The astronaut story. What makes it so compelling, so irresistable?

[Neshanic]

I for one am ready for a lighten up session, no I don't, but I support the rights of others to light up.

It's so, so tawdry and cheap, and with ASTRONAUTS! It's like John Walters meets Steven Spielberg. I will not apologize. I love this, and the monotoned responses from NASA are priceless. The diaper angle. God I can't wait for a movie. Who will play who?

[gratuitous]

1. It's a chick, man!

Wearing a diaper! John Walters meets Steven Spielberg with a side of early Peter Jackson.

Can't say I'm loving it, though. It just seems . . . like the cheap diversion it is.

[Hardrada]

32. You made me laugh!

[tuvor]

2. Woo hoo! Other people's public misery!

And so warm and fresh!

[illinoisprogressive]

3. I think it's kinda stupid. Just something that doesn't grab me.

[BlueIris]

40. Seriously? Because it grabbed me and I thought I was beyond caring

about this kind of crazy.

[951-Riverside]

4. I think most people here are being heartless asshats about the whole thing

and I've had it up to here with all the overused/outdated "movie of the week" comments, FFS I havent seen a motw on network television since 1999.

[Skittles]

45. yes, it is quite a sad situation

imagine what her teenage son is going through

[The Straight Story]

5. She was jealous cause he was docking with another space station

I can see it now: Girls gone wild - space edition!

"See them in their undies and diapers, hair pulling as they spin in orbit..."

I can hear her cussing as she drove:
"You want my astronaut? Well the closest thing you will get is when I knock your ass into orbit"

"You think space is cold honey? What till you see what I have planned for you."

[Porcupine]

6. It's Carl Sagan meets "She's Gotta Have It"

this shtick has everything but a dog in it. In the pay-per-view movie they have to work a dog into the script.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. .

:rofl: :patriot:

[treestar]

7. It seems to who that even those who are most accomplished

in terms of our culture, can be felled by love and jealousy, just like anyone else.

[frebrd]

8. I think it's neither...

compelling nor irresistable. The local news teasers are enough to turn me off. I've been avoiding it all day!

[buzzard]

9. I was listening to a psychologist who said maybe after the lifelong ambition of

becoming an astronaut she felt let down and needed to pursue something else that was unattainable. She also said that maybe she was very focused throughout her life on that dream and that prevented her from acting on other not so healthy pursuits. Anyway I do find it fascinating and I am not a morbid person.

[BlueIris]

37. Oh, *that's* interesting.

I had never considered that her demanding career might have steered her away from other obsessions. Curious. I wonder how many other maniacs are treading water in stressful, time-consuming jobs, as opposed to, you know, acting out their sick fantasies amid the general population?

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Alan Sheppard Wouldn't Wear A Fucking Diaper

I grew up in the 1960s, when astronauts were gods. They were smart, great pilots, and had balls like Colbert. Dure they were as hormonally-crazy as the next guy - but if they wanted nookie, I'm thinkin' they grabbed a jet and flew at Mach 3 to the nookie. No diapers, cars, and mace.

These new 'nauts are poseurs.

Feh.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. No, after Werner Von Braun kept him sitting on his Mercury Redstone for hours before his 15 min.

suborbital flight, Al Shepard peed right into his god-damn suit.

Hell, you still can't lift off from Baikonaur Cosmodrome in Russia without paying homage to the late Yuri Gagarin--- by taking, as he did, a lucky piss on the side of the van before you go up the rocket.

Fuckin' A, Bubba.

[MannyGoldstein]

25. Diapers - I'm Thinkin' That Was the End of the Space Program

Probably started on SkyLab.

[Warren DeMontague]

27. That would explain the strange gel-like substance that rained from the sky in '79

Either that, or it was somehow related to the demise of Disco.

But, to be fair to the space program: flying on airplanes started out as an extremely uncomfortable, hair-raising, piss-and-vinegar sport only for the fainthearted and slightly insane... and here we are, 104 years after Orville and Wilbur, and now look at what flying on airplanes is like---



...an extremely uncomfortable, hair-raising, piss-and-vinegar sport only for the fainthearted and slightly insane.

[SpiralHawk]

57. The demise of disco! That was another republicon plot

fer sure, the honorless bastards.

http://www.fantasycostume.net/fantasy/images/Rentals/NineteenSeventyTravol9923,24.jpg

[BlooInBloo]

11. (1) Idiots who find it irresistable....

(2) "See? I told you that women in NASA was a bad idea."

Idiots coming and going.

[Neshanic]

14. Are you calling me an idiot?

[BlooInBloo]

16. Did I say "Neshanic, you're an idiot"?

[Neshanic]

18. Just hoping, that's all...being an object of desire.

[BlooInBloo]

22. Yeeeaahhhh. I think I'll go stand over there now.

[Guaranteed]

47. That's a careless overgeneralization. nt

[kirby]

12. Schadenfreude

Some serious schadenfreude going on with this story.

It makes me sad and contemplative that someone who appeared to have so much going for her has allegedly had some type of breakdown. I feel really bad for her children and the rest of her family.

[tuvor]

28. Welcome to DU, kirby!

Glad you weighed in. :hi:

[Orangepeel]

13. the diaper

the astronaut and the love triangle make good TV, but it is the diaper that puts it over the top

[Matariki]

15. Waters - John Waters.

[Neshanic]

17. Sorry, I lived in Baltimore. The Walters Art Museum... Waters

I lived right across the street from the WALTERS Art Museum, Waters is one of my favorites, sorry for the slip.

I love Baltimore.

[Dr.Phool]

19. Tom Wolfe- "The Wrong Stuff"

Or maybe "Contrails of the Vanities".

