Chapter 72: First We Build A Fire

[Paul S.]

....is finally ready for prime time:

https://www.ttbrown.com/defying_gravity ... afire.html

--PS

[Victoria Steele]

OK. I see whats going on now. I'll just go this route . When you notice it Paul you might want to update that forum link at the end of the Chapter 72 so that it funnels folks here ... instead of in the 71 thread. Though ... its fun over there too!

Of course you know by now that I am one of your major fans and so you will expect most of the time to get positively glowing critical reviews from me. And this one will be no different! Surprise!~ You are an amazing and talented writer Paul with a WHOLE LOT of material in front of you! No wonder it has taken a long time to get these chapters out. Its good solid technical stuff, but you make it seem so easy!

This is merely a reflection of all of the painstaking work that you have done in the past. Not to mention being able to sit down and capture it all with such a charming blend of personal interest and scientific record. OK. I am sold.

So .... when are you looking for a publisher? .... because as soon as this baby is cleared from your fingertips .... it needs to be published! I do like that you are putting it out like this though, and I appreciate getting a first look at all of this material. Its wonderful!

More comments later. You know I liked it. There isn't a sentence that I didn't like, and BOY do I have more questions but I am going to wait and give others a chance to respond too.

Congratulations! Victoria

[kevin.b]

Paul S,
Brilliant , not only the writing, but the timing.
Its freezing here and I note also in the states, so you have pitched the chapter to match the relevant weather.
The other thing personal to myself is a sort of parallel life, very bizzare.
My daughter's kitten was run over whilst we were away, she adhored it.
it was pure white and stone deaf, how it survived as long as it did , I will never know, several years, it would not leave my daughters side.

Then a few years ago my partner Suzi was diagnosed with cervical cancer, had to have an immediate total hysterectomy .
So I can actually relate totally, from the mans perspective.
I had to appear calm and collected, but inside was total lostness.
I didn't know where I was, Suzi took it all in her stride, I was like a flatfish out of water.

Again you seem to have the ability to transport the reader into almost been there, very clever and wonderfull to read.

I will again point out about the champagne shot, in the link to the Bahnson film, the champagne is held in position, outside the glass dome , until Dr Brown lifts it up, thus breaking the connection.
I think the film is chopped out of sequence, with Dr Brown clearing up after the champagne fell out of the FIELD it was held in.
Kevin

[flowperson]

Good job Paul...

I especially liked how you made the ending the beginning and the beginning the ending. Does this episode signify the mid-point of TTB's and his family's adventures somehow ? If not that's okay. I'm just fascinated with your use of this device for whatever reason.

Now, it does seem that Bahnson had commercial dreams in mind for all of this. But it also appears that as soon as TTB's work on the flame jet generator appeared on the scene, the military cloaks of darkness descended once more upon the subject matter, the money spigot was turned off for TTB, and the project's progress towards completion was made into a matter of military security.

Also, I would be curious to know if Bahnson's labs were an early part of the Research Triangle Park infrastructure that was just getting off the ground about then. Used to go there on business every so often. But then RTP's nearer Raleigh-Durham and not Winston - Salem which is somewhat west of there on higher ground if I recall. Quite a place.

You've got quite a synchronicity going here with kevin's life events, but then we should all expect that to happen here once in a while for that is the nature of nature. I expect weirdness every day, and I'm usually not disappointed.

I got all shivery just thinking of the family's first visit to the log cabin during the snowstorm. How like our feckless hero to buy the property after seeing its beauties and layout from the air and not bothering to do an up close and personal. He was so taken with the aesthetics of the place he just "knew" that it would all work out for them sooner or later, and it seemed to.

Rock On Paul...flow....

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

You are right Flow. Apparently Dr. Brown never inspected the log cabin personally or even walked the land. The map that he sent to his daughter was a birdseye view of the place.

And it has always been a puzzle to me why the property was left in such disarray, especially the dirty dishes frozen solid in the sink. As if whoever was there might have been squating on the place perhaps... but nothing apparently was ever said about the previous owners.

,in the time that Linda was with her family the log cabin was the only place that Dr. Brown ever purchased. Perhaps he could see far enough into the future of the place that the immediate discomfort was beneath his radar view. I don't think that he expected it to be that way because I don't believe that he would have volunteered to put Josephine in such an uncomfortable environment if he had known about it beforehand. Strange isn't it, that someone that seemed to know so much about the future would not see that glitch?Or maybe you are right... he did see it but he knew that all would be well and it would be an experience that they would all treasure . That is what seems to have happened.

I can picture Dr. Brown feeding wild ducks that would waddle up to the cabin from the near by blue lake. Sounds just like him and I'll bet he had a good time swimming there when the weather got warmer. Maybe it reminded him of his boyhood and Buckeye Lake just a little bit. Of course, much smaller version! Elizabeth

[James Barrett]

This is indeed an interesting few phrases. Mr. Bahnsons quotes I think:

"5. Then comes the job of putting it all together with the proper materials, considering weight in the hope of getting a self propelled, self lifting and controlled, self powered “batteryâ€

[flowperson]

This looks like your man. A very important dude indeed!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gray

flow....

