Ron Wanttaja

wanttaja said:
To think I captured Napoleon, and that's the thanks I get...
:)

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Ron Wanttaja
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I have to tell the story behind the "Napoleon" picture.

My uniform is replica US Navy Captain's uniform from the War of 1812 era. I got it in a fit of insanity after a bit of a windfall; I wore it to give a presentation at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) convention in Chicago in, I think, 1999. Title of my presentation was "Contemplating Your Naval: Life at Sea for Writers of Historical Romance."

My wife is a published Romance writer. I like to tell folks that I'm her "research tool", which she just shortens down to "tool."

The following year, the RWA conference was held in Washington DC, where "Napoleon" above lived. I was going to give the presentation again, and he suggested he get his own uniform and "assist." Thought that would be cool. He chased down his own uniform, but was rather short of swords so I brought him one of mine. That, in itself, was interesting...how do you pack swords and a War of 1812 uniform for an airline trip?

Solved it with a hard-shell golf club case, to which I added fittings to ensure the swords were tightly held.

Things went well. The RWA convention started with a "Regency Ball" and both our wives had 1800-era dresses to accompany us. That was a occasionally sporty...ever have to dance while wearing a sword? (The regency was the period where King George III was bonkers and his son was regent, basically early 1800s).

Anyway, the next day was the presentation, scheduled for just after lunch in one of the conference rooms. My buddy came by and change into his uniform, and I packed up my viewfoils, slapped my bicorne hat onto my noggin, and we headed out to the meeting.

We rode an escalator up into the main conference area...rising into the middle of the whole pack of RWAers having lunch.

Have I mentioned that about 95% of Romance Writers of America members are female?

The whistles and cheers started as our gold-laced torsos rose into sight. They followed us all the way across the floor, both of us fighting to supress grins. We doffed our hats in salute, and headed for the conference room.

Friends, THAT was fun......


Ron Wanttaja
 
Very nice article!
 
Neat! But Ron, they didn't mention that you're a "sky savant"! :biggrin:
 
For those of you who still struggle with it:

www.pilotsofamerica.com

how is Ron Wanttaja's last name pornounced

phonetically? When he posts, I get stuck in a loop in my heat sounding it out. Thanks -Gustave
www.pilotsofamerica.com www.pilotsofamerica.com

I thought there was a more recent thread with that question answered, but google didn't find it.
 
Justin M said:
For those of you who still struggle with it:

www.pilotsofamerica.com

how is Ron Wanttaja's last name pornounced

phonetically? When he posts, I get stuck in a loop in my heat sounding it out. Thanks -Gustave
www.pilotsofamerica.com www.pilotsofamerica.com

I thought there was a more recent thread with that question answered, but google didn't find it.
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wanttaja

Post in thread 'Bad Names'

Brad Z said:
Here I’ve been, silently pronouncing your name “wahn-tah-jah” in my head for the last two decades, lol.
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I really can't complain about that, since *I* mispronounce the name, as well.

As I mentioned earlier, I (and all my living family) pronounce it, "Wahn-TIE-ah."

But that's incorrect. Like all Scandinavian names (it's Finnish), the accent should be on the FIRST syllable: "WAHN-tie-ah."

But my parents moved to the big city (Fargo ND) when I was young, and I grew up listening to them correct people trying to pronounce the name "Whan-Taj-ah", with Mom and Pop correcting that by...
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wanttaja said:
Have I mentioned that about 95% of Romance Writers of America members are female?
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Ron, I'm sure the other 5% stared dreamily at the two of you also.

Fun story, though. I also loved the Horatio Hornblower books - I have no idea how many I read way back when, but I've been meaning to chase them down since I just finished up a rather lengthy Sherlock Holmes reading excursion.
 
DaleB said:
Ron, I'm sure the other 5% stared dreamily at the two of you also.

Fun story, though. I also loved the Horatio Hornblower books - I have no idea how many I read way back when, but I've been meaning to chase them down since I just finished up a rather lengthy Sherlock Holmes reading excursion.
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As the article said, I got into the Hornblower books while working midnight shifts at location monitoring missile warning satellites. If you check Google, you see that World War III never broke out, so most of our time on shift was boring, boring, boring. I was there to react if the software noted a problem with one of satellites, or something actually DID launch and the site senior director needed a technical assessment of the validity of the data.

Both events were rare, do you had a passel of young bored young lieutenants. OBVIOUSLY, things happen. I once got caught playing the original Star Trek computer came on the satellite backup command system. I got into the Hornblower books, and, eventually, several of the other lieutenants did too. We started talking "Piratey".

Avalon Hill had a board game called "Wooden Ships and Iron Men." Me and the site Systems Director would set the board up in front of his main display. Again, neither he nor I were tasked with monitoring stuff in real-time, and by doing it at his display, we were both where we needed to be (and, most importantly, wide awake) if the excrement ever hit the ventilator.

One crew *really* got into the board game, Risk. Wasn't my cup of tea, fortunately. Door to the operations room opened early one morning, and the squadron commander walked in. I stood up and said, "Good morning Colonel Hill" very loudly. Out of the corner my eye, I saw the Senior Director and the senior NCO on site grab the table with the game on it and hustle it into the break room. Dodged that bullet.

I tried to work that boredom element into my novel. The crews aren't NASA astronauts, they don't have a long list of experiments to perform, and it takes ~8-12 hours before they actually reach the target area. So they handle the quiet time in different ways.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I read some of the Hornblower books when I was a kid, they were the copies in the bookcase from my Dad when he was a kid. As I recall, there were a few passages that were a bit racy for a young teenager in that era.

That uniform sure looks uncomfortable, though!
 
wanttaja said:
...playing the original Star Trek computer came...
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WOW! A blast from the past! I played that Star Trek game in 1974-75 using a Teletype machine connected to some host system my high school had. It was great fun in the day! Because of that game, I took the high school's brand new programming class and learned BASIC. I wound up running my BASIC code connected to the school's host on that same Teletype machine. I wasted tons of paper.

What a great article Ron--and Jamie Beckett nailed it! Thanks for sharing your story. Oh...you better watch out...your super cool tattoo might wind up going viral! :p
 
Dana said:
I read some of the Hornblower books when I was a kid, they were the copies in the bookcase from my Dad when he was a kid. As I recall, there were a few passages that were a bit racy for a young teenager in that era.
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According to Forester's "The Hornblower Companion," the serialization of "Lord Hornblower" in the Saturday Evening Post was the first time that adultery was featured in that hallowed publication's long history.
Dana said:
That uniform sure looks uncomfortable, though!
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Indeed. Back when I first put it on, I was a member of an email list on nautical subjects. I made a pretty long posting about "Wearing the Captain's Coat"; what it was like to don the full uniform. Still have it; should add it to my web page.

Probably the biggest shock to a 21st century man: This clothing was DESIGNED to be tight. Sure, they had irons, but the best way to ensure there wasn't any wrinkles was to ensure there was no spare fabric TO wrinkle. So it was tailored very tightly, and looked good when worn correctly. Talked to the tailor about this, he referenced what was called "slop clothing" and a "sack suit," both terms you'll find in old-time writeups where they're complaining about how bad someone looked.

It was good to switch back to what I normally wear...:)

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Ron Wanttaja
 
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