Althouse: "What I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible the jeopardy, the vulnerability of everything. This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin."

October 13, 2021

"What I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible the jeopardy, the vulnerability of everything. This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin."

Said William Shatner, back on earth.

36 comments:

Yancey Ward said...: "And, of course, it is the lead white guy from Star Trek that gets to go to space."

Just trying to anticipate the coverage in tomorrow's papers.; 10/13/21, 11:13 AM
Achilles said...: Blue Origin gets a win.

If only Jeff wasn't jealous of other people's success.; 10/13/21, 11:18 AM
PM said...: 1. Nice way to put it.
2. Getting to 90 in one thing; blasting off earth at 90 is commendable.; 10/13/21, 11:20 AM
Lurker21 said...: Short trip ...

It wasn't nearly enough time to visit the Nazi planet, the gangster planet and the ancient Roman planet, to get Spock's brain back from the Sigma Draconans, or to get in a few rounds of fizzbin on Beta Antares IV ...; 10/13/21, 11:34 AM
MikeR said...: Wait - Star Trek wasn't real?; 10/13/21, 11:39 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Should be included in the pitch to colonize Mars.

Let’s get our ass to Mars.; 10/13/21, 11:39 AM
Breezy said...: Shatner is a national treasure…. I teared up just listening to his debrief of the flight!; 10/13/21, 11:43 AM
Kevin said...: "What I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible the jeopardy, the vulnerability of everything. This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin."

Isn't that close to what Bezos said when he landed?

This is looking less like a feat of engineering and more like a cult.; 10/13/21, 11:46 AM
MadisonMan said...: It seems to have moved Shatner pretty profoundly. The people in the background? Not so much. They were annoying me with their chatter.; 10/13/21, 11:48 AM
Big Mike said...: Good for him. It’s just a pity Leonard Nimoy couldn’t be there too.; 10/13/21, 11:51 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: I was a lot like that the first (and only) time I jumped out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft. Its the adrenalin high.; 10/13/21, 11:58 AM
Another old lawyer said...: Good for him for taking the ride into space and the inherent risk, and I certainly wish I could do it too.

But the ride itself was pretty lame. I assumed that there would be a few orbits; instead it was like being strapped to a large bottle rocket. Quickly up and then fall to the ground. Struck me as a rich person's amusement park ride with a greater risk of death.

One I'd take if I could but that wouldn't change the nature or significance of the event.

As to his quoted reaction, it seems like everyone who goes to space is required to come back and try to say something unique and hyperbolically profound. Given he was definitionally in space for only a few seconds, imagine what he would have said after a few orbits when he could really take a good long look.; 10/13/21, 12:08 PM
mccullough said...: Did his toupee stay on the whole time?; 10/13/21, 12:15 PM
rhhardin said...: Never listen to actors, part 10009.

John Wayne was an expert on poetry, though. It makes you remember he was an actor, not a cowboy.; 10/13/21, 12:23 PM
Leland said...: Shatner needs to stop it with calling others fat skinned.; 10/13/21, 12:24 PM
Achilles said...: The space industry right now shows the difference between private sector and government sector in terms of efficiency.

Government contracts are awarded based on who hires the most expensive lawyers.

