So apparently President Bush gave a speech at the Hilton in Newport Beach today. So the closest airport is John Wayne. My cow-orker, Jeremy, told me that Air Force One was parked at the airport. We couldn't see it from our office windows, because we can only see the first third of the runway or so. But we do know someone on the floor whose office overlooks the entire airport. So we went to his office to be able to see it. It wasn't the 747 Air Force One. 747s can't take off or land at John Wayne (runway's too small). It looked more like a 757.
So after seeing Air Force One, we returned to our offices to continue to pretend to do work. About 10 minutes later, we hear lots of sirens and such outside. Looking outside, we see tons of cops who are blocking off intersections and driveways. A CHP chopper flew by as well. A whole bunch of motorcycle cops went flying down Campus Blvd. at about 60 mph. About a minute later the motorcade came by. Two limos, about a dozen SUVs and vans, and three buses. Not more than 100ft from our building, and we had front row seats.
After they passed, we ran down the hall to Jeremy's friend's office with the airport view. We saw the whole motorcade pull into the airport and drive up to Air Force One. We watched for about 5 minutes as everyone boarded. I had my binoculars, but at that distance, I couldn't really identify people. Plus, the left side of the plane was facing away from us and the limo was obscured by the engines. I did see tons of Secret Service agents. We were also looking to see if the surrounding buildings were lined with police snipers (couldn't see any). After about 5 minutes, Air Force One taxied to the end of the runway and took off without incedent.
Of all the days not to bring my camera to work.
Did you see Jack Bauer? Did he come shrieking across the tarmac in a "borrowed" police car? Or was he concealed in some obscure corner? Was there a shootout with bad guys?
ReplyDeleteThe left side of the plane was probably facing away from you and the limo obscured by the engines for a good reason. If you could have seen the President, so could bad guys -- probably Russian or Islamic terrorists with canisters of Sentox nerve gas or a briefcase nuke...
Ok, I would like to point out something about Nerve Gas. In this season of 24, they're dealing with a fictional "Sentox" VX nerve gas. According to Wikipedia: "Nerve agents can be absorbed through the skin, requiring that those likely to be subjected to such agents wear a full body suit in addition to a respirator."
ReplyDeleteSo all those scenes in which Jack Bauer is right next to an open canister of nerve gas with no more protection than a simple gas mask are completely inaccurate. That sort of exposure is also lethal.
But then again, he is Jack Bauer. He's died twice and lived to tell about it. Killing him doesn't make him dead; it just makes him angry.
Also, I suppose Wikipedia is subject to certain inaccuracies.
Actually, they sort of explained that in one episode. Jack said he had a certain amount of time (I think it was about 2 minutes) before enough gas was absorbed through his skin to be lethal. So that allowed him to do what he had to do. Of course, any other mere mortal would have been dead within seconds of exposure.
ReplyDeleteActually, he probably had an invisible full-body armor transplant somewhere along the line, which would explain how he also has survived more than one humongous fiery explosion this season. Or maybe he's really a Terminator in disguise. Or an X-Man. Or Superman. Except that he's much more emotionally vulnerable (wimpy) than Superman, which has some of us yelling at the screen, "Leave her there, you idiot! Go get the bad guy!!!!". Of course they do have a few more hours to fill with plot twists and cliffhangers. So he can't do the sensible thing all the time or it would all have been over hours ago.
A few more relevant Jack Bauer facts:
ReplyDelete-Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.
-Jack Bauer once arm-wrestled Superman. The stipulations were the loser had to wear his underwear on the outside of his pants.
-Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.
-If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer's instructions, it would be called "12".