"Good show!" cried Mary heartily as she got near. "That was a magnificent crash!
They're all wild about it over there. Rustler is nearly incoherent about it,
and the cameramen are nearly as bad."
(Star actress, Mary Sinclair, to Ray - The Crash Girl - by Eileen Marsh ,1937 - page 87)
"I see," Ray said slowly. "Is there a crash in this film they're making now, then?"
"A crash in Heading For Disaster? My dear, it's full of them!"
"Oh! But I couldn't!" cried Ray in a sudden panic. "I couldn't
crash a plane on purpose. It would be too awful."
(Miss Ray Middleton & Miss Blake (secretary) in The Crash Girl - by Eileen Marsh ,1937 - page 29)
"Magnificent!" he shouted. "Stupendous! Gee, if that isn't the best crash
I've ever seen. You're engaged! Any salary you like. You're engaged!"
(Director Harding Rustler of the Up-To-Date Film Company -
in The Crash Girl - by Eileen Marsh ,1937 - page 22)
Across the drowsing city the roar and thrum of the motors settled to a deep thunder.
The plane body threw her V of spray, climbed onto her step and began to make knots...
Then dripping, the pontoons lifted and the huge plane swam upward
like a gull toward the thick cottony clouds.
(Transpacific Plunder by Frederick
Painton, in Argosy magazine
12 September, 1936 )
"If you're flying with a tail-wind, don't take all the credit for your ground-speed."
(Air-racing Pilot 'Rongway' Roo - 1934)
On the wall above the mantelpiece was a wooden propeller with queer,
curved blades, hung as a trophy like a pair of antlers.
(Ronnie Clarke - The Rainbow and the Rose - by Nevil Shute, 1958 - page 54)
"What I'm going to do is perfectly respectable, you silly old darling!
Can't you trust me for that? I'm going to fly an aeroplane for the
Up-To-Date Film company. That sounds all right, doesn't it?"
But Ray did not say what else it was that she had to do."
(The Crash Girl - by Eileen Marsh ,1937 - page 45)
She opened the doors and gave a sigh of relief. There stood the aeroplane,
solid and secure, and Ray felt that in a few moments she would be dealing with
something that she could understand again.
(The Crash Girl - by Eileen Marsh ,1937 - page 12)
"Good is better than evil because it's nicer."
("Mammy" Pansy Hunks Yokum, guidance councilor - Li'l Abner - via Al Capp)
"I have data upon data upon data on new lands that are not far away."
(Charles Fort -- often-referenced captain of 1930s clippers)
"It is not enough to conquer - one must learn to seduce."
(Voltaire)
"You will always find an answer in the sound of water."
(Zhuang Zi, circa 300 BCE - Chinese philosopher & (possibly) a butterfly)
"...Of course we can freight in enough water by plane for cooking
and drinking purposes, but I do like a bath before breakfast--
at least now and then!"
(Jim Baxter - Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress -
by Oskar Lebeck & Gaylord DuBois, 1941 - page 39)
Great inchoate thoughts welled up within him. He could not sleep,
and so he walked along the edge of the island. The airstrip shone in the moonlight.
"It's beautiful," he said. "And look at the water bouncin' on them cliffs. It's beautiful."
(Joe, Navy enlisted man - in "Dry Rot" Tales of the South Pacific - by James A. Michener, 1947)
,,,Silent as a shadow, the stratoplane floated down above the hangar.
The roof of the building rolled back at the usual radio signal.
Without hesitation Jim set the ship down inside the hangar walls.
(Jim Baxter - Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress -
by Oskar Lebeck & Gaylord DuBois, 1941 - page 66)
"Yes, of course. I remember now. But don't expect me to recall all
the aviatrices, and their stunts. I usually skip the flying news."
('Daddy' Carlton - Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight - by Edith Cavell,1931 - page 37)
"You are sure you are not afraid?"
"No! I believe in you Miss! And, oh, I'd risk anything to save my little girl...
Besides, I've always wanted to go up in an airplane."
(Pilot Linda & Mrs. Beach - Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight - by Edith Cavell,1931 - page 12-13)
...Oh, if she only had a gyroscopic pilot, that marvelous little instrument that
would assure an even keel!...She would ask her father to give her one for
Christmas--if she lived till then! She smiled in a detached way; she thought of
herself almost as another person, in a book or a play.
