MAY 2024 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 51
• My mother-in-law's battle with cancer
and how technology stepped up
• Do you really know just how many
scissors there are for cutting fabric?
Well, my wife sure did
• e trials and tribulations of moving day
when all our shrubbery was unexpectedly
ripped up
For those of you who have followed this col-
umn for a while, you know that I am a big fan
of aviation. Whether it is stories about the his-
tory of flying or my own experiences in the air,
I certainly have not shied away from this topic.
For instance, we've looked at flyers throughout
history, including Charles Lindbergh, Tommy
McGuire, Bert Christman, and Bruno Gaido—
men who made history and whose stories
serve as examples we can learn from. e story
of Captain Sullenberger's brilliant landing of a
disabled US Airways flight in the Hudson River
showed just how important being prepared for
any contingency is. ere were my own sto-
ries, including my first solo flight and a ride in
a WWII B17 bomber that got a little "interest-
ing." Oh, and there also was that little incident
where I almost flew into the side of a moun-
tain, but let's not dwell on the past.
Another area that interests me is entertain-
ment, and I dipped into that well a few times
too. Tony Stark's Iron Man gave us a glimpse
into the design tools of tomorrow while a
racehorse named Seabiscuit helped illustrate
the hiring process. I drew
a correlation between PCB
vias and Stargate's worm-
hole through space, used
the special effects of Star
Trek's transporter to explain
manufacturing efficiency,
and quoted chief engineer
Scotty in analyzing why
simple is oen better.
en there were the sto-
ries about me. Looking back
on them, I'm kind of sur-
prised that I've made it as far in life as I have.
Events like almost flying an airplane into the
side of a mountain tend to rewrite a person's
life insurance actuary tables, and there were
other dumb moments in my life that I talked
about:
• I once disabled the audio at a television
studio during a broadcast
• I nearly cooked my eyebrows off with a
BBQ fire
• I used to think that coffee cake was made
from real coffee
• I never saw the biggest fish that I almost
caught, but I sure heard about it
• I tend to hoard old tax documentation
Okay, enough of those embarrassing stories.
ankfully there have been plenty of more
positive moments that balance them out. I've
told you about the life of a
trade show warrior, my first
attempt to bake a cake, and
how I triumphed over hor-
rible documentation when
building an adult trike.
You also heard about some
of my old school stories
that helped me later in my
career, met my grandson,
and even saw a picture of
the very first circuit board
I ever created.
