I Found A Peanut: Live NASA Launch Video: Atlantis Liftoff Set for 2:45 PM EST

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Live NASA Launch Video: Atlantis Liftoff Set for 2:45 PM EST

To watch the live streaming Atlantis launch countdown and liftoff click here.

Image above: STS-122 crew members, attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits, pose for a crew photo prior to a training session in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at Johnson Space Center. From the left are European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts; astronauts Stanley G. Love, all mission specialists; Stephen N. Frick, commander; Alan G. Poindexter, pilot; Leland D. Melvin and Rex J. Walheim, both mission specialists. Image credit: NASA

Space Shuttle Mission STS-122

Orbiter: Atlantis
Mission: STS-122/1E
Primary Payload: Columbus
Launch Date: Feb. 7, 2008
Launch Time: 2:45 p.m. EST
Launch Pad: 39A
Landing Date: Feb. 18
Landing Time: 9:57 a.m.
Landing Site: Kennedy Space Center
Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

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Hi, thanks for visiting. Now it's your turn. I'm listening to what you have to say!

The Peanut Man

The morning is cool, a mist rising off the land. Just past dawn, still sleepy. But you're moving on down the road anyway.

There, under the trees, steam rising from the boiling pot, blending into the wisps of fog. The peanut man.

With the sun still barely tipping over the rounded earth, and the early morning cries of birds, the crossroads up ahead, you think: what did Robert Johnson first see when he met up with the devil? The fire glows hot as the peanut man smiles, chanting "hot boiled peanuts, fresh, sack 'em up. Hot boiled peanuts."

He hands you the sack, wet, hot, tempting with the fullness of hot boiled peanuts. You both smile, changing your money, fragile slip of paper, for what he has to offer: heat, a crunch, a taste like no other, the peanut, extraordinary food.

You hop back in your car. If you're smart, you find plenty of towels, paper or otherwise. Peanut bag goes in your lap, warming you.

Scoop out a hot boiled peanut. Here's where the juice begins, for real. If you know hot boiled peanuts, you don't crack open the peanut and transfer the meat to your mouth.

No, put the peanut in your mouth. Bite down. The warm, salty water, rich with the taste of peanut rushes across your tongue.

Lap your tongue around the peanut and shell. Suck. This is what life tastes like, meaty, salty, and warm, rich.

Remove peanut and shell, extract peanut. Toss shell somewhere. Return peanut, bare, naked, to your mouth. Taste it fully as you chew, the earthy taste of the simple peanut. Packed with protein, served with panache in that cradling shell, the peanut is about as good as it gets in the simple goodness of life.

If you've found a peanut, a whole bag of hot boiled peanuts, you've found food, warmth, sustenance, an entire culture, and something to muse about as you journey on.

Not to mention peanut shells to throw at your brother or buddy. Doesn't matter. The essence is the peanut, rich, rolling in the currents of history, from the Delta to the dawn of a new techno-millenium.

Brother Peanut is going along for the ride. And the peanut man, he'll always be out there, somewhere. No matter how long or hard the trip, suddenly, you round a curve, and there he is, smiling over his pot.

I Found A Peanut

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Live NASA Launch Video: Atlantis Liftoff Set for 2:45 PM EST

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The Peanut Man

Think I'm doing a good job? I'd love some fresh tea, thanks!

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