(Pilot Linda Carlton - Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight - by Edith Cavell,1931 - page 15)
"The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood."
(Voltaire)
"What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on...."
(Voltaire)
"What are alternate histories? The truths that everyone disagrees about...."
(Notes for the 2nd Inaugural Address, by Huey Long, President of the United States)
"Even if one were to be an eye-witness, it was still difficult for one
to scorn travellers' tales of marvels and prodigies,
and tell the truth and nothing but the truth."
(Histories, Book 3, Chapter 58 - Polybius)
"It's not the heat, it's the humidity."
(attributed to Bob, of Bob Puffin's Seashore Bookstore (AKA: "Bob's Puffy Books")
"To survive, you must tell stories...."
(The Island of the Day Before, by Umberto Eco, 1996)
"To survive, you must avoid being the subject of stories."
(Al Musielewicz - Facebook, 2011)
Light fuse - Retire quickly
(Port Union Fireworks Co-Operative Syndicate - Common class fireworks labels)
"The
Goggles of the Magic Hula Sparkle-Ponies - they DO Something!..."
(Fiend 'Sixer', Dr. Barnacle and the
Banana Fiends, comic
strip #352 - by Osgood Weems)
"Pleasant
dreams
in
the
dreamtime;
ways
and
means
in
the meantime."
(Warren Hutch - 2011)
A
coral pier jutted into the water and beyond was a school-house and more
coconuts.
For the rest -- lagoon, lagoon, lagoon.
(Pieces of Heaven by Nancy Phelan)
"Imagination
becomes
reality."
(Master T. T. Liang {via Giovanna Fregni})
"I am
still alive... As long as I'm still alive, I can be useful."
(Wo Shin, Songmark Student, on a small Aleutian Island -
Luck of the
Dragon: Cold Comfort by
Walter D. Reimer)
"Hnootly F'tagln! Hnootly!!"
(from the booklet, An Unknown
Phrasebook of Unknown Consequences, 'Dr. Y', Cranium Island,
1927)
This
was real atoll scenery, with the sea breaking on the reef, blinding
white coral,
the wind rustling the dry pandanus and coconut leaves --
all the stark bleached beauty of the low islands.
(Pieces of Heaven by Nancy Phelan)
"Tryin'
t'
change
history's
like
tryin'
to
change
the
tires
on
a bus while
y'all're ridin' in it."
(Miss Jane Early - 1939 - The Gaze:
The Glass Goose - by Warren Hutch)
"When
a vixen says she has a cunning plan, listen to her..."
(Charlie Bellman, Spontoon Islands, 1936. [via Antonia T. Tiger])
"O le gase a ala laovao: Paths in
the bush are never obliterated;
the past is never lost."
(Samoan proverb - via Pieces of Heaven by Nancy Phelan)
"Everything
you
can
imagine
is
real."
(Pablo Picasso {via Giovanna Fregni})
The
engine stopped. I could hear the long long sound of the surf,
rushing, booming, sighing.
(Pieces of Heaven by Nancy Phelan)
"The
creator of the universe is fond of squeaky toys."
(tekdiff.com by 'Cayenne' Chris
Conroy)
To
let people know about a film, a truck would drive round the island
with a group of boys rattling their kerosene tins (drums);
for dances there was a truck full of girls.
(Pieces of Heaven by Nancy Phelan)
There
were no signs of the islet's (motu's)
double life; the Shell fuel installations
were hidden in leaf houses; between flying-boat visits the rest-house
was deserted.
(Pieces of Heaven by Nancy Phelan)
"Separate
an
individual
from
society,
and
give
him
an
island
or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property.
He cannot be rich."
(Thomas Paine)
"Happy
Whatever & Merry The-Same."
(via Louie Bucklin, 27 December
2008)
"How
you look so happy for that??"
(Yuki Sonada, Magical
Girl, in the webcomic MegaTokyo
by Fred Gallagher)
The
future means change -- an utter change. And yet...
there are simple and picturesque things that one would like to
preserve.
(Nostromo by Joseph Conrad -
via Pieces of Heaven by Nancy
Phelan)
"Aloha
ikki-oommoo!"
(via Don Martin)
Lights
were
coming
out
like
stars
up
the
dark
valley
as each household made its vesper fire to roast breadfruit or broil
fish,
and lanterns were hung upon the bamboo palisades
that marked the limits of property or confined favorite pigs....