[Paul S.]

...how can you tell if you're young or old?

I especially liked how you made the ending the beginning and the beginning the ending. Does this episode signify the mid-point of TTB's and his family's adventures somehow ? If not that's okay. I'm just fascinated with your use of this device for whatever reason.

The midpoint? Hmmm .... in reality, in a sense, possibly. But in terms of the chronological order the book, I'm afraid we're actually much closer to the end than we are the beginning, so this is hardly the middle.

I got all shivery just thinking of the family's first visit to the log cabin during the snowstorm. How like our feckless hero to buy the property after seeing its beauties and layout from the air and not bothering to do an up close and personal. He was so taken with the aesthetics of the place he just "knew" that it would all work out for them sooner or later, and it seemed to.

Yeah, that point seemed pretty...feckless? I don't know if that's the right word, but it is unusual to buy real estate without actually setting foot on it. So, I don't know if Dr. Brown checked it out more closely before buying it, and was then surprised at the condition on arrival after the storm. Something to think about during the re-write..

--PS

[flowperson]

Paul...Yep...bad use of the adjective "feckless". Shoulda looked it up in my well worn dictionary. How about "residence clueless" or "reckless", or "fearless" or "property evaluation challenged". Brilliant people are best known through their eccentricities.

I know I'm young when I am able to get up in the morning and walk around and breathe. I'll know I'm old when I can't get up, or walk around, or breathe.

flow....

[Griffin]

Congratulations Paul, on another great chapter.

I mentioned Gordon Gray in passing in a distant post, where I said something to the effect of the super secret government world not being totally Black but also shades of Gray. He was supposedly one of the members of MJ-12 and, as we've seen via Smith and Sarbacher for example, such a group by whatever name did undoubtedly exist and Gordon Gray would have been a player in some respect. Interesting and not surprising to find a connection with Townsend Brown's ongoing work.

As ever,

Griffin

[Paul S.]

I know I'm young when I am able to get up in the morning and walk around and breathe. I'll know I'm old when I can't get up, or walk around, or breathe.

Actually, I think there's another word for that. Starts with a "d"

--PS

[James Barrett]

Frankly, I am surprised that you have a written commentary from Agnew Bahnson mentioning that kind of connection with a man like Gordon Gray. Have you already run down that rabbit hole Paul. Whats at the end of that, I wonder.

Dr. Brown writes this:
"Then too, I wonder about the contract. If I get $500 in advance this coming week, as I’ll probably have to do, that ends it. I will then be paid up until Jan. 15th.
Anyway, it will probably be determined this week. I really don’t know how they can do without me, do you?"

Surely he is being tongue in cheek there! And I'll just bet that Josephine laughed out loud. Paid up until Jan 15th? ... and Agnew Bahnson plans to contact this Mr. Gray on Jan 11th? For advice? Really. I wonder about what precisely?

And thanks Griffin. I wasn't wanting to be the first one to mention MJ12 but there it is, I guess. JDB

[Paul S.]

...and welcome to it...

This looks like your man. A very important dude indeed!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gray

Culpepper's gonna hafta give me an A- or even a B+ for having not dug into that one. Would have been easy... but now I gotta think... "what's the angle?"

Or... what was... his... "agenda"...???

As long as we're opening the lid on the MJ-12 rabbit hole: Griffin, whaddya know about Adamski and Donald Menzel?

--PS

[Paul S.]

...you know, while we're looking at some of the loose ends left in this chapter:

Why the Scout Ship?

There have been some inferences made, mostly by Twigsnapper, in the past few weeks, about Dr. Brown's ongoing connection with NICAP. That Rose Hackett was sending him reports. That Linda was looking through them with him. That she was supposed to look for the ones that "wobbled."

Nobody every answered my question about about whether Adamski ever said anything about his sightings "wobbling." Might not be relevant, I dunno.

But, like I say, as long we're sifting through the loose ends... there's another one to keep in mind.

--PS

(griffin offered an answer to this in a separate thread which I meant to put in this thread. I've locked that one and will delete it when griffin reposts his reply here.)

[Griffin]

Paul-

As a prominent astronomer, Dr. Donald Menzel was a prime candidate for a position in a group such as the one depicted under the name MJ-12. Dr. Allen Hynek, as an astronomer, was a consultant to the Air Force but he did not have the stature of Menzel. Although Menzel reported a UFO sighting himself in 1949, which he deemed inexplicable at the time, he later recanted and said it had an ordinary explanation. But it needs to be remembered that there was a major hard-line shift in 1953, which Donald Keyhoe and others noted. As the Cold War and nuclear arms race heated up, a debunking scheme was implemented to cool down the heated interest in UFOs and, especially, in any possible ET messages that ran counter to nuclear weapons development and testing. It seems that the various “MJ-12â€