Nuclear Nostalgia

A replica of "The "Fat Man"

Just off I-40 in Albuquerque is a one-of-a-kind museum devoted to the nuclear age, from its dawn in the forties up through its glory days in the fifties and sixties. This museum has models and replicas of most U.S. nuclear weapons, its hundreds of exhibits are refined and very well designed. It is, in my own humble opinion, a must see the next time you are in Albuquerque.

There's the lovingly recreated nuclear shelter with its old Dumont blonde console forever playing and replaying an old kinescope of how to be prepared for nuclear war, a witty exhibit about Spiderman, the nuclear superhero, the "Fat Man" that demolished Nagasaki, and the "Little Boy" that destroyed Hiroshima. And a lot of history about the intrigues and controversies of the Los Alamos days. It's the official U.S. museum about atomic energy and is affiliated with the Smithsonian, so it has a point of view, and its history is selective. Still, Lu and I loved it.

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Let's Get Off the Dime!

A couple days after we got back from California, I went up to the dump with a car full of stuff. I was just minding my own business, but this big guy sees me coming and closes in on me. He grabs the bag out of my hand, and heaves it into the compactor.

“Come in here,” he growls, “I want to talk to you.”

Read the full article on the gridlock on the landfill here.

Saved by the Bell

"I guess, early on, my nerves might have saved me from an unsavory fate. The Catholic Church as it once was and always will be, is always looking for young talent. Altar boy tryouts, and there I was, all suited up in a surplice, a little saint, holding out two glass pitchers in my trembling hands."

Read "The Catholic Church and its Dark Places">