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
....and
then,
warmed
by
the
liquor
that
fired
their
brains,
the dancers began the haka,
the sexual dance....
With the continued passing of the cup, the hurahura soon became general.
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
"It
was really fun while it lasted', she said, smiling across the cockpit."
(Sturgis
'Pieplate' Sands, in Savoias
out of Sapporo, by Arch Whitehouse, Sky Fighters, January 1940)
"If
you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined!"
(via Trevor Inman, "A
Seagoing Saga", at the website: Merchant Navy
Nostalgia)
"...It
makes
you
feel
quite
superior
to
a
seat-of-the-pants
pilot
like
me.
But I'll take an airplane, a road map on my knee, a couple of
temperature gauges and a magnetic compass on my dash,
and I'll fly where I'm going when I want to...."
(Skid Payton's piloting principles, in Unreported
by William O'Sullivan,
Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
"It's
queer what a uniform will do to the man who has to salute
the braid on your sleeve, but I'd rather be what we are --
members of an army that wears no insignia or braid."
(Sturgis
'Pieplate' Sands, in Savoias
out of Sapporo, by Arch Whitehouse, Sky
Fighters, January
1940)
"...He told me to count him
out," the youth answered imperturbably.
He leaned forward from the hips, lifted Skid easily and gently passed
him up
into the (Consolidated Amphibian's) cabin. He followed later as the
amphibian
waddled onto the runway like an overly clumsy duck and gathered
speed....
(Skid is shanghaied by Richard
MacMurtagh, in Unreported
by William O'Sullivan,
Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
He
turned back to the Radio. It was a conventional send-receive set
of the type that is good for perhaps 300 miles. Maybe less... He knew
the type.
You clicked down a lever switch and held it down while you spoke into
it.
Then you released it and it became a receiving unit while the other
fellow talked.
(At the abandoned Malong Island
airport, in Unreported by William O'Sullivan,
Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
Skid
walked nearer, saw a lean, powerful youth with incredibly hard blue eyes
and a hard, humorous mouth. His hands were large and were poised on
slim hips. He wore a white pongee jacket over a round-necked silk shirt,
and full-length linen slacks. His feet were bare.
(Richard MacMurtagh, in Unreported
by William O'Sullivan, Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
Possibly the first in-flight radio
message -- in 1910, from the dirigible airship,
AMERICA, during its
attempt to cross the North Atlantic Ocean:
"Roy,
come and get this goddamn cat!"
(Discussing 'Kiddo', a stowaway in the airship lifeboat.)
"Haven't the last few nights been beautiful?" Moira said.
"The moon, I mean? I was hoping you'd fly over to see me.
Us, I mean." She laughed
slightly. "You must think me very bold, Skid."
(Unreported
by William O'Sullivan, Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
The
food was hot and clean and tasty,
the drinks were cool and clean and tasty,
and the mooring lagoon glowed with the mooring lights
from the score of large and small planes that were anchored there.
(Unreported
by William O'Sullivan, Five-Novels
Monthly, May 1941)
The
sun had set when the big plane twisted away... A boom-swish-boo-o-oom
drew his eyes to white-crested rollers breaking on the coral reef
alongside the lagoon. The water slithered up the hard-packed beach,
its phosphorescent lights making it a magic carpet....
(Pilot Skid Payton arrives on Malong
Island, in Unreported
by William O'Sullivan,
Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
"...Someone
who
is
clever
enough
and
good
pilot
enough
to
last
out
whatever is wrong there at Malong. Maybe," she said, her eyes large
on Skid, "it will be you." ...She was as dark as a gypsy's reverie, her
deep coloring
set off by the candy-striped silk shirtmaker waist she wore
with matching sandals and white, heavy-silk shorts....
(Moira MacMurtagh recruits pilot Skid
Payton, in Unreported
by William O'Sullivan,
Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
A
bookcase crammed with texts on flying and navigation and aircraft
maintenance.
Wall charts of repair operations, of plane performance in varying winds
of
varying speeds. Maps of the section. Radio-control-airports regulations
for incoming and outgoing (aircraft). A blueprint (for) the two-way
radio hookup.
A long work table, a smaller table, three straight chairs, two easy
chairs, a desk.
And the radio itself, alongside the desk.
An unfinished cigarette had burned a groove in the desk....
