assorted comments

Wed Apr 4 19:59:15 UTC 2007

"Tranch" is in use in the US Air Force, as in "the next tranch of the F-18 fighter plane".

"Checkmating" was a malaprop.  The major who used it meant to say "preventing".  There is a difference.  "Preventing" means "TEMPORARILY stopping X from doing something"; "checkmating" means "a PERMANENT end to Y".  If the major had really meant "checkmating" he would be announcing that he was undertaking a project which he knew in advance to be impossible, which is definitely not what the context suggests.

"Slicksleeve" may well have been in use in World War II, but since WWII there has been a change in Armed Forces enlisted ranks and rank insigniae.  When I was in the Army (1969-71) a "slicksleeve" was a Private E-1, a rank which I do not believe existed in WWII.

As for given names: at one time there was a rule from the Church (which was enforceable since the Church had a monopoly on baptisms) that all given names had to be either from the Saints' Calendar or the Bible.  Once that rule lapsed parents started using their imagination.  I will grant that unusual first names were not as common a generation or more ago as they are now (the TV show "Roots" spawned a number of African given names), but don't forget Pearl Harbor, where the opposing commanders where Admiral Husband Kimmel and Admiral Fiftysix Yamamoto.

Don't feel bad, Dr. Gray.  I just sent my boss an e-mail saying "here is my report, a week early"---and forgot to attach the report.

    - Jim Landau

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