot and cried. Hugging herself tightly like it would keep all of the broken pieces he left behind in tact. That was how Dina found her as the girls started to file in for work. 

Her friend sat beside her, wrapped her up in her arms and whispered, “Why are you crying, Miss Adla?” 

“He left me to die.” The bastard.

The Great War ended on November 11, 1918. Admiral Phoenix Beckett’s boat was blown out of the water by an enemy ship on November 8, 1918. 

And Adla felt it. 

She was bent over her station, working her fingers to death on the bolts on a new engine, when every atom in her body seemed to combust all at once. It was contained underneath her skin and so the agony had no where to go but to radiate in her.

She knocked the bucket of bolts off the table as she collapsed. Her friends were at her side in a minute as she choked and coughed and screamed and slammed at her chest. Pounded at her heart. She needed the pain there to stop. It hurt. It hurt so badly. 

Adla, in her helpless state, fumbled for the medal she hid in her breeches and clutched it to her chest. People were screaming her name. She knew it. But she could only hear the vague scratching of the Nora Bayes record on that damn gramophone from the first night she kissed Admiral Phoenix Beckett. It looped on and on and on in her head as the pain refused to ebb and die. 

She blacked out from the intensity of it.

When she woke she was on that damned cot that she and Phoenix had made their little home for the week he had stolen refuge in her arms. She wearily sat up, her stomach turning at the effort. Dina clutched her hand, “Adla?”

She held his medal so tightly that it made her hand ache. “I could have saved him.” 

Adla fell back on the cot and covered her ears with her hands as the gramophone sang in the corner:  

Johnny get your gun, get your gun, get your gun. Take it on the run, on the run, on the run. Hear them calling you and me. Everyone for liberty. Hurry right away, no delay, start today. Make your daddy glad to have had such a lad. Tell your sweetheart not to cry, be proud of our boys in line. 

[naturalremediesandproducts]

Best iPod Speakers

The iPod Touch is awesome for listening to music and having an excellent Bluetooth speaker to enjoy the tunes of yours allows you to switch up the volume to each party. Regardless of whether you are searching for a speaker for the home of yours, by the swimming pool, or perhaps for a camping trip, the following are the very best Bluetooth speakers you are able to purchase to complement the iPod touch of yours. What can be more sublime than listening to the music of yours without the tangles of cables, or perhaps charging the beloved iPod of yours while listening to your fave band's song that is brand new? What about taking the music of yours with one to the beach or perhaps maybe even in the shower? Because of a docking station, you'll don't have to sweat it out joining those limitless cables. And since they're wireless, they're lightweight. These speakers are lightweight and compact, which means you are able to get them along with you wherever. Wireless speakers might be minuscule in size compared to with the colossal and wired speakers set, though they also can deliver a terrific sound quality. Docking stations speakers are designed with a myrias of handy features: the batteries are actually rechargeable so you are able to get them anywhere, some even have built in carry handles and could be folded nicely, because the travels of yours. They are safe for outdoor use as many of them are actually waterproof and built to resist some weather type, you are able to get them in the bathtub along with you.

Sony SRS-XB41 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

With regards to rocking the party, the Sony SRS XB41 Bluetooth speaker has little competition. This particular party in a tiny program is loaded with lots of options to rival other Bluetooth speakers, including is it dustproof and waterproof (meaning you are able to get it almost anyplace like the pool) and that it's flashing strobe lights (so you are able to turn any kind of room into an enjoyable scene). The exterior design makes it clear this speaker is actually intended to bring to a party also from the playful color schemes of its, with all 4 designs featuring a minimum of 3 colors. Battery life is great and also you are able to get as much as twenty four hours of good without lights on or even as much as fourteen hours with additional bass as well as lights on. Probably The coolest thing that the Sony SRS XB41 allows you to do is actually hook it to up to hundred additional speakers of the identical design which means you are able to produce an immersive club anywhere via the speakers of yours.

Bose Home Speaker 500 with Alexa Voice Control Built-In

Probably the most high end choice on the list of ours is actually the Bose Home Speaker 500, one of the very best home speakers you are able to purchase nowadays. Bose has been making high quality cd solutions after 1964 as well as the Home Speaker 500 follows in this tradition. It fills the kitchen with wall-to-wall stereo audio, in spite of it to be a single speaker. It is able to link seamlessly with iPods or iPhones by Bluetooth or maybe it is able to alternately play music straight from a lot of music as well as radio services like Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Pandora, and other things. Furthermore, it's Amazon's Alexa service built in, and that means you are able to ask Alexa to play millions of songs from several streaming services. Lastly, you are able to link the unit to the iPhone of yours by downloading the Bose Music app, in which you are able to sort as well as handle all of the music in the daily life of yours.

Ultimate Ears Boom 3

To take the Boom 3 to the next pool party of yours is not a problem. It's a high water resistant rating, allowing it to be immersed in three feet of water for thirty minutes. It is likewise shielded against mud and dirt, though you are able to hand wash the speaker with warm, soapy water only in case it gets messy. In addition, in case you genuinely want the Boom three to live up to the onomatopoeic brand of its, you are able to create yet another one (or up to 150 Boom speakers) to create a stereo pair and truly increase the roof!

Aomais GO

While the AOMAIS GO might not be your normal common Bluetooth speaker, it is a total beast to take along with you to a project web site or even camping. It is 30 hour battery life is going to allow you to pour the tunes of yours through all day then and long a number of. It actually has a built in 8,800mAh battery for charging the other products of yours by USB. It's an IPX7 rating, indicating it is able to get wet no problem, and its 30W speaker device is lots loud enough for cooking by the campfire.

AeroBull HD Classic Bulldog Bluetooth Speaker

The AeroBull is an exotic looking speaker system obviously targeted at fashion conscious music lovers, produced by Jarre Technologies. It need to take an additional dollop of courage as well as an eighties synth pop electronica wizard (Jean Michel Jarre) to come up with such a concept: a shades wearing bulldog shaped 2.1 speaker system (two stereo speakers along with a sub), capable of 240 Watts of clean power. The speakers, by the way, are actually in the sunglasses, as well as the remote is actually bone shaped. Of course. By the way, do not mistake the appearance of its for a gimmick - very well, they're a gimmick, though it may sound good adequate to warrant a high placement here. Beginning with the docking station, that is positioned on the head of its, it is very good to realize that this completely supports all present model iDevices with the super connection of its. And also this means that in case the device of yours utilizes the older 30 pin protocol you may need to have a good adapter. Alternative wired sound junctions (for TV, DVD and so on) are actually simple with the integrated 3.5mm mini jack aux feedback, however the AeroBull's rap hints at wireless talents, as this's in fact one great wireless Bluetooth speaker - an altogether different subject perhaps.. Though it is really worth noting that the same as the bodily inputs of its, the AeroBull's Bluetooth spec is actually a present model, which means assistance of the high-res aptX (wireless audio codec) streaming - up to CD quality in fact. The sound information is actually mighty fine and particularly then when positioned dealing with the kitchen and with the rear of its (think sub) towards a corner. The AeroDog proves it is far much more than simply a contemporary art piece and might indeed very easily become your iPhone/iPad's best friend. Be warned: it is often difficult to find, though we still believe it is a high pick.

JBL OnBeat Venue

Best does not usually mean newest, as well as the situation with JBL's OnBeat Venue or perhaps numerous other speaker docks on this list. Nevertheless, in the present era of wireless only speakers, in case you would like to dock the 30 pin iOS device of yours, the OnBeat Venue is probably the greatest speaker dock in phrases of value. After almost 5 years since peaking as a firm sector favourite, the OnBeat Venue still manages to wow with the sound quality of its. Rated at thirty watts, it is able to get loud with a lot of headroom. Even from a lower volume it provides clarity and constant low end - which, because the size of its, is just matched by something including the Bose SoundDock III at number 5 on this list. Needless to say, you can pick up a 30 pin to super port adapter for a couple of bucks. This, as well as the reality that JBL have included not merely a 3.5mm Aux feedback but also Bluetooth connectivity, justifies investing into this old timer. There's no hand held remote control as well as, in all honesty, JBL's MusicFlow app isn't by far the most straight forward we have used, but that aside this particular speaker dock is actually a breeze to get set up and pumping. We would say JBL OnBeat Venue is actually ideal for anybody searching for an excellent sounding technique, whether they are making use of a docking unit or perhaps not.

