Zombie Planes

In what seems to be turning into my own personal Year of the Zombie (I watched 2 seasons of The Walking Dead and am hanging out for the third, got a story in a antho that includes zombie stories, and have seriously felt like one myself as I've shuffled about for a goodly portion of 2012), at the Arvo Job yesterday, I finished listening to the first two books in Diana Rowland's White Trash Zombie series, namely My Life as a White Trash Zombie and Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues.

Wanting something light and fun to give a lift to my workdays and take my mind far from the office, the titles alone sold me when I was perusing the audio book catalogues. I had great hopes for many chuckles and euuuuuuwwwwws, and I was not disappointed. I did, however, at one point start to worry that the series was going to make being a zombie too nice, and actually enviable, so our down-and-out heroine Angel didn't seem too icky, sort of champagne zombies or zombies lite, but fortunately things quickly yucked up. Towards the second half of the second book, our smart-mouthed, halter-top wearing, trouble-prone Southern gal was being seriously disgusting and doing terribly monstrous deeds, so I went euuuuuuwwwww, relaxed and enjoyed the ride. I mean zombies! You cannot add sparkles to what are essentially rotting corpses and pretty them up the way you can certain other undead creatures (and even then, the outcome is questionable.) I'll have to download the third book in the series, White Trash Zombie Apocalypse, quick smart.

So what do you call a mechanical creature back from the dead? Is there such a thing as a zombie airplane? Just wondering, because I know my oldest little brother is probably extremely excited about the recent discovery of dozens of Spitfires that were grounded in every sense of the word over 70 years ago in Myanmar. Soon the soil will part and these revered fighter planes will rise once more from the distant past - reports vary as to how many there are, some estimating that up to 140 mechanical revenants will re-rev their powerful Griffon engines. Given that there are only 35 Spitfires still flying, the prospect of squadrons of these ancient, mythological beasts soaring amongst us again has aviation enthusiasts all over the globe almost airborne themselves, lifted by their own kind of fanatical raptures.

I like this story a lot. It gives me hope. On a planet that often seems small and feels increasingly overcrowded, it's inspiring to know that there are still spaces big enough for secrets this huge to hide, and it's a comfort to all dreamers that the world can still come up with the goods for those intrepid questers who are stubborn enough and brave enough to go forth and seek buried treasures.