Dammit! Didn't get the email. It went into my spam filter for some unknown reason!!!
Post a picture of your most recent purchase....(not poker chips) (20 Viewers)
- Thread starter cr8ton
- Start date
I missed it too
Worst day to be sick tbo
Worst day to be sick tbo
AlbinoDragon
Flush
A super random, "I really don't need this" item, but with a teeny, tiny personal connection:
Yes, that's a piece of that Wright Flyer.
(apologies in advance for the Ben Book here. I'm not 100% sober and currently feel a little nostalgic and wordy)
I've always been fascinated with aviation and spaceflight. I distinctly remember the first time I went to the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. when we lived in a suburb of the District while my Dad was there for his job. Not long after coming through the main entrance, one would cross a lobby area and come to a railing looking down and across the "Milestones of Flight" gallery. Long before you made it to that railing, there was the Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier to the left, an X-15 to the right (my second favorite airplane) and front and center, the Wright Brothers "Wright Flyer", the first heavier than air craft to attain controlled flight. Peering over the edge, John Glenn's "Friendship 7" and the Apollo 11 Command Module waiting for closer inspection once you went down the stairs.
RIght in the center of your eye-line, essentially the first thing you saw when you came through the door, and holding station overhead while in the gallery below, was the Wright Flyer. They clearly understood what it was and what it represented, and it was there... hard to ignore. Simple and elegant, that alone made it stand out among the more technologically advanced craft around it. What it stood for and it's place in the things that surrounded it made it more poignant.
It's like it was saying "if it weren't for this one thing, nothing else in this space would likely be present."
I was probably ten, maybe a little younger, definitely not much older, my Dad and I went on a "father-son" trip. Just the two of us. Get in the car and off we go. We drove south. We explored parts of southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, just to the two of us. We talked about things I don't remember. It doesn't matter, father-son stuff. Things that were inconsequnetial at the time, and were almost certainly trivial in the big picture of things, but are part of the "growing up" process. I do remember stopping at a roadside carnival and racing a couple woefuly underpowered go-carts with him.
One of the stops at the far end of the drive, before turning back for the trip back home, was at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, specifically to see the famous lightouse there (I remember it had been featured in an issue of National Geographic along with several others around the area). As part of that excursion along the cape, we stopped at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills to see the location of the first flight.
A reproduction of the Wright's launch rail was there (that I did my worst balance beam on!) as well as the preserved shed they kept their experimental craft safe in when not in use. I rember finding a dime on the beach and stuffing it in my pocket thinking it could be the coin the Wright Brothers flipped to decide who would pilot the Flyer on the first flight. It was warm and windy, probably the very winds the Wright's were looking to take advantage of in their testing and eventual successful first flight.
Fast foreward more than three decades, I'm busy scrolling though a site with estate items. I was directed there looking for some older animation art, the obsession other than chips that I spend too much time and money on. I came up empty, but my eye lit on this little morsel and it drove me down a little bit of a historical rabbit hole. The Wright's made four flights on that first day, with the fourth ending in a landing that damaged the craft. Before it could be safely recovered and returned for minor repairs, it was caught in a gust of wind that irreparably damaged it.
From here, a long tale of the craft, from nearly being burnt as trash to disputes of what museum would take stewardship of it entailed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer#After_Kitty_Hawk
As part of the early storage of the craft, she was damaged in storage and when the Wright's turned her over for display, the canvas was removed and replaced. The original canvas for the wings passed from their family through a couple different owners, and has subsequently been cut up and dispersed. Most famously, pieces went to the moon on Apollo 11, Space Shuttle Challenger and most recently, onboard Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter that arrived with Perserverence in 2021.
This particular piece wound up in the hands of an art dealer and historian and eventually cut and dispersed as part of his estate.
As warned, many, many words for a really cool piece of history, but also a bit of personal history to go with it, and why this was such a cool find for myself.
I found a high-resoluton scan of the photograph of the first flight in the National Archives that I'm thinking of having printed and framed along with this fragment. Either that, or I'll use the thing as a very fancy card cap!
Yes, that's a piece of that Wright Flyer.
(apologies in advance for the Ben Book here. I'm not 100% sober and currently feel a little nostalgic and wordy)
I've always been fascinated with aviation and spaceflight. I distinctly remember the first time I went to the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. when we lived in a suburb of the District while my Dad was there for his job. Not long after coming through the main entrance, one would cross a lobby area and come to a railing looking down and across the "Milestones of Flight" gallery. Long before you made it to that railing, there was the Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier to the left, an X-15 to the right (my second favorite airplane) and front and center, the Wright Brothers "Wright Flyer", the first heavier than air craft to attain controlled flight. Peering over the edge, John Glenn's "Friendship 7" and the Apollo 11 Command Module waiting for closer inspection once you went down the stairs.
RIght in the center of your eye-line, essentially the first thing you saw when you came through the door, and holding station overhead while in the gallery below, was the Wright Flyer. They clearly understood what it was and what it represented, and it was there... hard to ignore. Simple and elegant, that alone made it stand out among the more technologically advanced craft around it. What it stood for and it's place in the things that surrounded it made it more poignant.
It's like it was saying "if it weren't for this one thing, nothing else in this space would likely be present."
