Good Answer Credits?

That barely qualified for my GA - because only a cat would think of sardines in a worm can...

Thought you were going back to the cat house?

'Schrodingers Sardines' would never have got taken seriously. Corned beef can be right nasty to open, so I think we should all have taken up 'Schrodingers cow'. What would have happend to history if he's had some strange pet like a Furbee ?

Or Schroedinger's...

Who are you calling Motley? ...

Only the Fools need reply...

www.fool.com

I must admit that I have been a fool on numerous occasions and in many places and plan to be one again this weekend.

MIK

Bless yer heart, you GO, Dude! Enjoy the ride!!!

Good grief! <Splutter, cough, wheeze.>

Whatever you lot are on, can I have a can of it? Pleeeeeeeze? Spare one for an old down-and-out that's fallen on hard times. I don't get much out of life these days <sneeze, splutter, sniff>.

Right - 'ere ya go then!

Hey Pete!!

Good to hear from you... Its been so long I thought we might have lost you.

Bill

Yep, fairly hopping!

Sooo true, just listen to our politicians for doublespeak, fantasmaverbs, and profound poofoonery.

MUST I? Please, NO... have a heart...

Thank you... Del the Cat suggested my avatar also had something to do with my accumulation of GA's. Probably true, but that's not the reason I used her photo as my avatar. She truely is my inspiration. Has been for many many years. Besides, it's her computer...there are rules you know, LOL.

This year we'll retire, spend time visiting the grandkids and I'll no longer take up space in these forums with my miscellaneous ramblings. Hopefully you and a few others will continue to contribute 'quality' answers and remain 'leading' proponents of critical thinking and wisdom if no more than just to annoy Sparky (LOL) whom I consider to be a leading proponent of quality english and stuff like that.

Retire and post no more?!? Scandalous, sirrah!

From this valley they say you are going
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That has brightened our pathways awhile

[From Red River Valley, traditional, arranged by Arlo Guthrie]

How remarkable! One of the first tunes I am now learning to play, on the guitar I recieved for Christmas, is "Red River Valley". No one seems to want me to sing however LOL.

Oh regarding CR4, I suppose I will randomly peruse these hallowed halls and occasionally scrawl a comment or two. But as I learn to occupy my time with other things related to retirement (and especially those things my lovely spouse feels we should be doing LOL) this will probably become a faint memory at best.

However I will remember the ebullience of our discussions and hopefully you and others will continue to hoist the banner of reason and tirade against mendacious tyranny of fraudulent goods and their purveyors.

You and your daggone thesaurus...bloody well right we will! Down with mendacity! Down with fraudulent goods! Boycott shampoo - demand REAL poo!

I'm going to will my raggedy old thesaurus to you. It's unabridged thus filled with gleefully expressive words which will send your opponents scurrying for an equal retort only to find themselves mired in verbigeration.

A very long time ago I was resoundingly chastised by an erudite supervisor who determined from my near illiterate use of the English language, that I was possibly incapable of comprehending complex ideas. Thus he withheld promising opportunities for advancement and challenging assignments.

So I bought a thesaurus and I began to memorize words and their meanings. Soon I was able to compose succinct responses to my supervisor's memos. Distribution of these memos often included upper level management.

Within a few months I was asked by departmental management to review and rewrite some of the engineering proposals which made my supervisor jealous. He soon was transferred and I assumed his job. That thesaurus was one of the best investments I ever made.

Oh, agreed! I just prefer to tease you about it... Good story, thanks for sharing - all too many 'engineers' (and scientists, BTW) think communications are sufficient in blueline drawings, specification books, and mathematical calculations. Never once realizing the three-piece suit who is the CEO with financial authority to go/no go the project was an English major (or fine arts, or whatever...).

So true, Many upper echelon managers come from the sales, marketing and the financial worlds. The primary evidence they use to judge your worth is based on your appearence and your vocabulary.

I always were a tie, dress shirt, pressed pants and shined shoes. This is my normal work uniform. Often I am better dressed and groomed (thanks to my observant beloved one) than the upper ecehlon members of management. I notice the subtle deference, a slight but evident admission of respect to my more business like appearance and demeanor which often gives me an advantage in presentations, budget negotiations and interviews.

This has afforded me advantages unlikely to have been given otherwise. For instance I was kept on when others, more senior, were being laid off in a round of employee reductions even though there was little work for me to do. In other instances I have been transferred to a more economically lucrative position without having to interview for that position.

Business is about appearing and acting businesslike as much as it is about profitability. The company goof offs, class clowns and other sometimes brilliant but excentric individuals are the first to be let go and the last to be promoted in this competitive world.