Earthquake Sound IQ52B

If perhaps bookshelf speakers might walk, talk, and invest all the money of theirs at an imaginary tech supermarket, they will come back looking as the Earthquake Sound IQ52B. This particular setup is actually an over engineered marvel of the docking speaker idea, featuring a wide range of outputs and inputs - out of a 30 pin dock to a S Video port, as well as a subwoofer paper. What is a lot better is the point that this wealth of connections is actually a consequence of suitable spec preparation, allowing for the many products to be incorporated into an extensive audio visual fix. Earthquake Sound have created the ca as one energetic speaker - containing a 200W Class A/B power amp - powering an additional passive speaker through the included speaker cable. The energetic speaker is actually the one featuring all of the sound inputs & outputs, like the 30 pin dock positioned on top. The setup allows for a number of ways of expansion, particularly in case you think about adding an energetic subwoofer, through the sub out. You'll have the choice to merely take the powered speaker and make use of it by itself. This may be a somewhat much more lightweight alternative for dance rehearsals, etc., small parties, so long as you do not care about being summed down to monophonic sound. The included remote is great and the sound quality is exceptional. The Earthquake Sound IQ52B deserves the best spot. In an era of usually flimsy sounding, plasticky speakers, it appears proud and loud.

iHome iBTW38

The iHome brand continues to be rather prolific lately, even with the prior dismissal of theirs. The iBTW38 is just one of their a few profitable Bluetooth speakers which includes a Qi charging dock. Of course, it is more or less a glorified alarm clock, but is as able as the vast majority of portable bluetooth speakers on the industry. The Qi dock of its provides quick charging, compatible with iPhone eight or even greater, and also selected Samsung eight models. Other Qi suitable products can continue to be charged at regular speed. Apart from the functionality of its as a Qi dock, the iBTW38 is actually a standard Bluetooth speaker and all the unit of its pairing efficiency as well as features are actually standard. The iHome iBTW38 is able to serve as a speakerphone and the digital voice of its echo cancellation attribute is pretty useful. Nevertheless, there aren't any vocal command functions as well as outside unit connectivity is held to a minimum with only an extra USB port for unit charging. The buttons are as well very fundamental & self explanatory, since most playback associated menus & controls are mostly delegated to the Bluetooth paired device. iHome provide almost no info on the unit's sound playback specifications but it suffices to suggest that the iBTW38 is actually ideal for the kitchen or bedside table. It might not be obnoxious, but it provides all as promised at an inexpensive value.

JE Hi-Fly

So far as Qi wireless speakers go, the JE Hi Fly should be one of probably the simplest designs out there. Simply put the Qi compatible unit of yours on top and you are docked. The Hi Fly is properly sized for the present crop of Apple and Android Qi enabled units. The wood like veneer has a touch of marmite divisiveness about it - you will either love it or perhaps hate it. Overall, this's a wise layout, wearing an obvious display in the slightly offset corner. The extra USB port - used for powering non Qi products - as well as 3.5mm Aux input are actually positioned on the complete opposite end. What stands out about this particular unit is the fact that there is actually an incorporated TF card reader - a great use for the sound guide library of yours or even saved music. No matter the loveable characteristics as well as design, we've to include that we would like better playback at this cost. We are not saying that the noise is actually atrocious - the speaker simply lacks definition & bass at greater volumes. Although it may not be perfect for music, the JE Hi Fly is ideal for podcasts, vlogs, the like and YT content.

Cavalier Air

Qi charging and docking is actually turning into a favorite element with speaker docks. The Cavalier Air is actually an ideal example, echoing the ethos of the traditional docking speakers of yesteryear but with the inclusion of contemporary wireless functionality. Fairly bigger compared to an average alarm clock radio, the Cavalier's design reminds us of older classics, similar to the JBL On Beat at number 5 on this list. The mahogany veneer of its and deep grey speaker cloth are a common looking combination which would match any kind of contemporary living room. The Qi charging dock works with any suitable iOs or maybe Android device, as well as suits actually the largest smartphones still offered. Management functionality LEDs are actually presented on a strip at the roof of the dock, but since this's predominantly a voice command gadget, there are just a few of actual physical buttons. Many features may be called out using Alexa's speech control or perhaps via outside Bluetooth connection, it is good that there is an addition of a multi feature button. This could activate various modes and can certainly possibly be personalized making use of the Cavalier App. Targeted at informal music enjoyment, the app has Pandora, Spotify, and Amazon Music now dialled in. The Cavalier will be able to also access a near infinite number of radio & streaming platforms, as a part of a Wi Fi home network, and the combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allow for pairing of up to fifteen products. Sound-wise, you will not look for loud volume or award winning lucidity, but the Cavalier is actually ideal as a casual bookshelf speaker. Its twenty watts of energy allow for a lot of characterization and also low end, considering the size of its. Mixed with the sensible features of its as well as Alexa features, this will make the Cavalier Air among the best picks of this particular season.

Sony RDP T50IPN

This particular naming scheme actually should be some kind of inner joke for Sony's R&D department, as here we've the smaller (and much cheaper) version called RDP T50IPN which might have a relatively similar cd character but without its sibling's power and punch. This small speaker's main objective is actually living a place in the kitchen of yours, ideal for when you're relaxing, cooking for friends and impressing them with a few great mellow experience music - nothing weighty, loud or intrusive. In the event that this's one thing you're searching for, healthy you have discovered it.It is actually lightweight, it has a remote (which tucks behind the device - we like that) and apart from charging as well as playing sound from the iOS device of yours with the lightning port, it is able to take outside sound by way of a a mini jack. There is no AirPlay or Bluetooth wireless choice here but while docked, the iOS device of yours might still work the wi fi magic of its and convert it into huge DAB radio stations or maybe streaming services. The quality of the sound is not much more than what you are able to anticipate from a device this particular size though nothing actually under Sony's usual high standards. Recommended!

Castle James Retro Station

Castle James are not a household name, but their Retro Tech Multi Station speaker has proven quite prominent on account of the contemporary functionality of its as well as retro stylings. The latter stay ever popular, whether or not the Retro Station pays nothing much more than a visual homage to the tube radios of the past. Having a length as well as depth almost completely matching an iPhone eight Plus, this particular Castle James speaker is really very compact. The 2 multi function controls on the front side have self explanatory symbols representing volume control, track selection, and playback, even though the middle display is merely an easy clock display. The Retro Station utilizes a rechargeable battery (charged through a USB connection), making the Qi dock a great traveling companion. The Bluetooth performs of its and pairing are actually hassle-free and straightforward as well as the addition of an FM receiver as well as an SD memory card slot fulfill the promise of its of it being a thing of a' multi station'. These extra extra features undoubtedly open up options, particularly in case you've a sizable library of podcast or maybe music MP3s. The sound quality is typical, although the product is amazingly noisy for the size of its. In case you are once a basic Qi dock, the Retro Station is certainly an interesting choice. Little but completely formed; it does not guarantee a lot but it provides.

Bose SoundDock III

Bose Corporation's presence in the hi fi business is actually as Coca-Cola's to the food market and also the SoundDock III is actually a deservingly often used docking speaker - regardless of what some audiophiles might think. This's a small package created for casual listening and this's most likely the very definition of Bose's ethos. With numerous successful' mini' models, it likely took the design team simple minutes to' retrofit' an electric Bose speaker with a lightning port (a 30 pin dock model is still on Amazon). What we mean of course is the fact that you in case ever owned or even paid attention to a Bose, you are going to know the signature sound that is present right here - much more than somewhat emphasized good frequencies, scooped mids and large but at times boomy bass. This's not really a criticism (unless you are looking for audiophile frequency response) - it truly works, and also for the SoundDock III's size, the sound is actually sound, though we would still select the Earthquake Sound IQ52B because of its somewhat more faithful representation of middle and treble frequencies. In case the company's famed digital signal as well as acoustic processing could provide the SoundDock a small edge with several of the prior picks, the absence of any wireless ability is actually a small let down for the cost - unless obviously you begin talking about extra wireless adapters. Non-lightning port (and legacy) products could be hooked up through the auxiliary 3.5mm input at the back, along with everything is actually managed by the provided RF Bose remote. A near classic. Image by slightly_different from Pixabay Read the whole article on My Shower Speakers Read the full article

[jacewilliams1]

What will general aviation look like after COVID-19?

Making predictions about COVID-19 is a fool’s errand right now, with a year’s worth of news happening in a week. When will schools open? When will sports stadiums again host packed crowds? The best guesses seem to change by the minute, so I for one am not making any predictions about these topics.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t think in broad outlines about the future of flying. While the medical community is focused on finding a vaccine and parents are contemplating the merits of online schools, many pilots are thinking about what changes we might notice at the airport six or twelve months from now. There is plenty of analysis to read about the airline industry and the challenges they face (a lot). But what about general aviation?

I’m obviously biased because I love light airplanes and the freedom they offer, but I genuinely believe general aviation will come out of this crisis stronger. This isn’t just wishful thinking; there are reasons to be optimistic about our small corner of the transportation world.