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

20. The diaper was natural for an astronaut.

Frankly, I am painfully aware at how the best of intellects can crack under the pressure of desire. I am drawn to stories of tragedy because, of course, "there but for the grace of the gods go I."

She wore a diaper because she was preparing for a long and arduous journey - it did not feel strange - to her.

[MannyGoldstein]

24. See! I Was Right!

When Alan Sheppard was waiting for his first launch, he had to GO - so he peed on himself - no diaper whatsoever. The pee pooled around his back, and America's first space flight was made in a primal wet warmth.

Those were REAL astronauts, by golly.

[msongs]

21. it's EASY to resist, just try it and you can resist it easily as useless information nt

[Bluebear]

26. Who will play who? Paula Abdul in her first lead role

[MADem]

35. To me, she looks like "Sarah Jessica Parker appearing as Nick Nolte" in that shot NT

[Dogmudgeon]

30. Intelligent. Pretty. Perky. Crazy. Yep, I'm in love!

:loveya:

She's a much better choice than Jenna Elfman or Anne Heche ... although maybe not as good as Jenna Elfman AND Anne Heche.

--p! (heart) LMN

[Horse with no Name]

31. Honestly?

I'm not finding it really funny--unless of course you find mental breakdowns funny.
I think that there is little doubt that this woman has had some type of break with reality.
Apparently, 3 of her friends were killed on Columbia. That has to be tough.
My prayers to her family and to those families of all involved.
This was a smart, professional woman. Obviously something went wrong because her actions were not those of a smart, professional woman.
Very very sad. Kind of reminds of the Margot Kidder incident.

[BlueIris]

39. ...what? I mean, I concur with your assessment that it's sad, not funny, but...

what Margot Kidder incident? (Sorry, I was born in 1979, and sometimes we ankle-biters need the occasional history lesson.)

[Skittles]

44. Margot had a breakdown

she wandered about and was found in someone's back yard....she had hacked off her hair and was sans dental plate if I recall correctly

[BlueIris]

50. Yikers.

I have some strange psychic connection to her. It even resulted in a strange sex dream once (don't ask). But I'd never heard about her breakdown. Was this...recently?

[nonconformist]

52. About 10 years ago, I think. nt

[Skittles]

54. read the trivia in IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452288/bio

[Skittles]

33. I'll tell you what does it for me

that kind of behavior usually happens in people with very low self-esteem - how does a woman with low self-esteem become an astronaut? I think something caused a mental breakdown in that gal - in that mug shot, she looks maniacal. Hard to believe her mental deterioration was not occurring when she took her shuttle trip - WTF is going on with NASA ???

[Bluebear]

34. Compare the mug shot with her official portrait

My god, what turned her world around?

[Skittles]

38. I'm thinking some kind of psychotic break

yea - I'm wondering what brought it on - and I doubt it was that silly "love triangle"

[BlueIris]

42. Yeah, my family of doctors keeps throwing around the term "psychotic break"

when talking about this woman. My vote is still with the "on drugs" explanation.

[Skittles]

43. the break could be drug-induced

absolutely

[Arkansas Granny]

51. I'm not suggesting it was drugs, but that was my first thought when

I saw the mugshot and a previous picture of her side by side. It reminded me so much of the "Faces of Meth" series of pictures that I saw on Frontline's show about meth addiction.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/body/faces.html

[BlueIris]

36. I'm still waiting for the bizarre drug angle to unfold.

Because it's so hard for me to believe Ms. Nowak was entirely of sound mind and body when this whole thing got going.

[orleans]

41. one word: ASTRONUT n/t

[Guaranteed]

48. Ch-ching better copyright that nt

[Guaranteed]

46. Because it's an honest-to-goodness tragedy. It's Shakespearian.

This woman had it all, and then, in a matter of weeks, lost it all, with the icing being a 900 mile drive, the deliberate flushing of her career and a jail sentence.

[nonconformist]

49. I usually don't follow these types of stories... but there is just something about this one

It's a train wreck. I can't look away. It's just so shocking and bizarre.

[ngant17]

53. NASA and assassinations(attempted or otherwise)

Actually you shouldn't take this story so lightly. It is known that NASA was associated with Division 5 of the FBI, which was a hit squad and contracted out to kill Pres. JFK. Lee Harvey Oswald and 4 or 5 of his friends at OReilly Company in New Orleans applied to work directly at NASA right before the assassination, and Oswald also talked about his "pot of gold" in reference to getting hired by NASA in New Orleans in 1963.

That NASA might train its personnel, either directly or indirectly, to take part in the covert assassination of someone, it isn't so outlandish. Especially in view of the fact that a number of high-ranking Nazi killers were employed in the space program during the 1960's.

Let's open up the investigation of NASA and their connection with this latest contract killing, and perhaps solve a murder or two in the process.

[soothsayer]

55. N ASA is definitely full of spooks, and up to lots of black projects

despite its friendly cover as a happy 'let's just go to space, kids!' agency.

[lectrobyte]

56. Because it brings an astronaut, the best of the best, down to the level of the lowest

common denominator. We love it in America when that happens.

[tledford]

58. It ISN'T compelling OR irresistible!

Just more media noise to distract the sheeple from the fact that our VP is a traitor. "No, no, don't listen to Fitzgerald, look over here, look over here!"

[lonestarnot]

60. A woman on a mission in diapers isn't compelling?

Nastynaught no less. :shrug: I didn't think so.

[mwb970]

59. I think it's the gap between her achievements and this crazy act.

My God, the lady is brilliant and very accomplished. And then she does something so cockamamie that it seems like she must have no brains at all.

The contrast is compelling. Did she think she would get away with it? As a bonus, nobody was actually killed. This is definitely better than the Runaway Bride, but I do wish the media would stay focused on Iraq right now.