“Fly, Columbia” is a deeply hopeful song. Written in 1981 by Diana Gallagher, Leslie Fish’s performance on Minus Ten and Counting was one of the first filk recordings that really captured me. The chorus names OV-102 “the promise of better days to come”, and blesses her to “Sail an orbit free, track the moon and chase the sun.” Yet, that was not her fate, as we know all too well. When I heard The Longest Johns cover “Roll Northumbria”, I immediately thought of this song, and ...
