Comments on: Once an astronaut, not always an astronaut?

By: Nick Bonzey

Nick Bonzey — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:58:00 +0000

I think the confusion is that it’s okay to refer to someone’s past title as an adjective (…the 42nd president), but it’s easy (and lazy) to go from referring to someone in the 3rd person as their former title to calling them by their honorific (President …).

By: howaboutthisdangit

howaboutthisdangit — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:18:00 +0000

Reminds my of an old Bobcat Goldthwait comment about how Oliver North showed up at the Congressional hearings wearing his military uniform: “You know, I’ve been fired from a lot of jobs too, but you don’t see me tooling around in an old Burger King outfit.”

By: Sam Pourasghar

Sam Pourasghar — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:53:00 +0000

Maybe he’d agree to a compromise of being referred to as SPACE GUY or INTERGALACTIC MEATBAG.

Seriously though, if you’ve been an astronaut you are always an astronaut (at least while it matters). If every jerkbag on the planet could go into space whenever they wanted it’d be as useful as putting “pedestrian” on your CV. Ex presidents reserve the right to be called Mr President which is fine by me, ’cause I know they are living a lie but it makes them happy. Plus it’s a simple way of identifying if someone has ever been an astronaut or president, it doesn’t matter if they still do it- it’s that they did do it.

By: adamnvillani

adamnvillani — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:03:00 +0000

True, but for the record, Hernandez was born in California, but his family is from Michoacan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Hern%C3%A1ndez_%28astronaut%29

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:35:00 +0000

Somebody else can tell Buzz Aldrin because I’m not going t, especially if I have to be in the same room at the time.

By: rpd4

rpd4 — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:56:00 +0000

Nick’s right, and the general public is wrong (yet again). Lyndon Johnson once corrected a member of the press for referring to him as President after he left office. He considered that an insult to residing Nixon.

By: Mark A

Mark A — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:49:00 +0000

If you have been in space, then you have the right to hang a diamond-encrusted, gold-plated “ASTRONAUT” plaque around your neck and walk down the middle of the street singing songs and shaking hands. You are, after all, an Astronaut.

By: machinestate

machinestate — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:07:00 +0000

Doesn’t NASA give away those little wing merit badge thingies the USAF has… what are they c- yeah, don’t they receive Astronaut Wings? Astronauts aren’t expected to turn those back in when they retire or separate.

By: benher

benher — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:33:00 +0000

“Astro-not?” remember when articles used to have punny titles like this?

By: benher

benher — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:32:00 +0000

…but then the goat took an arrow to the knee

By: mccrum

mccrum — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:14:00 +0000

Yeah, but what the hell do they know about it?

By: mccrum

mccrum — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:13:00 +0000

Well, an astronaut can only take so much.

By: Sparg

Sparg — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:22:00 +0000

This child of the 70s prefers Starrider.

By: BombBlastLightingWaltz

BombBlastLightingWaltz — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:19:00 +0000

So… if some one once fund raised for a non profit organization, they can’t say they once did cause they don’t do it currently? I once was an astronaut but now retired. Sorry, you can’t say that you were an astronaut, only current hobby’s apply.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:04:00 +0000

I don’t think that the IRS will reject your tax return if you don’t put what you earn most of your money from as your profession. Something tells me that Sammy Hagar doesn’t put “Tequila Seller” on his, or that your average successful webcomics cartoonist doesn’t put “T-Shirt designer” on theirs.

By: wss233

wss233 — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:51:00 +0000

Unfortunately, I think the name Jose Hernandez is going to tell a lot of GOP voters all the information they need to make a decision. Most probably won’t get to the second line anyway.

By: Snig

Snig — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:43:00 +0000

I was just thinking that Buzz should be called in to start throwing punches until they admit Mr. Hernandez is an astronaut.

By: Nick Bonzey

Nick Bonzey — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:13:00 +0000

Just because some people use honorifics incorrectly, doesn’t mean it’s right. This pretty much explains my understanding of how former governmental officials should be addressed: http://www.formsofaddress.info/former.html
“The Honorable..”, “Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr” is always correct, but when the position contains a single person (Such as speaker, president, secretary), then the honorific stays with the office. You can describe someone as “Former president”, but it’s no longer their title. Gingrich has been incorrectly using the “speaker” title for some time.