(Skid Payton checks out the Operations
Room, in Unreported
by William O'Sullivan,
Five-Novels Monthly, May 1941)
...Pieplate's
hair
was
tucked
under
a
Basque
beret
and
she looked very refreshed. "I've borrowed a pair of your tennis shorts,
a clean shirt and that lovely chain-stitch sweater," she said,
smiling at Hallerton. "I was beginning to feel clammy
in that (Japanese) uniform. I hope you don't mind...."
(Sturgis
'Pieplate' Sands, in Savoias
out of Sapporo, by Arch Whitehouse, Sky
Fighters, January
1940)
"Captain
Ezra
Triplett
was
a
hard-bitten
mariner.
In
fact,
he
was,
I think, the hardest-bitten mariner I have ever seen. He had been
bitten,
according to his own telling, man-and-boy, for fifty-two years,
by every sort of insect, rodent and crustacean in existence."
(Cruise
of
the
Kawa by Walter E. Traprock {with George S. Chappel})
They
did not know they had bodies; they only leaped, danced,
flung themselves in and out of the sea, part of a large,
happy, and harmonious universe.
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
Fresh
from the flower spathes of the coconut-tree, namu tastes like
a very light, creamy beer or mead. It is delicious and refreshing,
and only slightly intoxicating.
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
"...Isnessbay
ouldcay
ebay
etterbay!"
(Chief of the Ookabolaponga, Ping Pong
- Kurtzman & Elder, MAD magazine)
Night
fishing has its attractions in these tropics, if only for
the freedom from severe heat, the glory of the moonlight or
starlight, and
the waking dreams that come upon the sea, when the canoe rests tranquil,
the torch blazes, and the fish swim to meet the harpoon.
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
...Haabunai
and
Song
of
the
Nightingale
again
evoked
the thrumming beat of the great drums, and the dance began.
This was a tragedy of the sea, a pantomime of danger
and conflict and celebration.
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
"...'Dr. Funk,' a drink known to all the South Seas.
Its secret is merely the mixing of a stiff drink of absinithe
with lemonade or limeade.... Its particular merits are claimed
by experts to be a stiffening of the spine when one is all in;
an imparting of courage to live to men worn out by doing nothing."
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
Her
quickly indrawn breath tightened her silver evening gown
over the rounded fullness of her bosom.
("Riddle In Silk" by Thodore Tinsley, Crime Busters, December 1938)
...where
I
stood
the
precipices
were
a
mass
of
wild
trees,
bushes,
and creepers. From black to lightest green the colors ran,
from smokey crests and gloomy ravines to the stream
singing its way a hundred feet below the trail.
(White
Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien {with Rose Wilder
Lane})
"The
Ookabolaponga!"
"Hugga-bugga...Hugga-bugga...Hugga-bugga...Hugga-bugga!"
(Ping
Pong
- Kurtzman & Elder, MAD magazine)
"...I
believe it might be better if you continued to serve as ballast officer
and quartermaster. There
is a a long tradition of women auxiliaries
serving in this capacity aboard His Majesty's vessels
that dates back to the reign of George V.
"
(Captain Everett, of His Majesty's
Airship The Flying Cloud R-505
[Episode
15])
"Get
that one, Dragging Lady!"
(Half-Shot Charlie in Teddy and the Pirates! - Kurtzman
& Wood, MAD magazine)
"Ooh,
I say! How ineffable!"
(Lady Moneybaggs, Gilbert Rachet comic strip, VIZ
comics)
"...As
you know our company runs a GOOD, CLEAN, HONEST
business selling opium to the natives!... Some dirty rotten crooks
have been hi-jacking our opium shipments!"
(Pat O'Bryan in Teddy
and
the
Pirates! - Kurtzman & Wood, MAD magazine)
"Air
piracy is not a crime! It's just a rude way of saying:
<Wealth Redistribution Aviator>!"
('Allabaster' at Fur Affinity archive) http://www.furaffinity.net/user/allabaster/
A tug
at her tweed skirt disclosed the gleam of an
automatic pistol in a special garter holster
-("Riddle In Silk" by Thodore Tinsley, Crime Busters, December 1938)
She
rode the air alone, sky-victor in a riddled ship.
(Dizzy Malone, in "The Jane From Hell's
Kitchen"
by Perry Paul, Gun Molls Magazine,
October
1930)
"Try
this," said Miss Elfoot, hauling a half-pint flask
out of her pocket. "It's the real McCoy."
