Pearl Harbor Defense

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
What's he on about, you ask. Well, it struck me that perhaps we could
award a similar trophy, to be awarded to the most outrageous loon
(lune?) who posts to the NG. Past holders would have included Venik,
Kurt Plummer and good ole John Tarver. The current holder would have to
be Denyav. The poster of a subsequent outrageously loony posting would
be awarded the trophy until the next one.

I don't know, Peter. I wouldn't ever have classified Kurt as
a loon to begin with: over enthused, yes, maddeningly fond
of acronyms, hell yes.
But a loon? No, heck it might even be useful for some R&D
staff to keep him around for the flow of ideas.

John Keeney wrote:

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
What's he on about, you ask. Well, it struck me that perhaps we could
award a similar trophy, to be awarded to the most outrageous loon
(lune?) who posts to the NG. Past holders would have included Venik,
Kurt Plummer and good ole John Tarver. The current holder would have to
be Denyav. The poster of a subsequent outrageously loony posting would
be awarded the trophy until the next one.

I don't know, Peter. I wouldn't ever have classified Kurt as
a loon to begin with: over enthused, yes, maddeningly fond
of acronyms, hell yes.
But a loon? No, heck it might even be useful for some R&D
staff to keep him around for the flow of ideas.

While I agree with you re Kurt not being a loon, I think I'd have to disagree
on your R&D group suggestion. Think of the extra overhead involved -- they'd
either all have to be sent to the Defense Language Institute at Monterey to
learn how to understand Kurt's prose, or else develop a computer translation
program to decode all the acronyms and Plummerisms, and constantly update the
database as new ones are added. The last item by itself is a full-time job.
Granted, familiarity with Kurt's style does help with the decoding, but it's
just not worth the investment of time and energy for a small R&D shop.

Guy (who doesn't miss having to read and decipher plummerisms such as
"Dorito'd" or "Just so the Monkey can push the Pulsar button")

In article , Guy Alcala
writes
John Keeney wrote:

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
What's he on about, you ask. Well, it struck me that perhaps we could
award a similar trophy, to be awarded to the most outrageous loon
(lune?) who posts to the NG. Past holders would have included Venik,
Kurt Plummer and good ole John Tarver. The current holder would have to
be Denyav. The poster of a subsequent outrageously loony posting would
be awarded the trophy until the next one.

I don't know, Peter. I wouldn't ever have classified Kurt as
a loon to begin with: over enthused, yes, maddeningly fond
of acronyms, hell yes.
But a loon? No, heck it might even be useful for some R&D
staff to keep him around for the flow of ideas.

While I agree with you re Kurt not being a loon, I think I'd have to disagree
on your R&D group suggestion. Think of the extra overhead involved -- they'd
either all have to be sent to the Defense Language Institute at Monterey to
learn how to understand Kurt's prose, or else develop a computer translation
program to decode all the acronyms and Plummerisms, and constantly update the
database as new ones are added. The last item by itself is a full-time job.
Granted, familiarity with Kurt's style does help with the decoding, but it's
just not worth the investment of time and energy for a small R&D shop.

Guy (who doesn't miss having to read and decipher plummerisms such as
"Dorito'd" or "Just so the Monkey can push the Pulsar button")


Yes, you're both right (how often do you see _that_ in this ng?). My
apologies to Kurt Plummer for classifying him as a loon. The common
factor is their incomprehensibility, I suppose. Some people get even
more obscure the more you ask for clarification.

Did you remember those expressions, Guy, or did you look them up?
If the former, please get help soon! :-)
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

Peter Twydell wrote:

In article , Guy Alcala
writes

snip

Guy (who doesn't miss having to read and decipher plummerisms such as
"Dorito'd" or "Just so the Monkey can push the Pulsar button")


Yes, you're both right (how often do you see _that_ in this ng?). My
apologies to Kurt Plummer for classifying him as a loon. The common
factor is their incomprehensibility, I suppose. Some people get even
more obscure the more you ask for clarification.

Did you remember those expressions, Guy, or did you look them up?
If the former, please get help soon! :-)

Some things are burned into your brain, and nothing can remove them;-)

Guy

In article ,
Guy Alcala writes:

While I agree with you re Kurt not being a loon, I think I'd have to disagree
on your R&D group suggestion. Think of the extra overhead involved -- they'd
either all have to be sent to the Defense Language Institute at Monterey to
learn how to understand Kurt's prose, or else develop a computer translation
program to decode all the acronyms and Plummerisms, and constantly update the
database as new ones are added. The last item by itself is a full-time job.
Granted, familiarity with Kurt's style does help with the decoding, but it's
just not worth the investment of time and energy for a small R&D shop.

