March 17, 2021

I recently had a Pfizer injection. I didn’t feel the needle and there have been no adverse effects. However, the doctors tell me that may not be the case with the next dose.

Those poor British! Apparently, we speak and spell it better than they do. If they need to haul something, they use a lorry, perhaps kicking a tire first and checking the petrol tank. Their cars have bonnets in front and boots in the rear. They drive on motorways and on the wrong side. Some take the underground to work. Some live in flats and two-story houses. They buy drugs at the chemist’s and change their babies’ nappies in the loo. They push trolleys at the grocery and eat biscuits instead of cookies. When blokes and chaps part, they say, “Ta ta” But I think they will eventually learn English. (WIK)

The U.S. army rehearsed for D-day at Slapton Sands on the English coast because it resembled Omaha beach. A large number of LSTs were assembled there the night of April 28th, 1944. Nine German U-boats slipped through from Cherbourg on the French coast, having evaded Allied patrols, and attacked the LSTs. As a result, 198 sailors and 441 soldiers were killed or missing.

During the 1930s and ’40s, prizefighting was as popular as football is today and from 1937 to 1949 Joe Louis reigned supreme as heavyweight champ. The “Brown bomber,” black son of a sharecropper, after losing to him earlier, knocked out Max Schmeling, Hitler’s example of white supremacy at the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin. Jesse Owens also performed brilliantly, by the way. I recall listening to one of Joe’s fights on the bow of a troopship heading for Japan in WWII.

Stanford grad Gaylord Deefer says there are more than one billion people living on dirt floors today because they can’t afford anything better. Her company, Earth Enabler, sells a floor consisting of local clay, pebbles, and sand sealed with varnish. The company ran into problems at first but is now enjoying success with over 44,000 installed and paid for by generous non-profits. (Attrib. lost)

When my brother-in-law informed me recently that his side of the family had traced its roots back 11 generations back to Wm. Brewster of the Plymouth colony, I suggested whimsically that I had no plans to do so because I might find some connection with Al Capone or John Wilkes Booth.

I can silence the most offensive TV commercials with my mute button but I can’t resist the antics of the Aflac duck.

Recent newspaper headline: “New Puget Sound orca is a girl.” When I see her in a dress I’ll agree, but until then she is just a female.

Bob Hall

Bellingham