(Murder By Mail by Frederick Nebel, Dime Detective Magazine, June 1936)
"...and
recover
the
silk
stockings
that
she
stole.
They
may
mean
the difference between peace and war in Europe -- if they're
sold to a certain air power on the Continent."
("Riddle In Silk" by Thodore Tinsley, Crime Busters, December 1938)
"What
happens at the Marleybone, stays at the Marleybone...
Unless of course, you forget to tip the Bellboy."
(Casino Island saying, as heard by Rusty
Haller)
Cigarette
tables
on
tall,
slender
legs
flanked
the
divans;
a massive radio was half-concealed by an exquisite Spanish shawl,
worked with intricate mauve embroidery and surmounted
by a silver vase holding a gigantic spotted orchid....
...Dizzy's purple paradise was, indeed, an institution.
(The
Jane From Hell's Kitchen by Perry Paul, Gun Molls Magazine, October 1930)
"We'll
NEVER find the island of the ferocious Ookabolaponga!"
(Ship's Crewman, Ping Pong
- Kurtzman & Elder, MAD magazine)
This
black, daringly-cut creation, backless and with halter-neck,
was the identifying costume of the mysterious Domino Lady!
...with a domino mask of shining black silk, and with a
tiny black, snub-nosed automatic in her right fist,
Ellen switched off the light....
(The
Domino Lady Doubles Back by Lars Anderson, Saucy Romantic Adventures, June 1936)
(Dizzy
Malone)
shot
the
moon
to
warm
her
guns,
quivering
with
a throb of power at their chattering death-talk....
The sun settled slowly behind her. The Boeing roared on into the East.
(The
Jane From Hell's Kitchen by Perry Paul, Gun Molls Magazine, October 1930)
"...and
get the guy who
double-crossed me. But I want to do it legal.
All I ask is a plane, a fast one, with a machine gun on it,
and your say-so to go ahead."
(Dizzy Malone in The
Jane From Hell's Kitchen by Perry Paul, Gun Molls Magazine, October 1930)
"Think
cubistically," Virtue prompted.
(Mountain-of-Virtue, in Murder,
Chop
Chop by James Norman, 1941)
"A
rigid airship was not flown by any one man;
it was commanded."
(William F. Althoff, author USS Los Angeles -2004)
"Now
back to the sewers,
where we join the dashing Masked Lizard!!"
(The
Masked
Lizarď
by Vaughn Bodé)
"My
Love is in Kalua, Little Heaven of the Seven Seas!"
(Jack Scholl & music by M.K. Jerome
- 1937)
"Quickly,
Assassins,
we
must
desecrate
the Masked Lizard's supposed grave..."
(Anonymous Lizard Assassin, The
Masked Lizarď by Vaughn Bodé)
"It is
very important for China's bite to be strong."
(Mountain-of-Virtue, in Murder,
Chop
Chop by James Norman, 1941)
"He
was wearing a white flying suit, & a white helmet,
with large square-cut green goggles. Even to us he looked a bit
like an artist's conception of a man from Mars."
(New Guinea expedition member about
their pilot, circa 1930s,
via The Bush Pilots,
Time-Life Books)
"My
poorly offered snails have wings," he murmured in Chinese.
I beg of you to overlook their waywardness."
(Gimiendo Hernandez Quinto, in Murder,
Chop
Chop by James Norman, 1941)
"Dear
Diary: Oh My."
(Amelia Bourne-Phipps, student of
Songmark Academy - 26 September, 1934)
"To
prove (the pony) really flew, he had his picture taken
wearing a pair of goggles as he alighted."
("AE" Earhart, airline vice-president,
circa 1929, via The Sky's the Limit
by Wendy Boase)
"I
can't tell the police you are an anarchist.
You can't tell the anarchist I'm a policeman."
(Gabriel Syme in The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K.
Chesterton - 1908)
"Calling
Barranca!
Calling
Barranca!"
(Tex Gordon in Only Angels Have Wings - 1939)
"But
the Great Pirates couldn't see what was going on
in the vast ranges of the electro-magnetic reality."
(R.Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
- 1969)
"Well,
I tell you I'm glad we bumped tha damn frog,
but where do we go from here?"
(Anonymous Lizard Assassin, The
Masked Lizarď by Vaughn Bodé)
"Here
on Cranium Island, Progress and Science go paw-in-paw."
