Back in the late 1980s, there was a tremendous windstorm in Maryland. I stood at a window of my workplace in Maryland, and watched bricks blow off the cornice and fall seven stories into the parking lot. (Co-workers who drove to work were quite unhappy watching.) In Silver Spring, a partially completed cinder-block building blew over into the street.<p>My wife knew a woman who had flown into Baltimore-Washington International that day. The pilot made the sensible decision to push the throttles all the way forward and get onto the runway as quickly as he could. The woman could hardly walk off the airplane. Her son, then about ten, thanked the pilot, saying that it was the coolest flight he'd ever been on.