Hello everyone, Today we must not be Disaffected, but rather, affected. I hope you all have a joyful day, even if you’re not American. All of you who read and watch and subscribe to Disaffected—you’re at the top of the list of things I’m grateful for. Losing a job, then having a house flooded, all while being un-employable in “respectable” America, made for a pretty grim time.
I can't wait. I'm so grateful you get off on doing the big modern dad/50s housewife thing. I like making fancy dinners for two, but Thanksgiving Dinner is so intimidating. It is a lovely thing to have cut ties to a destructive past so thoroughly that we get to have good holidays with real friends and real connection. And Imma give Shredder some scritches and Mina some treats!
My Thanksgiving table is small; my family is all gone save one sister on the opposite coast that I see very seldom. (No particular family drama; we just have totally separate lives and it’s 3000 miles.) My particular gentleman friend, my daughter, her girlfriend, and a friend who *does* have particular family drama of a nasty sort and so comes to celebrate holidays with us instead. We will feast on roast turkey with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, roasted winter vegetables, pumpkin and pecan pies. The turkey will take two hours longer than estimated (it always does) so there will be a spread of cheeses, pickles, and olives to prevent outbreaks of hangry violence.
Dan and I, both being pilots, have a ritual we perform on four holidays, Thanksgiving being one of them. We always make time in the morning to take a flight. Doesn’t have to be long and we hardly ever go anywhere in particular. We just get up in the air to give thanks for the tremendous gift of living at a time and in a place where ordinary civilians own and operate aircraft with a surprising amount of freedom and self-governance.
I have a private pilot airplane rating in single-engine land; I’ve had training in gliders and seaplanes but haven’t finished the ratings yet. I’m also an advanced ground instructor and teach a nine-week class for student pilots working on anything up through commercial. It’s a great blessing to have the opportunity to do such things.
I dream about taking flying lessons, but it will probably remain a dream. When traveling by plane, I have to grit through a looming panic attack on climb out. I'm not afraid of crashing; I know how safe it is. It's something else. Once I get through it, I'm fine, usually, but I pre-dose with a tranquilizer before I get on a plane.
So I've thought that taking lessons might help me conquer the fear, and the fear of heights. But I'm also temperamentally unsuited to be a pilot responsible for anyone's safety, so maybe it's not a great idea.
If you have dreamed of flying lessons, I think you should schedule what’s usually called a “discovery flight” with a local flight school. Try to find a mom-and-pop operation, not one of the big pilot mill places. These are typically an hour or so in the air plus a bit of light ground school, aimed at introducing the experience of small airplane flight in a docile and welcoming way. It’s not just a ride-along -- depending on your level of engagement and comfort, you’d be allowed to bank, climb, descend, maybe even some slow-flight airwork. Pretty much everything but the takeoff and landing.
Thinking that you’re temperamentally unsuited to ever being PIC (pilot in command; aviation loves its acronyms!) should not stand in your way of flight lessons. I work in a small flight school that does a lot of rusty pilot training -- people who may have not flown for 20 or 30 years. Some of these pilots will never be able to fly solo again -- they cannot qualify for a medical, they have a disqualifying condition, or they simply don’t trust themselves to react in an emergency. So they don’t -- they always go up with a flight instructor or another rated pilot. There’s nothing wrong with that.
I wonder if your apprehension on takeoff has something to do with having no forward visibility when you’re in a commercial airliner? I have never had a fear of flying; even before I became a pilot I loved airplanes and airports, before TSA ruined it for everyone. But I can tell you from personal experience that learning to fly will have absolutely no effect on your fear of heights, because you won’t experience it in the cockpit. There’s some small range of height above the ground that triggers that fear (and I have it, in spades); at the altitudes you fly 99.5% of the time your brain doesn’t recognize the ground as being a fall-able distance away. It feels more like standing and looking at a map lying on the floor.
I once read a study that had been conducted by the Navy. They wanted to try to identify pre-existing conditions (other than the obvious ones like excellent vision, reflexes, etc) that might indicate which pilots in early training would end up being elite fighter pilot material. So they threw every piece of information they had collected on tens of thousands of candidates over a number of years into a gigantic factor analysis. And it turned out that the three characteristics that were seen in extreme disproportion in successful pilot candidates were: left-handedness, dyslexia, and....fear of heights.
In recent years around Thanksgiving I have played the 1966 TV version of Truman Capote's short story A Christmas Memory because I remember watching it in school (when students vied for the privilege of operating the film projector). The sweetness of Geraldine Page combined with Capote's narration is quite memorable. There's sweetness, and of course the scars of trauma, abuse and neglect.
