Blog number 257 **** 15 December 2008
During most of WW 2, Germany was very reticent about using her submarines indiscriminately because of fear of pissing off the neutral countries, especially the United States. Late in the war, however, things were going so bad for her that she decided to begin unrestricted submarine warfare. It was a huge success. Besides sinking merchant ships, it also caused other merchant ships not to sail under fear of being sunk. Britain was beginning to starve. Britain was beginning to lose the war.
The subs were very vulnerable on the surface, but once they submerged they could not be found. They could travel 80 miles underwater and no one knew where she was likely to surface. Destroyers were about the only weapon available to the Allies for sub sinking, but there weren't enough of them and they had to be taken from other duties, leaving those areas in danger from subs.
One of the typical methods the Germans used was to surface by a merchant ship, wait until the crew got off, then place demolition charges in the holds, thus saving their expensive torpedoes for more valuable targets. This method however gave the English a counter method, which was to send "Q-ships".
Q-ships were reconstructed disguised merchant ships which had hidden guns that were brought out when the submarine surfaced. One ingenious Q-ship had a telephone line and a tow cable tied to a submerged sub. When the ship, flying a British flag enticed a German sub to surface, the British sub would be alert via the telephone line whereupon it would torpedo the German sub.
When the German sub, U-40 was sunk in this manner, the rescued captain complained bitterly that his sub had been sunk by a "dirty trick."
The crews of the Q-ships were all volunteer naval officers and seamen disguised as civilians who learned to mimic the appearance and crisis behavior of a freighter's crew. They would hurriedly tumble into lifeboats and row away, leaving the gun crews hidden until the sub surfaced and came within ranger of the four inch guns.
While awaiting a submarine captain finding them through his periscope, the very disciplined crew grew their hair long, grew beards, slouched about with their hands in their pockets and generally acted like ordinary merchant seamen. One man wore a blond wig posing as a Scandinavian seaman. Garbage was dumped carelessly over the sides - anathema in a man-of-war.
More on this later. Mine energy esta kaput.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
FEELS GOOD TO HAVE HER BACK
Blog number 255 **** 11 December 2008
My youngest son told me the other day that his wife, Kiki, passed him in the kitchen while he was busy doing something or other and he said to her, "How's it going, Kiki?" or words to that effect. I forget what, exactly he told me that he had said, but it's not important. Is it?
He then turned around and Kiki wasn't there, she was in the other room and he heard her say, "Who you talking to, Honey?" Again, paraphrased. My memory ain't all that good.
He asked me what I thought had happened. I told him about tulpas.
Tulpas are, according to Eastern Philosophy, Mind creations. Supposedly, a person can concentrate his or her mind on an imagined person to such an extent that eventually that imagined person becomes real enough that the creator can see and talk to "it". Eventually, again supposedly, if the mind is kept on it, other people will also be able to see and talk to the tulpa.
I told the story in an earlier Blog entry about a little girl I met on my walk to the Post Office who, after asking me where I was going and I told her I was going home, she said, "I go too." She told me her name was Brittany, but I found out later from her grandmother that Brittany wasn't her name at all - that she just called herself that because Brittany Spears was her idol.
"Brittany" moved away before I could see her again, but I never forgot her over the course of I think, four years. Occasionally I would say to my good wife that I sure missed Brittany. I thought of her often.
A couple of days ago I was out pruning a large tree full of branches. Occasionally I heard this sweet voice, but at first I thought it was children playing and then it seemed to me I was being spoken to. I looked through the branches into the neighbor's yard and there was this sweet, sweet, child. She said, "Can you see me?"
I talked to her for a while and I came away with the definite impression that she was exactly like my Brittany. Maybe a year older, maybe not.
I guess I could say that my constant thinking of Brittany produced her as my tulpa if I wanted to live in a magical world instead of in this boring mundane ordinary commonplace undistinguished world, couldn't I?
Sure I could.
My youngest son told me the other day that his wife, Kiki, passed him in the kitchen while he was busy doing something or other and he said to her, "How's it going, Kiki?" or words to that effect. I forget what, exactly he told me that he had said, but it's not important. Is it?
