The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS

The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

A Tintin cover, featuring me (firing the Oerlikon cannon), as imagined and executed by my dad.

The description on the back of the painting reads:

Operation Cerberus, 2009
Gouache + ink on canvas

"Operation Cerberus" was the codename for the German squadron of ships which broke out of Brest to Germany via the English Channel. Also called the "Channel Dash".

Tintin pilots the Vosper MTB while Nat fires the 20mm Oerlikon at one of Gallano's famed "Yellow Noses". Captain Haddock brings another 60-round drum magazine to Nat.

Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and a destroyer evade the onslaught of the MTB.

Homage to Hergé and Nat.

(Compare the water in Operation Cerberus to the water on The Red Sea Sharks.)

A couple of years ago, he asked me for a list of potential custom Tintin scenarios to illustrate. Here is the list I generated:

1. Climbing up side of a Mosquito in flight suit, or running across an airfield towards some 1950s British jet fighter, or a souped-up Hawker Tempest or Sea Fury

2. Pushing through a secret door in a big library (like in the Black Island), revealing a storeroom full of crates of ammo and Schmeissers (or equivalent)

3. Firing a Bofors on the deck of a sub or destroyer, with the spider-web like gun sight, with big shell casings all over the deck

4. Being chased by a tank while driving an MG or an Austin-Healy

5. Driving a LRDG Land Rover with a bunch of Vickers machineguns,
maybe firing one with one hand at a runway full of parked Ju-88s

BB 64: USS Wisconsin

The Iowa-class battleship USS Wisconsin is moored in Norfolk harbor. There are short tours of the foredeck, on which you can inspect the battleship's teak deck, a couple of 16" shells, and the massive turrets.

The Wisconsin's guns are trained on downtown Norfolk.

This is a 16" high explosive shell. These shells are invariably described as weighing more than a VW beetle. A VW is obviously not very dense.

Our docent was a gregarious Navy veteran who served on the USS Salem, CA-135, a heavy cruiser. The most interesting story he told involved the only battle damage every sustained by the Wisconsin, in Korea. A Chinese 125mm (?) field artillery piece managed to store a hit on the battleship, wounding two sailors and "ruining part of the beautiful teak deck". The captain then flattened the artillery position with a volley from the battleship's 16" guns. An escorting destroyer commented on this disproportionate retaliation by sending the captain of the Wisconsin the message, "temper, temper" in Morse code.

Famous Fourth Street Deli

Bella Vista, Dec 30, 2008, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

Post-interview lunch in Philadelphia with Chauncey, James, and Ben. Ben ate his entire sandwich, while the rest of us made it almost halfway through each of ours.

Oerlikon 20mm Cannon

That's me firing a 20mm Oerlikon cannon. And that's Snowy on the bow in a life preserver.

This is a detailed view of a much larger work which I will post about soon.

The Greatest Soccer Pin in the World

Cyclone Soccer Club Thunder Pin Detail, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

This is the greatest soccer pin in the world.

Cyclone Thunder, Fresno, California, 1991-1992.

Cyclone Soccer Club Pin Collection

Cyclone Pin Sheet, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

This is my complete collection (from early 80s to early 90s) of soccer pins from the Cyclone Soccer Club, Fresno, California. I played for the following squads from roughly 1988 to 1994:

-Force
-Storm
-Thunder
-Hailens [sic]
-Fury

My brother played for the following teams between 1992 and 1994:
-Force
-Lightning

Rarities include the misprinted "sTORm" pin, the red on gray "Thunder" pin, and the gold "Fury" pin.

Doug Hansen designed the "Storm", "Thunder", "Hailens", "Lightning", "Quakes", "Kamikaze", "Hurricane" and "Blast" pins.

Icicles

Icicles have grown from the gutter in the backyard. The biggest ones are about five feet long.

Snow Plow

West Town, Dec 16, 2008, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

It's winter in Chicago.

Best Classrooms on Campus

Second floor Classics, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

I would like to document the best classrooms on campus. This is a start: I like this seminar room, on the second floor of classics. It looks out on the quad, it has a solid seminar table, and antique maps on the walls.

I was the TA for Ted's J.L. Austin class in here in fall of 2005.

Artifice

Q_TCS_Manystuff059, originally uploaded by Qompendium.

Recent art by Wyeth for a show in Germany.

South Carolina BBQ Odyssey

The parts of South Carolina that I have visited deploy either vinegar or mustard-based sauce on their barbeque, as indicated on this map. I like vinegar best, because the mustard sauce I've had tends to be too sweet. Does anyone make a spicy mustard sauce? That would be ideal.

Melody and I tried three new barbeque spots during the latest trip. First, we stopped before we even entered SC at Allen & Son, in Chapel Hill.



Pictured above: two sandwich platters, which we ordered based on Esquire's claim that they're the best chopped pork sandwich in the United States. They were pretty good. My fried okra was excellent, as were the mugs of sweet tea. The hush puppies were like donuts. Their Brunswick stew was full of corn and was extremely viscous.

With an intermission consisting of Bo-jays and Thanksgiving, we drove out to the main culinary attraction: Bub Sweatman's. We visited two years ago and we were very excited to return. We drove two hours south of Charlotte and drove into the Sweatman's parking area which was deserted. That was worrisome.


Sweatman's supposedly doesn't have a phone, so we didn't call ahead, and we got burned:


We sat in the parking lot for about thirty minutes consulting our mobile devices and observing as one car after another pulled into the parking lot, saw the sign, and dejectedly drove away. The fourth or fifth place we called turned out to be open: Big T's, outside Columbia. My phone was still full of podcasts, so the detour was no problem. (I recommend "The Stakeout", from The Moth.)

Big T's turned out to be a satisfactory substitute. They had homemade pork rinds, collard greens, and barbeque and hash covered in mustard sauce.




I had to ask for an account of the difference between "skins" and "cracklins". Turns out cracklins have more fat. The skins were good, even though some of them were so tough they seemed likely to knock my molars out.

The next day we finished our barbeque holiday with lunch at Mac's Speedshop in Charlotte with Melody's brother. They had weak sweet tea but pretty solid sandwiches. I saw a dude eating a piece of meat attached to a bone the size of my forearm. (I think it might have been the "Kansas City Beef Rib".)

For another recent survey of food on a recent trip to the Carolinas, see this post.