Mac Users

My Brother is a Mac user, and he was quite militant about it. He is the non-technical one of the family and the early Macs were specially made for laying out the journalistic stuff he is in to. (He writes newsletters for New Jersey politicians, but moved across the border to Pennsylvania because NJ taxes were too high.) He has toned down his attacks lately apparently seeing his as a lost cause. There are probably more than 2% Macs out there. Most of them, however, are in grade schools, and I'm sorry, but those kids probably aren't interested in your web site.

By the way, why does everybody give poor ol' Bill Gates a hard time. Did we give Edison a hard time for making it easier to see indoors at night? Did we give Henry Ford a hard time for making it easier to travel from town to town? Did we give Rockefeller a hard time for making good quality fuel plentiful? The answers are, no, probably, and yes. There seems to be a correlation between wealth achieved and hardness of time. Interesting history thesis: who is furthest above the curve of wealth versus public acceptance? In other words, who is/was the richest person that was liked the most (during his lifetime)? What are the qualities of this person and why can't I be like him?

Too clever for your own good

There is a subtle contradiction in your previous correspondence. You say that there is an optimum level of intelligence for a community. You then say that violin prodigies should be banned (I guess this could be some of your "50% is serious and I don't know which 50%"). Shouldn't there be an optimum level of musicians in a community? Some would argue that sitting behind a PC soaks talent and kills time....

Musical Heredity

Some people have "tin ears". This suggests a genetic tendency. It could also suggest not being exposed to music at a critical point in development. Musical talent is obviously a "gift".

Saxon battlecries, maybe. I propose that the heavy rhythms of rock evolved from songs sung by a marching army. (Interestingly, a quick search of "marching songs" gave a high proportion of German hits.) Perhaps the better, more rhythmic, singing soldiers fared better because they had hypnotized themselves and were more "psyched" for battle.

The obvious rebuttal for you racial argument is that the rock and roll meme evolved from black southern U.S. blues. The early British rockers were heavily influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, etc. White rockers such as Elvis (I know he wasn't British, but my guess is that his ancestors were), the Yardbirds, Stones, and Led Zeppelin, because they were white, opened up the market to the young white male. The debate could hinge on what was added by the Brits since the initial inspiration. Robert Plant certainly conjures up the image of a Saxon warrior (and I would argue has (had?) the best voice for serious R&R--HEY, HEY, MAMA). [Delete only these expletive deleted red words - just testing] (My search for 'Saxon Battlecries' was hindered by an early '80s British metal band Saxon. Ever hear of them?)

Never heard of Slipknot either. They look like they have potential. I'll have to find out about them from my 14 year old.

Site

The site is evolving nicely. Glad to hear your mumps have had a beneficial side-effect. You were reading my mind with the no frames version. Thanks. The problem was that the page address didn't show up in the "Address" window up top. When I wanted to grab the address for a link, I had to backtrack to the referring page and grab that link. A minor inconvenience that I considered harassing you about yesterday, but, in a moment of weakness, dropped.

Werner Von Braun supposedly said, of the V2, words to the effect of

The missile was a complete success,
but it landed on the wrong planet.

He has got to be one of the great heroes of the modern era. He had a vision, he did more than any other man to achieve it. Few people can hope to have an achievement like that. A thousand years from now people will not know or care who Bill Clinton was, but they will know about the Apollo project. Not only was he a colossus in his own field he also elevated that field to the height of the metaphor, he was the ultimate and proverbial rocket scientist.

Interesting idea about the rich inventors. You have a very graphical way of thinking, is that professional training or just the way your brain is wired?

I know what you mean about Bill Gates. He is not a villain. Just too rich. I don't think many people knock him for his achievements. Windows and Explorer are great. Word is good too. No sorry, I will have to edit that out before publication. ;-)

The only people I can think of who are really rich and not hated too much for it are Sir Richard Branson and Sir Paul McCartney, but that is only a matter of degree, generally success breeds jealousy and hatred and envy. I suppose if my idea for a top rate 100% income tax (effective maximum wage) came in this would probably stop and the really successful people might actually end up happier as they could remain popular and unaffected by envy and hatred.

I am thinking of the new British Super Heavyweight Olympic boxing gold medallist, he is really popular, nobody has got a bad word to say about him. The press love him. He won a precious gold medal and he was a big team player in helping the rest of the British Olympic team build up their self confidence. Nobody is knocking him and he has yet to make big money out of boxing. I can't help thinking that those two facts are related. I predict as soon as he starts getting involved in pay-per-view fights on satellite TV and starts making big money the resentment will begin.

