Watches

It's hardly a vice, but perhaps it is a bad habit: I seldom decline to respond to a survey online. Some of these ask questions about income and/or assets and my honest responses lead me to questions about such luxuries as expensive watches or upmarket clothing. I'm really not interested in either of these items. Longines is the name of a long-established Swiss watch maker, and I do have a relatively inexpensive Longines watch that I bought many years ago for perhaps $20. I'm really not interested in gold watches, and I am absolutely content with the silver case of my Longines. However, it needs to be wound up daily, so it is now my "spare". In its place, I use an inexpensive Casio wristwatch, which never needs winding. It keeps perfect time, as I know when I check the time on my cell phone. I used to own a beautiful gold pocket watch, which had belonged to my father. It is a luxurious object, which was presented to him on some special occasion. It has become an heirloom, to be passed down to one of my sons. There must be very few American men who still make use of pocket watches. Wristwatches are also often not found on the arms of younger men. Personally, I still prefer to lift an arm to tell the time, rather than reach into a pocket to see the time on my cell phone. Perhaps in fifty years' time, my Longines will be treated as an heirloom in its turn. What fate is in store for my inexpensive Casio?

At work on a Holiday

I am writing this on July 4, and for good reasons, more than one person is working here today, by choice. It brings back a happy memory from 1949, when I was one of four officers in a Wreck Dispersal vessel. (Our job was to blow up ships that had been sunk in shallow waters, in order to allow for unfettered navigation.) We would always return to harbor for holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, and Whit Monday, traditional holidays in the UK. Two of my fellow officers were married, and the third was "dating", as we would say these days. I was very popular, because we always needed to have one officer on board, and I would volunteer for this, to allow the others to spend the holiday with their loved ones. The task on which we were engaged required many long hours, seven days a week, and so we were allowed sixty days of "leave" (vacation) in a year. I was the Navigating Officer, and rather enjoyed the work. When we were within sight of land, we referred to my work as "pilotage", a task which was greatly assisted by what was then a new invention, allowing us to fix our position within a hundred yards or so, thanks to the intersection of three radio beams from shore-based positions. I greatly enjoyed the quiet days when I was in charge of the ship while the other officers were on leave. I spent most of my time reading, with minimal interruptions.When working on a wreck, HMS Annet could carry out its task in coastal waters without me, so I took my leave when it suited me. However, I did envy my colleagues who had female companionship when they were on leave. My first "relationship" was still over a year in the future.

Semantic Slide

I am by nature a "purist" as far as the English language is concerned. Nevertheless, I recognize that the meanings of words change with time. When the British adopted the German word Blitzkrieg, they were not referring to lightning warfare, but the extended almost-nightly bombing of London and its environs in 1940 and subsequent years. A much-abused word is "troop". We still see some usage of it in its original form meaning essentially a body of soldiers: "Troop 7" refers to a unit of Boy Scouts. It is one of those words which is convenient for headline writers, in phrases such as "six troops killed in Tikrit". In other words it has become a synonym for individual soldiers. It is acceptable in the plural: "Syrian troops enter Aleppo". Although I don't like this development in meaning, there is no way that I can "stop the tide from coming in". The only satisfaction that I can obtain is to express my dismay, while I learn to live with it.

Men are from Mars...

There is a very convenient built-in shelf in our shower cabinet, It holds a container of shampoo belonging to one of the owners--and seven containers of assorted unguents belonging to the other. I bet you can guess which is His and which is Hers.

Contagious

Here in the U.S., when someone suffers from a cold, we discourage others from getting too close while the sufferer is still "contagious". In the U.K., one would use the term "infectious", while " contagious" refers to actual physical contact.. In the nineteenth century, the U.K Parliament passed the first version of the:Contagious Diseases Act. This authorized the police at Naval ports and Amy bases to detain prostitutes for examination. If they had a venereal disease, they were taken to a "Lock Hospital", and kept there, in an age when few means of cure were known. Although "contagion" was by no means limited to VD, to this day when words related to "contagious" are used they bring VD to mind. So, if a Brit is told that someone is still "contagious", it might be helpful to clarify that the speaker may simply suggest that you avoid coming too close to avoid catching that cold.

Expensive Penalty

A young man (probably deranged) climbed up on the roof of his vehicle, and took aim on a Longmont police officer. Fortunately, when he fired, he completely missed . Found guilty on two separate charges related to this incident, he has been sentenced to a total of 72 years in prison. Taxpayers will be paying out thousands of dollars, and he may spend most of the rest of his life in captivity. I'm in no position to judge whether he should be in a mental hospital, but this sentence seems to meet the test of "cruel and unusual punishment".' How can this punishment be said to fit the crime?

The VA Problems

People tell me that if only we had a "single-payer" health system, there would be no problem to solve: veterans would be folded into the system. But that's not going to happen in my lifetime. I know of no other country that has set up a separate bureaucracy for its veterans. We have to deal with political reality. It might be sensible to transfer aging veterans to Medicare, but that's not going to happen. The realistic way of dealing with the unconscionable delays for those veterans waiting more than a brief period for initial examination and treatment, is to authorize them to be seen (without charge to them) by a "civilian" health provider until they can be accepted by the VA system. The taxpayers will need to pay for this.