DVDs and Dead Cessnas

OMG yay I now have Sharpe and Justice League DVDs! Thank you, azarias and pixyofthestyx. Apollo/Midnighter fluff is forthcoming!

I will watch my new DVDs tonight while I unwind from the stress of the giant black hole of suck today's turned into at work. One of our student pilots went out on his first solo, and killed the airplane landing it--he landed at the wrong angle and speed, which made the nosewheel collapse, which made the propeller hit the runway... and once that's happened, it's all over and you're calling insurance people and the FAA and looking for a new engine.

Dear God am I glad I'm not the guy who crashed the plane or the instructor who signed him off, but merely the person who takes phone calls and tattles on them to the Washington/Dulles FSDO.

On the one hand, it's less stupid than the guy who landed his plane without putting the landing gear down because he forgot to, or the one who flipped a biplane upsidown while still on the runway, but on the other hand, it's our plane this time.

Argh

I normally loathe nouns that have to be conjugated, but there are occasions when I wish devoutly that English still had a way of distinguishing between the pronoun that's the subject of the sentence and the pronoun that's the object of the sentence.

"He" and "him" are too confusing. Using names over and over is too clunky. Using things like "the taller man/the shorter man/the emerald-eyed Gryffindor" etc. is grounds for execution.

If the English language occasionally lacks adequate vocabulary, how on earth do writers using other, less Frankenstein's-monster-like/overly-endowed-with-stolen-words languages manage?