Violins and Computers

What I object to is the wasting of general purpose genius in something as trivial as music. I have no objection at all to somebody of modest general ability but good musical ability specializing in music. When children show talent for music by all means encourage it, but not at the expense of something else that could be more useful. That is a very important distinction. Nigel Kennedy is a violin playing genius, he is really good at it, a talent of the highest order, but when you hear him interviewed you can relax, he is no wasted genius, he is in all other fields about as bright as a typical high school teacher. But who knows what other geniuses there are out there playing violins and pianos with IQs over 170 and real creative ability who would be better off as engineers or research scientists.

As for computers absorbing talent, rubbish. I can spend 18 hours a day on mine but it doesn't mean that I would be better employed doing something else. I would probably spend my days off making home brew beer instead if I didn't have a computer.

Saxon Rock

I haven't heard the full expounding of this theory, I just picked it up from the radio. The traditional genealogy of rock and roll is through black music but I think that could be distorted. Certainly by the end of the 1950s there was a distinct split in music. There was predominantly white music and predominantly black music. People like Phil Spector deliberately blurred the boundaries a bit but they reasserted themselves. People like the Stones and Eric Clapton might have a huge collection of black artist's music and love to listen to it but the same is not really true of their fans. The rock phenomenon of the seventies grew up and evolved into heavy metal and the like, predominantly white music for predominantly white fans. Can you really say that AC/DC, Motorhead and Black Sabbath are playing black music? Would it really be any more or less incredible to link then to British and Irish traditional music? I remain unconvinced by all the theories.

I was vaguely aware of Saxon while I was at University, although I can't say that I remember anything of their music. I was at the fringe of the heavy metal scene. I preferred something with a bit more cerebral content. Hawkwind and Rush, a bit self important. I find the memories a little embarrassing now. I also remember enjoying a good bit of more mainstream mindless heavy rock and heavy metal. AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Bomber by Motorhead. Mindless head banging stuff with classic style. As to battlecries could you imagine standing your ground when faced with Ozzy Osbourne and ten thousand long haired warriors banging out the rhythm of Paranoid on their shields? I expect that would be a rather effective laxative.

Rock Roots

My favorite example of your point is Jethro Tull. Their first album or two was quite bluesy and Anderson wore the rags of a derelict. Later, his use of the flute and his melodies are what I imagine to be more like British and Irish traditional music. He also changed his on-stage costume to that of a medieval minstrel.

You're right. Plant might have had a better voice, but Ozzie would still be better at rallying the troops.

Brain Wires

Since my brain is wired the way it is, it sought out training and a profession that optimized its utilization. (Actually I sort of drifted to where I am, floating along on the breeze of my guardian angel's wings). The fun thing for me about refineries is that they are one big integrated steel organism with interconnected steam, water, electrical, fuel, and production systems. Everything that happens effects or is affected by something else that happens. With all the temperature, pressure, flow, and laboratory data, the refinery generates tons of numbers. Analysis of the numbers reveals the relationships between the different systems. Once one of these relationships is known, it can be controlled and fine tuned.

The organism metaphor especially applies to the refinery I worked at in Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1902, itself the merging of several smaller companies. Since then it slowly evolved, adapting to different markets, technologies, and changing regulatory environments. (BTW, did you ever read the Watchmaker? I never got any comment from you on it.) It grows sort of like a tree with its rings. In times of good market conditions, capital investments add new equipment. During poor business cycles, you make do with what you have.

That's one of things we are changing here. In the west, the key to managing refineries (and any business for that matter) is flexibility. Being able to adapt to the market. Giving the customer what they want. Knowing what they want because the price goes up. Tweaking your operation and installing equipment to meet that end. This Soviet plant was planned and built to produce a certain amount of certain products. No changes. Give the customer (your comrade) what you think he should have. We are in the process of finding out what the flexibilities of this operation are. For example, the current market has an abnormally high differential between gasoline and diesel fuel prices. If we can shift just 5% of our gas production to diesel, we can earn an additional half-a-million dollars per month! As we and others do that, the price will start dropping and the truckers can stop whining. The Soviets would have left that money for someone else and the comrades would have had to put up with a diesel fuel shortage. No wonder they went under.

