You Need a Large Dose

Jef Mallett's Frazz is the best thing in comics. Yesterday's was dead-on.

So what are are you waiting for? Crank it loud!

A Super Cool Good Guy

The Washington Post reports that a Cubs fan wasn't able to get a World Series ticket for game six, in Cleveland. While looking for a scalper, she saw Bill Murray and decided to get close to him, probably hoping for a selfie.

Suddenly, he turned around and handed her a ticket. Next to him. Five rows behind home plate.

The woman wasn't a supermodel. She wasn't famous. She didn't even ask him for the ticket. He just did a random act of kindness. And that's super cool.

As are the bunny ears she's giving him in this picture.

VIPDUCK

Man, two long, serious postings. It's time for a break. Here's an example of random brilliance. That's when you're walking along and you see something totally cool that has no business being there.

The Cure for the Dog Days of August

Years ago, on a particularly sultry summer evening, when thoughts of Tennessee Williams plays came to mind, the need to find an appropriate elixir that would simultaneously penetrate the steamy heat of the evening and the similarly sodden nature of my mood became apparent. A search of the cabinets disclosed that all reasonable options had long since been depleted, leaving only a bottle of cheap vodka, bought for the manufacture of pie crust (yes, a properly flaky pie crust is best prepared using vodka), and a bottle of Fresca, the presence of which was inexplicable, but fortuitous.

Both of these were immediately dispatched to the freezer, where they chilled until the vodka poured like maple syrup in November and the Fresca spontaneously turned to slush when the lid was opened and the pressure relieved. The two were titrated together in a large glass that had also spent time in the freezer until the taste of one pretty much counter-balanced the taste of the other. Since Fresca is not known for its subtlety, this resulted in a particularly potent beverage with all the nuance of a Donald Trump policy speech.

When consumed while watching heat lightning dance across the night sky, it had precisely the desired effect upon mind and body.

Later, when I described the concoction to the deeply insightful Tentakles, I lamented that it was in need of a name. He immediately and brilliantly responded by calling it a Tanya Harding, which perfectly captured the essence of the drink: trailer trash materials, dubious taste, a frigid nature, and the ability to knock the knees out from under you.

Depending upon the precise nature of the funk which is upon you, it is best enjoyed while listening to either Delta blues, Johnny Cash's American IV, V, and VI albums, or Zydeco. In the latter case, an appropriate dinner should be arranged and the experience shared. The other two are best enjoyed alone.

Savannah on my Mind

The world's first nuclear-powered merchant ship is looking for a port. The Virtual Office of Acquistion of the Maritime Administration is trying to find a home for the decommissioned N.S. Savannah. This comes about as a result of MARAD's plan to remove the reactor and piping from the vessel in order to reduce its liability as a potential target for terrorist attack.

The Savannah was launched in 1962 and spent 1965-1971 sailing the oceans for the American Export Isbrandtsen Lines under a contract from the U.S. government. While a technological and aesthectic success, it was not financially practical, and was decommisioned in 1972 to save money for the war in Vietnam. The ship was built as a passenger/cargo hybrid, with thirty staterooms, but the size of the engineering plant and the space taken up by the passenger quarters meant that it could carry less than 10,000 tons of cargo. She was built with the knowledge that it could never be profitable, but it was hoped that she would demonstrate the benefits of atomic power.



The Savannah was fast, with a maximum speed of twenty-three knots and a sustained cruising speed of more than twenty knots. She was equipped with active roll stabilization and had rolling cargo cranes instead of the common kingposts. Her reactor was surrounded by armor designed to prevent a collision from rupturing the core. This included two feet of crushing material made up of high-strength steel and redwood, and concrete reactor shielding eighteen inches thick. The reactor containment vessel had a pair of spring-loaded manholes on the bottom, which were designed to open in the event of the ship sinking. These would allow seawater in, to balance the pressure as the vessel sank, in order to prevent it from being crushed. When the pressure equalized at the bottom, the springs would drive the hatches shut, sealing the reactor.

In reality, there wasn't any way to make a nuclear ship profitable. Imagine a tramp steamer with a crew of nuclear engineers. Only two other merchant ships have ever been nuclear powered: the N.S Otto Hahn in Germany, which was launched in 1964 and which served from 1970-1979 before it was converted into a conventionally powered ship; and the "Sevmorput", an icebreaker-freighter in Russia which was launched in 1988 and is still active. The "Sevmorput" has a bit of an unfair advantage though, as it is on a highly subsidized route across the Northeast Passage. Japan built a nuclear ship, the Mutsu, which was launched in 1969. Her reactor was a technical disaster and her career consisted of four voyages in 1991 before she was decommissioned the next year. The Japan Atomic Energy Institute emphasizes the success of her 1991 cruises, but doesn't mention the twenty-two year gestation period.

It's interesting to note that the U.S. Navy has decommissioned all nine of the nuclear-powered cruisers that it built, leaving only the carriers in service. Apparently, even they couldn't make the economics work in their favor.

As an aside, the Savannah's namesake was the first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic, in 1819. She carried enough fuel to run her boilers for eighty-nine of the 707-hour voyage.