[BITList] Fwd: New words for 2011

[HUGH]

Mike,

BLAMESTORMING - Has anyone you know ever been at such a meeting?  I associate this sort of thing with groups who produce nothing.  On the other hand, in my stay with Yarrows I encountered a chap who was obsessed with deadlines.  His previous job had been handing out stationery - somehow, God knows how or why, he ended up preparing schedules for the issue of drawings.  You vill finisch your drawink on March zer funfth, etc.  When asked what disasters might ensue, should the deadline not be met, his only reply was, "It must be issued by that date."  "But supposing it's not finished?"  "It does not compute - it must be issued by that date."  We ignored him.  In Scotts, the main driving force for the issue (not necessarily the completion) of a drawing that may have occupied the draughtsman for a year was the outside foreman plumber, ie, the one in the shipyard as opposed to the one in the engine works shops.  When he started bothering me for an unofficial print "just to let me see what's what", I knew I had to home in on DB airpipes for him or be bothered to extinction.

SEAGULL MANAGER - I met one or two of these, all of them bright eyed and bushy tailed incompetents, and all of them after the mid to late 80s.  There must have been a sea change around that time.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - Possibly the best example of this was the Weir's pump.  Few things ailed it that a wallop on the shuttle cylinder couldn't solve. A less well know example was a TV set we had in the 70s.  It sat on rather spindly legs and was apt to lose its picture now and then.  Rather than leave the settee and walk all the way over to it (no remotes in those days), I tried stamping on the floor, and it worked.  A thump on its side also worked, if anyone was near enough.

MYSTERY BUS - I experienced a variation of this, twice.  Before I went to sea a group of us one afternoon went upstairs to the lounge bar of the Bay Hotel in Gourock (no longer there).  Much taken with Ernest Hemingway, we tried various of the drinks that featured in his stories. When we went in, we were the only ones there, but in a flash, as it were, the place was crowded with people I hadn't noticed coming in. Christmas Day 1957, approaching Ceylon (we weren't approaching Sri Lanka - too early for that), the 3rd Mate (Mike Kerley), my Fiver (Jim Broadley) and I had Christmas Dinner in the Engineers' Messroom at 9.00, along with a few libations. All three of us had worked extra hours to let others have their Dinner in the Saloon.  Dinner over, we went along to the Chief's dayroom, where he (Jock Dewar) was hosting a Christmas party.  As with the Bay Hotel, we were the first to arrive. I sat on the floor, and 10 seconds later the place was crowded.

Hugh.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20101129/36f800b1/attachment.shtml