The Great Ganesha

Before…. and After

So, Lisa Nowak, the notorious NASA astronaut who drove a thousand miles from Texas to Florida has finally been charged with attempted kidnapping. She went there to track down an Air Force captain who she thought was in competition with her for love interest William Oefelein, a fellow astronaut. Says, the BBC,

Authorities say Capt Nowak, 43, drove 1,000 miles (1,600km) to confront Air Force Capt Colleen Shipman, whom she believed was a rival for the affections of a third astronaut.

She is reported to have followed the woman in disguise before confronting her as she got into her car.

Police say Capt Nowak then sprayed pepper spray at Capt Shipman’s car. [link]

So, the key to this story is that Nowak wore a diaper for her thousand-mile drive. That’s right, you heard me correctly, she wore a diaper so she wouldn’t have to make “rest stops”. According to Wikipedia (yup, the whole sordid affair already has a Wikipedia entry),

During a search of Nowak’s car parked at a motel, the police found a letter written by Nowak which they said “indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein,” along with latex gloves, opened packages for both a buck knife and pepper spray, an unused BB cartridge, handwritten directions to Shipman’s house, copies of e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein, and diapers.^[13] The astronaut explained she had used the latter during the 900-mile (1400-km) drive from her home in Houston, Texas to Orlando, so she did not have to stop to urinate (U.S. shuttle astronauts wear specially designed diapers during launch and re-entry. [link]

The late-night talk show hosts have been having a field day with the whole thing.

?As you know, she went to court yesterday and was released in her own incontinence.? ?Jay Leno

“I thought the only space traveler who wore a wig and an adult diaper was William Shatner.” –David Letterman

And more of the like. In fact, if you’re interested, there’s a whole bloody page on “Lisa Nowak jokes” on About.com! Google the phrase for some other interesting tidbits.

The best joke about the whole thing though, came from one of the panelists of the Feb 10th episode of the NPR show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! - Adam Felber. When asked: “What will NASA’s next big innovation be?” He replied, “Mmm…depends!”

I was in splits.

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