Pay close attention to what your management looks like. I've worked in companies where everyone in senior management was over six feet tall. Its widely known that tall people have an advantage when negotiating. "Looking up to someone" has more meaning that just respect in this case. If you aspire to an office in mahogany row and you are not as tall as your competitors you should invest in "lifts" for your shoes if you expect to be treated equally. Its just a fact of life.

There are exceptions but in my 40+ years of observation I have seen little deviation from this caveat. Of course this does not apply to women who operate under a different set of discrimatory rules. Engineers are often regarded as little more than appliances which work to solve problems and then are dismissed. It is up to us to change that paradigm.

If you stand out from the crowd because of your scientific acheivements, compelling academic credentials or your daddy happens to own the company then you need not concern yourself about your demeanor or appearance. But if you are not so blessed you owe it to yourself to take advantage of the obvious changes to make yourself more competitive.

I have remained employed through major areospace layoffs not because I am especially talented or won any Nobel prizes or married the boss's daughter. I believe my tenure has been due to my professional response to the business environment and observance to it's unspoken rules and nuances. Nothing seems to have changed in this regard over the years I've spent in industry so perhaps my experiences will benefit you as well.

Indeed - less me than some of our more junior colleagues, perhaps, but I have followed similar methods. When the corporate uniform was slacks and a shirt, I always wore dressy slacks and a shirt and tie. If the uniform of the day is jeans and a shirt, I wear nice jeans or 'dockers' style slacks with a shirt I could wear a tie with rather than a t-shirt or polo-style.

Footgear must fit the need - in the past I always wore nicely oiled dress shoes (never polished, oiled leather is a must). Here, I wear steel-toed shoes that tend to stay covered in mud, but it's good oiled leather underneath, so they're at least water-resistant.

And I always wear a hat! A hard hat at work, a felt or straw broad-brimmed fedora depending on the season elsewhere/when. (Think Indiana Jones for the hat style...) I find that is the mark of uniqueness that helps me be memorable in a desirable way.

It also helps to match your vocabulary to the audience. You don't talk to wrench-turners, form carpenters, or concrete finishers the same way you talk to professional colleagues or the boss. And vice-versa. It helps to get your point across in appropriate language, perhaps a notch above what the audience expects, but no more than a notch. It CAN be overdone in either direction. Don't talk too far over anyone's level of understanding, but don't go so low you appear to be a dummy yourself either.

Anyone else listening out there?

Boycott shampoo - demand REAL poo!

I use BS to keep my beard soft. Honestly, I do!

Of course, I am talking about baby shampoo.

BS ≡ beard soft doesn't it?

Gimme dat REAL poo!

You will be missed Tk....I hope you and the 'misses' all the serenity in the world. Enjoy your retirement. Live long and prosper (Startrek, you know...).

I will continue to enjoy your comments until then.....

Thank you Rick for those kind sentiments. We 're tentively scheduled to leave here sometime time in the early summer. I've been working on several projects which will keep me occupied between the requisite demands of husband, father and grandfather.

One of these is restoring the Navion to full flying condition. It now sports a new 260 hp engine, new prop and some updated avionics. All I need to do now is repaint it and we have "long legs' again. With the wingtip tanks it can cover 1500 miles in about ten hours. Of course I only have a four hour bladder (LOL)and the lovely one has even less tolerance for droning on and on throught the sky so we seldom use this option.

We have flown to Norway and Ireland taking the great circle route up through Canada, over Greenland and refueling in Reykjavik Iceland. Then it was only a short jump over to Oslo where we spent Easter week with friends. Our return was through Dublin to visit with more friends. The return trip was essentially the reverse of the outgoing trip again landing in Reykjavik to top off the tanks. We really didn't need the fuel but I like a lot of reserve just in case.

So that is the nearest project to completion. My lovely companion wants to visit the grandkids which seem to be all located on the west coast hundreds of miles from each other and she often "encourages" me to get the airplane flying again. Navions are big, comfortable airplanes which can carry great loads, cruise at 150 mph and have plenty of room for our golf clubs, camping equipment, clothes and folding mopeds, our transportation to town in places which don't have car rentals available.

The 67 Chevelle with the 502 c.i. big block is sold as is the red and white 57 Chevy Convertible which was finally put on the auction block by Barrett/Jackson in Phoenix last year. I was surprised when it sold for over $50,000 but the collector car market is still thriving in spite of America's economic woes.

So the "projects" are slowly dwindling to a managable half dozen of so. We're keeping our lovely home here in the ranch lands bordering northern New Mexico /southern Colorado area. The house and it's private airport were purchased long ago would be unaffordable now even with current depressed real estate prices.

