Tire termites?
Not according to the editors of Real Answers, a Bridgestone-Firestone USA publication where this photo originally appeared. The termite-damage-like crevices here are the result of extreme voltage, “electricity that ‘burrowed’ through this tire” when a boom truck hit a high wire and the electricity made its way through the frame on its way to the ground, wrote Real Answers editors. If you think of rubber as the ultimate insulator, think again, they added. “Even insulators will conduct electricity if the voltage is high enough.” The operator walked away from this incident unharmed.
“ All you veteran trucking cowboy superheroes out there:
Where have you been in these situations? Superman, where are you? ”
— Hotshot boat hauler Daniel Audet, the host of the Internet-based Truckstar Radio(thetruckstar.com/listen), noting the many female advocates on issues like parking, training and health.
A long-ago ride remembered
Ann Campanella is a journalist-turned-poet whose collection “Young & Ripe,” published by Charlotte-based Main Street Rag this year, chronicles via short verse the spirit of youth. The book’s “Six Days on the Road” poem was featured Oct. 9 in the daily Writer’s Almanac from National Public Radio, read by Garrison Keillor. The first stanza:

When I was young and searching for my life,
I climbed into the cab of a semi.
The Aussie trucker pointed with his thumb
to the compartment behind him.
Get some sleep.
I don’t remember
if he was old or young.
His face was so plain
it left no impression.
But the experience clearly did.
Read the rest of the poem by visiting
writersalmanac.publicradio.org and searching for “Six Days on the Road.”
For your daily dose of trucking humor, oddities and coverage in the media, visit: OverdriveOnline.com/www.channel19
“Eighteen Wheels North to Alaska” chronicles the long career of its author, 86-year-old Cliff Bishop, a large amount of it spent driving truck in Alaska. Some of the chapter titles hint at the diverse ground he covers: “Earthquakes,” “Avalanches,” “Accidents” and “Alaska’s Inhabitants: Wolves, Bears and Characters.”
The “characters” include a young man who worked with Bishop and turned out to be a serial killer, a psychotic trigger-happy trapper, and a murderous would-be terrorist opposed to the oil pipeline that runs along the Dalton Highway. It also includes dozens of photos and an appendix of “Alaskan Drivers and Old-Timers,” a list for which Bishop himself certainly qualifies. You can order the book on Amazon or via www.publicationconsultants.com. – Max Heine
Campbell, Mo.-based Larry Morris drives for small fleet Double G Trucking and is also a songwriter. His crowning achievement in that arena is “Cotton Fields to Nashville” – the name of both his tune and the album it’s featured on, a songwriters’ tribute to Johnny Cash. “Though he doesn’t write every day,” producer A.J. Siegler says of Morris, “he writes from a life experience and knows how to put it down. He makes it where everybody who hears it can relate to it.” Check out the record here: cottonfields2nashville.com. n
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