He then turned around and Kiki wasn't there, she was in the other room and he heard her say, "Who you talking to, Honey?" Again, paraphrased. My memory ain't all that good.
He asked me what I thought had happened. I told him about tulpas.
Tulpas are, according to Eastern Philosophy, Mind creations. Supposedly, a person can concentrate his or her mind on an imagined person to such an extent that eventually that imagined person becomes real enough that the creator can see and talk to "it". Eventually, again supposedly, if the mind is kept on it, other people will also be able to see and talk to the tulpa.
I told the story in an earlier Blog entry about a little girl I met on my walk to the Post Office who, after asking me where I was going and I told her I was going home, she said, "I go too." She told me her name was Brittany, but I found out later from her grandmother that Brittany wasn't her name at all - that she just called herself that because Brittany Spears was her idol.
"Brittany" moved away before I could see her again, but I never forgot her over the course of I think, four years. Occasionally I would say to my good wife that I sure missed Brittany. I thought of her often.
A couple of days ago I was out pruning a large tree full of branches. Occasionally I heard this sweet voice, but at first I thought it was children playing and then it seemed to me I was being spoken to. I looked through the branches into the neighbor's yard and there was this sweet, sweet, child. She said, "Can you see me?"
I talked to her for a while and I came away with the definite impression that she was exactly like my Brittany. Maybe a year older, maybe not.
I guess I could say that my constant thinking of Brittany produced her as my tulpa if I wanted to live in a magical world instead of in this boring mundane ordinary commonplace undistinguished world, couldn't I?
Sure I could.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
ASK THE EXPERTS
Blog number 254 **** 10 December 2008
Before WW 1, submarines were not very well thought of as weapons - they were more like toys, so no thought was given as to how to fight them.
When they started sinking British merchant ships, the British Admiralty decided to use coastal yachts and motorboats to patrol outside British harbors. Only one in ten of these boats carried any weapon larger than a rifle. A few motor launches carried two swimmers, one armed with a black bag, the other with a hammer. If a periscope was sighted, the black bag was to be placed over the periscope and if that didn't work, the hammer was to be used to smash the glass on the periscope.
Before WW 1, submarines were not very well thought of as weapons - they were more like toys, so no thought was given as to how to fight them.
When they started sinking British merchant ships, the British Admiralty decided to use coastal yachts and motorboats to patrol outside British harbors. Only one in ten of these boats carried any weapon larger than a rifle. A few motor launches carried two swimmers, one armed with a black bag, the other with a hammer. If a periscope was sighted, the black bag was to be placed over the periscope and if that didn't work, the hammer was to be used to smash the glass on the periscope.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
YEAH, THAT REALLY WAS STRANGE
Blog number 253 **** 04 December 2008
My daughter-in-law, Kiki, gave my dear wife a delicate ceramic wind chime and this morning Teresa (my dear wife) broke it. She said, "I don't know how it happened, it was really strange."
I said, "Did you drop it?"
She replied resignedly, "Yeah, I dropped it."
My daughter-in-law, Kiki, gave my dear wife a delicate ceramic wind chime and this morning Teresa (my dear wife) broke it. She said, "I don't know how it happened, it was really strange."
I said, "Did you drop it?"
She replied resignedly, "Yeah, I dropped it."
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
SUCCINCTNESS AND CLARITY IS THE KEY
Blog number 252 **** 02 December 2008
In Blog entry number 251 of this same date, as may be seen below this entry, I talked some of an Admiral Beatty. Now I want to talk a bit about his wife.
Beatty (and a few others evidently) was seeing in the Biblical sense, a married woman named Mrs. Ethel Tree. Ethel eventually wanted a divorce from her husband so she could marry Admiral Beatty, so she sent him this wonderful letter;
Dear Arthur,
I have thought over your suggestion that we should live together again and I can never consent to it. There is no use discussing our differences. I shall never live with you again.
Yours truly,
Ethel F. Tree
In Blog entry number 251 of this same date, as may be seen below this entry, I talked some of an Admiral Beatty. Now I want to talk a bit about his wife.
