Mel Sharkskin

Our war heroes are presented to us in different varieties. There are those we create for ourselves, in the mold of what we think a hero should be: David Crockett (nobody but Walt Disney called him Davy), astride the ramparts at the Alamo going to ...

Next time you go to an air show, take a look at the fine print on the ticket. Besides the usual stuff about acts of God and "Promoter not responsible if the frontman doesn't show due to injecting Drano into his balls," there's something else. It s...

With the possible exceptions of horses and ships, no other non-speaking entity has starred in so many motion pictures as the airplane. And we love airplanes. We love them so much we've probably seen every last airplane movie worth watching, and ev...

Jet aircraft, particularly the fighters, represent a Freudian's play date. Long, slender, blisteringly fast, spewing bullets out the tip and, until recently, powered as much by testosterone as by kerosene (the main ingredient in jet fuel -- what a...

All together now: NO BLOOD FOR NIOBIUM! When The New York Times reported in Monday's lead story that Afghanistan was sitting on vast riches in completely untapped minerals just lying around waiting to be dug up, it was old news out at Ellington Fi...

There was a time not so many years ago when we would immediately turn to the Urban Dictionary when we wanted to find out what, say, a Cleveland Steamer was, or maybe the definition of a Hot Karl (the two are not entirely unrelated). Practices we d...