Top Secret
I've used once "Top Secret" U.S. Navy equipment the past two days! This started when I decided to put wood paneling on my basement walls and obtained a Remington® Powerhammer to nail furring strips to the masonry - then finish by nailing paneling to the furring strips. The Powerhammer uses a 22 caliber load fired by hitting a firing pin with a hammer.
So what is "Top Secret"?
Well, I find that Powerhammers were developed during World War II for frogmen to do underwater repairs of battle damage to the hulls of warships. Wartime Powerhammers were bigger and used a larger caliber charge. Steel panels to cover holes in the ship hull were cut. The frogmen positioned the steel panel and nailed it to the ship's hull with a Powerhammer. The repair job was finished by applying a sealing compound around the steel plate "patch." The source of this information is the father of local plumber Dave Dresser. Dave's dad was a wartime frogman and was only allowed to tell about using the Powerhammer after the war ended, at which time the "Top Secret" clearance was lifted.
Putting two and two together, I expect Powerhammers were kept "Top Secret" during the war to keep the enemy in the dark about U.S. Navy capability to make repairs of major hull damage at sea, and about the ensuing ability for quick return to combat.
For me, this nicely demonstrates how the winning edge in naval warfare, and in all warfare, is not always having the biggest guns, the latest in "smart missiles", and so on. Winning wars is dependent also on the ingenuity of people who develop tools such as the Powerhammer, who develop the techniques for using the tools - and is also dependent on the skill and bravery of the men who use tools in trying conditions such as repairing a ship hull underwater. I salute the frogmen who did this work during World War II.
November 13, 2002
Call me Ahab
I have a keen interest in Melville's Moby Dick and besides reading the book itself, I've read many articles about the book.
Every time I read something new, it adds new angles for understanding the subtle messages of Moby Dick. Now I've found the "mother of all Moby Dick articles" for me. It is a book review on Moby-Dick entitled Call me Ahab (covering four books) by Jeremy Harding in the London Review of Books Vol. 24 No. 21 - 31, October 2002.
For me, it is an article that cannot be put down - and not only that, I've read the article three times and I'll probably read it several more times. I made a copy for my files. It is long. An especially captivating part is its tying in the Ahab and Ishmael characters, and events in the novel, as parallels to the events of 9/11/2001 and their aftermath, including parallels to the main players in each case.
Books reviewed:
-------------------------------------------
Moby-Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville ed. Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker
Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live in by C.L.R. James
Hunting Captain Ahab: Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival by Clare Spark
Lucchesi and the Whale by Frank Lentricchia
-------------------------------------------
"The American whaleman was a kind of prospector, the ancestor of the oilman, while the New England whaling industry itself . . . was killed off by the refining of kerosene from fossil fuel. Ishmael is an active participant in the process of extraction for profit, turning the wheels of production at home while extending the frontier abroad. " [ read more . . . ]
I have a keen interest in Melville's Moby Dick and besides reading the book itself, I've read many articles about the book.
Every time I read something new, it adds new angles for understanding the subtle messages of Moby Dick. Now I've found the "mother of all Moby Dick articles" for me. It is a book review on Moby-Dick entitled Call me Ahab (covering four books) by Jeremy Harding in the London Review of Books Vol. 24 No. 21 - 31, October 2002.
For me, it is an article that cannot be put down - and not only that, I've read the article three times and I'll probably read it several more times. I made a copy for my files. It is long. An especially captivating part is its tying in the Ahab and Ishmael characters, and events in the novel, as parallels to the events of 9/11/2001 and their aftermath, including parallels to the main players in each case.
Books reviewed:
-------------------------------------------
Moby-Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville ed. Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker
Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live in by C.L.R. James
Hunting Captain Ahab: Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival by Clare Spark
Lucchesi and the Whale by Frank Lentricchia
-------------------------------------------
"The American whaleman was a kind of prospector, the ancestor of the oilman, while the New England whaling industry itself . . . was killed off by the refining of kerosene from fossil fuel. Ishmael is an active participant in the process of extraction for profit, turning the wheels of production at home while extending the frontier abroad. " [ read more . . . ]
November 11, 2002
Shifting Weather Pattern?
News Item: String of tornadoes kill at least 30 in U.S.
[Deutsche Welle e-mail newsletter, 11/11/02]
"............ The weather service's Storm Prediction Center said it had reports of at least 45 tornadoes, since early Sunday morning across a half-dozen states. The U.S. National Weather Service said it was the worst outbreak of tornadoes in living memory."
I haven't researched this, people, but street talk in Oklahoma speaks about the meeting of cold air fronts from the north with moist, warm air fronts off the Caribbean happening east of Oklahoma more often. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are often spawned along the line of these clashing air fronts.
