Recent Comments

1. 2 days ago on Luann

   Nah, no protestors. It’s not a major university, too many students having to work to pay tuition and worrying about getting a job on graduation. Campus protestors generally rely on someone else footing the bill.

2. 3 days ago on Luann

   And therein lies the rub. Luann is questioned about majoring in welding, probably because she is a girl, when it would probably provide a better income than the fields of study most of her counterparts are taking.

3. 7 days ago on Luann

   I was going to leave a comment about how this is an old idea and that Chuck Connors did it first in “Branded”, but then realized that no one would catch the reference..

4. 8 days ago on Luann

   Nah, those musicians knew what they were doing … and they did it well.

5. 8 days ago on Fred Basset

   Having had a couple of American Water Spaniels in the house, I can testify that unusual breeds grab a certain amount of attention.

6. 10 days ago on Fred Basset

   Yup. Trailing and flush dogs will tend to be stubborn…you can’t be a good hunting dog if you give up the scent easily.

7. 11 days ago on Tank McNamara

   All the Japanese citizens at the US shipyard are employed by the Japanese government, which makes a good deal for the US. This was some kind of summer internship deal for students sponsored by the Japanese government and this kid probably had no relevant experience in the skilled trades — so they made him an interpreter so that he couldn’t get into trouble. I had another cute experience. A typhoon was coming in and it was decided to move the bigger ships alongside the pier and move the lighter ships outboard of the heavier ones to prevent damage. I could not convey this to the foreman and finally had to give up … and then, magically at the end of the shift, he caught on and did the job. He understood perfectly, his crew simply wanted overtime pay, so he played dumb. The next week he came up to me, read my name and rank off my hardhat, and said something like “Petty Officer Jones, could you please sign this job off as finished?” I replied: “Que lastima. Los siento. No hablo Ingles.” I had no idea that one of the US Navy supervisors, who was a native Spanish speaker, overheard this. When I returned to the office I got a standing ovation… making me suspect that intentional incomprehension occurred more often than I had guessed.

8. 12 days ago on Tank McNamara

   Hah, I had this happen in Japan. I was a naval reservist doing my annual training in the Ship Repair Facility and one of the foremen came up with a young guy with a name tag titled “Interpreter”. We talked for about 5 minutes and I was no clearer to getting my point across to the foreman than I was when we started…this kid spoke no meaningful English. The foreman finally smiled at the kid, thanked him, then sent him off. Then he turned to me and apologized in perfect English and we hammered out the details on the job.

9. 14 days ago on Luann

   OK, so their business model is to prowl on people who are insecure and give them a facade to hide behind. That always turns out well.

10. 15 days ago on Tank McNamara

    To paraphrase ‘The Incredibles’; “When everyone is on a pro football team, nobody will be on a pro football team.”