Beatty (and a few others evidently) was seeing in the Biblical sense, a married woman named Mrs. Ethel Tree. Ethel eventually wanted a divorce from her husband so she could marry Admiral Beatty, so she sent him this wonderful letter;
Dear Arthur,
I have thought over your suggestion that we should live together again and I can never consent to it. There is no use discussing our differences. I shall never live with you again.
Yours truly,
Ethel F. Tree
REMEMBER THE MAINE!!
Blog number 251 **** 02 December 2008
Today we will engage in an exercise in palliation. Look it up. I did.
I am at the present time - time being expressed as in the general area of "now", reading. "The Steel Castles" - a book about the world's large warships since their inception.
Before and during the First World War, there were two great British Admirals. There was Admiral Beatty, a fast burner, not too keen on military life, but a very brave and resourceful and lucky and politically social go-getter.
Then there was Admiral Jellicoe - an extremely brilliant military man, well versed in all aspects of ships of the line, a critical observer of the shortcomings of the British navy as opposed to the more well-built German navy.
"He [Beatty] lacked Jellicoe's knowledge of the vulnerability of British ships to enemy weapons; indeed, this information burst on Beatty suddenly at Jutland when two of his six giant battle cruisers blew up under German shellfire, each explosion killing a thousand men. Beatty's response was, 'There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.' "
Today we will engage in an exercise in palliation. Look it up. I did.
I am at the present time - time being expressed as in the general area of "now", reading. "The Steel Castles" - a book about the world's large warships since their inception.
Before and during the First World War, there were two great British Admirals. There was Admiral Beatty, a fast burner, not too keen on military life, but a very brave and resourceful and lucky and politically social go-getter.
Then there was Admiral Jellicoe - an extremely brilliant military man, well versed in all aspects of ships of the line, a critical observer of the shortcomings of the British navy as opposed to the more well-built German navy.
"He [Beatty] lacked Jellicoe's knowledge of the vulnerability of British ships to enemy weapons; indeed, this information burst on Beatty suddenly at Jutland when two of his six giant battle cruisers blew up under German shellfire, each explosion killing a thousand men. Beatty's response was, 'There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.' "
Monday, December 1, 2008
WELL THAT WAS A WASTE OF TIME
Blog number 250 **** 01 December 2008
Went to the doctor's today to discuss my November 30th experience. Had a cat scan, blood work, and electrocardiogram. All tests show that I had an aberration of physical machinations. Nothing serious, evidently.
I figured it was nothing. If a person doesn't know his own body, whose body does he know, yeah?
Worst part of the Emergency room experience was lying there for an hour or two waiting to get discharged. Second worst of course was the needle shoved into my unwilling arm and then left there to pain away.
Saw a few babies from a distance, nothing up close and personal. Although last Thursday we went to a Mexican food store - Food City. Walked in, a baby boy was trying to climb out of the cart. I said, "Where you going?" Nothing.
I asked again, "Where you going?" Blank stare.
I then asked, "?A donde vas?" and he started jabbering away until I finally had to say, "No comprende." I wish Teresa had been there to tell me what the baby was trying to tell me. He seemed pretty excited about it.
Went to the doctor's today to discuss my November 30th experience. Had a cat scan, blood work, and electrocardiogram. All tests show that I had an aberration of physical machinations. Nothing serious, evidently.
I figured it was nothing. If a person doesn't know his own body, whose body does he know, yeah?
Worst part of the Emergency room experience was lying there for an hour or two waiting to get discharged. Second worst of course was the needle shoved into my unwilling arm and then left there to pain away.
Saw a few babies from a distance, nothing up close and personal. Although last Thursday we went to a Mexican food store - Food City. Walked in, a baby boy was trying to climb out of the cart. I said, "Where you going?" Nothing.
I asked again, "Where you going?" Blank stare.
I then asked, "?A donde vas?" and he started jabbering away until I finally had to say, "No comprende." I wish Teresa had been there to tell me what the baby was trying to tell me. He seemed pretty excited about it.
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