About a week or so ago, I saw a blurb on television about "Lawn Chair Larry." This dude is not an urban legend or myth- this guy is an urban truth. Of all of the crazy shit I have witnessed in my life, I'm not sure anything can top the epic flight of "Lawn Chair" Larry Walters, age 33, on July 2, 1982. I was midway through my last year in college and I had just started an internship with the local sheriff's office when I read a story in the newspaper about this guy. Having exited the chaos of the 70's, I considered Larry Walters to be just another lunatic from California. I was wrong. The story of Lawn Chair Larry is one of the most outrageously funny stories of all time. Larry you see, had a dream. He wanted to fly. He had no pilots license, his eyesight was bad, and he didn't have the means or the money to accomplish his dream. So Lawn Chair Larry did the next best thing. He built his own flying machine and dubbed it the " Inspiration 1 ...

Life has a perfect economy. I watched Dick carefully as he walked into the room. He was hunched over and listing to the right. His glasses, always a little crooked, tilted down and to the left. His ball cap bill was straight and unfolded. His face was a little wrinkled but not too bad for a guy I figured to be in his early 80's. He gripped a cane in his right hand and he had a very tight hold on it. Just as soon as he sat down, he hunched over in his seat and peered around. I will always remember him looking over the top of his glasses. I wondered if his eyes were so bad that looking around the room just wasn't worth the effort anymore. These are the kinds of things you wonder when you know you are next. On deck, I call it. I first met Dick when I was 21. That was 33 years ago. I figured Dick was in his late 40's back then. He stood pretty tall, around 6' or so, and still had enough hair that wearing a ball cap wasn't part of his daily apparel. Dick often just...