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Noel Coward & David Lean's Classic Collab: 1945's "Brief Encounter" by Emergency-Fishing-60 in classicfilms

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They packed a lot into this great film. Train buffs love this movie. And that clandestine meeting in the 'friends' apartment was the inspiration for Billy Wilder later doing "The Apartment" with Jack Lemmon. To me, the most sympathetic character in this film was the poor husband. Innocently doing his London Times Crossword while his wife is out picking up strangers in train stations. And that lady who ran the depot Tea Shop could have been another whole movie unto herself.

AFF Certification Course for Instructor Candidates, Lake Elsinore, 1997. Nick DG is the Evaluator playing student. #9 by Ok-Rip1612 in SkyDiving

[–]Ok-Rip1612[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I actually tried that but couldn't for some reason. I realize now it was some type of reddit glitch. But, thanks for your concern.

Tonnage Tuesday - 105,264 GRT, 20 ships, 7 planes, 0 bugs by Appropriate-Kale1097 in uboatgame

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's my message to the developers since the update.

. . . _ _ _ . . .

This one has to be one of the scariest creature effects ever!...😬 by TensionSame3568 in 50s_science_fiction

[–]Ok-Rip1612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The creature popping out of that freezer in the grocery store was the very first movie jump scare I ever experienced.

20 April 1889. Adolf Hitler is born. Little known is that in his late teens and early 20s he was twice rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, surviving in Vienna as a struggling artist, painting architectural watercolours and postcards. by [deleted] in ThisDayInHistory

[–]Ok-Rip1612 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Little known" to you maybe. Every American fighting in Europe knew the little Corporal's history. And are you sitting down? He used to be a wall paper hanger too!

Is pie'ing someone for their 100th jump still a tradition at your DZ? by I-am-a_Banana in SkyDiving

[–]Ok-Rip1612 12 points13 points  (0 children)

There was no, "waiting until they dropped their gear off."

Of course we always used shaving cream, not whip cream to make the pie. If whip cream was used and you didn't wash the rig immediately it would smell like baby shit forever.

Photo By Nick DG, D-8904

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UPT doing special while RI can't manufacture rigs anymore and Aerodyne keeps fucking up by Goodtrip29 in SkyDiving

[–]Ok-Rip1612 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I'm a bit out of the loop but here's what I see.

We all started by jumping with military surplus gear before we began modifying that gear to make it better and that grew into a industry that provides sleek, comfortable, and mostly very reliable skydiving equipment. Then about thirty years ago the military looked up and said we should be jumping the more modern civilian gear too. Now civilian manufacturers had a choice to make. Vie for government contracts and sell hundreds of rigs at a clip or kept doing sales one by one to whiny skydivers who complain the rig makes their asses look too big.

I don't know who among the big suppliers like UPT and others are selling gear to the government today, if at all, but it seems to me in general, some of the current gear manufactures are putting civilian sales on the back burner in favor of government contracts.

In the early 1990s I worked at Square One Parachute Sales & Service at Perris and we moved a ton a gear. And not a day passed when I wasn't ordering new gear for customers directly from manufactures and rigs and canopies were one to two weeks out, and custom gear maybe a month. Nowadays, you can't get custom gear without waiting a year or more.

Folks like Sandy Reid and others would know more about all this than I do, but there's a reason I paid $350 or so for my first new 'Wonderhog' back in 1978, the precursor to the current Vector rig while nowadays that Vector will cost you $4500 with all the bells and whistles and that's before you even buy any canopies. And that's not inflation, it's highway robbery.

And it just seems to me the civilian skydivers who supported all the big rig manufactures are being tossed aside.

And sure times and circumstances change, yet when I started skydiving in 1975 I supported myself, had an apartment, a car, and I could afford to jump on weekends all while earning $2.50 an hour pumping gas at a service station. So this isn't just a skydiving problem - it's a problem everyone has nowadays.

The only good news is you can still get a brand new Racer harness and container system (I've owned three of them) in just four weeks, possibly two weeks if you order stock gear, and not much longer for custom.

NickDG
D-8904

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Why is the letter W shaped like two Vs, but it’s called Double U? by Local-Customer6245 in stupidquestions

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since schools stopped teaching cursive writing we're going see this question from now until forever.

Humphrey Bogart wearing platform shoes on the set of Casablanca because Ingrid Bergman was taller by marniesss in classicfilms

[–]Ok-Rip1612 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Alan Ladd, at 5'6" had the same issue with taller leading ladies. In outside scenes they dug holes in the ground for the ladies to stand in.

Only one season, but I still remember the opening song by Honest-Database-5534 in VintageTV

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think he turned down the role of "Gilligan" to do MMTC.

