One more shift...

[alexpgp]

Those three words are echoing in my head to the tune of One More Night, and as a result, I am wondering if I have, perhaps, been going at this simultaneous air-to-ground thing a tad too long. I can also feel a sort of wild anticipation of playing the role of the man in the forest who explains his odd behavior by noting "It feels so good once the pain goes away." Ah, well... such thoughts cannot possibly be healthy, so let's turn our attention elsewhere.

Having formulated the thesis that the events of September 11 will be of greater import to the U.S. than was the launch of Sputnik (pronounced SPOOT-nik, and meaning "companion" in Russian), I decided to stop by the Barnes & Noble for a coffee and a browse before returning to Pearland to package the Colorado sales tax return for its journey up to Denver, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. I don't really remember the Sputnik era.

I found a book titled, appropriately, Sputnik, by one Paul Dickson, and bought it after browsing through the front, the back, and in a few pages in between. The coffee was inhaled on the way back to Pearland.

As it turned out, the only thing, really, standing between my sales tax return and a postage stamp was our store's tax account number, which I did not have with me. I went to the post office and proceeded to wait through a huge line, cell phone in hand. When I got to the head of the line, I started letting people go in front of me, as I was eagerly expecting a phone call from home with the required information.

This lasted for 20 minutes, which gave me an opportunity to banter a bit with the counter staff, as the line dried up after a while. Finally, my cell phone squawked, and I got the information I needed and sent the thing, certified mail with return receipt requested, if you please. The Colorado Department of Revenue, it is rumored, is hell on wheels in terms of assessing late fees, and come the 20th of the month, we at the store are inundated with fellow retailers who want to send their return via the same service.

Upon coming home, I happened to glance at the back cover of Sputnik and noticed a familiar name among those offering kudos for the book: Francis Gary Powers.

I do remember that name. Powers was the pilot of a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft that was shot down over the USSR in early 1960. He was later returned to the United States in exchange, I believe, for some Russian spy (Abel?), and came to an end flying a helicopter in California, if memory serves.

A long time ago.

So what was with the endorsement of the book? Had I neglected to note that it had been written, perhaps, 20 or more years ago? No. The book is new. I was starting to get that feeling...

...until I noticed that the quote was attributed to Francis Gary Powers, Jr.. Which, at least, is not outside the realm of possibility.

At any rate, it is after one in the afternoon, and my examine-the-inside-of-my-eyeballs session is overdue. I've taken some melatonin, and will go to sleep shortly.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I remember Sputnik well. I was in college, and one of my engineering profs, Russell von Eschelman, invited a few of us out to the fixed array radiotelescope site to see if Sputnik would fly through the pattern. It didn't, but we heard it on the communications receiver all evening.

More than New York, it was apparent to everyone there that this was a time that changed everything.

这改变一切

[tamaraland.livejournal.com]

Or... as my terrible Mandarin allows, This changes everything.

Of course being a mere infant in the scheme of things Sputnik, I don't know firsthand the changes it made in the world, in fact, I don't think my fontanelle had closed by the time the US put a man on the moon, however, I do think there is a critical difference between the effects of Sputnik and 9/11.

Sputnik taught us that there was a strange, wonderful world out there, and 9/11 taught us of the even more strange and terrible world within. Sputnik's effect was all about opening worlds, not closing them off.

Re: 这改变一切

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about the long-term lesson of Sputnik, but it is my understanding that, at the time, the short-term reaction was one of fear and concern.

I don't have the book at hand, but in his memoir Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam - a coal-miner's son who dreamed of launching rockets and grew up to be a NASA engineer - recounted how the reaction in his neck of the U.S. ran more along the lines of fear that the "Russians" would soon be orbiting nuclear-tipped space stations over the U.S. than of this being the beginning of a new, space-faring era for humanity.

Based on what my parents have told me, such concerns were not voiced exclusively by rural inhabitants.

As it eventually turned out, Sputnik did turn out to be about opening worlds, but it took some time for that realization to kick in. As regards 9/11, you're right: its effect is about closing them off. And I cannot conceive there ever being any other legacy.

Cheers...

Re: 这改变一切

[tamaraland.livejournal.com]

Interesting, with my Buckaroo Banzai-esque upbringing as somewhat of a lingusitic prodigy by a family with a man in the MRBM programme, I never really managed to develop the massive fear of the "other side" that many did. Not sure what kind of effect that has on how I personally digest events such as this.

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