I just read The Day the Music Died. I had a parallel experience on 12-8/9-80. I wasn't listening to his music, but I had just finished reading the Playboy Interview (that magazine has great articles). I was in my apartment in Oklahoma. I had recently moved 1500 miles away from home to my first "real" job. Recently graduated, I was following the college custom of watching TV (Monday night football) with the sound down while listening to the stereo. I don't remember which music it was. The phone rang. It was my brother back in New Jersey. He asked if I had heard the news. If I had been listening to the sound of the TV, I would have heard the announcer, Howard Cosell, ignore the game and ramble on and on about the shooting.

The next morning I cried. I had never cried out of grief before and haven't since. I occasional generate a tear or two over small sentimental items. (It actually happened a few days ago listening to "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens. This may have been triggered by the memory of my mother crying when she heard me listen to that song 30 years ago.)

That day at work I wore a tie out of respect. I rarely wore a tie to work. Quite ironic to wear a tie out of respect for a guy who probably had little respect for a person just because he wore a tie. I think I was struck by the whole "Starting Over" theme of the interview. Here was a guy who had just re-awoken after a depressing hiatus. He had the wife and young child thing going. Of lesser importance (it wouldn't have evoked tears on its own) was the realization that there would never be a Beatle reunion.

Up until recently, I was able to not remember the name of the killer. The recent news about his request for parole put an end to that.

My explanation? A person who, through his music and words had thoroughly infiltrated my developing emotional landscape, had, through his loss, triggered the deepest emotional action available.

Thanks for that last message. That page was one of the hardest I ever wrote. It took a lot out of me.

I can cry quite easily. As often with positive emotions as with negative ones. I sometimes even show my emotion at work, it can be quite an effective way of making a sale when I get genuinely enthused about a product to the point of oozing out a tear or two. I am quite serious about that. I can't fake it.

I like the way you didn't mention his name. I will not do that either. It is the one thing we can do to try to prevent a similar thing happening again. The best thing we can do is ignore such people. I remember when the news came in of the shootings at Dunblane a few years ago, a terrible tragedy but the moment I heard about it I screamed at the radio "don't tell me his name!" The media should have a policy of treating such people correctly, no names, just the briefest and blandest description such as "a 42 year old bank employee, not a relative of the deceased." They should also avoid any hint of glory or outrage. They should talk of "death by shooting" rather than slaying, killing or assassination. To say more is to be an accomplice.

I think I will play me another blast or two of John's music and see if I get inspired again. Ohh, I haven't picked up the disc yet but I've started again.

Thanks for the link to that Playboy interview. I had read it in the original, I can't remember exactly what the circumstances were. I remember that bit about Yoko's telescope and the message saying "yes". That had an effect on me. I made a tiny little sign and stuck it high up in my bedroom, in letters as small as this. A couple of months later my mother told me she had climbed up on a chair to read it "There's a good view from here". I expect a full report on your trip to London. Assuming it isn't secret after you have come back.

London

London is expensive. All prices are a bit higher and there is so much to spend money on. Finding somewhere to buy things cheaply can be a problem. But London is one of the world's most exciting cities. Not as vertical as New York but it has a better historical dimension. You could spend a year, or even a lifetime, in London and not get bored as long as your money holds out. But London is as different from the rest of England as New York is from South Bend, Indiana.

Everything happens in London. It is the capital of England and the biggest city and the main city for just about everything; culture, sport, politics, shopping, law, crime, prostitution, gambling (legal and otherwise) commerce, banking and transport. They used to say that all roads lead to Rome, in England they lead to London. All the roads and the railways too, wherever there are twin railway tracks in Britain there is the up line that leads to London, and the down line, that leads away. But to confuse matters further Oxford University uses the same idea with Oxford as the centre of the Universe, but I have been to Oxford station, and I can say that such chauvinism is unjustified. To help you further still I must point out that when you catch a down train out of London to head to Manchester you are going up North and when you return you are going down to London again, on the up line. And if you get to drive remember that we drive on the right side of the road, so keep left.

If you have to get about in London try the London black taxis. They are not particularly cheap but they are a real experience. To get a licence to drive one the driver has to demonstrate total knowledge of every street, hotel and major venue in London, they have to 'do the knowledge' which often takes two years of riding round on small motorbikes, learning every road and every one way restriction in one of the biggest cities on the planet. The drivers are an institution, if you think I have opinions on everything just try asking one of them their opinion on something. They are the working class aristocracy, and they know it.