So that about the extent of our plans. I'll fly as long as I can pass the physical requirements. Our neighbor is in his eighties and still flies so there's hope that I can equal his record also.

I will look in on you and the others occassionally to offer whatever fading wisdom I may still possess, quite possible joining Stinky Pete as he harumphs, coughs and sputters his way through another soliloquy.

Wow....it sounds more like the beginning of a new life than retirement. You certainly have your hands full. I only hope that I can retire in a similar way (just turned 41 last week so I still have a little ways to go).

Happy/safe flying, my friend. Sounds like you'll be visiting a lot of interesting places.

Best of luck,

regards,

Rick.

Rick, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You should have said something sooner, I'd have whipped up a...

At least you gave us fair warning...sounds like fun, too! Any spare room for us?

We're trying to get a 747. I've bought a lotto ticket. Now I know I've chosen the correct numbers, let's see if the government can do its part and match them. Then yes, you can come along too.

Oh, great! Now see what you've done? Got me rooting for the GOVERNMENT! That's what - and that's wrong!!! Talk about mixed emotions...

TK - is there any chance one (or more) of your grandchildren could step in your footprints into the twisted pathways of CR4? It would be good to keep that thread going.

On another matter, please forgive me for doubting, but I really do find it difficult to believe that your admirable command of language was gained from nothing more than perusal of a thesaurus. Wanna spill the beans?

Thanks, TK - maybe OT wrt the OP, but a GA anyway!

TK, I cannot believe you marked this OT - I have used a GA vote to dissuade you (as has one other), and hopefully enough of our comrades will follow through to get this high into the positive numbers where it deserves to be. Well thought out, well written, WELL DONE! I salute you...

Thank you EnviroMan for those nice compliments. I was going to apologise to the readers of this forum for what I wrote because it seemed to be more of a "rant' rather than an orderly progression of ideas relevant to the discussion of awarding GA points.

If anyone would ask me what I hoped to contribute to this forum it would be encouraging others to formulate and express their written thoughts with the same precision they apply to their engineering efforts.

We engineers are expected to be brilliant in engineering and uniquely allowed to be pathetically obscure in expressing our written thoughts. I have read technical documents purportedly written by engineers in which ideas were so poorly elucidated those authors would have experienced multiple vituperous salvos from Del the Cat, Sparky and yourself as well as others.

A thesaurus should be as much an engineering tool as a computer. If every engineer wrote as clearly and precisely as the limits of a dictionary and thesaurus would permit, others who who value concise and well written thoughts such as lawyers, physicians and scientists would regard engineers with equal respect regardless of the Doctoral to Bachelor of Science differential.

In this respect we are the champions of our own reputations. There is a certain respect yielded to those who profess engineering or allied technologists as a vocation. The idea we can be literate, expressive and worthy of public accord is not readily given because we have not shown that ability to any great extent. Carl Sagan was eloquent in his explanations of cosmological phenomena. Surely there were many cosmologists equal to Sagan. However he was articulate, possibly more so than his competitors, which added to his career in almost unimaginable ways.

We cannot all become Sagans but we can all improve the way in which we express our ideas. So EnviroMan I leave you with the mantle of evaluator, judging the content of your own writing with emphasis on leading others to excel by your example in expressing well constructed thoughts.

"...the mantle of evaluator..."

Quite the responsibility, but I shall endeavor to aquit myself with alacrity through clarity. I shall follow the dictum of one of my all-time favorite graffitos - ESCHEW OBFUSCATION! Therefore, I will try to do an agile job of being clear in thought and speech. I thank you for the honor (and the dog-eared thesaurus).

"...reading of Beowulf in the original...sounds nothing like the English we speak..."

Absolutely nothing like - for one thing, they had two extra letters then, 'asch' and 'thorn', that we use other sounds for. BTW, have you ever read a book titled 'Grendel's Fen'? It's a telling of the Beowulf saga from Grendel's point of view. Rather eye-opening - 'there I was, sitting in my bog, wishing I had a telly to watch, when this red-eyed madman with a sword as long as my thigh...' (not a quote!).

Well, although I can see that this is clearly a 'good answer', I can certainly understand why you chose to mark it 'off topic'... By the way, here we call 'cotton reels' by a different name; 'thread spools'. Interesting variations, don't you think? I recall making those as a young'n.

Hi TK

I think you have deep ingrained feelings for injustice and a strong competitive nature, giving CR4 a TKO I don't think will come easy for you, I appreciated you standing up for me and others, I don't think that CR4 can effort to lose talent like that.

Regards JD.