By: Artor

Artor — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:06:00 +0000

Nope. Carter, Clinton & both Bushes are still called Mr. President in the news. I really object to calling Gingrich Mr. Speaker though, since he was kicked out in disgrace.

By: Artor

Artor — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:03:00 +0000

Alright then, can we smack Gingrich upside the head every time he’s called Mr. Speaker? It’s been a while since he held that post, and hr was driven out in disgrace to boot! I could never figure why anyone would still give him the honor of that title.

By: Diogenes

Diogenes — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Attaboy, Bevatron! I’m glad there’s people out there who know the classics!

By: Roger Strong

Roger Strong — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:38:00 +0000

Let's see, is he running as a Democrat, or as a Republican? Wikipedia: José Hernández (astronaut) He's running as a Democrat! So, does this law firm have any Republican ties? Source Watch: Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP Yup. More than Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney and Fox News combined. They're also known as the The People Who Brought You The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. They have a history of similar lawsuits against Democratic candidates:

Using the same law firm Bell, McAndrews, and Hiltachk that represents both the California State Republican Party and Swift Boater Bob Perry who has been smearing Democrats across the country, they have filed a lawsuit with less than three weeks to go before the election alleging Jerry Brown is ineligible to run for AG. [...] Delgadillo was hit with a similar suit by the third place finisher in the City Attorney's race and it was dismissed as without merit. Same thing will happen here. The suit will be quietly dropped after the election or dismissed by a judge as having no foundation.

The lawsuit against Jerry Brown was indeed dismissed by a judge as having no foundation. After the election of course. But let's give this arm of the Republican Party the benefit of the doubt. There's no proof that the lawsuit has anything to do with Hernández running as a Democrat. In fact according to Wikipedia, Hernández developed equipment for full-field digital mammography at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Which means that this lawsuit could merely be just part of the Republican War On Women.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:35:00 +0000

The dictionary says that astronaut was coined in the 1920s, probably by the French.

By: LightningRose

LightningRose — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:21:00 +0000

Is a spacecraft required, or will 60′s drug experiences do?

(I swear I’m asking for a friend!)

By: David Cooke

David Cooke — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:19:00 +0000

When I met Julie Payette (Canada’s second female astronaut in space) several years ago, she mentioned that most astronauts put ‘engineer’ as their profession on their tax forms, as it causes too much trouble otherwise. Heck, at the time she hadn’t flown, and we called her an astronaut (that’s what she was employed as), although I suppose ‘astronaut-in-training’ would be more accurate.

By: iserlohn

iserlohn — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:16:00 +0000

“”"The term “astronaut” derives from the Greek words meaning “space sailor,” and refers to all who have been launched as crew members aboard NASA spacecraft bound for orbit and beyond. Since the inception of NASA’s human space flight program, we have also maintained the term “astronaut” as the title for those selected to join the NASA corps of astronauts who make “space sailing” their career profession. The term “cosmonaut” refers to those space sailors who are members of the Russian space program. “”"

From – http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

By: Bevatron Repairman

Bevatron Repairman — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:55:00 +0000

“‘Star Voyager Gus Grissom.’ I like the sound of that.”

By: Robert Little

Robert Little — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:44:00 +0000

I want so for them to run swift boat-style commercials -
“Candidate Hernandez says that he survived the fiery forces of re-entry… on your tax dollars. He claims to be an “astronaut”. More like “has-tronaut”. Do you want tax dollar burning has-beens in your government?”

By: Diogenes

Diogenes — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:32:00 +0000

Right. Nobody who isn’t currently serving can call himself a Marine. New motto: “Semper Fi, For Now”. And no retired officer gets to keep his rank in his title either.

What a bunch of balloon juice.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Hernandez is clearly trying to get some freebies that the law doesn’t allow.

Get some freebies?