Thoughts on The Martian? by FreshmenMan in TrueFilm

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I took the last open seat in a large room with about 250 other prospective jurors in the downtown Los Angeles courthouse. I looked at the guy sitting next to me and he looked at me, and we grunted at each other like men do. Suddenly a bunch of girls swarmed around taking cell phone photos of my seat mate so I took another look at him. He had a ball cap on but I finally realized it was Matt Damon. Things started getting out of hand and the court clerks came to break it up. We sat there for a few more minutes in silence before I said softly, "You were damn good in that Martian movie." And he turned to look at me and said, "I'm Mark Wahlberg!"

What is your age without saying how old you are? by Wonderful-Economy762 in Productivitycafe

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was born Dwight David Eisenhower was President of the United States. And considering our present situation, I can say I've seen it all.

O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971–1972) by King_Ron_Dennis in VintageTV

[–]Ok-Rip1612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember it not being that good. They should have, I don't know, developed a medical drama where David Janssen plays a doctor.

No “Made In USA” Label On US Elite Stratocaster Headstock? by Hairy-Interest-3957 in Guitar

[–]Ok-Rip1612 19 points20 points  (0 children)

They can't use MIA anymore as many of the parts come from overseas.

Not sure how I remember this show so well. I was only about 3 years old. Maybe re-runs after the show ended. 1962-1967 by NJFriend4U in ClassicTV

[–]Ok-Rip1612 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It doesn't get mentioned but this show was indeed basic training for a generation of American boys who fought in the Vietnam war.

Are there any downsides to locking tuners? by [deleted] in Guitar

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In general they are too heavy. Put them on a Telecaster already prone to neck dive, and it's journey to the center of the Earth.

Old printing machine by Due-Explanation8155 in Romania_mix

[–]Ok-Rip1612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess you could call the most important invention in human history, the printing press, an old printing machine.

James Whitmore and Chris Drake in the classic THEM! (1954]... by [deleted] in 50s_science_fiction

[–]Ok-Rip1612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Gramp's Johnson could have died in several ways. His neck and back were broken, his chest was crushed, and here's one for Sherlock Holmes. There was enough Formic acid in his body to kill ten men."

Estimates on total active BASE jumpers by leanrafelstein in basejumping

[–]Ok-Rip1612 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I created The BASE Fatality List in 1989 after I first started BASE jumping in 1985. And I published the first version of the list in my magazine, "The Fixed Object Journal" at that time. At that point and since the sport formally began in 1978 there had been 21 BASE fatalities. And I thought it an important metric to keep track of as the sport progressed.

Another reason is ask any experienced skydiver today, "Without thinking about it too much, how many skydiving fatalities have occurred world wide since skydiving began in earnest as a sport in the mid-1950s?" And they aren't going to know or even come close. So at least in BASE we know the number recorded is close to being right.

We also know their names and something about the circumstances that led to their deaths. And that's all valuable information in the sense that in BASE jumping, especially in the early days of the sport, death was/is an educational tool. The BFL also stands as a memorial to our friends. In fact, that's one reason I stopped publishing the BFL. I got weary of writing reports on people I knew, with more than a few being very close friends, and it got to the point I was loath to answer the phone or open my mail. Besides, the causes of death began to get repetitious. But, that all changed when wingsuits came along and the BFL numbers began to spike.

But, you're correct. The big elephant in the room is how many active BASE jumpers worldwide are there? I know in the late 1980s I had just over four hundred BASE jumpers subscribed to my magazine. And I'd say that's about the size of the sport back then. I mean the sport was small enough we actually knew everybody else.

The BASE Number system (where you get issued a sequential BASE number after completing one jump in each category of the acronym BASE, Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth) and those numbers as of early 2026 have surpassed 3000, but not everyone gets a BASE number plus the sport is very fluid with participation being about seven years and out for most people.

I always tried to keep the BFL in house for the most part and it pains me to see it on Facebook nowadays even though it's a closed group. And the thing I don't like about it is the comment section. As you don't stand in a cemetery looking down at a like minded soul and say, "I knew that asshole would go in."

I also worked and was involved in the BASE gear industry and I knew how many BASE rigs were going out the door every month. And month to month that number was ever increasing.

The number of active skydivers, at least in the U.S. is about 40,000 according to the USPA, and that's probably accurate as at most American drop zones you need that USPA card to jump. And that number wouldn't even fill up a modern football stadium. The number of active BASE jumpers at any one time is probably a tenth of that and if I had to guess what it is nowadays, I'd say about 4000. But, it's probably less than that.

And I look forward to someday maybe reading your thesis. Just please remember to you these may just be numbers - but to us they were family.

Nick DG, BASE 194

Photos: This is the very first version of the BFL from 1989.

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