homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

Gentle men:

MG:

Yup, I remember old Georgie Segal in TQM film. That was directed by Michael Anderson. The books are indeed well written and enjoyable reading especially for those interested in the fictional inner workings of espionage. I devoured every James Bond book in the entire series by Flemming when growing up. It was said that Pres. Kennedy read them and that got me started. This was disproved later on I believe. That Kennedy read them not that I did.

Although Flemming did indeed have a real espionage pedigree Bond books were more for entertainment than for learning much about real spying. In my case I have always been more interested in codes and code breaking than spying or in discrete information gathering per se. "Kahn on Codes" is a collection of articles and monographs on cryptography. It includes a technical study of spy ciphers. It also argues persuasively against state sponsored computer cryptosystems. Not sure about that altogether but I recommend the book. I got my copy at the public library but you can find it in Google Books or on Amazon no doubt.

I recently watched the story of Alan Turing "The Imitation Game" starring Benedict Cumberbatch of the "Sherlock Holmes" TV series fame and other films and Kira Knightly of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame. I enjoyed it. We all know what Turing contributed to breaking the "Enigma" code today but only a handful in the world knew for many, many years. He was under rewarded IMHO even though HM the Queen did honor him eventually.

Oddly enough, speaking of George Segal reminds me of something of importance to me but possibly of no interest to you. As you surely must know I I am a long time film buff. Did I ever tell you fellows that I knew the action actor Steven Seagal's aunt quite well? No big deal of course. Kinda like the song "I danced with man who danced with the girl who danced with the Prince of Wales". Seagal's aunt told me many interesting anecdotes about the man. That was about the time Steven was at his peak of popularity. Also about the time he and his gorgeous wife Kelly were in the news.

Apparently for some reason known only to him he changed the spelling of his name when he got into pictures. It is not spelled the same as his aunt spells hers. She spells her last name Segal just as Gorge in the TQM film does. She said Steven is just the same in person as he appears in films. Having seen all his films I must say that if this is true his friends must be very wary of inviting him to their homes as he seems to wreck every place he goes to in his films... She also noted he had not been very nice to his gorgeous wife. That seems to have been an under statement.

Dux:

I have completely lost track of the leaps and bounds of modelling technology. Lasar cut indeed not die cut sounds to be a very good innovation. I used to have stacks of blades and at least 10 different sizes of X-Acto knives. I addition I had several saws and even a small plane for working with balsa models. I had a little aluminum miter box as well. I had so many specialized tools some I made myself. Alas, I no longer have the workshop that I had then and so many of my tools are gone too. I look forward to enjoying the hobby once again if only vicariously through posts about and photographs of your finished work.

In even less interesting old news: I did get my phone bill paid. I had to go to the store and swipe my card there. To add incredible insult to injury the bastids charged me an additional $4 for the privilege of doing that in the store!!!!! Clearly it is a racket that must surely reap them bags of cash per annum. The state Attorney General is from my home town and I have done him a few favors in the dim dark past. He happens to be running for governor of the state right now and thus may or may not be open for doing me a small favor. He will at least take my call. I think I may run this by him and see if they will look into the questionable activities of this carrier.

Not now mind you when everyone in govt., in addition to the political race, is attending to the flooding. Many rivers have still not crested and so many people are still hurting more than a week after the hurricane. No, my tiny problem can and will wait. Or perhaps after I have calmed down a bit and the steam stops pouring from my ears I may just change carriers and tell everyone I meet about the outrageous treatment I have endured two months in a row. Willingly paying a bill on time should never become difficult and certainly no one should be penalized for it. What do you think? remember that, as always, everyone is entitled to agree with me.