Consider why most pilots choose to fly in the first place. It’s typically for one of three main reasons: for fun, for transportation, or for a career. At least two of those three seem to be on very solid ground.

in the virus era, the isolation found aloft is a feature, not a bug.

Recreational flying should be relatively unscathed by COVID-19, at least once the expected recession comes to an end. In the short term, some pilots will be nervous about flying purely for fun during shelter in place orders, others will be worried about family finances with unemployment rising fast. But after these immediate threats subside, taking a Cub or RV-12 for a lazy flight down the river will be a very safe way to have fun—in the virus era, the isolation found aloft is a feature, not a bug.

Besides, with fewer concerts or sporting events, there will be less competition for time and money in the family entertainment budget. A flying club might offer some sense of social interaction but in a more controlled way, plus the option to fly for fun. Light airplanes could start to look pretty appealing when compared to some larger group activities.

Pilots who fly for personal or business transportation purposes face a slightly more uncertain future. Some people are writing dire predictions about how business travel and face-to-face meetings will never be the same. I don’t doubt there will be a lasting impact from this forced experiment in digital meetings, but we often overestimate how much fundamentally changes after a crisis. Business travel took a major hit after 9/11, but it did not disappear. Less than three years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airline travel was back above its previous peak. The major changes were mostly in the type of flying (more low cost carriers, fuller airplanes), not the actual amount of flying.

In fact, I think this time of isolation may reinforce how valuable in-person meetings are. Certainly not all of them, but among your most important colleagues and customers there is simply no substitute for being in the same room—no matter how good you are at Zoom meetings. You might skip the handshake, but I can’t imagine major deals will be sealed from thousands of miles apart. My experience over the last month with Skype calls, Teams meetings, and Hangouts chats has been helpful for keeping things going, but it has also been very inconsistent and occasionally quite frustrating.

When this type of travel does come back, general aviation and business aviation will be highly preferred over airline flights. The certainty of knowing who you’re flying with is worth a lot, and those quiet country airports you visit by light airplane might start to look quite safe compared to LaGuardia or LAX. With good planning, a private flight can also save an overnight stay in a hotel and thus any associated concerns about additional exposure. Some large companies have long prohibited senior executives from traveling by airline, and more recently fractional jet companies have started moving their pilots around using empty legs on corporate jets in order to avoid airlines. These policies may become more widespread, at least for a while.

The desire for personal travel will be even stronger than business travel. After months of no contact with grandkids and close friends, I suspect many pilots’ first long flight will be to visit loved ones. What better way to do that than a Cessna or Cirrus? With avgas prices dropping under $4/gallon in some areas, the economics will look better than they did just a few months ago.

Anecdotally, I’ve found many people are rediscovering their families after being “forced” to be together for weeks uninterrupted. That statement sounds sad at first, and there have been some sarcastic jokes about the pain of home schooling kids, but plenty of parents have also realized that children should be loved as people, not managed like expensive assets. Maybe the rat race of school, travel sports, music lessons, and SAT classes isn’t worth it, and a family vacation is a better investment than a new Mandarin tutor for Johnny? If so, then a general aviation trip to the nearest beach or national park is going to be a great option. Such a vacation will certainly be possible much sooner than a long international airline flight to a country with strict quarantine rules.

Airline pilot hiring goes in cycles—what will the next one look like?

That leaves us with flight training, and this is definitely the biggest question mark. Just two months ago, the world was suffering from a long-running pilot shortage, with airlines taking elaborate steps to attract and hire new pilots. Some were even buying flight schools to fill the pipeline with prospects. Overnight, this “problem” has been solved. Will it come back?

The exploding demand for airline pilots has certainly gone away, at least for now. Many airlines have cut their schedules by over 90%, and some have gone out of business completely. Any recovery from this hole will take time, and probably major progress on the healthcare front.

But it’s worth remembering that the other side of the airline pilot market, supply, has not fundamentally changed. The demographic trends can’t adjust overnight, and the US airline industry still faces significant retirements over the next five years as the Baby Boomer generation reaches age 65. An analysis last year showed that the peak of airline pilot retirements would not hit until 2022 or 2023, perhaps right around the time airline travel is booming again. The military is certainly not turning out large quantities of pilots, so the best supply of new regional airline first officers will still be general aviation.

Some things will undoubtedly be very different at these flight schools. Health may be monitored much more carefully, so pilot and instructor temperatures might be checked alongside the fuel and oil levels. Yokes, throttles, and touchscreens may be cleaned thoroughly between flights, in addition to the windows. Some ab initio schools may operate like semi-quarantined campuses. Whatever changes we have to live with, flight training will be back—our pilotless future is still many years off. Plus, learning to fly is a one-on-one instruction model, so the solutions for flight schools will be easier than those affecting university lectures and other large gatherings.

Many pilots are wondering when this whole virus mess will be “over” and our aviation lives can return to normal. That’s the wrong question to ask. Sure, a vaccine will hopefully solve our problem one day, but COVID-19 is a fact of life for the medium term. We need to solve the health crisis in order to solve the economic crisis, and only then will we be able to deal with many of the problems unique to aviation. In the meantime, travel restrictions may lift, only to be put back in place if another outbreak happens. That uncertainty argues for flexibility and creativity, and that’s the hallmark of general aviation.

The post What will general aviation look like after COVID-19? appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/04/what-will-general-aviation-look-like-after-covid-19/

[topworldhistory]

From the man who led the evacuation of USS Arizona to the fighter pilot who took to the skies in his pajamas, learn the stories of eight of the many servicemen who distinguished themselves on one of the darkest days in American military history.

1. Samuel Fuqua

(Credit: U.S. Naval Historical Center)

Missouri-born Samuel Fuqua had a front row seat to the devastation at Pearl Harbor from aboard USS Arizona, a battleship that was heavily bombed during the first wave of the attack. The 42-year-old lieutenant commander was having breakfast when the ship’s air raid sirens first sounded around 7:55 a.m. He immediately rushed to the quarterdeck, only to be strafed by enemy fire and then knocked out cold when a bomb fell just feet away from him. Though dazed, Fuqua jumped to his feet after regaining consciousness and began directing firefighting operations. Moments later, he became the Arizona’s senior surviving officer after another bomb detonated the ship’s ammunition magazine, killing more than 1,000 men. As burned and maimed sailors poured onto the deck, Fuqua ignored gunfire from passing aircraft and calmly led efforts to evacuate his sinking ship. 

“I can still see him standing there,” Arizona crewman Edward Wentzlaff later remembered, “ankle deep in water, stub of a cigar in his mouth, cool and efficient, oblivious to the danger about him.” 

Fuqua was among the last men to abandon ship. He and two fellow officers then commandeered a boat and braved heavy fire while picking up survivors from the fire-streaked waters. He went on to win the Medal of Honor for his actions at Pearl Harbor, and was later promoted to rear admiral upon his retirement from the Navy in 1953.

2. Peter Tomich

(Credit: U.S. Naval Historical Center)

Around the same time Arizona was being bombed, the training and target ship USS Utah was rocked by two torpedo strikes from Japanese aircraft. The aging vessel soon began to list to one side as water flooded into its hull. Inside the boiler room, Chief Watertender Peter Tomich ordered his crew to abandon ship. 

After ensuring that his men had escaped their engineering spaces, the Austro-Hungarian immigrant and World War I veteran returned to his post and singlehandedly secured the boilers, preventing a potential explosion that would have claimed many lives. USS Utah rolled over and sank just minutes later. Fifty-eight men—Tomich among them—went down with the ship. The 48-year-old was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his lifesaving actions, but in an unusual twist, the Navy was unable to locate any of his family members. His award went unclaimed for nearly 65 years until 2006, when it was finally presented to a relative during a ceremony in Split, Croatia.

3. George Welch and Kenneth Taylor

Taylor (left) and Welch. (Credit: U.S. Air Force)

Army Air Corps pilots George Welch and Kenneth Taylor spent the evening before the Pearl Harbor attack attending a formal dance and playing poker until the wee hours of the morning. They were still sleeping off their night of partying when they were awakened around 8 a.m. by the sound of exploding bombs and machine gun fire. Not wanting to miss out on a fight, the pair threw on their tuxedo pants and sped to Haleiwa airfield in Taylor’s Buick, dodging strafing Japanese planes along the way. Just minutes later, they became the first American pilots to get airborne after they took off in their P-40 fighters. 

Welch and Taylor went on to wage a lonely battle against hundreds of enemy planes. They even landed at Wheeler airfield at one point and had their ammunition replenished before rejoining the fray. By the time the attack ended, the second lieutenants had shot down at least six fighters and bombers between them. Both were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for their high flying exploits, and Taylor was given a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound he received when his P-40 was struck by machine gun fire.

