First Date

Posted on July 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, July 11, 2010

It was 5:22 AM Tuesday morning, according to the glowing numbers and letters when he pressed the button on his watch, 8 minutes later than the last time he’d checked.

“Enough already. I’m getting up,” Kenny advised himself out loud, even though he was the only resident of his studio apartment, the largest unit he could afford in the slightly better than crummy neighborhood he’d settled for when he moved to the big city. His first real job out of college, he wasn’t about to put in the hours, the “sweat equity” his father called it, only to max out his potential in a small town company. “Maybe I’ll have time to catch a nap before I leave.” He had the one air conditioner in the window, but it was too noisy to run when he was sleeping, and then there was the fan on a stick he kept in the corner moving slowly left to right, right to left. Kenny got up, turned on the air conditioner, opened the blinds a bit, and waited a couple of seconds for the compressor to come up to speed. “Com’on, baby. One more day.”
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Question of the Day: Are we going to be breathing oil?

Posted on July 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

Friday, July 9, 2010

Hi. As I understand it, oil floats. At least some of the oil that’s leaked from the Deep Water Horizon wellhead is floating at or near the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Open water storms, including hurricanes, pick up moisture from the bodies of water over which they form and from which they derive their energy. Once they make landfall, that water becomes the rain that falls on our yards and streets, and on the crops growing in our fields, and that floods our streams and rivers. More importantly, it is the rain that touches our skin and permeates the air we breathe.

As workers who cleaned up after the Exxon Valdez will tell you, breathing oil isn’t good.

My question is, will the rain from storms crossing the oil in the Gulf contain even microscopic volumes of oil? To what extent does this oil-involved rain pose a health hazard, over what geographic area, and what are we going to do about it?

Anybody out there know?

Oh, in case you’re assuming our crackerjack government is on top of the problem, don’t hold your breath – unless, of course, it’s raining.

-wf

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Long Distance

Posted on July 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, July 4, 2010

“Norm honey, aren’t you going to answer it?”

Becky, the girl Norman Allgood had been dating for the past few months, had seen that look on his face before, whenever the subject of his parents came up. But lately, when the other cell phone he kept in his desk drawer would ring, the usual angst was laced with… with fear? Fear wasn’t something most people see in their friends, and she wasn’t sure, and couldn’t imagine why it would be there.
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Question of the Day: Exactly whose war is McChrystal fighting?

Posted on June 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The question isn’t whether or not General McChrystal and his high ranking aids should have criticized the President and other national security senior players in public. His remarks, however accurate and commonly held within the military, were entirely inappropriate. He deserves to be fired. The President has no choice but to make an example of him and those of his staff who were unable to keep their opinions to themselves, on the record or not, in the presence of a Rolling Stone reporter.

The question is not even whether or not the General’s comments were accurate and, if so, what their implications might be for our foreign policy and politics.

The question is, given the considerable differences between the General and the President and our civilian national security management, whose war has the General been fighting? The one the President, our elected leader, has instructed him to fight, or the one General McChrystal believes he should be fighting?

The question of the day is, “Who’s in charge?” Has General McChrystal honored his Constitutional obligation to the maximum extent of his abilities, regardless of his personal opinions of the quality and direction of elected decision-making, or has he allowed those personal opinions to affect the course of our military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan?

-wf

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Question of the Day: When, in the Gulf, is it time for a “last resort”?

Posted on June 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

About a month ago,* I suggested what I thought was the obvious, that the use of carefully engineered explosives would do what BP obviously can’t, seal the open hole it made in the bottom of the Gulf floor under the Deep Water Horizon. In light of today’s new estimates of the extent of the problem, I think it’s reasonable to suggest that the use of explosives be given renewed and very careful consideration.

Some people have effectively dismissed of the use of conventional explosives by focusing their criticism on those few nut balls who have recommended nuclear force. Needless to say, the use of nuclear weaponry is nonsensical and unnecessary, and no one is seriously considering it.

Understandably, more reasoned experts have called the use of explosives a last resort. It’s tricky business that needs the input and management of our best scientists, engineers and industry experts, and which cannot be left up to BP to implement whose track record is abysmal, to say the least.

The simple objective is to focus enough force onto the well head to press and fuse it shut. Easier said than done? Of course. What isn’t? Is it a last resort? Maybe, but it’s doable, and last resorts are, after all, what you do when you’ve run out of options, when you’ve lost confidence in the ordinary solutions, when the scope of the damages from a continuing problem become unbearable, which is pretty much where we are now.

What? We’re supposed to wait for the relief wells BP is drilling? Does anybody out there really believe they’re going to work?

*“They’re the “BP” in ‘bupkis.’ The solution they haven’t and won’t consider.,” published May 18.

