And then a shrieking cut through the sky, the afterburners lit, the children screamed, and men remembered how Top Gun once made them want to fly, too. (But instead: a career in IT.) Yes, it’s that time of summer: Seafair Weekend, with the hydros practicing on Friday, racing today and Sunday, and the Blue Angels swooping overhead. Leave town and go hiking if you want peace and solitude. Otherwise drag your inner tube and ice chest full of beer down to the lake and submit to the sunburn, group inebriation, and hearing damage. Many other planes and even a few helicopters will fill the sky south of I-90, but for us the highlight comes at 1:40 p.m. each day, when the six U.S. Navy flyboys perform their routine. You can still be opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while gasping in awe at the aerial acrobatics. Are taxes too low and military spending too high? Sure, but c’mon—that pilot is flying his aircraft upside-down just a few feet above the water! Tell me you’re not impressed. Tell me that rumbling in your chest—caused by the massive twin engines of the supersonic F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets—can be achieved by revving the engine of your Prius at a traffic light. I don’t think so. T. BONILLA

Aug. 3-5, 2012