This Blog's Brand

Got a nice email today from Gordon, a longtime reader from I don't know where, who noted how often I change the banner at the top of the blog. He said the feet in the grass version wasn't doing a good job of conveying the concept of "Where's My Jetpack?" I had to agree and took his advice to change it back to the 60s-era astronaut standing in the water of some idyllic Tahitian resort.

I have a Photoshop document that consists of over 70 layers just for that banner and I change it as often as I wash my jeans, which is to say about once a week. One thing that remains a constant in the banner is the inclusion of Major Mike Adams, an Air Force test pilot who died in the California desert in 1967. (You can see the original image here.)

There is a nonchalant cool conveyed in that photograph and Adams seems impatient to be posing. He almost sneers at the photographer as he stands with his weight on one leg. There is something very American about that picture. It's got attitude, rebellion and patriotism all at once. It speaks to me of a healthy discontentedness with the way things are and a desire to make them better. It pretty much shouts, "Where's My Jetpack?"

Warm Your Cold Heart for a Minute

I ride around the neighborhood and count the woefully outnumbered Obama signs to McCain signs. (34 to 5 on a seven mile ride) I open the paper to economic doom and gloom. I turn on my TV to shouting, blood-thirsty fascists at rallies. And then, standing behind a man at 7-11 who is buying a McCain coffee cup, I find myself secretly despising him and questioning HIS patriotism.

When it's all over, we will still have much in common. Our football teams will unite us, our hobbies, our music, our jobs and the daily tasks within those jobs.

And of course, our pets.

This is a member of the US Air Force returning from Iraq after 14 months and being welcomed home by his two Australian shepherds. Watch this and try not to smile.



Seen at the Atlantic.