**“Scientists up estimate of leaking Gulf oil”, by Ray Henry, published today on MSNBC.com.

-wf


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Mandel Bread, the Final Solution to the Gulf Oil Problem

Posted on June 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mandel (pronounced “mahn-dle”) Bread, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, is Jewish biscotti. I like to call it “Miracle Bread,” because I believe it is miraculous that it stays together despite the fact that it has, in my opinion, negative moisture content, if that’s possible. You think you understand the meaning of the word “dry”? Well, you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about until you’ve tried some, Mandel Bread that is.

However tasty, Mandel Bread is best consumed in small bites which can be difficult to swallow without a beverage, hence the tradition of dipping it into something. Just be careful not to overdo it. Too much Mandel Bread at one time and you won’t see saliva in your mouth for a month. Two or more pieces at a time will turn you into a raisin.

The absorptive powers of Mandel Bread are legendary. Even an undergraduate student in ancient history knows that Moses didn’t part the Red Sea, not exactly, but that the Jews, in a hurry to get the hell out of Dodge, spilled cartloads of freshly baked Mandel Bread which soaked up the water and allowed them to pass. It’s true. That’s the way it happened. I know this because my Grandfather told me, when I was a kid, that he was there and knew Moses personally.

And so, flash forward a few thousand years, the solution to the Gulf Oil problem is simple. First, we need to replace BP CEO Tony Hayward with someone who’s Jewish or Italian. (The British like to make scones, but they’re not nearly as effective.) Second, get everyone to work baking Mandel Bread and dump the finished product directly onto the oil in the gulf. I’ve done some calculations, and determined that less than 100 pieces using my Grandmother’s negative moisture recipe should do the trick. Hell, 200 pieces of that stuff will suck up enough sea water to offset the effect of rising sea levels associated with Global Warming.

Jeez, that was easy.

-wf


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Question of the Day: Who are we to tell Iran (or any country) that they can’t have nuclear weapons?

Posted on June 9, 2010 | 5 comments

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

For the record, I find nuclear weapons, for any imaginable purpose, including self-defense, to be abhorrent. I don’t want there to be nuclear weapons, and I certainly don’t want Iran to have them for all the obvious reasons.

My problem with the repeated demands we have made has to do with the integrity of our position. My rule about telling other countries what to do is simple. Don’t expect them to acquiesce to demands that we wouldn’t agree to ourselves.
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Posted in Foreign Policy, Iran, News, Nuclear Weapons, Politics

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Unfaithful

Posted on June 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, June 6, 2010

All total, he’d only been out of town for two days. Their presentation team decided to fly out Wednesday afternoon to rehearse, make last minute adjustments and get plenty of sleep for the 9 AM meeting that had to go perfectly. If it did, if it went well, they’d be invited back the next morning for what amounted to a second competition among the contract finalists. They did, and they were, and now they’d know Monday if their agency had been selected. It would be the break they needed, and had worked so hard to win. It would also affirm Ben’s standing as the heir apparent to the two aging partners who founded the agency, but whose creativity was defined by a different, no longer relevant time. Ben was the next generation, yet to realize his full potential, a natural salesman with an effortless knack for making people believe that what he said was what they wanted to hear.
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“Brainer”*

Posted on May 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

The continuing legend of “Stillborn.”
Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, May 30, 2010

*Futurespeak for someone who hacks into people’s minds, without the need for electronic enhancement.

Personal Journal
6:18 PM, July 14, 2010

“‘There are no superheroes, or gods for that matter. Only ordinary people realizing their potential.’ Twelve years later, I can still see his eyes, the odd mix…”

“Dr. Molinara.”

No answer. The 27 year old scientist, with doctorates in electrical engineering and neuro-physiology, sat on the sofa in her office, hunched over her laptop – typing notes, so her assistant assumed, on something she’d been trying to figure out. It was how she worked. Some preferred yellow pads. Others blackboards filled with equations and chemical formulas. Hers was a more literary approach, the last stage in her creative process. Her colleagues once realized that she was able to visualize the complex science of her specialties entirely in her head, and that she only wrote it out occasionally for their sake and as a prelude to manufacturing what she had invented.
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Garmin

Posted on May 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, May 23, 2010

On his way to meeting in questionable weather, Mo (short for Morris, as in “What were your parents thinking?” which is what his wife asked him on their very first date) Williams reached up to touch and hold the button on the side of his earpiece. “Call Marlene Mobile.” A few second later, his wife answered her cell phone.

“Hi, honey, What’s up?”

“Hey. I know I promised I’d be home early, but I just picked up a voice mail, the second one in the past few minutes from a Mr. Gutierrez who says he needs talk to me as soon as possible.”

“Who?”
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