Saturday, June 14, 2008

Airplanes and Women


I’ve been reading this book on famed aviator Howard Hughes (Howard Hughes: The Untold Story). I’m little more than half-way through it, but holy cow was this guy a character. Despite a picture of him on the cover sitting in one of his airplanes, the book is a little light on his aviation exploits. However, his personal story seems to be well researched with extensive interviews of people that knew, dated, and worked for him. And there were a lot, especially when it came to dating.

It is astonishing how many then (and now) famous movie stars he dated, pursued, and usually bedded over a 20 year period starting in the late 20’s. Should the word ‘manslut’ ever become an official word in the English language, a picture of Howard Hughes should be shown prominently in the dictionary next to the definition. As one quote in the book put it, “Howard would [hump] a tree.”

Then there was his OCD, coupled with ADD, and then mixed with strange eccentricities. To say he was a character is a severe understatement. That said, when he wasn’t trying to date multiple women at the same time (invariably to disastrous results), he did some pretty amazing things in the field of aviation. The movie about him that came out a few years ago just touched the surface of this fascinating persona. Hughes proves that money can't buy happiness, but you sure can have a lot of fun with it.

1 comment:

Tech writer said...

"Money doesn't buy happiness."

But you can rent it cheap...