Lens Launch: Jet Age Review and Fantasy Football Trophies

Two new lenses launched from the harbor in time to catch the last tide of 2011.

Buy at Art.comThe first is a book review of Jet Age: The Comet, the 707 and the Race to Shrink the World. The book covers the true story of the race to start flying jet powered airliners after World War II. It’s a great overview of the history of commercial aviation up to the early part of the Jet Age.

For readers who want to learn more, the lens includes some cool old videos I found featuring the Comet and 707, the two main aircraft in the book.

This season I won my second fantasy football championship! Unfortunately, that league doesn’t give its winner a trophy. For fantasy leagues that do, I put together a selection of fantasy football trophies. There are even some funny gag trophies for the losingest team.

These two bring my total to 96 featured lenses. I’m slowly getting to 100.

Have a happy New Year!

Catch of the Month: Toronto Pearson Airport 5k Runway Race

Each month I’ll feature a lens that I discovered while exploring Squidoo.

Airplanes and airports have always interested me and I enjoy running in 5k races. So when the title for bassetmonkey‘s lens about the Toronto Pearson Airport’s 5K runway race popped up, I had to check it out.

Wow…this is a very good example of a lens showcasing an annual event and it makes me want to run this race!

With a descriptive title and photo from inside a hangar, the first module creates a sense of excitement similar to what a racer feels waiting at the Start line.  That’s followed with info about the race, pre and post race pictures (including the unique finisher medals) and a thorough race review from the lensmaster, who ran the 5k in 2011.

The thing that makes a race like this unique is access to a place that’s normally off limits to most people.  Bassetmonkey captures that restricted access vibe in a fun way in the lens.  It also highlights the cool stuff race organizers did to make the race experience extra special.

Hopefully I can get to Toronto to run this race one year.  If you run this (or any other) race, bassetmonkey reminds you to thank the race volunteers!

Side note: About a week after discovering this lens, I got excited when I saw an ad for a 5k at a local airport.  Sadly, the map showed that their course is only on access roads, not the runway.  And it doesn’t look half as cool as bassetmonkey makes the Toronto airport 5k look.

Image credit: Paul’s Best Shots, used under Creative Commons License.