So I was listening to my old time radio in the wee hours of the morning (as I often do, since I don’t actually seem to sleep). It was some show from the early fifties, and for some reason they were comparing the US bombing run on the Romanian oil refineries in PloieÅŸti in August 1943 (operation “Tidal Wave”) to a football team being down by fifty points with time running out (the idea being, I guess, that the loser team keeps on playing instead of leaving the field).

Apparently three of the B-24 “Liberator” bombers blew up on takeoff, they had navigation problems along the way, were counting on the element of surprise, but met heavy fighter and anti aircraft artillery, were only partially successful in hitting their targets, and lost 2/3 of the bombers (53 airplanes and 660 crewmen – the worst loss ever suffered US Army Air Force in a single mission).

So, yeah, that’s like losing a football game.

Anyhow, the reason this captured my attention was because the bombers took off from their base in Benghazi, Libya. Damn, I just can’t get away from this shit.

In my continuing (though unsuccessful) effort to avoid hearing anything about Benghazi, the IRS, or the AP, I kept my radio tuned into “The Rebel” classic rock station on the drive in this morning. They apparently run the “Bob and Tom” show (which I assume is some nationally syndicated thing – dunno, never heard it before), so I was treated to 30 some minutes of yacking and commercials, and one actual song (a song by Tom Snider called “Beer Run”). I had to look up the lyrics when I got to work, because to me it sounded like he was singing

B double E double R You Ann Meara

But apparently he was actually saying

B double E double R U N beer run

That might sound kind of dumb, but it’s actually a pretty good song, IMHO. I mean, any song that starts out with

A couple of frat guys from Abilene
Drove out all night to see Robert Earl Keen

can’t be all bad.

It’s stupid meeting day, but we already had our stupid meeting cancelled yesterday, so I’m off the hook for that. Unfortunately, I have a different stupid meeting at 8:00. I don’t know what it is with these people and their stupid meetings, but at least we’re getting it out of the way early.

Guess I better print some shit out (maybe a Sudoku or something) so it looks like I’m prepared, engaged, and attentive.