The best way to get to Cheadle Hulme is to catch a flight to Heathrow when it's foggy, you will get diverted to Manchester airport, that is very close. Fog at Heathrow is good news for Manchester. I remember about this time last year I was walking to work when suddenly I saw a Concorde coming in, just emerging from the cloud base at about 1,000 feet, flying directly towards me, a fantastic sight, trailing wisps of cloud. Aircraft emerging from cloud is quite a common sight in Stockport but I can never get blasé about it, the way the clouds part then boil away into vortices off the wing tips is spectacularly beautiful. When I walk to work I am walking the opposite way to the landing flightpath and the planes usually fly directly overhead. On the rare occasions when the sun shines it is sometimes possible to see the shadow of the aircraft race across the ground in the carpark outside my shop, they fill the full width of the carpark. In the air the 'planes look very slow with their landing gear down, they always look too slow to be able to sustain flight, only the speed of their shadows shows their true speed.

I'll be off for a week to what you in England probably call "the city". (It was NYC for me--until I moved to Oklahoma, then it became Oklahoma City.) My eldest had "threatened" to spike his hair and dye it blue. I told him to wait until we visit London because he could get some of the latest ideas there. I hope we're not disappointed.

I am a little concerned about your statement about the temperature in London being above the boiling point of money (or something to that effect). I'd like to take a run up to Cheadle Hulme sometime, but not on a short family trip. Maybe I can swing by during some business trip if that ever comes about. It looks like about a four hour drive? Anyway, we'll be staying at a hotel between Hyde Park and Paddington Station.

I am not sure we do call London the City. Certainly not around here. I am in the gravitational field of Manchester here, "I'm going to town" means going into Manchester, I guess if you said you were going to the City people would not be clear what you meant, they might think you meant going to see Manchester City play football.

However once you go close enough to London, whose gravitational field is very much bigger, people would know what you mean. My sister lives on the borders of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire (yes, I know you well enough to know that you will look it up if you don't already know where it is) and that is on the edge of the London event horizon. She lives in the bandit country between the northern edges of London's outer suburbs and the South East of England and the southern edge of the East Midlands, right on the basic North-South divide through England.

Spiked blue hair? How very old hat. That was moderately daring and fashionable before he was born. In London the only people with spiked blue hair will be a few ageing punks who try to make a living by getting tourists to pay to pose for pictures with them. Hardly the best role models for an alternative lifestyle. I am sure he will come across a few other ideas, unfortunately I suspect a lot of them will be worse; tattoos and body piercings. The blue spiked hair might be the best compromise as it is not a passport to a life of self-imposed unemployment. Perhaps you might come up with a six week rule, let him do anything to his appearance as long as it could be reversed within six weeks. Tell him about my brother-in-law, he had long golden ringlets down to his shoulders and an earring, now he wears a seventeenth century style full bottomed wig to work and gets invited to Buckingham Palace garden parties. If you look closely you can just see the mark on his earlobe. Tell him that the concept of no tomorrow and having to make his mark on life in his teens or twenties is no longer appropriate since we left the African savannahs and our life expectancy increased dramatically, tell him to get with it and bring his thinking up to date. (But leave the advice on getting a good pension scheme until he gets a little older!)

Watchmaker.

I did follow that link. I think that is one the best pieces of writing on scientific atheism I have ever read, it goes to the heart of the issue, questioning the basic assumption that there is any one great mystery to explain. Without such a great mystery there is no reason for there to be a god.

The Price Mechanism

I agree with your analysis of state planning versus the price mechanism. State planning is inflexible and inherently inefficient. It cannot be the right way to run most industries. However that is not to suggest that capitalism is the answer. A mixed form of enterprise system should be encouraged that has the flexibility of the price mechanism at the heart of it but not driven by the desire to endlessly accrue surplus wealth as if that was somehow a good thing. Prices can be an automatic regulation feedback system that can help keep a non-capitalist system going too. OK, I'm fuzzy about the detail, but I am sure that there is an alternative to both capitalist free enterprise and rigid regulation that would preserve a better overall level of utility to the global community.