4. Doris Miller

(Credit: U.S. Navy)

Doris Miller’s skin color usually relegated him to the role of cook and laundry attendant aboard USS West Virginia, but when the ship was struck by multiple bombs and torpedoes on December 7, he became one of its most vital crewmembers. Miller had rushed to his battle station amidships as soon as the shooting started. Finding it destroyed, the amateur boxer sprinted to the quarterdeck and used his hulking frame to help move the injured. Miller was among the men who carried the ship’s mortally wounded skipper to safety, and he then helped pass ammunition to the crews of two .50 caliber machine guns. 

Despite having no weapons training, he eventually manned one of the weapons himself and began blasting away at the Japanese fighters swarming around the ship. “It wasn’t hard,” he later remembered. “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine…I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.” 

Miller continued to operate the gun for some 15 minutes until ordered to abandon ship. His actions earned him the Navy Cross—the first ever presented to an African American—and he was widely hailed as a war hero in the black press. He later toured the country promoting war bonds before being reassigned to the escort carrier Liscome Bay. Sadly, Miller was among the 646 crewmen killed when the ship was torpedoed and sunk in 1943.

5. John Finn

John Finn signs autographs following the opening ceremony for the Medal of Honor Society Convention, September 15, 2009. (Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Chief Petty Officer John Finn was still lying in bed with his wife when Japanese fighter planes descended on his post at the Kaneohe Bay air station some 15 miles from Pearl Harbor. After throwing on clothes and driving to the base, he commandeered a .30 caliber machine gun and dragged it to an open area with a clear view of the sky. For the next two-and-a-half hours, Finn kept up a near-constant rate of fire against the strafing hordes of Zeroes, and may have been responsible for destroying at least one plane. 

“I can’t honestly say I hit any,” he remembered in 2001. “But I shot at every damn plane I could see.” Finn suffered more than 20 wounds from bullets and shrapnel during the battle. One shot left him with a broken foot; another completely incapacitated his left arm. He received medical aid after the attack ended, but returned to duty that same day to assist in arming American planes. Finn’s machine gun heroics won him the Medal of Honor—the only one awarded specifically for a combat action during Pearl Harbor. He would go on to survive the war and live to the age of 100.

6. George Walters

Damage to USS Pennsylvania following the attack. (Credit: U.S. Naval Historical Center)

One of the many civilians to win plaudits during the Pearl Harbor attack, George Walters was a dockyard worker who manned a massive rolling crane positioned alongside the dry-docked battleship USS Pennsylvania. When the yard came under fire during the early stages of the raid, he valiantly moved his crane back and forth on its track, effectively shielding Pennsylvania from low flying dive-bombers and fighters. Walters even tried to use the crane’s boom to swat the enemy planes out of the sky. 

The gunners on Pennsylvania initially considered the dockworker a nuisance, but they soon realized that his 50-foot-high cab gave him an excellent view of incoming aircraft. Using the movements of the crane arm as a guide, they were able to return fire against the enemy to devastating effect. Walters continued his suicidal maneuvers until a Japanese bomb exploded on the dock and sent him to the hospital with a concussion. His actions may have helped save Pennsylvania from destruction, but his story went largely untold until 1957, when it appeared in author Walter Lord’s famous book Day of Infamy.

7. Edwin Hill

(Credit: U.S. Naval Historical Center)

USS Nevada was the only ship from Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row to make a break for the open ocean, but its great escape might never have happened if not for the efforts of 47-year-old Chief Boatswain Edwin Hill. Shortly after the battle began, Hill and a small crew braved heavy fire and strafing to go ashore and cut the moorings holding the Nevada to the quay at Ford Island. He then dove into the oil-stained water and swam back to his ship to continue the fight. As Hill directed an ammunition train, Nevada ran a gauntlet of enemy fire and tried to steam out of the harbor. The lone battleship was an obvious target, however, and after taking repeated hits from Japanese dive-bombers, its captain opted to beach his vessel to avoid bottling up the rest of the fleet. 

Chief Hill was soon called into action a final time. He was on the forecastle working to drop anchor when a group Japanese planes rained bombs on the deck, blowing his body off the ship and killing him instantly. Hill was later posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. USS Nevada, meanwhile, survived Pearl Harbor and went on to participate in the Normandy invasion in 1944.

8. Phil Rasmussen

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Phil Rasmussen was one of the handful of American pilots who managed to take to the skies during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Like many others, the 23-year-old second lieutenant was still sleeping when his post at Wheeler Field was bombed, but he rushed outside and found an undamaged P-36 fighter sitting on the runway. Still clad in a pair of purple pajamas, Rasmussen took off and joined three other pilots in a dogfight against 11 Japanese aircraft. His plane was slower and less maneuverable than the enemy Zeroes, but he quickly managed to shoot one of them down. He then crippled another plane before two Japanese pilots raked his P-36 with machine gun and cannon fire, leaving behind some 500 bullet holes. Another Zero just narrowly missed when it tried to ram him. Rasmussen’s canopy was blown off and he briefly lost control, but he managed to right his damaged plane and make a miraculous landing without brakes, rudders or a tail wheel. The young pilot was awarded a Silver Star for his bravery, and went on to serve in the Air Force for another 24 years before retiring as a colonel.

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack killed 2,403 service members and wounded 1,178 more, and sank or destroyed six U.S. ships. They also destroyed 169 U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps planes.

View the 17 images of this gallery on the original article

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/2OOimot December 03, 2019 at 09:40PM

[seanoheronlukebrownyachts-blog]

US $ 2,565,000.00

Come aboard at the Palm Beach Boat Show March 28th – 31st – Ramp 8

Additional Specs, Equipment and Information:

Boat Name

ARMAGNAC

Specs

Builder: Offshore Flag of Registry: United States

Dimensions

LOA: 76 ft 0 in Beam: 19 ft 3 in Maximum Draft: 5 ft 8 in Dry Weight: 140000 lbs

Engines

Engine 1: Engine Brand: Caterpillar Engine Model: C-32 Engine Type: Inboard Engine/Fuel Type: Diesel Location: Port Engine Hours: 1560 Engine Power: 1550 HP

Engine 2: Engine Brand: Caterpillar Engine Model: C-32 Engine Type: Inboard Engine/Fuel Type: Diesel Location: Starboard Engine Hours: 1560 Engine Power: 1550 HP

Tanks

Fresh Water Tanks: (600 Gallons) Fuel Tanks: (2400 Gallons)

Accommodations

Number of cabins: 3 Number of heads: 4

Introduction This one owner 76 Offshore features a long list of desirable options in addition to the industry’s most impressive standard equipment inventory.

Armagnac features optional Caterpillar C-32 1550 HP engines and a breathtaking high gloss interior finish that will impress the most demanding future owner. Add to that, bow & stern thrusters, ABT 9 sq. ft. stabilizers, two Northern Lights 25 KW generators, his and hers heads in the master stateroom, plus excellent crew quarters aft of the engine room….In short, a total “big boat” systems design with the legendary Crealock “Softest ride on the water” hull design, built for all sea and weather conditions!

Annual maintenance just performed on 10/22/18 to include but not limited to: Engine/Generator service, bottom paint, zincs, hull wax, and thru hull service.

Hull Design Planing hull, deep vee bow entry, generous flair @ bow sections, raised chine, prop pockets, integral swim platform, keel extension for propeller protection, underwater exhaust with FRP exhaust barriers.

Hull Construction • Hand laminated FRP utilizing only bi‐directional & uni‐directional material, vacuum bagged Core Cell • Solid laminate below the water line with high quality ISO & Vinylester resins • Full‐length hull girders of high density foam cores with bi & uni‐directional material • Exterior hull finish in high gloss “Cook” gel coat, Reichold Hydrex Vinylester resin laminate • Multiple athwartship girders reducing panel size and increase impact strength • Cored structural bulkheads padded @ hull, bonded as per schedule • Full length keel increasing directional stability and propeller protection • Putty coated bilges for smooth finish • All bonding of hull to deck, roofs to cabins done with FRP, exterior finished w/gel coat • 30 mil epoxy barrier coating and bottom paint with limited 3‐year osmosis warranty • Sealed bow compartment with water tight hatch • Structural upper and lower FRP rub rails capped with solid stainless steel • Prop Pockets to reduce propeller draft • Raised chine to reduce wave noise at anchor • Port and starboard hull doors for convenient access • Portlights recessed in hull sides for protection • Hull side port lights thru bolted for added safety • Detail/whale stripe enhancing appearance

