Tag Archives: Butch Wilmore

Posted in Blog Info / Up-dates

And Now . . . The Rest of the Story

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by Bob Sparrow

A nod to Paul Harvey for using this headline, which was the introduction to his most enjoyable radio broadcast for many years, as well as the title of the book about him written by his son, but that’s for another blog. This blog is abut follow-ups and corrections to previous blogs.     

Stuck in Space

Splash down off the coast of Florida

Stuck in Space was published last September, telling of the plight of two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who had planned to spend eight days in space and instead spent nine months.  Just last week, on March 18 at about 6:00 pm EDT, the Starliner spacecraft carrying them and their last pair of underwear, home, splashed down off the coast of Florida. Being in space that long takes a toll on both the body and the mind, so they will be under close observation for some time. In the mean time, they’ll get caught up on the ‘love fest’ that’s been going on between political parties. They’ll be happy they kept their distance.

It’s the Most Important Election of Our Lifetime . . . Again

In this blog, published a couple of months before last year’s presidential election, I sort of mocked the people who were saying that this was the most important election of our lifetime, citing that this phrase has been used throughout history for almost every election.  As it turns out, no matter what side of the aisle you are on, it may not be THE most important election of our lifetime, but it could be one of them . . . we shall see! 

The Incredible Life of Don the Beachcomber

Published in October of last year, this title apparently should have read The Incredible Life of Donn Beach, according to the following comments left by ‘Andy’.  I don’t know Andy or where he’s from, but he is clearly a Don the Beachcomber aficionado.

Donn Beach

A bunch of inaccuracies, I believe. You say “there really was a “Don the Beachcomber” as if that was his adopted name, but that was the name of the restaurant, not the man. He changed his name to “Donn Beach” with two n’s (misspelled throughout). His original first name was “Ernest”, not Earnest as you have written. Also, his first restaurant did not have a kitchen, that didn’t come until 1937 when he moved down and across the street to a bigger location. And I think it was called “Beachcomber Cafe” but I have seen other claims.

Admittedly, this is a difficult topic to research, as the internet is rife with contradictions. Your commenter from a few weeks ago, Cindi N, surely knows most of the facts, and her book on Sunny Sund was fabulous. I believe a definitive biography of Donn Beach is coming out later this year.

The biography Andy refers to above may be the preview I saw at the Newport Film Festival that inspired the blog

A Most Unusual and Brilliant Desert Denizen

On the outside looking in at the Willows

There was also a correction to this blog about Einstein and the two places he stayed while in Palm Springs, which was published just last month.  This correction came from long-time good friend and neighbor, Bob Baldwin.  He correctly pointed out that the original tower of the El Mirador still stands on the site of the original hotel, but that site is now part of the Desert Regional Medical Center.  I did visit both that El Mirador site and the Willows Hotel site. When outside the gated Willows, there is a phone to call the receptionist inside, which I did and told her that I wrote a blog about Einstein’s stay there and was hoping I could come in and take a look around, maybe see the Einstein room. Nope, apparently my IQ and my net worth were not high enough.

As Suzanne and I have often said, we do not let the truth stand in the way of a good story, but we always appreciate our reader’s comments and corrections. (OK, Suz, was that just another lie?)

Posted in space

Stuck in Space

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by Bob Sparrow

Butch & Suni – “See you next week” NOT!!!

Watching a spectacular moonrise on the evening of the ‘Supermoon blue moon’ a couple of weeks ago made me wonder about those two astronauts who have been circling the earth since June on a NASA mission that was supposed to last eight days.  NASA now says that they may not be coming home until February 2025!  So, eight days turned into eight months!  And you thought you had it bad when your last flight was delayed a couple of hours.  The two U.S. astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, left Earth in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.  Yes, Boeing, that’s the same company that had trouble keeping a door on an Alaskan 737 aircraft during a flight in January of this year.  I’ve since sold my stock in Boeing!  And while the door didn’t fly off the Starliner, the problem with their spacecraft seems to be that of helium leaks and thruster failure.   To dumb that down for you, if the spacecraft was a man, he would have gas and erectile dysfunction.

Men pushing Boeing Starliner to get it started

I initially imagined these two astronauts circling the earth at 17,505 miles per hour in their 15-foot wide capsule and having to figure out how they were going to survive for the next six months on what they brought with them.  It would be like planning a weekend trip to the mountains and being snowed in all winter – think Donner Party.   When I thought that was the case, here are some things that crossed my mind:

  • Did they pack enough food (and wine) to last that long?
  • Forget the wine, did they pack enough oxygen?
  • OK, don’t forget the wine
  • Who’s taking out the garbage?
  • What if the potty needs emptying?
  • How happy are their spouses with them spending the Christmas holidays in such close quarters with one another?

As it turns out, the Boeing spacecraft isn’t going to be their home for the next six months, as they were able to catch a passing Uber, in the form of the ISS (International Space Station), and successfully dock with it.

ISS Uber

However, the capacity of the ISS they boarded is seven people, and before Butch and Suni joined the party, there were already seven on board – six men, three Russian cosmonauts, an American chemist, an American physician, an American Navy test pilot, and one woman, an American aerospace engineer.  So, I’m guessing there was ‘no room in the Inn’ for these two stranded American astronauts.  We’ve not been told what they were doing to accommodate these additional freeloaders.  I’m hoping it wasn’t something like Russian roulette, where the Russians would seem to have a clear advantage.  With zero gravity, do the newcomers have to sleep by just floating in mid-air in the kitchen, or does everyone just float in mid-air all night when sleeping?  And the big question, is there enough wine to get the nine of them through Christmas and New Year’s, although the Russians probably brought their own vodka?

There is a precedent for being trapped in space, in 1991, Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was told that he could not return home because the country that had promised to bring him back home, the Soviet Union, no longer existed.  He eventually did get back to Earth after 311 days in space.

I’m sure NASA will figure out a way to get our astronauts back home, after all, they’ve got Boeing working on it right now!  Not!!!  Boeing has been fired; the astronauts will be coming home aboard a SpaceX capsule.

As I’ve thought about the pluses and minuses of being isolated in space until next February, I’ve concluded that the big plus is that they will miss out on all the political bullshit the rest of us have to endure from now until November 5th.

Where do I sign up to get lost in space for the next three months?