Technical Question:

I heard on the radio about a huge gasfield in Borneo or somewhere similarly inconveniently distant where a company was planning to use some kind of catalyst to turn methane into an ultra-low emission diesel fuel. This sounds a wonderful idea. Diesel fuel is considerably more convenient for distribution by tanker to Japan and California than methane. Do you have any details? My knowledge of hydrocarbon chemistry is fairly basic. Would this simply be a long chain of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms all around or would it need to be in another formation in order to have the required compression-ignition properties?

It seems like a much better way of using methane than simply using it in power stations. Power stations are fixed sites that can be the best way of utilising dirtier fuels like coal and heavy fractions of oil. Power stations can have better emission scrubbing than would be practical for trucks and railway locomotives. A diesel fuel that burned cleanly to produce just water vapour and carbon dioxide would be a significant improvement.

Our London trip met all expectations. It rained a lot and a lot of money evaporated.

First, I must get a couple of pet peeves out of the way (by the way, one of my pet peeves is people with lots of pet peeves).

1. Too many damn coins. Is this a European thing? In the states we have four coins in general circulation (five if the new "gold" dollar catches on--I'll find out when I return in three years). Penny, nickel, dime, quarter. They seem to do just fine. Lithuania has nine--1centu, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, 1 litai, 2Lt, 5Lt. England has eight (I counted the 2 pounder even though I only saw one of them). And what's the deal with this two penny coin. It's the biggest and most colorful coin of them all and it's bloody worthless! Is it a sentimental "Tuppence" thing? And size is irrelevant. Okay, in the states the dime is out of place, but in England, if I recall correctly, the order according to size is 5p, 1p, £1, 20p, 10p, 50p, £2, 2p. What's the logic? This rationalist was undone.

2. "Then" Every bloody sentence ends with "then".

"Will you be taking the train then?"

"Let's have a look at that new washing machine then."

"Could you give me fifty tuppence for a quid then?"

"She's got quite the set of tits doesn't she then."

Actually, it was kind of cute listening to you Brits speak in all your cute accents. At least y'all speak English.

You called it on the blue hair. The closest I saw was a pink spiked job on some overweight 35 year old in Piccadilly. I didn't ask, but I'm sure he would have taken some money for a posed picture. Didn't really see anything unusual in the way of hair. Maybe because we stuck to the touristy areas. Had we visited your sister's neighborhood we might have had a better assortment.

Got a good dose of public transportation. Got on the wrong tube train at Blackfriar's. The eleven year old figured it out and we luckily were able to get out at the next stop and pick up the next train without (literally) back tracking. It could have been disaster as it was on the last day and we had a plane to catch. Took a couple of taxis and the cabbies were as helpful as you said they would be. The ticket taker on the first double decker bus we took was also helpful. We were on the bus to Piccadilly and he asked if we were going to the premier then. I said what premier. Apparently "Charlie's Angels" was having their London opening and all the stars AND Prince Charlie himself was gonna be there. We got close enough to see some limos and hear a few cheers from the close in crowd, but didn't see anyone (who was anyone) ourselves. We did see a few not so special people in tuxedos and evening gowns heading in for the show and I am glad to report that cleavage is still in (or do I mean out--you know what I mean).

We chose our hotel because it was "a 4 minute walk from Paddington station". We arrived in Paddington station after dark and realized we didn't know in which direction to start walking. A four minute walk from Paddington can encompass quite a large area, especially when you're carrying a bunch of suitcases. We were too embarrassed to call a cab because we had the feeling he would take us in and then let us out on the other side of the street. We finally did ask a helpful cabbie (in a zebra painted cab) and made it to the room okay.

We saw most of the standard London sites. Actually, I learned that many of the more famous sites were not in London, but were actually in the City of Westminster. We drove through "London" on an open top double-decker bus in the rain. We did the Tower of London and saw the family jewels. One of the guards forced a smile when I suggested that the royal maces could double as royal pepper mills ("How much would you like on your salad then?"). We liked the fact that there were three "working crowns" ("Phillip dear, I have to pose for the new tuppence. Which crown shall I wear then?"). Most of the people there were (by definition) tourists, but there were also a few groups of school children. Did you take these class trips as a kid?

Holy hand-grenade

On Thursday, we were walking around Piccadilly and stopped in at Burger King for dinner. The boys and I needed a Whopper fix (Lithuania and Latvia have a few MacDonald's, but no BK). As we left the joint we realized that that had been our Thanksgiving feast. So much for tradition.

