Northrop YF-17 prototype fighter aircraft - photos

[WmRMeyers]

He passed in 2000. Born in 1923, WWII vet Omaha beach survivor Had a collection of every issue of Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Science and Mechanics, Mechanics illustrated from their very first issue through 4 years after his death. In his vast library of collected and subscribed magazines there were possibly tens of thousands of magazines all trades and scientific related, like The electrical experimenter, Modern Mechanix and so many others It would be impossible for me to remember all of them. My cousins and I would go up into his attic library to read them whenever possible, So Uncle decided that if we were going to read through them then we should catalog them by year and make covers to store them in. They lived 2 miles away from where I lived so I had to either walk or if it wasn't too muddy or sandy road my bicycle to his house later my motorcycle, We spent years of our spare time arranging some order to that vast collection, I doubt if it ever was completed I can't say about them but I must have skim read 100's of thousands of different articles over the years

Sounds like a great guy. You were privileged to have someone like that close to you! My dad had a smallish collection of Popular Mechanics, and Popular electronics, and a larger collection of American Rifleman. I was in hog heaven with them, and a regular visitor to the library. A lot of those old magazines are available to read online, now. Many of them can be downloaded, too, so I've got a pretty good digital collection of such material. I'm kind of sensitive to the weight and fragility of paper books, though I love them very much. When we had to move from our "homestead" in NW Florida, the folks that advised me how to pack my stuff told me to put all the magazines at the front of the mobile home, and then proceeded to rip the tongue off. Cost me $500 (in 1986) to have it welded back on. And when I got here to Oklahoma, I had about 80 1.5cuft book cartons, and a flood in the back room took out about half of them. 40 cartons of books. I'm still trying to replace some of them. A lot of them were fiction, but there were some great how-to books and technical books, too. I've got 465GB of books and magazines on my 10.5" Samsung tablet, which is very readable. About the same on my phone and more on the desktop computer. What I want is the entire Library of Congress, but can't afford that yet.

Bill

[Frank S]

I had about 80 1.5cuft book cartons, and a flood in the back room took out about half of them. 40 cartons of books. I'm still trying to replace some of them. A lot of them were fiction, but there were some great how-to books and technical books, too. I've got 465GB of books and magazines on my 10.5" Samsung tablet, which is very readable. About the same on my phone and more on the desktop computer. What I want is the entire Library of Congress, but can't afford that yet.

Bill

Oh to have the libraries back again that I had accumulated and lost due to fire flood, theft and yes even sold and donated away.
The library of Congress? Now that would be an interesting collection to have but I would settle for the libraries of the ancients and a Rosetta stone, starting with Ashurbanipal's vast collection of clay tablets.
But the thing I would do if were possible, would be to travel back through time to the very first moment life arrived on this planet which I am firmly convinced was more than likely brought here from another place possibly billions of years prior to anything we think we know about the existence of life on this planet. and if it was brought here by other beings, I would try to somehow make a copy of those beings' historical knowledge to have in my personal collection.

[WmRMeyers]

Oh to have the libraries back again that I had accumulated and lost due to fire flood, theft and yes even sold and donated away.
The library of Congress? Now that would be an interesting collection to have but I would settle for the libraries of the ancients and a Rosetta stone, starting with Ashurbanipal's vast collection of clay tablets.
But the thing I would do if were possible, would be to travel back through time to the very first moment life arrived on this planet which I am firmly convinced was more than likely brought here from another place possibly billions of years prior to anything we think we know about the existence of life on this planet. and if it was brought here by other beings, I would try to somehow make a copy of those beings' historical knowledge to have in my personal collection.

I've been a fan of the Epic of Gilgamesh since I read a book by Wilson Tucker called "The Time Masters." IMO, world's oldest science fiction novel, while at the same time being a history & travelogue. Wife found for me, a guy who plays the music of the time and sings the songs, of Gilgamesh, his friend, Enkidu, and their travels, and battles. One of those is the lament for Enkidu. This music is about 5000 years old, and had me crying.

I spent several years in the Middle East, or SW Asia, and this sounds much like the traditional music there... which considering Uruk is on the bank of the Euphrates river... It's called Warka now, about 58 miles from Ur, is probably not surprising.

And I would have the best translations of all that material, too! Unfortunately, I don't have much facility at learning languages. I tried for decades to learn to read and speak Spanish fluently, as I wanted to read the Poema Del Cid, and Cervantes in the original language, but all I can really manage is the basic pleasantries. Did the same in Turkish and Arabic, except that I didn't get even as much practice in those languages.