Friday Donuts

Friends, Have you been following the lunar flyby expedition? As I ponder the mission’s completion, with splashdown scheduled for tonight, I start my own journey down the proverbial rabbit hole. First, there’s so much information to sift through. Once you get past the earthrise, eclipse, and far side crater stuff, you get to the mythology. Artemis was Apollo’s twin sister. While this subtle connection to prior moon missions makes sense, Apollo is part of a rare breed of gods whose name is the same in both Greek and Roman myth. This matters because the precursor to the Apollo missions was Mercury, the Roman god of trade, travel and thieves. The other mission series in that era, Gemini, was also named after Roman twins. Artemis is a Greek goddess. Diana, Apollo’s Roman twin feels like a more suitable name, does it not? There’s the Orion capsule. A fellow Greek, hunter and acquaintance. While the intra-mission mythological consistency is good, he was killed by Artemis—not so good. I suppos...

Friends, Travel puts you in a surreal state of mind where the implausible feels possible and you’re more likely to accept things on face value. It often starts with that late night drive where nothing’s on the radio, so you settle for BBC news and their GMT off-color banter about an Australian surfer being killed by a shark … nudge, nudge, say no more. That sets the tone for the audio hallucinations to follow. You hear the announcement that boarding has started at gate “Amen” (actually A9). So you say a prayer and get in line. Once aboard, the flight attendant instructs passengers: “destroy” your carry on bag… (actually “to stow”). By the time you land at a far away airport in an exotic destination, you’re so desensitized, the presence of a Dunkin’ feels normal. You buy an overpriced stale donut and reach for your carry on bag. Never mind, you destroyed it. Happy Good Friday!​