Superstructure and Deck • Hand laminated FRP utilizing bi‐directional & uni‐directional material w/Core Cell sandwich, high quality ISO resin, vacuum bagging, deck mechanically & FRP bonded to hull • Suitable high compression cores as required for hardware mounting • Exterior finished w/high gloss “Cook” gel coat all surfaces, two tone non‐skid finish at decks • Main deck soles and engine room bulkheads padded & cored w/appropriate sandwich materials • High bulwarks protecting recessed walkaround decks • Leak proof window frames molded into cabin sides • Gel coated joint at overhead deck liner to main cabin sides • Molded in multiple facet & plank lines for detailed appearance & strength

External Parts • Hand laminated FRP construction utilizing Core Cell sandwich vacuum bagging where appropriate of exterior doors, molded in recessed window & door frames & exterior window frames, radar arch, internal storage bins, port & starboard bulwark doors • Molded & gel coated finish of interiors of all FRP hatches & doors • FRP forward fashion plates and rear fashion plates • Tinted tempered window glass (10mm forward, 8mm side and aft) • Flush FRP recessed access boxes for exterior plumbing & electrical fittings • Exterior materials of gel coated FRP, stainless or optional teak, no exposed aluminum

Propulsion System • Twin C‐32 1550HP “Caterpillar” diesel engines with vibration damping mounts, 24V/75Amp alternators, ZF‐550A 2.64:1 gears w/Centra dampening & live PTO • Stainless steel #316 (w/316‐L rod) exhaust risers w/zinc plugs connecting to FRP underwater system w/bypass pipes to “Aqua Quiet” mufflers • 3″ “Aquamet #22 High Strength” propeller shafts • Bronze V struts with “Cutlass” bearings & damping insulation • Bronze intermediate struts with “Cutlass” bearings • Five blade expanded ratio computer designed propellers • Hydrodynamic stainless‐steel rudders per design • Dripless propeller shaft glands (“Tides”) with dual cooling lines • “Tides” rudder shaft seal and bearings • ABT 9′ roll fin hydraulic stabilizers and 40 hp bow & stern thrusters w/hydraulic raw water cooling pump • Twin Disc electronic engine controls @ pilothouse, flybridge and aft deck • “Hynautic” power steering system • Engine room start/stop panels with engine gages • Visual & audio alarms for engine systems @ pilothouse & flybridge

Engine Room and Bilges • Annual maintenance just performed on 10/22/18 to include but not limited to: Engine/Generator service, bottom paint, zincs, hull wax, and thru hull service. • White aluminum perforated covering on overhead, side, forward, aft engine room bulkheads covering multiple layers of the latest technology sound insulation • Welded stainless steel engine beds (electro polished) • Two marine grade aluminum fuel tanks @ forward bulkhead, sight gauges (900 gallons each) • All aluminum fuel tanks insulated to minimize condensation and noise transfer • Vinylester/FRP keel/center line fuel tank (700 gallons) • Fuel manifold system for supply & return management with 2″ crossover for port or starboard fuel fill • Sight gages (marine grade w/protective guard) at forward bulkhead fuel tanks • Marine grade bronze sea cocks for through hull skin fittings • “Groco” sea strainers at all raw water intakes • Main seawater intakes plumbed for emergency bilge pump use • Full flow stainless ball valves for all piping systems • Dual Racor marine filter system with vacuum gauge for main engines • Racor #500 marine filter systems with vacuum gauge for both generators • Tank level indicator system for fuel, water and waste tanks • Six high output 24v bilge pumps w/”Ultra” automatic switches & high‐water alarms • High output “Whale” 40 manual bilge pump • “Delta‐T” engine air intake system minimizing water ingestion, recessed & color matched to exterior • Four “Delta‐T” 11″ 120V/AC engine room blowers • Engine room 24V/DC lights X 4pcs and 120V/AC fluorescent lamps X 4 PCS • Engine room video camera system (2 cameras) • “Fire Boy” MA 1800 automatic fire extinguishing system w/engine shut down system • Stainless steel safety rails along inboard engine stringers • 24v “Reverso” fuel transfer pump • “Reverso” 24V/AC oil change system with 2 x 30‐gal oil tanks for main engines, transmissions & both generators • 24v low profile S/S dome lights @ forward pump room & thruster/chain area • Fresh water wash down faucet in engine room • Integrated overhead storage lockers above engines • Stainless floorboard frames, floorboards covered with non‐skid vinyl & trimmed with teak • Labels on all thru hulls

Equipment • Dual “Muir” 3,500lb 24V vertical anchor windlass’ with three station controls • Dual stainless CQR 110 lb. bow anchors with 300 ft 7/16” HT chain each and chain stoppers • “Hynautic” 62” trim tabs with controls @ pilothouse and fly bridge • “Steelhead” 2000 lb. hydraulic davit with cable, boom and rotation functions • “Marine Air” 90,000 BTU expansion air conditioning system • “Reverso” 24V/AC oil change system with 2 x 30‐gal oil tanks • Triple “Buell” low profile dual trumpet air horn w/120v compressor, compressor outlets @ lazarette & engine room • “Exalto” stainless articulating windshield wipers w/washer system • 5 “Tecma” silent flush heads • 120v “Headhunter” holding tank discharge pump • 24v “Sealand” standby macerator pump • Deck discharge for holding tank • Six 24v bilge pumps with “Ultra” automatic switches • “Ultra” system high water bilge alarm w/warning lights at pilothouse • Gate valve at each watertight structural bulkhead • “Headhunter Mach 5” 120v fresh water pressure pump w/filter & accumulator tank • “Headhunter” 24v standby water pressure pump • “Allcraft” 35 gallon and 12‐gallon 220v s/s hot water heaters • Two shower sump tanks designed for convenient access • Port & starboard (or fore & aft) dockside water pressure connection • Central drain system minimizing thru hull fittings • “NuTone” Central Vacuum System • Two Salon AC 12BTU Air Handlers • 18BTU AC Handler with 16BTU

Electrical System • Two “Northern Lights” 25 KW diesel generators, 24V start w/whisper sound shield with gas/water exhaust separators and E.A.R. anti vibration mounts • Four “MKl” 8D gel cell main engine start batteries (24v) • Two “MK” 4D gel cell generator start batteries (24v) • Ten “MK” 8D gel cell batteries for ship’s 24v system • Battery cross over capability for main engine and generator batteries • “Xantrex” SW‐40/24 4kw inverter/120Amp charger with high temp. shut down • “Newmar” PT‐24‐40CE, 24V ship service back up charger with high temp. shut down • “Newmar” PT‐24‐20CE, 24V engine battery charger with high temp. shut down • Additional 60amp 24v alternator on each engine for ship service systems • Digital DC charge rate, DC amp meters and DC voltmeters • 24V & 12V back‐lit distribution/circuit breaker panels w/amp & volt meters • 120V & 24OV back‐lit distribution/circuit breaker panels w/amp & voltmeters • Four “Mastervolt” 20amp converters, 24V to 12V • Two Charles Marine 50amp isolation transformers • “Marinco” Shore power 125/250V‐50A, phone and TV cable inlets port & starboard side (or fore & aft) • “Glendinning” CM‐7 cable master, 24OV 5O amp w/75′ cable located aft • Vimar switches and outlets in accommodations and living areas • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” lighting w/dimmer controls throughout • Wall sconces or reading lights in staterooms and heads as appropriate • GFI breaker protection as appropriate @ deck, galley, heads, engine room & lazarette • Breaker protection at each AC source • Electrolysis bonding & grounding system w/two 6” x 12” zinc plates and shaft scratchers • High quality shielded RG‐6 CO AX for TVs • Tinned high temperature wiring, UL approved • “Panasonic” phone/intercom system, 7 stations • “Winegard” TV antenna booster & selector switch • ACR Search light • Spreader lights at radar arch

Electronics and Navigation Equipment FOR BOTH PILOTHOUSE AND FLYBRIDGE: • Garmin 7215 Chart Plotter / GPS • Garmin GM1 10 multi display wind/depth • Furuno RD33 depth • Simrad AP28 autopilot �� ICOM‐M604 radio • ICOM Command Mic II two stations • Furuno NavNet Vx2 radar

Entertainment • “BOSE” Stereo system • Direct TV with 5 SAT receivers • 37” LCD TV @ salon & “Polk Audio” surround speakers @ Salon • “Polk Audio” speakers @ pilothouse, master, VIP, mid guest cabin • 20” TV @ master stateroom, 15” TV @ VIP and mid guest stateroom • DVD player