Happy Thanksgiving Josh!! I am thankful for people like you who see the truth and are willing to speak out and have the talent to entertain us at the same time. :)
Grateful to have found your channel and Substack. Have a Happy Thanksgiving (not ‘Thinks-giving’, as I’ve heard is the new and improved term being foisted upon us). Gobble till you wobble, everyone!
This all sounds so cozy and pleasant! My dinner will be venison jalapeño popper back strap(Texans know that is the best part, next to the tenderloin) broccoli with butter, Sister Schubert’s Parker House rolls, mashed potatoes and a mystery dessert being provided by our son. Oh,and some whole cranberry sauce I cooked up from fresh cranberries and a little orange zest. May your day be perfect and that turkey cooked just right.
I am keeping Thanksgiving cozy and small this year with a little turkey , mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, pumpkin pie and our tradition of aunt Leolas cornbread from the 1968 Time Life foods of the world cookbook, American edition.
It's the best cornbread in the world and yes it contains Crisco but it's once a year so just go for it.
Here is the recipe . You won't be disappointed.
Leolas cornbread
1 ½ cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup sugar
1tsp salt
1tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
6tbsp melted and cooled butter
8 tbsp melted and cooled vegetable shortening
1½ cups milk
400° oven
Sift dry inge into mixing bowl.
Beat eggs lightly, add melted butter & shortening, stir in milk. Pour into bowl of dry ingredients, mix until just combined . Do not over mix!
Pour batter into lightly buttered baking pan (i use a 9x9 ) and bake 30-45 min or until bread slightly pulls away from sides and edges are golden brown.
I finally got my hands on one over the summer. I don't think it was ever used. Its a b type, opalescent pink. She's a beauty. Needs a wick and a mantle. What site do you recommend to get these supplies?
My one mistake was not ordering the Carpenters Christmas Portrait on LP in time. But I'll have it for Christmas.
Happy Thanksgiving, Josh!
I can't wait. I'm so grateful you get off on doing the big modern dad/50s housewife thing. I like making fancy dinners for two, but Thanksgiving Dinner is so intimidating. It is a lovely thing to have cut ties to a destructive past so thoroughly that we get to have good holidays with real friends and real connection. And Imma give Shredder some scritches and Mina some treats!
You're definitely giving Shredder a shoulder ride. He wants one.
Happy Thanksgiving, Josh! Holly too, as I love her substack thanks to you pointing me there. Enjoy your feast. I’m working on mine this morning.
Happy Thanksgiving, Josh.
I'm thankful for you.
Happy thanksgiving Josh, your day sounds wonderful and your kitties are adorable 😻 We are so very thankful for you! Take care and enjoy your day 💖
Happy Thanksgiving, Josh!
My Thanksgiving table is small; my family is all gone save one sister on the opposite coast that I see very seldom. (No particular family drama; we just have totally separate lives and it’s 3000 miles.) My particular gentleman friend, my daughter, her girlfriend, and a friend who *does* have particular family drama of a nasty sort and so comes to celebrate holidays with us instead. We will feast on roast turkey with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, roasted winter vegetables, pumpkin and pecan pies. The turkey will take two hours longer than estimated (it always does) so there will be a spread of cheeses, pickles, and olives to prevent outbreaks of hangry violence.
Dan and I, both being pilots, have a ritual we perform on four holidays, Thanksgiving being one of them. We always make time in the morning to take a flight. Doesn’t have to be long and we hardly ever go anywhere in particular. We just get up in the air to give thanks for the tremendous gift of living at a time and in a place where ordinary civilians own and operate aircraft with a surprising amount of freedom and self-governance.
I love that you're a pilot! What crafts are you rated on?
I have a private pilot airplane rating in single-engine land; I’ve had training in gliders and seaplanes but haven’t finished the ratings yet. I’m also an advanced ground instructor and teach a nine-week class for student pilots working on anything up through commercial. It’s a great blessing to have the opportunity to do such things.
I dream about taking flying lessons, but it will probably remain a dream. When traveling by plane, I have to grit through a looming panic attack on climb out. I'm not afraid of crashing; I know how safe it is. It's something else. Once I get through it, I'm fine, usually, but I pre-dose with a tranquilizer before I get on a plane.
So I've thought that taking lessons might help me conquer the fear, and the fear of heights. But I'm also temperamentally unsuited to be a pilot responsible for anyone's safety, so maybe it's not a great idea.
If you have dreamed of flying lessons, I think you should schedule what’s usually called a “discovery flight” with a local flight school. Try to find a mom-and-pop operation, not one of the big pilot mill places. These are typically an hour or so in the air plus a bit of light ground school, aimed at introducing the experience of small airplane flight in a docile and welcoming way. It’s not just a ride-along -- depending on your level of engagement and comfort, you’d be allowed to bank, climb, descend, maybe even some slow-flight airwork. Pretty much everything but the takeoff and landing.
