Mabfan's Musings

The Concorde supersonic transport made its final flight on this date last year.

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I personally never had the opportunity to fly the Concorde. However, a friend of mine who is a lawyer in New York City had the opportunity once when flying back from France on business. His ticket had been upgraded to first class, which meant riding on the Concorde, and he told me the story of his experience. It began with the pilot introducing a new crew member to him; apparently, they assumed that all Concorde passengers were repeat customers who got to know the crew. As for the flight itself, he remarked that the food was unimpressive and the in-flight "entertainment," as it were, was a screen on the seat in front of him displaying their current speed in Mach units (Mach 1 being the speed of sound).

Apparently, if you flew the Concorde, they assumed you were paying for speed and not much else.

gnomi and I attended a High Stakes 2004 party tonight at the home of lucretia_borgia and sethg_prime. Actually, we sort of served as co-hosts, since we provided the DVDs of the TV show FIREFLY for the event.

For those who don't want to click on the link, the idea behind the party is that Joss Whedon, the creator of BUFFY, ANGEL, and FIREFLY, is apparently a strong supporter of John Kerry. One of Whedon's fans decided to organize a set of fundraising parties all over the country in support of the Kerry campaign. The sweetener in the pot was that Whedon participated in a conference call from 5 PM to 5:30 PM EDT, and officially registered parties were given the number to call and a special code to prove that they were entitled to participate. The phone call was listen only, but people were allowed to email their questions in advance, and they selected one question per party at most. I'm pleased to note that they used a question from the party we were part of -- one of the attendees had emailed to ask Whedon who Spike would vote for, were Spike eligible to vote.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a Democrat and can probably guess who I'll be voting for in the election, but despite being politically involved, I'm not very political (if you understand the distinction). So I kind of wondered if Whedon was concerned that his taking a political stand might alienate fans of his who don't agree with his politics.

I'm glad to say that Whedon addressed this very topic at the start of the phone call. He pointed out that he was doing this because he does feel strongly about the election, but at the same time tries to make his TV shows more universal, wanting them to appeal to as many people as possible. And although there were some other recognizable names on the other one of the phone from his shows who obviously are there because they support Kerry, Whedon did note that some actors he works with, such as Adam Baldwin, are not Kerry supporters. Whedon also had some eloquent things to say about how he would address Bush supporters about why he was sponsoring these fundraisers, but since I don't recall exactly what he said I won't even try to quote him, except to say that it was very respectful.

Oh, and as for that question posed before regarding who Spike would vote for? "Probably Nader."

My Mom has been back at home since yesterday, and is feeling much better. Since my other brothers have helped her out and she's doing fine, I will not be heading down to NYC this week, since my presence would be superfluous.

Again, thanks to all for your good wishes.