The Cosmic Muffin

Well here I am on the blogosphere, thanks primarily to CruiserMel and LezLee.

I'm a veteran of message boards and am accustomed to the faster pace of that format, but I'll post here from time to time for my own amusement and therapy.
So in the infamous words of Kinky Friedman, "Why the Hell Not".

So lets launch this Ship.

I'll begin by telling you a the history of my screen name:

It all started with the spoken lyrics to Jimmy Buffett's Fruitcakes (1994) song:
"You know I was talking to my friend Desdemona the other day she runs this space station and bake shop down near Boomtown. She told
me that human beings are flawed individuals. The cosmic bakers
took us out of the oven a little too early. And that's the
reason we're as crazy as we are and I believe it."
Being a Licensed Professional Counselor, these words resonated with me, as it has been my experience that many of us truly are "half-baked". 😂

Later, Jimmy released a (1996) song (Desdemona's Building a Rocket Ship) that 'lyricizes' Desdemona's adventures from Jimmy's (1992) book "Where is Joe Merchant?"


Now for the real history behind Desdemona's Rocket Ship: The Continuing Saga of Desdemona's "Cosmic Muffin" -- or How To Convert Howard Hughes's Airplane Into A Floating Jimmy Buffet Namesake.

The Boeing 307 Stratoliner: Only ten such aircraft were produced in the late 1930's. In addition to being one of the first four-engine airliners, it was also the first airliner to feature a pressurized cabin.

The Eccentric Howard Hughes Jr.: Hughes acquired his own Boeing 307 Stratoliner in 1939. The interior was converted into an executive office layout. Actress Rita Hayworth added her own woman's touch to the aircraft's décor. In 1949, Howard Hughes sold his "office on wings" to Houston oil man Glenn McCarthy.

Through the years the aircraft was clobbered by Hurricane Cleo in 1964, neglected and corroded in the tropical air of south Florida. Attempts at restoration to flight were unsuccessful, but in 1974 it was converted into a motoring yacht. Further extensive restoration was completed in 1981 by David Drimmer.

Enter Florida Folk Hero Jimmy Buffett: In his many travels, Tropical Troubadour and Florida Folk Hero Jimmy Buffett had noticed Drimmer's 'plane-boat". He was so struck by the uniqueness of this vessel that he paid it homage in his 1992 novel, "Where Is Joe Merchant?".

In this novel, Florida Keys sea boat pilot Frank Bama and his former girl friend Trevor Kane begin to search for Kane's brother, rock musician Joe Merchant, who allegedly committed suicide by throwing himself off of a cruise ship in the Black Sea. Not so! One of Merchant's former band members, Desdemona, claimed otherwise.

Desdemona "lived" on Drimmer's plane-boat on the island of Boomtown on the windward coast of Hispanola. But this was more than just a "plane-boat". You see, Desdemona was being channeled by aliens from the Plaides (or "Seven Sisters") to construct a spaceship to take her to the Plaides, and the "plane-boat" which she named "Cosmic Muffin" was to be that rocket ship! In honor of Desdemona's rocket ship to be, the boys from the Boomtown boatyard presented her with a blue jump suit that said "Build Spaceships Now".

As a token of his appreciation for Buffett's description of his plane-boat in this novel, Drimmer renamed the craft to "Cosmic Muffin", a name it retains to this day.

(Thanks to William Moriaty and Planeboats.com for the history of the "Cosmic Muffin".)

Even science has taken notice, as evidenced by this post Quasars in “Desdemona’s Building a Rocket Ship”

So there it is...
(actually, Desdemona is also a character in a little play that Shakespeare wrote 😉)