Thinking that you’re temperamentally unsuited to ever being PIC (pilot in command; aviation loves its acronyms!) should not stand in your way of flight lessons. I work in a small flight school that does a lot of rusty pilot training -- people who may have not flown for 20 or 30 years. Some of these pilots will never be able to fly solo again -- they cannot qualify for a medical, they have a disqualifying condition, or they simply don’t trust themselves to react in an emergency. So they don’t -- they always go up with a flight instructor or another rated pilot. There’s nothing wrong with that.
I wonder if your apprehension on takeoff has something to do with having no forward visibility when you’re in a commercial airliner? I have never had a fear of flying; even before I became a pilot I loved airplanes and airports, before TSA ruined it for everyone. But I can tell you from personal experience that learning to fly will have absolutely no effect on your fear of heights, because you won’t experience it in the cockpit. There’s some small range of height above the ground that triggers that fear (and I have it, in spades); at the altitudes you fly 99.5% of the time your brain doesn’t recognize the ground as being a fall-able distance away. It feels more like standing and looking at a map lying on the floor.
I once read a study that had been conducted by the Navy. They wanted to try to identify pre-existing conditions (other than the obvious ones like excellent vision, reflexes, etc) that might indicate which pilots in early training would end up being elite fighter pilot material. So they threw every piece of information they had collected on tens of thousands of candidates over a number of years into a gigantic factor analysis. And it turned out that the three characteristics that were seen in extreme disproportion in successful pilot candidates were: left-handedness, dyslexia, and....fear of heights.
In recent years around Thanksgiving I have played the 1966 TV version of Truman Capote's short story A Christmas Memory because I remember watching it in school (when students vied for the privilege of operating the film projector). The sweetness of Geraldine Page combined with Capote's narration is quite memorable. There's sweetness, and of course the scars of trauma, abuse and neglect.
https://youtu.be/_lmjU54i6R4?feature=shared
Wasn't it great when the teacher let you run the projector?
The chosen one.
Your work has clarified my values, strengthened my backbone and emboldened my speech. I give thanks to you, Josh.
Happy Thanksgiving Josh! Thank you so much for your writing and reporting!!! Your table menu is perfect, as is the soundtrack...one of my favorites.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Happy Thanksgiving Josh!! I am thankful for people like you who see the truth and are willing to speak out and have the talent to entertain us at the same time. :)
Grateful to have found your channel and Substack. Have a Happy Thanksgiving (not ‘Thinks-giving’, as I’ve heard is the new and improved term being foisted upon us). Gobble till you wobble, everyone!
This all sounds so cozy and pleasant! My dinner will be venison jalapeño popper back strap(Texans know that is the best part, next to the tenderloin) broccoli with butter, Sister Schubert’s Parker House rolls, mashed potatoes and a mystery dessert being provided by our son. Oh,and some whole cranberry sauce I cooked up from fresh cranberries and a little orange zest. May your day be perfect and that turkey cooked just right.
Sound great!
I think we’re all grateful to you and Kevin for creating and fostering this “kuhmewnidy”.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I too have my kerosene lamps fired up!
I am keeping Thanksgiving cozy and small this year with a little turkey , mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, pumpkin pie and our tradition of aunt Leolas cornbread from the 1968 Time Life foods of the world cookbook, American edition.
It's the best cornbread in the world and yes it contains Crisco but it's once a year so just go for it.
Here is the recipe . You won't be disappointed.
Leolas cornbread
1 ½ cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup sugar
1tsp salt
1tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
6tbsp melted and cooled butter
8 tbsp melted and cooled vegetable shortening
1½ cups milk
400° oven
Sift dry inge into mixing bowl.
Beat eggs lightly, add melted butter & shortening, stir in milk. Pour into bowl of dry ingredients, mix until just combined . Do not over mix!
Pour batter into lightly buttered baking pan (i use a 9x9 ) and bake 30-45 min or until bread slightly pulls away from sides and edges are golden brown.
Perfect! I love that you have your lamps going too.
I need to get my aladdin up and running. I'll be hunting you down on discord for advice. 😃
Hunt me down anywhere. I LOVE splainin' bout lamps.
That's great!! I really appreciate it!
I always recommend a re-char on those wicks to even them with the wick tube. You know how to do that, I'm sure.
I'm actually an aladdin Virgin.
I finally got my hands on one over the summer. I don't think it was ever used. Its a b type, opalescent pink. She's a beauty. Needs a wick and a mantle. What site do you recommend to get these supplies?