Due to the influence of Safety Neal, I am slowly turning into a map nerd. I was going through a tutorial at the library for this software program called ArcGIS. Interestingly the map example used in the tutorial plots the planned and actual course of Amelia Earhart's last flight. It reminded me of an article I read in the L.A. Times a few months ago about a theory that Amelia Earhart's last flight around the world was kind of a front for a reconaissance mission she was doing for the military to check out Japanese military installations on islands in the Pacific ocean.

One of the theories is that she and her navigator got shot down by the Japanese or crash-landed and were imprisoned as spies. Some folks think she survived and was freed after World War II and changed her identity. Apparently there was this mysterious woman, Irene Bonham, who looked like her. It sounds like a lot of this is bunk, but I like the idea that she was secretly doing spy stuff.

Around second or third grade, I had to do a report on a woman pioneer of some sort. I think we were presented with a small number of books at the school library to choose from and I probably chose Earhart after seeing an episode of "In Search Of" about her. I remember finding it hard to get into writing about her even though she was held up to us as a female role model. I think there was a nagging feeling in the back of my tiny subconscious that thought, "Isn't there a female aviator that wasn't a fuck-up to write about? She was trying to fly around the world and failed." I know Earhart broke a few records and succeeded in many flying missions, but it sucked that she didn't quite have the hero stature of Charles Lindbergh. Just imagine if the only astronaut little boys had to identify with was Gus Grissom who died in a fire on one of the Apollo missions. Y'know?

I wish the book I read in elementary school had floated the theory that she was on a secret, dangerous mission for the USA. Maybe my kid mind couldn't have even processed that kind of subtlety. Maybe I was too predisposed to hero-worship. I wonder who girls are looking up to these days (besides Britney Spears.)