27.1.10

Notebook 05 Pg 136

-The Notebook-
  • Wilson Kepple and Betty (and Herman Goring).
  • That omniversal churning anxiety feeling at customs and checkpoints.
  • "Shift that fat arse Harris but do it slowly, I don't want this boat being upset and I don't fancy swimming with an iceberg. "
  • Watching two men dig a hole...
  • Thanks Stanislav Petrov, a lot.
  • Semantic Antics: Satellite, Girl, Worry, Meticulous.
  • Be still my sparking neurons.
-The Commentary-

Wilson Kepple and Betty - (and Herman Goring)
For these guys Youtube came thirty years too late.  Of course I don't recall Herman Goring either in his capacity as Hitler's successor or head of the Luftwaffe  as having contributed to their act. Then I remembered that the original Betty (there were up to 12) left to become a journalist and covered the Nuremberg trials including Goring's last public performance.


That omniversal churning anxiety feeling  at customs and checkpoints
No matter how 'clean' and good citizenry I am feeling this still creeps over me in the face of enquiring authority. I think it is just knowing that regardless of the rules if they do want to make things difficult they can, not that they will but that they can and that my options for doing anything about it are limited. The inequity irks me I guess.


"Shift that fat arse Harris but do it slowly, I don't want this boat being upset and I don't fancy swimming with an iceberg? "
Bet you can't guess who said this? I love it because it captures the genuine spirit of a man who has since been somewhat mythologised but was 'just' a very practical man trying to do a very difficult job in very trying circumstances yet retaining a sense of hum(o)ur. It was fat arsed Harris himself who remembered George Washington saying it to him as they crossed the Delaware.


Watching two men dig a hole...
The fact that I wrote this down probably whilst they were digging and then failed to expand on what was worthy of recording such an everyday event is in the very least a bit intriguing. I like to think that I stopped scribbling, rolled up my sleeves and jumped in to help, somewhere on earth there is another notebook with just the words 'watching three men dig a hole...' and so on until we reached Australia


Thank Stanislav Petrov a lot
We all should, seriously we should.


Semantic Antics:Satellite, Girl, Worry, Meticulous
I remember this was a programme/ article on how words change meaning over time and these were some examples:
Satellite meant bodyguard (they protected the planets) girl was originally used for both young man and young woman, worry meant to choke and meticulous meant scared or afraid.


Be still my sparking neurons
Oh that delicious melange of neuroscience, Shakespeare and irony. Maybe I should think about being a writer.




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