Word: takeoff
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Where sex failed, sentiment might succeed. One proposal is that the flight captain make a standard announcement before takeoff appealing to the better nature of a would-be skyjacker: "Folks," the message goes, "we have lots of sick people aboard today, all bound for their health to the sun of Miami, and we don't wish to cause them any distress." A science-oriented writer suggests gradually depressurizing the cabin until all the passengers, including the skyjacker, lose consciousness due to a lack of oxygen. Or maybe the crew could spray a small dose of a tranquilizer into...
...make additional moves into Western aviation. He is eager to buy Los Angeles Airways, a helicopter carrier, and has an eye on the San Francisco & Oakland Helicopter Airlines. He would also like to manufacture corporate jets and look into applications and routes for vertical-take-off and short-takeoff planes. For now, Air West fits neatly into his pattern for profit. It flies from several key cities into Las Vegas, Hughes' headquarters. In Nevada, which Hughes likes because it has no state income tax, he has picked up an estimated $150 million worth of properties, including the Sands...
That disaster virtually brought the Apollo program to a halt and threw NASA into chaos. What was needed was a man who could restore order within the program, and Low was the choice. In April 1967, while preparing for takeoff from Washington National Airport in a small NASA Gulfstream turboprop, he was hustled off the airplane and into a nearby office. Recalls Low: "Everybody in the line of command above me in NASA seemed to be there. They asked me to take over management of Apollo. I probably would have liked some time to think about it, but since anyone...
Were it not for television, of course, only doddering fogies of 50 and older would get the point of the takeoff. But the late-late shows have brought into the public domain the venerable cliches about naive little Ruby who comes to the Broadway "jungle" determined to "tap her way to stardom." All the familiar old friends are on hand-the bitchy established star who tries to steal Ruby's sweetheart, the warm-hearted floozy who befriends her, the gruff, tough director who puts her on at the last minute with those classic words: "It's a chance...
Moynihan, a liberal who has no qualms about attacking liberal shibboleths, titles his book Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding-a takeoff on the phrase "maximum feasible participation," which refers to the goal of involving the poor in planning and executing the programs that are to affect them. The phrase was especially applicable to the "community action" projects that were supposed to become the centerpiece of the whole anti-poverty effort. The trouble was, says Moynihan, that the Government never really comprehended what community action was all about and "did not know what it was doing...