Fashion Sense

I felt a palpable sense of relief yesterday when I read that an Oregon man had completed his planned journey to Idaho and landed safely in his lawn chair that had been borne aloft by colorful helium-filled balloons. I had dismissed the story previously when I'd heard of the man's intentions. It was another of those loony undertakings that would undoubtedly go awry, and perhaps even end tragically. But everything went as planned, including shooting out balloons with a BB gun and jettisoning Kool-Aid to lose altitude at journey's end. I was especially charmed by the account of the Idaho farmer calling to his wife, "Hey, Martha, you know that guy with the balloon? He's landing in our cow pasture." It was a bit of enjoyable news in the tsunami of accidents, shootings, arrests, faraway wars, rising gas prices and gasbag politicians that the media serve up daily, and it made me happy, not just for the man but also for his wife and shivering chihuahua who had seen him off at the start.