Camels (wandering way OT... well, they do that if you let them)

[Mark A. Mandel]

Wilson replies to my rant:
   >>>>>
Mirabile dictu, it has never been my misfortune to have had to deal
with any aspect of cameldom., potnuh.
 <<<<<

>From my ever-growing list of things to read, as described by the person
recommending this to me:

 lovely series of historical-adventure novels about the captain of an
Austrian submarine. Titles:
 -A Sailor of Austria (covers most of WWI, including his time in submarines)
pub. 1991
 -The Emperor's Coloured Coat (prior to WWI and the first year or so,
including how he learns to fly)
 -The Two-Headed Eagle (his time in the Austro-Hungarian air corps during
WWI over the Italian front)
 -Tomorrow the World (the protagonist's childhood, youth at the A-H Imperial
Naval Academy, and first voyage in the broken-down sailing warship
_Windischgraetz_)
    They're very engaging novels, IMNSHO, and the author's familiarity with
Eastern and Central Europe helps keep them authentic.  They include the
immortal line:
 "I have lived over a century now, and I can say with certainty that nobody
who has not shared the fore-cabin of a submarine with a live camel knows
what misery is."  (Otto Prohaska has to take a camel from North Africa to
Europe aboard his submarine-- it's a LOOONG story about just why he did)

   >>>>>
 But my point wasn't that smoking is good, if only one is able to restrict
oneself to cigarettes made from fragrant tobacco. Rather, my point was that
the use of a mixture of tobaccoes with an extremely pleasant fragrance was,
for me, the aspect of cigarettes that caused me to decide, while I was still
in short pants, long before I had formed the concept of looking or being
cool, that I was going to become a smoker.
 <<<<<

I confess, I got carried away. I do kind of like the smell of some tobaccos,
when they are sitting there quietly and not burning.

 >>>
I have full empathy for your point of view. Given that I was a smoker
for more years than your late father lived, I realize that I'm lucky
still to be alive and relatively well.
 <<<
And I'm glad that you are!

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]