I see a tie-in to yesterday's weather events, right or wrong, with an unusual two-week warm period in Oklahoma with drizzling rain nearly every day from Halloween week through last week. We said to each other: "Is this the Pacific Northwest, or New Orleans, or what?" My simple-minded layman's view is that cold air flow from the north is presently shifted east leaving Oklahoma and environs prone to a "Caribbean rainy climate", and areas in the eastern United States subject to tornado-producing clashes of northern cold air with moist Caribbean air. There appears to be a pattern of this sort for the last several years.
This all carries into the realm of layman science speculation about shifting weather patterns caused by global warming, by El Niños, by La Niñas ...... you name it. For the time being, I tread no further into this matter so subject to pitfalls of oversimplification, to overdependence on apocryphal information, misapplication of probability conjectures, etc.
News Item: String of tornadoes kill at least 30 in U.S.
[Deutsche Welle e-mail newsletter, 11/11/02]
"............ The weather service's Storm Prediction Center said it had reports of at least 45 tornadoes, since early Sunday morning across a half-dozen states. The U.S. National Weather Service said it was the worst outbreak of tornadoes in living memory."
I haven't researched this, people, but street talk in Oklahoma speaks about the meeting of cold air fronts from the north with moist, warm air fronts off the Caribbean happening east of Oklahoma more often. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are often spawned along the line of these clashing air fronts.
I see a tie-in to yesterday's weather events, right or wrong, with an unusual two-week warm period in Oklahoma with drizzling rain nearly every day from Halloween week through last week. We said to each other: "Is this the Pacific Northwest, or New Orleans, or what?" My simple-minded layman's view is that cold air flow from the north is presently shifted east leaving Oklahoma and environs prone to a "Caribbean rainy climate", and areas in the eastern United States subject to tornado-producing clashes of northern cold air with moist Caribbean air. There appears to be a pattern of this sort for the last several years.
This all carries into the realm of layman science speculation about shifting weather patterns caused by global warming, by El Niños, by La Niñas ...... you name it. For the time being, I tread no further into this matter so subject to pitfalls of oversimplification, to overdependence on apocryphal information, misapplication of probability conjectures, etc.
Did I Mean Veterans Day? Yes.
Friendly readers, you better look out for old Jack. My Joyce Kilmer post talks about Memorial Day as if it is today. Hey, I'm trying to turn the clock forward (or backwards :)) to May. Did I Mean Veterans Day? Yes.
It took a stop at my friend Fred's furniture refinishing store to get straightened out. Fred is a retired Connecticut highway patrolman and we go together to target shoot with our pistols. I wished him a good Memorial Day. Fred says "Huh"! "It is Veterans Day. Oh No! I just told my blog readers wrong.
There is always a silver lining. I found the official Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day website and there is a link to a 16-page Teachers Resource Guide, in Adobe Acrobat format, entitled "Honoring All Who Served" with information given about proper handling and respect for the flag. I looked for something like this before and now I found it to print out and save.
Friendly readers, you better look out for old Jack. My Joyce Kilmer post talks about Memorial Day as if it is today. Hey, I'm trying to turn the clock forward (or backwards :)) to May. Did I Mean Veterans Day? Yes.
It took a stop at my friend Fred's furniture refinishing store to get straightened out. Fred is a retired Connecticut highway patrolman and we go together to target shoot with our pistols. I wished him a good Memorial Day. Fred says "Huh"! "It is Veterans Day. Oh No! I just told my blog readers wrong.
There is always a silver lining. I found the official Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day website and there is a link to a 16-page Teachers Resource Guide, in Adobe Acrobat format, entitled "Honoring All Who Served" with information given about proper handling and respect for the flag. I looked for something like this before and now I found it to print out and save.
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918) - Author of Trees and Other Poems
With the arrival of Memorial Day, I am doing my second day in a row of raking leaves and I find myself abruptly reminded of pleasant days spent in the New Brunswick area of New Jersey. I think of the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer who was born in New Brunswick.
Tragically, Joyce Kilmer is one of the many young poets killed in World War I. Today Kilmer is memorialized in many ways in the New Brunswick area and is specially remembered, along with all veterans, on Memorial Day. I came to deeply appreciate Joyce Kilmer in my twelve years spent near his birthplace.
Also, speaking as a person who loves hiking, I am pleased to learn that Kilmer is the namesake of Joyce Kilmer National Forest in Graham County, North Carolina. I can't think of a more wonderful tribute to Joyce Kilmer.
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
With the arrival of Memorial Day, I am doing my second day in a row of raking leaves and I find myself abruptly reminded of pleasant days spent in the New Brunswick area of New Jersey. I think of the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer who was born in New Brunswick.
Tragically, Joyce Kilmer is one of the many young poets killed in World War I. Today Kilmer is memorialized in many ways in the New Brunswick area and is specially remembered, along with all veterans, on Memorial Day. I came to deeply appreciate Joyce Kilmer in my twelve years spent near his birthplace.
Also, speaking as a person who loves hiking, I am pleased to learn that Kilmer is the namesake of Joyce Kilmer National Forest in Graham County, North Carolina. I can't think of a more wonderful tribute to Joyce Kilmer.
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.