(NO) GREAT DIFFERENCE

There is, admittedly, no great difference between autumn in Africa, which we were leaving, and spring in South America toward which we had set course.  One perspires here and one perspires there.  But over the blue Atlantic, heavens curved off into infinity, the headwinds of our speed cooled us, and there was eternal difference and change in the seeming monotony.   If I were not an airshipman, I would like to be a passenger and devote myself entirely to the observation of the thousand-fold play of colors and forms which Nature contrives out of nothing more than air and water.

The Beatles: Flying (Link)

Excerpt:  Captain Ernest A. Lehmann, Zeppelin: The Story of Lighter-than-air Craft, (trans. Jay Dratler), 1937

Paintings:  Gerhard Richter

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

Descending from over-crowded Amtrak yesterday, gratefully home from cold, rainy, hostile Mannahatta, Caroline and Jane informed me that after two years off the ice, just getting back into it this week, Jane landed two perfect Axels *, high, strong, and graceful.

Flying.

Axel Paulsen

* The Axel is a figure skating jump with a forward take off. It is named after Norwegian figure skater Axel Paulsen. Paulsen was the first skater to perform the jump in 1882. An Axel jump has an extra ½ rotation in the air because of its forward take off. The jump takes off from the left forward outside edge and lands on the right back outside edge. Although the Axel has a counterclockwise rotation, it can be reversed for a clockwise jump. The Axel can also be done as a double jump with 2½ rotations, or as a triple jump with 3½ rotations. No skater has yet accomplished a quadruple Axel in competition.

Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt. 3 -- Ian Dury and the Blockheads (Link)