Don Dale

 

In the early 70s I was the Technical Director for WTVR-TV6 in Richmond, Virginia. Don Dale was the News Director. On December 28, 2015 he suffered a fatal heart attack. 

Don was a native Richmonder and since 2009 has chronicled his life and thoughts in a blog:
http://nodelad.blogspot.com I discovered much about him from that.

Real Life X-Wing Fighter

The Warthog

 The paint scheme on the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II disguises a 30 mm cannon capable of 4,200 rounds per minute. 

Compare the size of a 30 mm bullet to standard ammunition:

The Warthog is used for ground combat and can be armed with laser guided bombs and Sidewinder missiles.

 The fuselage of the aircraft is built around the cannon. The GAU-8/A is mounted slightly to the port side; the barrel in the firing location is on the starboard side at the 9 o'clock position so it is aligned with the aircraft's centerline. The gun's 5-foot, 11.5-inch (1.816 m) ammunition drum can hold up to 1,350 rounds of 30 mm ammunition.

 

Since the early 70s the A-10 has been supporting our military with deadly force. 

Star Wars

In 1977 I took my 4 year old to see Star Wars. 

This past week I caught up on the sequels that have been produced since then. We have VHS copies of the original trilogy and two of the other episodes. Yesterday I discovered Revenge of the Sith on YouTube and watched that, too. In all this time I had never watched them and did not pay much attention to the franchise other than to find the toys and games my children wanted. Today I started on Episode IV after watching I, II and III in order. 

I was shocked to discover that Anakin Skywalker had no father. His was a miracle birth. After all these years I had not heard of this. Darth Vader became much more significant. History has myths of many others whose mother was not impregnated by a human.

Fantasy has its place. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_births

I have been trying to ascertain the number of ticket sales versus the monetary value of sales for the opening of Episode VI - supposedly the record of all sales in history. BUT, considering the  inflation rate of movie ticket cost how does the number of individual ticket sales compare to historic records of previous movies?

The records are controlled by the movie industry. Search for number of sales and all that will be displayed are monetary values NOT number of tickets.