(Mr. L.D. Forrester in Sinnessteuersymphonie by E.O.
Costello)
"As
the engine was stalled in mid-air, and the radio
won't--wouldn't--work, doesn't it sound like a secret ray
of some kind? I've read stories about them."
(Bruce Allen, pilot, in The Missing Monoplane by John
Creasy)
"...The
Island...it
agrees
with
you?"
(Mr. L.D. Forrester in Sinnessteuersymphonie by E.O.
Costello)
"Chaos
is dull."
(Gabriel Syme in The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K.
Chesterton - 1908)
"Three
weeks in Tahiti is too long, and three months is too short."
(from TAHITI
-
by Barnaby Conrad - 1962)
"...No
man should leave in the universe
anything of which he is afraid."
(Gabriel Syme in The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K.
Chesterton - 1908)
"No
one expects the Hispano-Suiza engine inspection!"
(Moon Island RINS maintenance shop
Syndic Whitefang - 1927)
"...there
are
bugs,
giant
moths,
spiders,
lizards
of
every
hue,
mosquitoes, and big land crabs all over the place,
generally in one's bedroom."
(from TAHITI
- by Barnaby Conrad - 1962)
"The
finest island in the world...where the allurements
of dissipation are beyond anything that can be conceived."
(Capt. Bligh, as quoted in TAHITI - by Barnaby Conrad - 1962)
...Trist
had
broken
a
fundemental
rule
of
bush
piloting
--
"no see, no fly."
(New Guinea, in The Bush Pilots Time-Life editors
1983)
"...Tip us the wink said Iron Staff Li
Then I'll cheat you and you'll cheat
me...."
(From Murder,
Chop
Chop by James Norman, 1941)
"As we
hit the treetops, jump out of the plane quickly!"
(Pilot Peter Manser in New Guinea,
giving jungle crash-landing instructions,
in The Bush Pilots,
Time-Life editors, 1983)
"This
can of spices is not totally stale! Tell me, Doctor, do you smell...
Pies?"
(Ptomkin, assistant
Pharmacognosist - strip 335 of Dr.
Barnacle and the Banana Fiends)
"...One
more
night
of
this
and
I
shall
be
ready
for
the
madhouse.
These South Sea Islands aren't all what they're made out to be."
(Algy, in Biggles in the South Seas by
Captain W. E. Johns, 1940)
"Great
minds think in the same volcano craters."
(Osgood Weems, 1927)
"They
are ill discoverers that think there is no land,
when they can see nothing but sea."
(from The Advancement of Learning, by
Francis Bacon)
"...Jacques
Schneider's
original
wish
to
promote
interest
in seaplaning had degenerated into a madcap struggle for
speed supremacy using planes built only for racing
and good for nothing else."
(from 'The Story of the Schneider
Trophy Race' in This Was Air Travel
by Henry R.Palmer, Jr. - 1962)
Q:
"How do you find out when there is a pilot in the room?"
A: "She will make sure to let you know."
(Old airport joke, via Mauricio
Tavares, 2008 - with a modification)
The
roar that poured from the clipped exhaust stacks
mixed with the blat of the props as they bit into the spray
and created a din that could be heard for miles, a long, high pitched
howl
that sent shivers of delight through the crowds lining the shore.
(from 'The Story of the Schneider
Trophy Race' in This Was Air Travel
by Henry R.Palmer, Jr. - 1962)
The
Italian planes, blowing black smoke from their exhausts,
their engines screaming, cut the pylons wide, while the Americans
in their more maneuverable ships banked vertically around them.
(1926
from 'The Story of the Schneider Trophy Race' in This Was Air Travel
by Henry R.Palmer, Jr. - 1962)
In
honor of the Tai Erh Chwang victory, he wore his full-dress
uniform. On one lapel was pinned a CIO Transit Workers button
which had somehow gotten into China.
(From Murder,
Chop
Chop by James Norman, 1941)
The
students zigzagged across the field on foot,
elbows extended like wings and dipping from side to side.
(From Murder,
Chop
Chop by James Norman, 1941)
"Her,"
said Nevada. "She's a coyote if I ever seen one!"
(Nevada in Murder, Chop Chop by James Norman,
1941)
"...I've
not
had
the
slightest
desire
to
return
to
Europe.
