Dick Cavett Quotes
Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn't ailing.
Cavett, Dick. Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic Moments, and Assorted Hijinks. Henry Holt and Co., 2014.
He was one of the few people on the left to perceive and criticize the Communist Regime in Russia. This was arguably when the Soviet Union was at its zenith.
The production of military equipment and supplies during WWII was little short of miraculous. The military procurement and contractor delivery was one of the major factors in our winning the war. However there were mistakes and one of the worst was the engines of the B-29 heavy bombers. Many American airmen died or were injured as a result of these defects. One of the worst was that to save weight so more bombs could be loaded, many of the parts of the B-29 engines were made of magnesium. The unanticipated consequence was that if the engines caught on fire, there was no way to put the fire out—in the air or on the ground. The magnesium was very flammable and burned at such a high temperature that there was no remedy for the fire which spread faster than fires in engines without magnesium. However, in the midst of the war, those planes had to fly with the risky engines. Fortunately the atom bomb was detonated ending the war and the B-29s could then be retrofitted.
Richard Alva Cavett is an American television personality, comedian and former talk show host notable for his conversational style and in-depth discussions. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States for five decades, from the 1960s through the 2000s.
