Peggy Noonan needs to calm the hell down.

A few weeks ago, I saw Peggy Noonan on 'The Daily Show' promoting her new book Patriotic Grace.

She spoke very well on the show and that, combined with the fact that she was a huge contributor to 'The West Wing', led me to pick up Patriotic Grace and give it the ol' read through.

I will start by saying that Peggy Noonan can write, and write incredibly well. I got the same feeling reading the introduction and first chapter as I did twelve years ago when I first watched President Thomas J. Whitmore deliver his goose-bump inducing speech against aliens.

After that first chapter though, things took a hard right turn. From that point on, Peggy would not shut up about how sure she is that there will be another terrorist attack on American soil. She goes on to write that it will be ten times bigger than 9/11 and that it's going to happen in either Washington D.C. or New York.

Goddammit Peggy, I live in New York.

Going in, I thought that the book would be about how we need to unite as a nation and help out our fellow Americans. And it is, she very much encourages us to put aside partisanship and unite, however she implies that this will be most needed right after New York is wiped off the map with a suitcase nuke.

I imagine if I lived anywhere else in the country, aside from D.C. which is also toast, I would have greatly enjoyed this book and viewed it as a beacon of hope. However I don't live anywhere else and because Peggy Noonan couldn't calm the hell down I now am forced to come to terms with my own mortality.

Goddammit.

-nicholas

Into the Wild: The Journey

I had to take a series of flights to eventually arrive in Haines, Alaska (my father's new home).

First, I took a 6 hour flight from New York to Seattle. 

At New York's JFK airport I underwent about an hour-long security check. I had to present my driver's license several times, I removed my laptop from my backpack and placed it separate from my shoes, belt, and jacket; all of which I had to run through the x-ray machine. I was also randomly selected for a complimentary weapons pat-down from an airport security officer.

Second, I took a 2 hour flight from Seattle, WA to Juneau, Alaska.

At the Seattle airport, the security check was much less lenient. I didn't have to remove my shoes, belt or jacket. I did have to separate my laptop from my backpack, though. I still don't know what that separation is supposed to accomplish.

Third, I took a thirty minute flight from Juneau, Alaska to Haines, Alaska. 

The security check at the Juneau Airport consisted of an elderly woman asking me if I was carrying bear mace. After a stunned moment of silence I replied that I was not and she ushered me onboard a plane roughly the size of a riding lawnmower. 

If I ever decide to give up acting in favor of terrorism I've got a pretty good idea which airport I'm going to infiltrate first.

-nicholas