It's not easy to explain. You'll grant that a satisfactory life
must be based on reality? I find reality here."
(Dr Kersaint in The Hurricane by Charles Nordhoff
& James Norman Hall, 1936)
"I am
always careful, that's why I'm here on
the damn Island with the ukeleles and the grass skirts
and not back home where I belong."
(Mr. Maddock, in Think Fast, Mr. Moto, by J.P.
Marquand)
"...And
security
is
not
enough:
far
from
it!
The
people
of
these
islands have been taught better. They live in the present, enjoying
the simple occurrences of each day as it comes."
(Dr Kersaint in The Hurricane by Charles Nordhoff
& James Norman Hall, 1936)
Wild
flowers, including many species of orchids,
grew in luxuriant profusion among giant maidenhair ferns,
and hung in garlands from tree-ferns. Thousands of guinea-pigs
scampered away in front of them.
(Biggles
in
the
South
Seas by Captain W. E. Johns, 1940)
The
fronds of the palms clattered in the steady trade winds
above their heads like the flapping wings of unseen birds.
(Think
Fast,
Mr.
Moto, by J.P. Marquand)
"He
puts the famous in blasphemous."
( Mauser, on his Whiteboard )
"Amuse
yourself, please, after this. Bathe in the warm seas.
See the other pretty girls. Listen to the lovely music.
Sit in the sun and think, but not about this affair, Mr. Hitchings.
You are out of it now."
(Mr. Moto, in Think Fast, Mr. Moto, by J.P.
Marquand)
"You're
a
palpable
fact,
Miss
Hitchings,
and
I
have
always been told to stick close to palpable facts."
(Wilson Hitchings in Think Fast, Mr. Moto, by J.P.
Marquand)
"Anyone
that
animals
speak
to,
or
offer
aid
to,
wins."
(Joseph
Campbell
)
"Kokovoko
-
an
island
far
away
to
the
South
and
West.
It is not down in any map; true places never are."
('Ishmael' in Moby Dick, via Herman Melville)
"The
Island had changed from
a distant, pagan paradise of gods and drums to
an outpost of a nation that was half a fortress, half a garden."
(Think
Fast,
Mr.
Moto, by J.P. Marquand)
Annual
Earnings
[USA
circa
1933]:
Stenographer/bookkeeper,
$936;
Registered Nurse, $936; Doctor, $3382; Railroad Exectutive, $5064;
Airline Stewardess, $1500; Airline Pilot, $8000.
(This
Fabulous
Century
4:
1930-1940, Editors of Time-Life Books)
"Always
make
the
game
interesting
for
the
referee,
or he'll make it interesting for himself."
(D.L. Arneson)
" Tour
Book - The Ireland of Dr. Moreau "
( Mauser, on his Whiteboard )
"Everyone
talks
about
the
rich,
but
nobody
eats
them!"
(Billiam Goodfellow, circa 1930)
"Well,
your heart's in the right place. That'll make it easier to hit."
( Mauser, on his Whiteboard )
"A
little well gotten will do us more good
Than lordships and scepters by Rapine and Blood."
( R. Saunders, his Almanac )
"Never
play pool with a man who brings his own table."
( Erik Baker, quoted in the WORDS
WORDS
WORDS blog )
"<Homing
in
on
your
destination
by
radio
bearings>
always sounded very reassuring in publicity releases.
We pilots knew better and wondered if our superiors did."
(Horace Brock, Pan Am seaplane
pilot, in Flying the Oceans,
his
autobiography)
"It
will only take three or four days, unless it takes longer."
(From the Casino Island Clinic --
as reported by D.L.Arneson)
After
the feast the young men, decked with flowers,
appeared with guitars, ukuleles, and a kerosene drum....
(from My Samoan Chief by Fay G. Calkins)
"Golly!"
(Miss Amelia Bourne-Phipps, as
heard by several reputable witnesses, circa 1936.)
"Thank
you so much for being so polite," Mr. Moto said.
"Yes, I can do many, many things. I can mix drinks and
wait on table, and I am a very good valet. I can navigate and
manage small boats. I have studied at two foreign universities.
I also know carpentry and surveying and five Chinese dialects.
So many things come in useful...."
(Mr. Moto, Japanese agent, in "Think Fast, Mr. Moto" by John P.
Marquand, 1937)
"Oh,
sure," he said, "and I'll fight to the last pig.
Only I am the last pig."
