No yolk about it

Today’s lesson: Airplanes do not have steering wheels. Despite what reporters and an editor may say. An airplane has a yoke. (And it’s not a yolk, as that editor tried to “fix.”) A helicopter has a cyclic. (For an admittedly juvenile chuckle, check out the definition of cyclic.)

What brought that on? A 78-year-old grandmother of five crash landed in the St. Louis area. She had a bloody nose because she hit her head on the “steering wheel.” Cute little story — she said she was afraid her kids would try to take her wings, that sort of thing. But there’s more. Grandma was flying to her new home in Denver; she’d recently moved there to be closer to her kids. Her daughter is the projects editor at the Rocky Mountain News. That daughter used to be our managing editor’s boss. It’s a small world.

VIRGINIA TECH MULTIMEDIA
• What we know: Excerpts from a “multimedia manifesto” (MSNBC)
• What we know: The victims (MSNBC)
• Reaction to Virginia Tech tragedy (MSNBC)
• Campus tragedy (CBS)
• Rampage at Virginia Tech (Newsweek)

ODDS & ENDS
• Quark Interactive sounds like it has capabilities similar to Flash.
• You can photograph Superman.
• Reuters offers top news texts. Now if they’d just send out the breaking news alerts instead … Then I’d be on board.
• Smart marketing by msnbc.com the past couple of days. Packaged with their Virginia Tech coverage was a link to sign up for breaking news alerts. I don’t like (but am signed up for) their Windows Live-based alerts. Just send out e-mails like everyone else. And text messages.
• Text message from Kevin: “I just killed a cockroach … And thought of you!” Aww … So sweet.