The Last Day of Januaryteenth!

Monday Be kind to yourself today

19th Planning for the next month (30 days out)

Sammy Hagar - I Can’t Drive 55

John Mayer - Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967

Walt Grace’s Submarine Test reminds me of two separate descriptions of folks who bore the complaints of their friends, telling them that they are crazy, and yet somehow overcame. Though in the first (chronologically) example, there were presumably no friends left afterward to drink to his honor.

Dr Noah from Mani Matter tells the story of Noah from the Bible and how his friends heard of his conversation with God about building an ark to save the animals from a giant flood. (Und mir begriift dass lüüt hei gseit, dem Ma, dem spinnt) (And we presume that people said, “that man is crazy”)

Kodoku: Sailing Alone Across the Pacific from Kenichi Horie tells the story about his solo sailing venture from Japan to San Francisco in 1962. His friends and family never figured he could make it alone.

Notably also, Mr. Horie tells the story of a nuclear test that he saw from its flashing on the southern horizon and then his shortwave radio turned to static.

18:00, July 9th, Japan Standard Time (11:00 PM Honolulu Time), sight a brilliant flash. Open the hatch to see what it was, but don’t notice anything unusual. But, ten minutes later, a reddish tinge spreads across the clouds to the southeast. It fades out in another ten minutes. Must be some kind of experiment. It’s no sunset glow—we’re three hours past the setting of the sun. (p. 221)
Next log July 9: “But can get nothing on the medium-wave band. And I had enjoyed perfect reception till yesterday.” (p. 222)
July 10: “Static still interfering with medium-wave reception. May be the result of the flash of July 8th. This was the second day since the flash that I had trouble getting anything on the radio. I had had perfect reception. Then the flash. And after that nothing but loud static. There obviously was a connection between the flash and the static in my radio. I began to worry. The only flash that could kick all the radio waves out of the air was a nuclear explosion. I got the chills thinking about it. If things went bad, I would be covered by the deadly radioactive fallout. And if that happened, with me sailing out there in the middle of nowhere, there would be little chance my surviving it. I decided not to use any rain water.” (p. 223)

[See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime]

I wonder how often those guys’ successes resulted in a difficulty getting help doing something straightforward or easy later in their lives. “Oh, so the great [insert name], who did the miraculous thing, needs MY help looking up a phone number?” I hope not.

Anyhow, those two additional stories came to mind the first time I heard Walt Grace’s Submarine Test.

Comments?