(Freddy
in
Freddy the Pilot by Walter
R. Brooks)
"The
Cat in Gloves catches no Mice."
( R.
Saunders, his Almanac )
Tillamooka
feasting
&
folkways
may
account
for
the
arrival
of
"Potlatch Claws"and her visiting canoe fleet during Winter Solstice.
(from
"A
Plausible
Relation
of
the
Spontoonie
Isles"
by
Walter
E.
Traprock,
F.R.S.S.E.U.)
"It's
not their fault: They were banana bred."
(Tally Time At the Banana Boat
by Dr. Morris Barnacle, Pharmacognosist)
A
couple of moments more and the big bird settled in the water,
cut
through a roller and sent spray slashing out from the hull sides.
(Mercy Planes by Robert Sidney
Bowen - circa 1940)
Impossible
People:
The
aviator
who
said, "Jump!"
when asked what was the last word in aeroplanes.
(Elizabeth
Hayklan, cartoonist, Impossible
People (by JERI), circa 1934)
"Be
careful! The ancient pyramids are rife with secret traps!"
(Myra Foxworthy, Aridia's
Minister of Culture in a Tale Spin
episode)
Anti-aircraft
guns
and
the
crews
to
man
them.
Some kind of well-camouflaged fort. Then a Zeppelin shed.
Blackhawk always smiled at that ambition.
(BLACKHAWK
novelization by William Rotsler, circa 1982)
Impossible
People:
The
man
who
thanked
the
pilot
for the two flights--his first and last.
(Elizabeth
Hayklan, cartoonist: Impossible
People (by JERI ), circa 1934)
But
those guns had been put on only to cope with
Chinese bandits and bong-piaus
-pirates- who endangered
peacetime commercial flying.
(Stars for China (The
Three
Mosquitoes) by Ralph Oppenheim -
Sky Fighters magazine, January 1939)
A man
making his first Transpacific hop as chief pilot
should tend to his knitting, particularly if his work on this hop
would decide his superiors to keep him on.
(Transpacific Plunder by Frederick
Painton, in Argosy magazine
12 September, 1936 )
Those
three Nakajimas had whirled like three startled vultures!
...Above their sharp noses livid flame spurted
in vicious tonguing streaks.
(Stars for China (The
Three
Mosquitoes) by Ralph Oppenheim -
Sky Fighters magazine, January 1939)
Bancroft
spotted
the
wide-winged
Koken
plane
which
Sturgis
Sands,
the
girl
from
Pieplate,
Kansas,
had
purloined
to get
the famous Professor Deuhl out of Vladivostok....
(Savoias
out
of
Sapporo, by Arch Whitehouse, Sky
Fighters magazine, January
1940)
...He
found her gazing at the bullet-flecked fuselage of the flying boat.
(from "Transpacific Plunder" by
Frederick
C.
Painton,
Argosy
magazine 12 September, 1936)
"I
leave that for those who are fools enough to do so."
(Captain J. K Davis, of the ship Discovery,
on
the
floatplane
operations
that were part of the BANZARE expedition to Antarctica, 1929-1930)
"I
never lie about my seaplane, kid!"
(Aviator
'Porco
Rosso', via Miyazaki)
"I am
not going to take any risks for that bloody
rubbishing business of raising the flag ashore."
(Captain J. K. Davis, of the
ship Discovery, Antarctic
Ocean, January 1930)
Donald Curtis, pilot: "These
bills are kind of expensive!"
Fio, mechanic: "No. They're
not."
(In Porco Rosso, via writer & director, Miyazaki)
"Do
you eat...the Banana?"
(A minion in Dr. Barnacle and the
Banana Fiends)
"A
seaplane carries its own airport on its bottom."
(Andre Preister, Pan American
Airlines chief engineer
-- as quoted in Sea Wings by
Edward Jablonski)
"Farewell
to
freedom
in
the
Adriatic
and
days
of
wild
abandon!"
(a
quote
from
that
notorious
bounty
hunter,
'Porco
Rosso', via Miyazaki)
"It's
Fu Manchu! I can tell by the Gong!"
(Petrie Dishes the Squash-Mold Peril
by Dr. Morris Barnacle, PhD.)
"The
Clams! The Clams in the walls!"
(At the Minneapolis of Madness
by J.Maxwell Young)
More recent posted quotes are in Quotes Basket 2