Main Deck • Walkaround decks with high bulwarks midships • Two tone non‐skid @ all decks, pilothouse roof white non‐skid • Molded in multiple facet & plank lines for appearance and strength • Exterior stainless 316 grade (including screws, bolts & nuts), welds ground & polished • 1 ¼” s/s hand rails and bow • Port and starboard bulwark doors • “MarQuipt” three step side boarding ladder with integral bulwark FRP storage locker @ starboard deck • “Manship” overhead hatches w/”Oceanaire” sliding screens/shades • “Manship” s/s port lights powder coated to match gel coat • 316 s/s hawse holes w/cleats, 316 s/s bow chocks, 316 s/s deck cleats • Waterproof “Cantalupi” deck lights and LED safety lights • Aluminum reinforced exterior doors, exterior covered w/FRP & gel coated, interiors covered w/matching interior wood, stainless steel door frames • Bow & stern staffs, s/s sockets allowing port & starboard deck access from pilothouse • Port & starboard storage lockers at bow • Fresh and salt water wash downs at bow

Aft Deck Cockpit and Sport Deck • Aft deck engine & thruster controls, rudder indicator & engine start‐stop switches • Port aft deck storage cabinet with covered sink, Isotherm refer & teak ventilation grates • Starboard aft deck storage cabinet with hatch/ladder to lazarette, crew & engine room • Molded FRP seat • S/S ladder to boat deck with overhead hatch • Two aft deck flood lights with molded FRP pods • Hand held shower @ sport deck • Fresh water wash down @ sport deck • Poly Planar water proof speakers in aft deck overhead with volume control • Camera at aft deck • 60″ swim platform with 4 removable stainless 2″ diameter U‐handrails • S/S pop up cleats @ sport deck • S/S swim ladder @ sport deck folding into storage locker • Teak Decking at California Deck, Port & Starboard Stairs to Cockpit • Teak Cap rail at California Deck • Single large aft deck table with fore and aft slide • Double Gaggenau BBQ with safety switches at starboard aft deck cabinet • Aft deck wing doors

Flybridge and Boat Deck • Manship door/hatch access to/from pilothouse • Strataglass equivalent Enclosure • Helm station w/complete engine instrumentation, function alarms & rudder indicator • Lexan Venturi windshield w/stainless steel frame • Two Pompanette AS21 Helm chairs s/s flush mount pedestals with 360 degrees stainless-steel footrest • FRP “L” seat, storage under with teak ventilation slats • Two large boat deck teak with holly inlay tables with stainless-steel supports posts • Starboard cabinets with sink, stainless steel “Isotherm 85” refrigerator & teak ventilation grates • FRP radar arch with flood lights with molded FRP pods with additional custom stainless‐steel Radar Arch • Steelhead 2,000 lb. hydraulic cable, boom and rotation davit w/ dedicated hydraulic system • Maxwell Chain Counter • Boat deck drained to waterline with integral drains and scuppers • 1 ¼” s/s handrails @ boat deck w/welded s/s life lines • “Manship” stainless-steel hatch and stainless-steel ladder to California deck with stainless-steel safety rail • Stainless-steel ladder to hard top roof • Fresh water wash down outlet • Poly Planar waterproof speakers in radar arch with volume control • Custom hard top w/ stainless steel radar arch w/ dome & radar mounts

Pilothouse • Helm station w/complete engine instrumentation, function alarms & rudder indicator • Hart tank tender system for liquid levels • “Tank Watch” level indicators at holding tanks • Maxwell Chain Counter • Back lit AC & DC distribution/breaker panels • Chart table/locker w/navigation lights and magnetic compass • Halogen “Cantalupi” lighting w/dimmer controls • Rocker switches with indicator lights for bilge pumps, lighting & other functions • Three stainless “Exalto” articulating windshield wipers w/washer system • Port and starboard water tight doors with stainless articulating hinges and stainless frames • Two ventilation overhead hatches with “Oceanaire” sliding screens/shades • Two “Stidd” 500‐200 helm chairs upholstered in ultra‐leather • Raised “L” seat with dining table • Padded vinyl forward helm console counter top • Padded soft vinyl removable headliner • Installed Weems and Plath bilge counters • Mahogany plank with carpet inlay

Salon • Automatic electric opener @ sliding aft door w/fixed glass windows • Optional aft stairway to owner’s stateroom • Low large windows for “sit down” visibility • Built in “L” settee with two low plywood armrests • 37″ LCD TV & “Polk Audio” surround sound speakers • Pop‐Up TV Lift for 37″ TV • Solid wood crown molding surrounding salon • Lambrequins at windows • Halogen “Cantalupi” lighting w/dimmer controls & four 120v wall sconces • Tebe Art Pivot Light at forward port salon with Vimar dimmer • Padded soft vinyl removable headliner with burl inlay wood trim • Buffet cabinet with granite counter top at forward bulkhead • U‐Line Wine Cooler • Forward Lobby: upper cabinet over laundry area with lights and dimmer, marble crema Marfil counter top and marble backsplash • Forward Lobby: baseboards on lower lobby walls and starboard stairway

Galley • Black Galaxy Granite counter tops w/overhead hanging storage cabinets • Halogen overhead lighting w/dimmer control, under cabinet lighting • Fold out soap tray @ galley sink • Drawers and cabinets fitted w/push pull latches & lined with Formica • Large pantry w/slide out shelves & counter cabinets w/slide out shelves • “Franke” single S/S sink PCX 110‐21 with “Grohe” faucet • “Grohe” soap dispenser • “InSinkErator” ‐ S/S Classic 1Hp stainless steel garbage disposal with top switch • “Broan” trash compactor • “GE” 18″ dishwasher AC 120V (Stainless) • “GE” 30″ 220v cook top w/adjustable pot holders • “GE” 24″220V oven (below cook top) (Stainless) • “GE” Microwave/convection oven w/exhaust fan AC 120V (Stainless) • “GE” side by side refrigerator Artica 36” AC 120V (Stainless) • Solid wood crown molding surrounding galley • Mahogany plank sole • Stainless Steel Tile Backsplash

Master Stateroom • King size walk around bed with drawers & lockers under • Four large windows with storm covers • Cedar lined hanging lockers (2 large) • Built in upholstered seat w/ storage • Polk Audio speakers • 32” LCD TV with bureau drawers below • DVD Player • Insulated/cored aft & forward bulkheads • Solid wood crown molding surrounding stateroom • Halogen overhead lighting (“Cantalupi”) with dimmer controls • (2) reading lights with Vimar dimmer • (2) sconces over nightstands with Vimar dimmer • One‐piece beveled mirror over master headboard • Vanity and drawers with mirror and sconces on forward wall • Drawers and cabinet on starboard bulkhead • Curved cabinet doors to starboard cabinet • Safety escape hatch at overhead w/ drop down ladder • Padded soft vinyl removable headliner • Carpet on cabin sole

His and Hers Master Heads • Solid Mahogany high gloss finish counter tops w/6″ back & side splash w/ceramic sink, marble seat in shower • “Newport Brass” faucets, towel bars and towel rings • “Tecma” silent flush toilets (x2) • Shower with polished stainless‐steel frame, frosted glass doors with clear border trim and integral towel bars w/teak grates • Solid wood crown molding surrounding head • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” lighting with dimmer control • Ultra‐quiet ventilation system • Mahogany plank soles • Two opening s/s port lights powder coated to match gel coat • (2) sconces with Vimar dimmer

VIP Stateroom Forward • Queen size island bed w/hinged top (or “V” berths) with drawers below • Cedar lined hanging lockers • Polk Audio speakers • 15” LCD TV • DVD Player • Solid wood overhead molding surrounding stateroom • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” lighting with dimmer control & berth lighting • Safety escape/ventilating hatch to forward deck with “Oceanaire” shade/screen • Two “Manship” s/s opening port lights powder coated to match gel coat • Padded soft vinyl removable headliner • Carpet on cabin sole

VIP Head Forward • Marble counter top w/6″ back & side splash w/ceramic sink • Beveled mirror • Marble seat in shower • “Newport Brass” Faucets, towel bars and towel ring • Opening s/s port light powder coated to match gel coat • “Tecma” silent flush toilet • Solid wood crown molding surrounding head • Shower W/frameless glass door and integral towel bar w/teak grate • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” lighting with dimmer control • Mahogany plank sole • Ultra‐quiet ventilation system

Guest Stateroom – Mid • Twin berths or bunks with desk • Mirror at aft berth wall • Cedar lined hanging locker • 15” LCD TV • DVD Player • Polk Audio speakers • Solid wood overhead molding surrounding stateroom • Halogen overhead Cantalupi lighting with dimmer control & berth lighting • One “Manship” s/s opening port lights powder coated to match gel coat • Padded soft vinyl removable headliner • Carpet on cabin sole

Guest Head – Mid • Marble counter top w/6″ back & side splash w/ceramic sink • Beveled mirrors on fore and aft walls overhead counter • Marble seat in shower • “Newport Brass” Faucets, towel bars and towel ring • Opening s/s port light powder coated to match gel coat • “Tecma” silent flush toilet • Shower W/frameless glass door and integral towel bar w/teak grate • Solid wood crown molding surrounding head • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” lighting with dimmer control • Mahogany plank sole • Ultra‐quiet ventilation system

