12/17: YYZ

DASH-dot-DASH-DASH, DASH-dot-DASH-DASH, DASH-DASH-dot-dot...

On this date in 1903, the first airplane successfully took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It remains one of mankind’s crowning achievements of engineering, ingenuity, and daring. Hard to believe that, barely more than a century later, airplane travel has become so routine that we get bent out of shape over how much we can carry on-board and what drinks are or are not served on our miracle metal tubes as they hurtle through the troposphere.

As I’ve mentioned before, “YYZ” refers to the airport code for the Toronto Pearson International Airport. The identifier, in Morse code, is as follows:

DASH-dot-DASH-DASH
DASH-dot-DASH-DASH
DASH-DASH-dot-dot

If you read that out loud and quickly, you’ll recoginize the opening rhythm to “YYZ.” (Much like how the guys used “1001001” in the rhythm line of “The Body Electric.”)

“YYZ” is probably the most famous of the Rush instrumentals, and it remains one of the biggest crowd-pleasers among fans young and old, new and vet, alike.