Later that evening we saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company do "all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in just over 90 minutes". It was a Marx Brothers style romp through his complete works. Very, very, funny. It was performed by two Canadians and an American. Lots of silly wigs and fake boobs and puking. The boys loved it.

Next day we trekked out to Windsor to do the Castle. Nice ceilings. I had an argument with one of the guides over whether the artist had put diamonds in the eyes of one of the several children in a huge family portrait (one of Charles 3's sisters who eventually became queen of Denmark). She admitted they sparkled and that there was some relief (they popped out of the surface of the painting), but said it was some "effect of the white paint". My guess is that after closing she stood up on a chair to get a better look and the next day she was pointing out to tourists the diamonds that the artist used to put a sparkle in the eyes of a future queen. While we were in the area, we stopped in at LegoLand. It was okay, but would have been nicer on a sunny summer day. Of course we would have had to put up with longer lines than we did.

Next day we went down to the Big Ben area. Parliament was closed (it was Saturday), so we went into Westminster Abbey to take shelter from the rain. We signed up for a guided tour and while we were waiting for it to begin, one of the eleven year old's lenses popped out of his glasses. Three of us were on our knees looking for this tiny screw. Some of the other tourists must have thought we were studying some interesting 13th century floor work. Never did find the screw. They did say there was an optician just down the street who could fix us up then. Poor kid had to do the abbey with tissue over his eye so he wouldn't have to squint.

I learned that the abbey is one big, fancy cemetery with nice ceilings. Pay enough money and be buried amongst kings and queens. The guide pointed out Charles Darwin's stone and the controversy about whether his remains should be placed in this holy house of worship. The compromize was that it was a plain stone and put off to the side (In contrast to Sir Isaac who had a statue and the whole works). Being interested in choirs (the 11-year old is singing in two choirs this season), we were told by the guide (a helper in the abbey called a "Verger") to stop by later that afternoon at 2:40 and he would see what he could do to get us in to "Evensong".

In the mean time we went to look for the optician. We passed by the offices of three or four--but it was Saturday and they were all closed. But--there was an electrical shop. Dad the engineer can wire the glasses together (by this time one of the stems had fallen off too)! Asked a clerk--it was pretty busy--if he could help me with a short piece of wire so I could fix my kid's glasses. He thought a minute and said that he didn't think they had that (!?!) I said that I think he did. Ya think maybe I could strip some of that red wire over there? Anyway--I got the glasses fixed but there were two sharp twists that the poor kid was scratching himself on the rest of the trip.

Time 2:30 and we go back to the abbey. There are about a hundred WW2 veterans and their spouses there for the special Evensong service. There are choir parents and tourists. Our Verger sees us and says to follow him. He opens this gate and seats us in the Quoir (spelt that way so as not to be confused with the choir itself) where the choir sits. THEN they let everyone else in. He gave us the best seats in the house! We felt a little bad when we told the kids to take off their coats and then realized they had t-shirts on underneath. O well. The singing and organ was great. That night we took a cab to Harrods (nice escalator) just so we could experience what a really crowded department store was like. On our last day we went over to Southwark to the Tate gallery so I could get my fix of modern art. The wife took the opportunity to catch up on her sleep. We finished up with a quick tour of the reconstructed Globe theater. All in all it was a good trip and everybody had a good time. The rain was a little annoying, but it's supposed to rain in London in November isn't it then?

Gee, now I will need sunglasses to read your site. I hope to get with you next week on your diesel fuel question and to comment on Persecuting Minorities. I have inside information on both subjects. Last week I stumbled across a site at http://www.hoffman-info.com/communist.html that had a point of view tangential to yours (but a little more extreme) .

Christmas is coming, the shop is getting busier and so am I. There will be less spare time for the computer until February and the sales start to wind down. So expect longer gaps between messages. I will respond in more detail later, especially about your comments on London.

Thanks for the travelogue. I am glad you like London, it is a great place to be if you have got some money.

I have never been to London on a sightseeing trip. I went in 1977 to see the Queen. I just tagged along with my sister, without even a coat. It was a great day out, we saw part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations. I remember standing on Westminster Bridge and seeing the Queen drive by. I suppose my children might want to do something in a couple of years for the Golden Jubilee.

