I admit, I was drawn in initially for the ghost aspect – but it’s not real ghosts here. She discusses the phenomenon of seeing the face of her dead brother in strangers. Like literally seeing his face. She discovers it’s not an uncommon thing and traces the psychology of the experience as well as the social aspects of grief. I can commiserate; I remember once when I worked at Orchard Supply Hardware (now being liquidated! Sad!) in the mid-90’s, only a few years after my dad died, and a man came through my line who bore a striking likeness to my dad, to the point where I made a double take. On the second look, I saw the differences, but for a split second… All these years later, I still vividly remember that moment and the aftermath where my brain tried to regain focus. 

A second article from Longreads (you, too, can sign up for their weekly newsletter because you know you want to) – this is a fascinating memoir of a woman revisiting the unlikely place she called home: China Lake missile range as a tourist. 

385 Feet of Crazy: The Most Audacious Flying Machine Ever – Wired

Paul Allen built the world’s biggest plane. Does anyone need it? – Quartz

I came across the Quartz article first. I’ve been following the Stratolaunch since the announcement way back when. I was positive it would never be built. I’m glad I’m wrong.

Start with the Wired article. That does a lovely job of giving the context and history of the project in a way not wholly dissimilar to the article Last week I linked to about Virgin Galactic’s efforts to launch a vehicle into space from an enormous plane. Where that article focused on a pilot, this article focuses on the creators – Paul Allen, the billionaire who believed it into viability, and Burt Rutan, the genius designer who has been tinkering with the concept for decades.

While the Wired article does a nice job of casting doubt on the viability of the proposed mission of this leviathan, the Quartz piece goes a step further… It gets going in the second half of the article when it suggests it may be a “secret” government project being built in plain sight and compares it to the Glomar Explorer ship that was ostensibly built for manganese mining, but in fact was intended to (and almost did!) raise a wrecked Russian submarine, K-129. That in itself is an awesome story, so could the Stratolaunch be a similar military project? I don’t care! It’s so bonkers and I’m so excited this behemoth is going to actually fly that I really don’t care about the rationale. But that’s just me… Also, if you want to see this thing actually move? Check out the successful taxi testing. 

Yes, the Toto song, but covered by Weezer. This is a link to the YouTube video of them playing it live, but they also released a studio version that (Spotify willing) I’ll embed below. It’s as straightforward, loyal-to-the-original cover you’re going to find, and that’s just fabulous. Granted, Weezer isn’t exactly cutting-edge and first on the playlist of Kids These Days™ but their version did actually chart at number 1 on the alternative-rock Billboard chart. The inter-webs are mixed, with music pundits decrying it as “the worst thing ever,” or heralding the arrival of pop culture’s reboots into pop music. Really? Who cares. It’s fun. And, it’s helping Toto, too – they’re still around and touring (though of course a 40-year-old band has had numerous line-up changes over the years). Founding member Steve Lukather told the Wall Street Journal, “I never thought I’d live to see a resurgence in a positive way. All of a sudden people are being nice to us. It’s new to me! This has been the most surreal summer of my life.”

Hey, that’s pretty cool!