Crew Cabin and Head • Two single bunks • Hanging locker • 15″ LCD TV • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” lighting with dimmer control • Marbleite counter top & sink with Grohe faucet • Enclosed head with “Tecma” toilet and FRP shower • Ultra‐quiet ventilation system • Two “Manship” s/s opening port lights powder coated to match gel coat • “Lonseal” vinyl wood sole • Sink & faucet, refrigerator and microwave for crew

Lazarette • Watertight access door to swim step/cockpit area • Maytag washer & dryer • 40‐gallon crew holding tank with monitor in pilothouse • Cabinets covered in off‐white Formica with teak trim • Work surfaces covered with brushed s/s with teak sea rails • Halogen overhead “Cantalupi” work lighting • Two opening portlights • Vinyl sole • Built in tool box • Full height storage cabinet on forward bulkhead with adjustable shelves

Safety Package • Horn • Ships bell • (6) Type 1 Life Jackets • (6) Type II Life Jackets • 24″ Life Ring • Hand held fire extinguishers (1 TYPE 1, 2 TYPE 11) • Flare gun kit • U.S.C.G. Navigation rules

Miscellaneous Standards • Entire main deck & lower deck interior finished in Mahogany w/ high gloss finish • Solid brass interior door hardware and locks • (4) Polyform fenders • (6) Braided dock lines

Exclusions • All personal items and art (two paintings and 1 sculpture)

Disclaimer The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.

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76′ Offshore Motoryacht 2010 “Armagnac” US $ 2,565,000.00 Come aboard at the Palm Beach Boat Show March 28th - 31st - Ramp 8…

[roberttarkington]

The Ultimate Guide to the Different Corvette Models

What color would you pick as the most popular Corvette color? Black? Red? It must be something bold and sporty.

Wrong, it’s Arctic White at 20.3%. Even if you combine the two red options, Torch Red and Long Beach Red, they only total 20.2% of the 2018 Corvettes purchases.

There are ten different colors that Corvette owners can choose from. This is just the start of the customization options available for the different Corvette models.

Use our guide to get familiar with the history of models and which ones are in production today.

Corvette Models Through the Years

The first Corvettes rolled off the line in 1953. It quickly became the symbol of American sports car pride.

C1- The Birth of a Legend

The first Corvettes began as a display at the New York Auto Show. People loved it so much that GM made 300 of them in production.

By the second year, that number ballooned to 3.640 cars. Owners had a choice of blue, white, red, and black. These first models are highly valued and fetch high dollars when fully restored.

The models at the end of this generation had both performance and styling upgrades. 1955 brought the inclusion of the V8 engine.

Other developments included the steering wheel, headlamps, and exhaust tips. The 1962 car was the last model to be a part of this generation. It was also the last Corvette to have the wraparound windshield.

C2- The V8 Reigns

The second generation of models was in production from 1963 to 1967. The first generation were all convertibles. This one included a coupe model.

The hidden headlights made their debut during this generation. The rear suspension was also upgraded to an independent setup.

In 1965 the Rochester fuel injection system was no longer used. A 6.49 “big block” V8 engine began to be in use.

The creature comforts within the car were given an upgrade. This included AC, headrests, telescoping steering wheel, and a radio.

C3- The Iconic Body Debuts

From 1968 to 1982 the Corvette third generation remained mostly unchanged apart from some body modifications. The first removable T-top roof was made available during this generation.

In 1978 a special fastback model with upgraded interior celebrated the 20-year anniversary milestone. Other special edition models included a Silver Anniversary model and an Indy 500 Pace Car.

The body of the Corvette saw development in the 1980s. During this time the car became more aerodynamic, adopting the curves the car is famous for.

C4- 40 Years of Power

The Corvette got its first complete redesign with the coming of the fourth generation. Owners of this new generation enjoyed an LCD digital display on the dashboard.

The first cars off the line had 4-speed manual transmissions with auto overdrive in the top end gears. This was done in an attempt to satisfy fuel economy goals. But this was a huge fail, and the transmissions were changed to a 6-speed manual.

Corvette celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special model of C4. A Ruby Red model with special 40th-anniversary badges and embroidery came off the line in 1993.

C5- The Beginning of the Modern Era

Fifth generation Corvettes brought another complete overhaul of the car. These cars are closest to the models we are familiar with today. They are also the generation that experienced a boom in both OEM and aftermarket parts for customization.

Much of the technology used today began during this generation. The car received a major weight reduction with an aluminum engine and new chassis design.

Other improvements included twin fuel tanks, staggered wheel sizing, and improved fuel economy. Owners also got a choice of either the coupe or convertible design.

In 2001 the Z06 made a re-debut as the highest performing model ever. It had an upgraded rigid roof, upgraded engine and brakes. This model handled like on rails as it prowled the streets.

C6- Refining Perfection

GM shook up Corvette enthusiast’s worlds by refining the C5 model for the 6th generation release. Gone were the signature popup headlights.

This brought conflicting feelings. Some were happy to no longer deal with the notoriously faulty headlamps that often resulted in a “winking” look. Others thought that GM followed the pack of other sports car looks.

The interior brought unanimous enjoyment with improved quality and significantly more room. Under the hood got a boost with a 6-liter displacement LS2 engine.

This gave drivers a ton more horsepower, but a big decline in fuel economy. Not to rest on their laurels, GM beefed up the engine again in 2008 with a 6-speed manual transmission.

Those familiar with classic Corvette models recognized the return of the “Grand Sport” moniker. It sported the same steel frame and upgraded engine as the Z06.

C7- the Latest Corvette Model

Today the Corvette has a meaner, more angular look to its classic shape. Gone are the days of soft womanly curves. Today’s sportier look came in response to its reputation of being “an old man’s car”.

Gone are the signature round taillights, now a square shape to match the new angular look. Carbon fiber was also added to give the car a tougher, sportier look.

Owners have the option to choose from a few different corvette trim levels. This new generation has also inspired a large aftermarket industry of Corvette C7 parts.

Stingray

If you are looking for a base model Corvette, then the Stingray is for you. Even being the entry to the Corvette models, it still boasts a powerful 460 horsepower and 465 torque.

The 6.2L V8 engine will take you from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. The performance under the hood comes paired with creature comforts and luxury in the cockpit.

Owners enjoy the heads-up display, Apple CarPlay, and bucket seating. Three different trim levels come available in the Stingray.

The 1LT gives you a 9 speaker Bose audio system, 2 8-inch HD color displays, and a driver mode selector. The 2LT adds additional interior color trim, heated/ vented seating, heads-up display, and 10 speaker audio system. The 3LT package adds custom leather and suede interior seating and trim and a performance data recorder.

Grand Sport

When buying a Grand Sport, you will get everything that comes with the Stingray, plus more. For starters, horsepower and torque get a boost to 460 and 465 respectively.

Large Brembo brakes and Michelin Pilot Super Sports give you grip and control on the road. While a Magnetic Selective Ride Control gives you real-time adjustments to your suspension letting you push performance even harder.

The same three trim levels give owners the ability to tailor the interior to their tastes. Choose from the 1LT, 2TL, and 3LT options we discussed with the Stingray.

Z06

Maybe you’re thinking, sure the Stingray and Grand Sport are nice, but I want MORE. Let me introduce you to the Z06.

This next step up in Corvette models brings you 650 horsepower and 650 torque. The Z06 is for the performance minded owner with development performed in line with the C7 R race car.

The supercharged 6.5L V8 engine will take you from 0 to 60 in a fast 2.95 seconds. Following the trend, you have three options for trim 1LZ, 2LZ, and 3LZ.

What comes with your trim varies slightly with this model. The 1LZ package includes a 9 speaker Bose audio system, heads-up display, drive mode selector, and 2 8-inch HD color displays.

The 2LZ package adds on additional interior color accenting, heated/vented seats, 10 speakers Bose audio system, and front parking cameras. The 3LZ package adds custom wrapped leather to your interior.

It also includes Napa leather seats and suede on the trim and headliner. Performance data tracking and navigation also come included.

ZR1

Are you someone won’t settle for anything but the best? The ZR1 is the car for you. This model goes from 0 to 60 in just 2.85 seconds thanks to its supercharged 6.2L V8 engine.

You have your choice of a 7-speed manual or 8-speed paddle shift transmissions. Thanks to the beefed-up performance, you can expect a top track speed of 212 MPH.

Carbon fiber is present throughout the car reducing weight and pushing the car further in its one goal, performance. Features include a carbon fiber rear wing, 4 mode exhaust, carbon fiber hood venting, and 19/20-inch aluminum wheels.

