Some big rocket in America has blown up on take-off; the sponsoring organisation, I think I heard, referred to this as an "Erratic unscheduled disassembly".
Superb!!
When some other rocket exploded, some years ago, I recall that the then president (Reagan?) referred to the crew as "having touched the face of God".
I am aware that many people think that I have become too pro-American in my old age. To show that we brits are just as capable as Americans of writing totally and serenely incomprehensible gibberish, allow me to quote some words from the Looking Glass of Lewis Caroll.
"He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought-- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought.
"And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood. And burbled as it came!
"One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.
" ' And hast thou slain the Jabberwock! Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy ..."
This poetic masterpiece was rendered into equally sublime Attic Greek iambics by Mgr Ronald Knox, Protonotary Apostolic and Master of Arts of this University. 'burbling' became borbolismos; 'went snicker-snack', esnixen exesnaxen; galumphing', gaukhoumenos; O frabjous day became O trisbakarton emar ...
BRILLIG!! Even, perhaps, UFFISH!
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Dear Father
High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Reagans speechwriter Peggy Nolan wrote the speech that Reagan delivered.
Because it is Reagan it is an apt time to remember when a Raven of the Tower in London died. A contest was held to name the replacement Raven.
Ronald Raven was the contest winner.
In defense of President Reagan, he was quoting a famous poem, known well within the military. I wrote it out in my best calligraphy and framed it as my wedding gift to my husband who flew jets in the US Navy. Funerals in these communities are frequent, and many who are lost leave young families behind. We take what solace we can.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157986/high-flight-627d3cfb1e9b7
Some years ago a correspondent of the TLS argued that Calooh, Callay was a compliment to Alice Liddell and her decanal father ("for the beautiful daughter of a beautiful man). A Christ Church man wrote to point out that Lewis Carroll would have pronounced the Greek for that as Callow, Callee.
RUD rapid unscheduled disassembly. The launch was a success according to the stated goal of simply not destroying the launch pad.
Regan was quoting John Magee, who won the Poetry Prize at Rugby School in 1938.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
His parents published the poem after his death in a mid-air collision in 1941 - training in Britain as a pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Some years ago a correspondent of the TLS argued that Calooh, Callay was a compliment to Alice Liddell and her decanal father ("for the beautiful daughter of a beautiful man). A Christ Church man wrote to point out that Lewis Carroll would have pronounced the Greek for that as Callow, Callee.
Well, that is the point of testing. You want to find all the negative possibilities before you have cargo, or passengers and crew.
Although I mentioned the Poetry Prize at Rugby, “High Flight” is not the poem Magee wrote for that, which he called “Sonnet to Rupert Brooke”
Mentioning God in “High Flight” would have come readily to Magee; his parents were missionaries in China - his father an American priest and his mother British, from the CMS.
He was 19 when he died
Methinks you are too hard on us Americans. SpaceX takes great pains to look on the bright side. It is hilarious, but I suspect they know that.
As for Reagan, I think his was an excellent speech after a national tragedy.
But then I'm American.
An article on rapid prototyping and blowing rockets up:
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2023/04/22/halfway-to-success-by-thomas-kendall/
By a guest columnist,Thomas Kendall, on Sarah Hoyt's blog.
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