Funny how all the people who are in government prefer valuing process and donations to lawyers/government over things like results.; 10/13/21, 12:25 PM
Owen said...: Shatner sounds like every other actor who never got past high school science. But he’s Captain Kirk, entrusted with the command of a mighty starship replete with technology that borders on magical. So he knows stuff, and we should listen.; 10/13/21, 12:37 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I watched it on PBS News Hour live feed, which was basically being done by Blue Origin's TV people. Shatner got out of the capsule and was obviously moved by what he'd experienced and started to speak to the news people there. Bezos interrupted him so he and his billionaire buddies could shake champagne bottles around with their boob-job wives. I'm fucking pissed off with that bald headed asshole.; 10/13/21, 12:42 PM
cassandra lite said...: "I hope I never recover." Perfect.; 10/13/21, 1:07 PM
tcrosse said...: Canadian in space!; 10/13/21, 1:09 PM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: So science may bring us new fears more than new hopes.; 10/13/21, 1:43 PM
Kevin said...: I want to know what Denny Crane thought of the flight.; 10/13/21, 2:01 PM
mikee said...: Owen: He's also Denny Crane, that's DENNY CRANE. And even though he is as airheaded as any other 90 year old lifelong actor, he enjoyed the flight. Sour grapes, eh?; 10/13/21, 2:05 PM
Lurker21 said...: Not enough time for Pon Farr or sex with green Orion slave women either.; 10/13/21, 2:07 PM
Temujin said...: Shatner's comments and obvious emotional state told me more about the experience than any comments uttered by any astronauts over all of these years. Shatner spoke as an everyman to the rest of us. You could see how sincerely choked up he was by the experience. He's lived 90 years and never seen anything like it.

His description of the dark of space in contrast to the blue of our planet and our atmosphere was striking. He was grasping for adjectives, and said that the darkness and vastness of space was like...death when compared to the blue of earth- life. He wished all of mankind could take that trip. I think other astronauts have said as much.

It was touching to watch and listen to him. What an interesting life he's had.; 10/13/21, 2:18 PM
dbp said...: The atmosphere looks like a thin sheath from space. This makes it seem delicate, but if it was 10 times thicker, then the Earth would have furnace-like temperature and pressure, much like Venus.; 10/13/21, 2:28 PM
Mark said...: the darkness and vastness of space was like...death

In space, no one can hear you scream.

Wait, wrong sci-fi story.; 10/13/21, 3:18 PM
rehajm said...: I watched with the sound off after a couple minutes of those preflight women.

…and are we all just pretending that’s not a huge dildo?; 10/13/21, 3:48 PM
cf said...: Temujin says it well here.

My lady friends are probably tired of me imagining a future "Space Spa" to visit in our lifetimes, all I'd want is 40-hours in weightless orbit and shatner-style reverie, how many sunsets and sunrises would that be i could see? mY Wine & Whine ladies each have 20 years or more before WE hit 90 yrs old, so, at this point, my wish seems pretty reasonable, no?

Wahoo.

Signed: the optimist in me

(averting my eyes for today from this China-bought Obama-Nation police state going on at the moment, in which case all is lost, and I won't see space, consarnit.); 10/13/21, 4:02 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: rehajm said...

…and are we all just pretending that’s not a huge dildo?

I say vibrator, which I guess is the same thing.

SNL thinks it looks like a penis.; 10/13/21, 4:45 PM
Howard said...: Did they show James Tiberius Kirk having relations with a green alien hottie while flying in the giant penis?; 10/13/21, 4:49 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'It seems to have moved Shatner pretty profoundly. The people in the background? Not so much. They were annoying me with their chatter.'

Exactly...the champagne spraying (by Bezos, no less) was juvenile. It was a 'I saw this on TV once and I guess I'm supposed to do this' moment. Embarrassing.

They were treating it like a carnival ride, or the super-scary roller coaster at the amusement park.

Shatner (in golfing terms) is standing on the 18th tee if not the fairway, and he knows it.

He has lightyears more perspective...; 10/13/21, 5:23 PM
Bender said...: Not enough time for Pon Farr or sex with green Orion slave women either.

Slow down when you read.

That does NOT say "green onion slave women."; 10/13/21, 5:52 PM
Iman said...: There’s Shatner sincerely sharing his thoughts and feelings about what he’d just experienced - as profound as his rendition of MacArthur Park was back in the day - and it’s all spoiled by Bezos with the champagne showers and his lady friend rubbing her tits all over Capt.Kirk.

A sad spectacle…; 10/13/21, 7:13 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: Maybe the Lake City Police Dept will let him ride in one of their cruisers next.; 10/13/21, 7:39 PM
RMc said...: "green onion slave women."

Booker T and the MGs are wanted for questioning.; 10/14/21, 7:07 AM