Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!skipper!shafer
From: shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer (OFV))
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: "High Flight" (was Re: The Ramparts):
Message-ID: <SHAFER.90Feb7085206@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>
Date: 7 Feb 90 16:52:06 GMT
References: <226.25BEC3D6@uscacm.UUCP> <5411.25c2dd7e@jane.uh.edu>
	<1096@sdrc.UUCP> <7786@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu>
	<SHAFER.90Feb1075008@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>
	<751@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU>
Sender: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal.
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In-reply-to: jwalicki@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU's message of 7 Feb 90 01:52:32 GMT

In article <751@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU> jwalicki@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (John Walicki [890904]) writes:

:In article <SHAFER.90Feb1075008@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov> shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer (OFV)) writes:

:>There also was a "Bloom County" Sunday strip based on this poem, featuring
:>Opus, naturally.  Perilously close to desecration, but still funny.
:>
:I clipped the Sunday comic and it's hanging on my wall at home.  It depicts
:Opus hanging from a fishing rod controlled by Oliver Wendell Holmes.  Opus is 
:philosophizing (sic) in Magee's words.  He boasts -
:: "Breathe Deep mine eyes the frosty saga of eternal suns,
::  From depths unseen and dreams undreamt,
::  I sing the unending cantos of unvanquished space..
::  By thought I embrace the universial,
::  With wings of mind I sail the Infinitude,
::  Glory, Tis' the stars which beacons mans spirit
::  and sets our souls adrift..

::  And now its back to work.
:  <Opus now carrying a pop gun while suspended in air>
::  Time to deploy the Anti-Soviet Death-beam Nuclear Laser.

:  <The last panel has the gun go POP and Opus looking at the reader and saying>
::  How woefully unpoetic!"

:My apologies to Mr. Magee and Burke Breathed, as I am reciting from memory.

Wrong strip.  Mine had Opus being carried aloft at the hands of his
compatriots (comcountites?) with "High Flight" at the top of each frame.
The last frame had Opus crashed on his nose, calling for a medic.

Interestingly enough, the poem was misquoted in the original cartoon
(I put out my hand, ....) but was corrected in the bound Collection
(Put out my hand, ....).

In article <751@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU> jwalicki@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (John Walicki [890904]) writes:

:I have checked Lehigh's library and it doesn't have any of the anthologies
:with "High Flight" in it.  I would be forever grateful if someone out there
:could mail me the entire poem.  Or, at least, as to where I could obtain a 
:copy.  Thanks.

Just buy the latest Bloom County Anthology.

I got a really nice version, with two F-15s, great clouds, and good sun
rays, from the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.  From the
Gov't Printing Office, actually.
--

Mary Shafer  shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov or ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA