Ode to a Radome

Today at work I received the following obituary and poem with accompanying photos:

Andrew Radome of Bloomville, OH died at his home (well, actually 1/2 mile downwind) last week in a windstorm. He died from a tragic fall from his lofty perch.  What caused his fall is unknown.  Some speculate a sniper assassinated him for his role in covering up spread spectrum data transfers to Bucyrus, Ohio.  Others think he suffered a stress fracture from a family member above him dropping something on his head.

Andrew was preceded in death by his cousin Harris Farinon of the same Bloomville address.  Andrew is survived by his twin brother of Bucyrus, whom he maintained nearly constant communication with.   He is also survived by four nephews in the Harris family and they still reside at the Bloomville estate serving the Megastar family.  There will be a potluck dinner following the landfill burial.  Please bring a microwave dish!

Here lies Andrew Radome,
- all broken and shattered.
He served us well,
- when it oft' mattered. 

Upon seeing the first photo I was inspired to write my poem:

Andrew dutifully served American Electric Power
Until he fell off his tower
All Morris' horses and all Morris' men
Couldn't put Andrew together again.


(I slightly rerranged/edited the orginal for blog posting... Credit to Phil for the original obit...)

KRZR, meet your great-grandpa

Last week I bought a new cellphone, a Motorola KRZR K1m from Verizon. It's my fifth cell phone; my first was a Motorola AC715 I bought in August of 1992. The AC715 was a later version of the original Motorola DynaTAC. It was a true Zack Morris phone, literally as big a brick. The KRZR set me back $200 after the $50 rebate. The AC715 cost me $220 after a $150 subsidy from Ameritech Mobile.  Pretty amazing how far we've come in 14 years.  The AC715 was 800 MHz analog only, had one ring tone, and no camera.   (The display was color, if you count the fact that the digits were red and it had a green blinking "in service" LED dot, yellow "ROAM" LED, and red "No Service" LED.) The KRZR has a 1.3 MP camera, shoots video, plays mp3s, and does all the standard stuff like 800/1900 MHz, text messaging, etc.  Plus it's sexy; I don't think you could ever say that about the AC715.