The supercharger gives you 52% larger displacement and peak boost pressure of 13 psi. All of this helps you take full advantage of the 755 horsepower and 715 pounds of torque.

Carbon 65

2108 marks the 65th anniversary of the Corvette. Staying true to tradition, a special edition model celebrates the milestone.

This appearance model package comes on the Grand Sport and Z06 3LT models. This special edition package features carbon fiber accenting, racing seats, and signature grey paint.

An American Legacy Continues

Whatever generation of Corvette models you own, you can take pride in knowing you have a piece of American tradition and pride. The Corvette is a part of our culture as much as apple pie and baseball.

How do you celebrate this? By upgrading and restoring your car with OEM or aftermarket parts. The Corvette culture is rich with owners taking their cars to the next level in performance and style.

Before you can get started with modifications, you need your model’s service manual.

The post The Ultimate Guide to the Different Corvette Models appeared first on Auto-Facts.org.

from Tips About Car Care https://www.auto-facts.org/7213/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-different-corvette-models/

[thomaskwilke]

The Ultimate Guide to the Different Corvette Models

What color would you pick as the most popular Corvette color? Black? Red? It must be something bold and sporty.

Wrong, it’s Arctic White at 20.3%. Even if you combine the two red options, Torch Red and Long Beach Red, they only total 20.2% of the 2018 Corvettes purchases.

There are ten different colors that Corvette owners can choose from. This is just the start of the customization options available for the different Corvette models.

Use our guide to get familiar with the history of models and which ones are in production today.

Corvette Models Through the Years

The first Corvettes rolled off the line in 1953. It quickly became the symbol of American sports car pride.

C1- The Birth of a Legend

The first Corvettes began as a display at the New York Auto Show. People loved it so much that GM made 300 of them in production.

By the second year, that number ballooned to 3.640 cars. Owners had a choice of blue, white, red, and black. These first models are highly valued and fetch high dollars when fully restored.

The models at the end of this generation had both performance and styling upgrades. 1955 brought the inclusion of the V8 engine.

Other developments included the steering wheel, headlamps, and exhaust tips. The 1962 car was the last model to be a part of this generation. It was also the last Corvette to have the wraparound windshield.

C2- The V8 Reigns

The second generation of models was in production from 1963 to 1967. The first generation were all convertibles. This one included a coupe model.

The hidden headlights made their debut during this generation. The rear suspension was also upgraded to an independent setup.

In 1965 the Rochester fuel injection system was no longer used. A 6.49 “big block” V8 engine began to be in use.

The creature comforts within the car were given an upgrade. This included AC, headrests, telescoping steering wheel, and a radio.

C3- The Iconic Body Debuts

From 1968 to 1982 the Corvette third generation remained mostly unchanged apart from some body modifications. The first removable T-top roof was made available during this generation.

In 1978 a special fastback model with upgraded interior celebrated the 20-year anniversary milestone. Other special edition models included a Silver Anniversary model and an Indy 500 Pace Car.

The body of the Corvette saw development in the 1980s. During this time the car became more aerodynamic, adopting the curves the car is famous for.

C4- 40 Years of Power

The Corvette got its first complete redesign with the coming of the fourth generation. Owners of this new generation enjoyed an LCD digital display on the dashboard.

The first cars off the line had 4-speed manual transmissions with auto overdrive in the top end gears. This was done in an attempt to satisfy fuel economy goals. But this was a huge fail, and the transmissions were changed to a 6-speed manual.

Corvette celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special model of C4. A Ruby Red model with special 40th-anniversary badges and embroidery came off the line in 1993.

C5- The Beginning of the Modern Era

Fifth generation Corvettes brought another complete overhaul of the car. These cars are closest to the models we are familiar with today. They are also the generation that experienced a boom in both OEM and aftermarket parts for customization.

Much of the technology used today began during this generation. The car received a major weight reduction with an aluminum engine and new chassis design.

Other improvements included twin fuel tanks, staggered wheel sizing, and improved fuel economy. Owners also got a choice of either the coupe or convertible design.

In 2001 the Z06 made a re-debut as the highest performing model ever. It had an upgraded rigid roof, upgraded engine and brakes. This model handled like on rails as it prowled the streets.

C6- Refining Perfection

GM shook up Corvette enthusiast’s worlds by refining the C5 model for the 6th generation release. Gone were the signature popup headlights.

This brought conflicting feelings. Some were happy to no longer deal with the notoriously faulty headlamps that often resulted in a “winking” look. Others thought that GM followed the pack of other sports car looks.

The interior brought unanimous enjoyment with improved quality and significantly more room. Under the hood got a boost with a 6-liter displacement LS2 engine.

This gave drivers a ton more horsepower, but a big decline in fuel economy. Not to rest on their laurels, GM beefed up the engine again in 2008 with a 6-speed manual transmission.

Those familiar with classic Corvette models recognized the return of the “Grand Sport” moniker. It sported the same steel frame and upgraded engine as the Z06.

C7- the Latest Corvette Model

Today the Corvette has a meaner, more angular look to its classic shape. Gone are the days of soft womanly curves. Today’s sportier look came in response to its reputation of being “an old man’s car”.

Gone are the signature round taillights, now a square shape to match the new angular look. Carbon fiber was also added to give the car a tougher, sportier look.

Owners have the option to choose from a few different corvette trim levels. This new generation has also inspired a large aftermarket industry of Corvette C7 parts.

Stingray

If you are looking for a base model Corvette, then the Stingray is for you. Even being the entry to the Corvette models, it still boasts a powerful 460 horsepower and 465 torque.

The 6.2L V8 engine will take you from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. The performance under the hood comes paired with creature comforts and luxury in the cockpit.

Owners enjoy the heads-up display, Apple CarPlay, and bucket seating. Three different trim levels come available in the Stingray.

The 1LT gives you a 9 speaker Bose audio system, 2 8-inch HD color displays, and a driver mode selector. The 2LT adds additional interior color trim, heated/ vented seating, heads-up display, and 10 speaker audio system. The 3LT package adds custom leather and suede interior seating and trim and a performance data recorder.

Grand Sport

When buying a Grand Sport, you will get everything that comes with the Stingray, plus more. For starters, horsepower and torque get a boost to 460 and 465 respectively.

Large Brembo brakes and Michelin Pilot Super Sports give you grip and control on the road. While a Magnetic Selective Ride Control gives you real-time adjustments to your suspension letting you push performance even harder.

The same three trim levels give owners the ability to tailor the interior to their tastes. Choose from the 1LT, 2TL, and 3LT options we discussed with the Stingray.

Z06

Maybe you’re thinking, sure the Stingray and Grand Sport are nice, but I want MORE. Let me introduce you to the Z06.

This next step up in Corvette models brings you 650 horsepower and 650 torque. The Z06 is for the performance minded owner with development performed in line with the C7 R race car.

The supercharged 6.5L V8 engine will take you from 0 to 60 in a fast 2.95 seconds. Following the trend, you have three options for trim 1LZ, 2LZ, and 3LZ.

What comes with your trim varies slightly with this model. The 1LZ package includes a 9 speaker Bose audio system, heads-up display, drive mode selector, and 2 8-inch HD color displays.

The 2LZ package adds on additional interior color accenting, heated/vented seats, 10 speakers Bose audio system, and front parking cameras. The 3LZ package adds custom wrapped leather to your interior.

It also includes Napa leather seats and suede on the trim and headliner. Performance data tracking and navigation also come included.

ZR1

Are you someone won’t settle for anything but the best? The ZR1 is the car for you. This model goes from 0 to 60 in just 2.85 seconds thanks to its supercharged 6.2L V8 engine.

You have your choice of a 7-speed manual or 8-speed paddle shift transmissions. Thanks to the beefed-up performance, you can expect a top track speed of 212 MPH.

Carbon fiber is present throughout the car reducing weight and pushing the car further in its one goal, performance. Features include a carbon fiber rear wing, 4 mode exhaust, carbon fiber hood venting, and 19/20-inch aluminum wheels.

The supercharger gives you 52% larger displacement and peak boost pressure of 13 psi. All of this helps you take full advantage of the 755 horsepower and 715 pounds of torque.

Carbon 65

2108 marks the 65th anniversary of the Corvette. Staying true to tradition, a special edition model celebrates the milestone.

This appearance model package comes on the Grand Sport and Z06 3LT models. This special edition package features carbon fiber accenting, racing seats, and signature grey paint.

An American Legacy Continues

Whatever generation of Corvette models you own, you can take pride in knowing you have a piece of American tradition and pride. The Corvette is a part of our culture as much as apple pie and baseball.

How do you celebrate this? By upgrading and restoring your car with OEM or aftermarket parts. The Corvette culture is rich with owners taking their cars to the next level in performance and style.

Before you can get started with modifications, you need your model’s service manual.

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