By David Futrelle
The Spring 2018 kind of came to a weird close, with me knocked out for a couple of days by health crap. And then NEWS HAPPENED and so on and I didn’t have a chance to thank everyone who contributed.
So: HUGE THANKS to everyone who donated, whether your gift was big or small! These contributions, much more than the ad revenue, enable me to keep this blog going. So again, thanks for making this fund drive a big success.
If you meant to donate but hadn’t gotten around to it just yet, click the button below!
Speaking of ads: My goal is to get rid of them entirely. As I mentioned in the post that launched this fund drive, a very generous supporter donated enough last year to allow me to get rid of the most obtrusive ads on the site. And while the donations for this fund drive weren’t quite enough to enable me to get rid of the rest of the ads, we got pretty close; if I get enough extra donations between now and the next fund drive I may be able to chuck the ads after all,
Thanks again to everyone who donated, and to everyone who helps to support this blog in other ways.
Again, if you don’t have cash to spare, you can help a lot by posting links to my posts on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, wherever). And if anyone is a WordPress expert, I can always use help in working through technical snafus.
Here are couple more cats saying thanks. Well, the first one is the same cat as the one above, but I ran it through a different filter. Have I ever mentioned that I like running pics through weird filters?
@Rabid Rabbit
LMAO! Well played, good person, well played!
@epitome
Yeah, the name comes from the planes’ designer, Dutch aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker. I actually find it rather remarkable that all of the names associated with any WWI flying machines quickly vanished into the mists of history. For the Germans, the reason was obvious: the Treaty of Versailles meant no military manufacturing, so Fokker, Pfalz, Albatross… they all had to go elsewhere or manufacture other things in Germany. But the British and French manufacturers like Sopwith, Airco, Nieuport, SPAD, they all either went belly-up or merged into other companies.
Also, a lot of the high-scoring aces led rather charmed lives following the war (the few that survived that is). Charles Nungesser disappeared attempting a transatlantic flight, Barker was an alcoholic who died in a plane crash, Manfred’s brother Lothar survived only to die in a plane crash 4 years after the war, Goering… well, he got fat and became a Nazi, Ernst Udet tried in vain to rebuild the Luftwaffe, only to realize how terrible Nazis were and committed suicide.
Even the American ace of aces Eddie Rickenbacker almost died twice in separate plane crashes and was left adrift at sea, but miraculously survived.
The ones that were considered national heroes during the war like Max Immelmann, Manfred von Richthofen, Georges Guynemer, Frank Luke and James McCudden were all killed in action. Guynemer was only 22 when he disappeared, but he had already been lionized by the French populace and his disappearance and presumed death triggered mourning across the country.
You either die a hero or live long enough to become a fat Nazi, apparently.
Can’t mention Fokkers without this classic.
Well, aviation in those days was newer tech than space travel is now. Anyone who decided to get into flying was likely a thrill-seeking personality, and anyone who did so and survived WWI was probably still a thrill-seeking personality, only with PTSD on top. Roy Brown (credited at the time with shooting down Von Richtofen, probably didn’t, didn’t take credit for it himself, managed the far more impressive feat of never losing any of his squadron in combat) sounds like he was one of the more stable people to have been a WWI ace, and he still died of a heart attack at fifty.
Next year, we’ll be further removed in time from the first space flight, than the first space flight was from the Wright brothers’ flight. So how come we don’t have jet-packs?
@ Alan
Posting links is beyond me but typing ‘real life Iron Man’ into a search engine might lead to a video you would find amusing on the subject of jet packs.
@Katamount
Or you go back home and have a musical written about you, if you happen to be Billy Bishop.