I got to make a few trips to London when my sister lived their for a short time. She worked as a journalist for a brief time before starting a law degree studying in London. Soon she started sleeping with her lecturer and the rest is history. I visited her a couple of times and spent a few days wandering around seeing a few sights. She lived very close to where an infamous mass murderer was active, but she was fairly safe, he went for young men.

While I was at University (1981-84) I was involved in student politics and was a member of a couple of national committees which involved me making a few more trips to London. This also involved me chaining myself to the railings outside the Houses of Parliament in protest at the disproportionate result of the general election. I made the TV news, about 1 1/2 seconds. Perhaps the UK is not the only country which could use a bit of electoral reform. And on that matter perhaps your friend Shakespeare was right...

CADE: There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer. All the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass. And when I am king,..as king I will be,there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.

DICK: The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

Henry VI, Part 2 (1592) act 4

I have not seen the Reduced Shakespeare company in action but I have heard them on the radio, they seem to be excellent entertainment on a number of levels, as Shakespeare was in his time.

Rock and Roll

Just another little thought about music and the rival claims of Anglo-Saxon and black heritage, what would happen if ZZ Top or Aerosmith were nominated for a MOBO award?

Tuppence

Are you aware of the other meaning of tuppence? It is sometimes used as a coy expression equivalent to "front bottom", I have no idea what the derivation is. The Oxford dictionary doesn't help me, perhaps I will have to consult the ultimate authority, Roger's.

I think we have things about right with coins. I find the idea of getting four copper coins in change is absurd. The two pound coin has not caught on despite the cute two colour design. What determines the popularity of coins is whether shops ask the banks for them. When I am looking after the till I like to see 1p 2p, 5p, 10p 20p, 50p and £1 coins and £5 notes. Everything else is superfluous. You could argue that a smaller number of coins who suffice e.g. 1p, 5p, 20p £1 but that would lead to people ending up carrying more individual coins.

Another little meaningless trivia, did you know there are two kinds of tuppences? Older style fully bronze coins and newer copper clad steel coins. The clad steel coins are cheaper to produce and will stick to a magnet, the superficially similar older ones will not stick. That can be used to impress people who are young or drunk enough to be impressed by such party tricks.

In the old days there was much more fun with confusing foreigners with coins. We had the farthing (quarter of a penny) half penny (ha'penny), penny, threepenny bit (rhyming slang, as in cor blimey look at the thrupnies on 'er), sixpence (sixpunce or tanner), shilling (bob), two shilling (two bob or florin) and the half crown, or half dollar, two and six, not to be confused with a two and eight (state) which is what you would get yourself in trying to rationalize that lot. The farthing was a quarter the size of the penny, hence the penny farthing as the more common name for the standard bicycle. The threepenny bit had a lot of sides (13?) which gave rise to jokes about using spanners to remove it from the grip of Jews or Scotsmen. The sixpence was small and silver which made it useful as an emergency replacement for a button in a lady's suspender belt. Six pennies made half a shilling, twenty shillings in a pound. You are following this aren't you? All this was swept away in the early 1970s, when inflation was running very high, which made it easy to remember for me, an ice cream used to cost four pence ( four punce) (4d) now it cost 4 pence (four pee) (4p). Easy! Instead of 240 pence to the pound now there was 100. Instead of 60 ice creams to the pound now there were 25. Was that hard to follow?

The modern coins are in a logical sequence. The copper coins, 1p and 2p are in strict weight proportions, a mixed bag of 1p and 2p coins weighing the same as 100 1p coins is worth £1. The same can be said for the two silver round coins, 5p and 10p, a £5 bag of 10p coins weighs the same as a £5 bag of 5p coins. The heptagonal coins are obviously different. 20p and 50p coins are in size proportion to each other and their value. The £2 coin is twice the weight of a £1 coin. It makes more sense than it ever has in the past. And that is the limit of size and weight relationships, it would not be practical to have coins with a 5 to 1 or more size or weight relationship. I think they are great, apart from having that woman on them.

I found dimes were too small and why are they called dimes, even on the coin? The nickel is a good size and shape. The quarter is a good coin. I would make your dimes bigger, call then ten cents and introduce a 2 cent coin too, at twice the weight of your penny. You would need to change the name of the dime because otherwise it would have safety implications, as all the second-hand cars on your roads would suddenly have bigger braking distances.

Hang on. Didn't we start this as an intelligent conversation...?

Martin

Just checked out dime, from Old English tithe, not very politically correct.