I was probably ten, maybe a little younger, definitely not much older, my Dad and I went on a "father-son" trip. Just the two of us. Get in the car and off we go. We drove south. We explored parts of southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, just to the two of us. We talked about things I don't remember. It doesn't matter, father-son stuff. Things that were inconsequnetial at the time, and were almost certainly trivial in the big picture of things, but are part of the "growing up" process. I do remember stopping at a roadside carnival and racing a couple woefuly underpowered go-carts with him.
One of the stops at the far end of the drive, before turning back for the trip back home, was at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, specifically to see the famous lightouse there (I remember it had been featured in an issue of National Geographic along with several others around the area). As part of that excursion along the cape, we stopped at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills to see the location of the first flight.
A reproduction of the Wright's launch rail was there (that I did my worst balance beam on!) as well as the preserved shed they kept their experimental craft safe in when not in use. I rember finding a dime on the beach and stuffing it in my pocket thinking it could be the coin the Wright Brothers flipped to decide who would pilot the Flyer on the first flight. It was warm and windy, probably the very winds the Wright's were looking to take advantage of in their testing and eventual successful first flight.
Fast foreward more than three decades, I'm busy scrolling though a site with estate items. I was directed there looking for some older animation art, the obsession other than chips that I spend too much time and money on. I came up empty, but my eye lit on this little morsel and it drove me down a little bit of a historical rabbit hole. The Wright's made four flights on that first day, with the fourth ending in a landing that damaged the craft. Before it could be safely recovered and returned for minor repairs, it was caught in a gust of wind that irreparably damaged it.
From here, a long tale of the craft, from nearly being burnt as trash to disputes of what museum would take stewardship of it entailed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer#After_Kitty_Hawk
As part of the early storage of the craft, she was damaged in storage and when the Wright's turned her over for display, the canvas was removed and replaced. The original canvas for the wings passed from their family through a couple different owners, and has subsequently been cut up and dispersed. Most famously, pieces went to the moon on Apollo 11, Space Shuttle Challenger and most recently, onboard Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter that arrived with Perserverence in 2021.
This particular piece wound up in the hands of an art dealer and historian and eventually cut and dispersed as part of his estate.
As warned, many, many words for a really cool piece of history, but also a bit of personal history to go with it, and why this was such a cool find for myself.
I found a high-resoluton scan of the photograph of the first flight in the National Archives that I'm thinking of having printed and framed along with this fragment. Either that, or I'll use the thing as a very fancy card cap!
Last edited:
Great story! Thanks for sharing it.
Air and Space might be the best museum in DC for many of us...
Air and Space might be the best museum in DC for many of us...
FrankBlack
Sitting Out
There are 2 now, and they’re both awesome. Udvar-Hazy is a full day experience and worth the time.
https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/udvar-hazy-center
I need to get back out there to see the full sized X-wing.
My son is finishing up the 5th grade and progressing from Elementary school to middle school. He's never had his own computer or laptop before. Just the Chromebook the school district in our town has given to the kids to use in school. A few of his friends have their own PCs. So as a present for him graduating to Middle School we decided it is time for his own computer. We were not trying to break the bank as he only plays Minecraft and Roblox on his Nintendo Switch and it's his first computer. This laptop I was looking at earlier in the week somehow was $130 cheaper last night on the Dell site than earlier so I jumped on it and ordered it. The monitor I got from New Egg. I think he'll enjoy and be surprised when we give it to him.
Laptop - Dell G15 Gaming Laptop AMD RYZEN I5, Windows 11 Home, 16 GB Memory, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA 3050 Graphics Card.
Monitor - ASUS 24" FHD Gaming Monitor with 144 Hz Refresh Rate which if you overclock it can go to 165 Hz refresh rate.
Laptop - Dell G15 Gaming Laptop AMD RYZEN I5, Windows 11 Home, 16 GB Memory, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA 3050 Graphics Card.
Monitor - ASUS 24" FHD Gaming Monitor with 144 Hz Refresh Rate which if you overclock it can go to 165 Hz refresh rate.
My son’s laptop came in today and I set up the Laptop and monitor. I also added a mini Vizio soundbar which fit right under the monitor stand. I got the soundbar from Goodwill at a pretty good price and it came with the power cable and remote which. I had a new version of the same soundbar which I use on my home laptop and it’s worked well for me.
Big day today. Finally signed the contract to start digging our new pool next Tuesday.
Jonesey07
Full House
Looks like prime real estate for a meetup.
You couldn't post the other dream??
The building in the background of that rendering is Phase II. Hopefully breaking ground on that soon after the pool is completed. 1000 sq ft shop/man cave/poker club. A Houston meetup is definitely in the plans after everything is completed.
You couldn't post the other dream??
Lots of pool parties going to happen
That's a big negative, sport. And you are OFF the list for the Houston meetup...
LOLThat's a big negative, sport. And you are OFF the list for the Houston meetup...
Nice project and design
Congrats !
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2018
- Messages
- 12,595
- Reaction score
- 27,105
- Location
- 129 West 81st Street, Apartment 5B
A basic belt-driven fully automatic *Bluetooth* turntable.
First platter cued up: a Caribbean combo playing live c. 1969 at the St. Maarten Isle Hotel, whose casino chips I’ve been amassing along with a lot of associated memorabilia and other ephemera at:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/sint-st-maarten-isle-hotel-history-set.119355/
Bossa nova medley from Side A, Track 2:
Create an account or login to comment
You must be a member in order to leave a comment
Create account
Create an account and join our community. It's easy!
Log in
Already have an account? Log in here.