I wonder what the Indian Chief from the "Go-Go Gophers" is doing?
I think he'd be a perfect translator.

"What him say?"
--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

Peter Stickney wrote:

In article ,
Guy Alcala writes:

While I agree with you re Kurt not being a loon, I think I'd have to disagree
on your R&D group suggestion. Think of the extra overhead involved -- they'd
either all have to be sent to the Defense Language Institute at Monterey to
learn how to understand Kurt's prose, or else develop a computer translation
program to decode all the acronyms and Plummerisms, and constantly update the
database as new ones are added. The last item by itself is a full-time job.
Granted, familiarity with Kurt's style does help with the decoding, but it's
just not worth the investment of time and energy for a small R&D shop.

I wonder what the Indian Chief from the "Go-Go Gophers" is doing?
I think he'd be a perfect translator.

"What him say?"

Trust you to dredge up a memory that I hadn't accessed for probably 30 years;-)
For some reason that one never stuck with me. OTOH, pretty much any Looney Tunes
or Jay Ward cartoon is engraved on my memory and will likely stick with me into
senility. There we'll all be in the retirement home, dribbling our oatmeal down
the front of our clothes while heartily singing along to the theme from
SuperChicken, and then giving the punchlines for all the cartoons early:

"Cavalleria Rusticana."

"Audience?!"

And we all croak out "Rigoletto!", followed by a bunch of coughing. It's a scary
thought.

Guy

In message , John Keeney
writes

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
What's he on about, you ask. Well, it struck me that perhaps we could
award a similar trophy, to be awarded to the most outrageous loon
(lune?) who posts to the NG. Past holders would have included Venik,
Kurt Plummer and good ole John Tarver. The current holder would have to
be Denyav. The poster of a subsequent outrageously loony posting would
be awarded the trophy until the next one.

I don't know, Peter. I wouldn't ever have classified Kurt as
a loon to begin with: over enthused, yes, maddeningly fond
of acronyms, hell yes.
But a loon? No, heck it might even be useful for some R&D
staff to keep him around for the flow of ideas.

Sorry, but Kurt was a bit of a fanatic on a few issues. We're not
talking R&D - there's an office-full of guys next door to me doing just
that for "how do we use UAVs at sea?" and actually *using* the kit to
learn what it can do rather than just blindly accepting brochure claims.
(For example, one US UAV lost its chance for a trial because it was
unable to safely be landed aboard a frigate - the sort of trivial detail
Kurt sneered at but is crucial to actually *using* the equipment).

Kurt would say "Bwahahahahahah! You IDIOTS!" for not already having...
er... something in service to do... well... something... but it's a
FANTASTIC idea and it's all the fault of SITM BTC dinosaurs that his
proposed SOTAMC isn't SIAWU across a WROOWS.

"Loon" might be too strong, but he didn't connect closely to reality, or
play well with others... and imagination is the easy part.



--
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Julius Caesar I:2

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk

"Paul J. Adam" wrote:

In message , John Keeney
writes

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
What's he on about, you ask. Well, it struck me that perhaps we could
award a similar trophy, to be awarded to the most outrageous loon
(lune?) who posts to the NG. Past holders would have included Venik,
Kurt Plummer and good ole John Tarver. The current holder would have to
be Denyav. The poster of a subsequent outrageously loony posting would
be awarded the trophy until the next one.

I don't know, Peter. I wouldn't ever have classified Kurt as
a loon to begin with: over enthused, yes, maddeningly fond
of acronyms, hell yes.
But a loon? No, heck it might even be useful for some R&D
staff to keep him around for the flow of ideas.

Sorry, but Kurt was a bit of a fanatic on a few issues. We're not
talking R&D - there's an office-full of guys next door to me doing just
that for "how do we use UAVs at sea?" and actually *using* the kit to
learn what it can do rather than just blindly accepting brochure claims.
(For example, one US UAV lost its chance for a trial because it was
unable to safely be landed aboard a frigate - the sort of trivial detail
Kurt sneered at but is crucial to actually *using* the equipment).

Kurt would say "Bwahahahahahah! You IDIOTS!" for not already having...
er... something in service to do... well... something... but it's a
FANTASTIC idea and it's all the fault of SITM BTC dinosaurs that his
proposed SOTAMC isn't SIAWU across a WROOWS.

Please stop now, I'm getting the kind of headache I haven't had for about
three years;-)

"Loon" might be too strong, but he didn't connect closely to reality, or
play well with others... and imagination is the easy part.

Kurt definitely went spinning off the deep end before he left us, as, with a
wave of his hand and a Hi-Yo, Silver!, he'd make all the practical
difficulties go away. But no, he wasn't a loon. You can be a unpleasant
fanatic, and still not be a loon.

Guy