Well, I don't know, but 137 word sentences may be regarded as a threat to proper english usage.

Folks,

PV1:

I like the economy of it.

The way I look at it, as long as the message is clear enough, such a long sentence saves a good deal of valuable white space and periods.

Sirs,

As me old mam used to say, 'Nothing worth saying is offensive to nobody.'

H

Gents,

H,

That must be the reason I have offended so many. ;-)

Here's me escorting the beefy Breguet bombers.

Folks,

Dux:

You've never offended me. It has been a long week. A communication regarding Lady "T" may still be languishing in your frosty mailbox. I wish to add that she is better today and should go home from the hospital tomorrow.

H:

"If you can't say something nice ..... then say it to Dux" has always been my motto

Dux:

So many tomes have been written about the BoB. Have we discussed the title "Battle of Britain" by James Holland? I cannot remember that we have. A friend who knows of my interest in the subject gave that book to me Monday. The book was published in 2010. I have been reading it in the hospital this week and I have found it a delight plus a welcome relief from the monotony of just sitting about or watching mind numbing TV.

I'm into several chapters now and the facts are there on the pages including some I was unaware of or had forgotten but they are strung together in an interesting narrative that is easy to read and not at all like so many dry textbook-like offerings. There are lots of photographs and charts as well. I recommend it.

An older friend of my wife's from church visited her yesterday and she brought along her husband whom I had never met. Turns out he served in Korea. Korea is still the "forgotten war" as far as I am concerned. There are few books about Korea at our public library and none on the air war. We had a long and interesting chat. After the war this old gentleman worked for my wife's father. He was known for a long time as "Frosty the man who tried to walk on water."

Here's what happened.

One unusually frosty day when the local city lake was frozen over (I've seen that only twice in 67 years) he told my father-in-law he had decided to take a short cut across the lake on foot. My wife's dad wisely cautioned against it. In spite of the caution the fellow walked out on the ice anyway. The ice cracked and he fell in up to his waist. It took some time to fish him out so he nearly froze to death. According to him that was a warmer time than he had experienced as a GI during the Korean winter.

I will be spending another night at the hospital with my wife. I'll pick up the discussion here again tomorrow night if all goes as planned.

Rog,

I haven't received any emails sent recently either at Gmail or Tiscali. We have not been aware of recent developments.

Rog,

I have responded to your last email and we hope all is going well and the situation improving.

Folks,

Dux:

Another night last night spent huddled in a recliner in my wife's hospital room has greatly enhanced my appreciation for my own 40 year old crib. Home again for a good while I hope. Gotcher e-mail and responded to it. Hopefully the gremlins have had their fun and will leave your spellbound mailbox alone.

I find I have more time to read in the hospital in between occasional late night distractions by the lovely nurses who arrive, sleeping potion in hand, to wake my wife. The Holland BoB book continues to satisfy. He spends much of the beginning chapters researching what happened leading up to and during the fall of France. Again it is more than just the raw facts but the narrative binding them that appeals to me.

Weather here has been unseasonably warm the last few days. I read that New Englanders are beginning to think they also live in the south. This has been an almost snow-less and warm winter up there too.

JRT,

Hope you are both home for good! Yep! There's nothing like a few nights rough sleeping to make you really appreciate your comfy bed.

Another co-inkydinky re your Holland book? Yesterday, I was pricing up one of the superb 'Then and Now' books: The Battle of France.

Folks,

Dux:

I like "Then & Now" books and TV programs. It is so interesting to learn how historically significant landscape may have changed over the years. It also brings to mind how otherwise insignificant landmarks can suddenly become historically important.

Areas completely denuded of life by shell and bomb can be reclaimed by nature within decades. Fields and farmhouses can serve their purpose as hospitals or headquarters and then as the storm of war moves on revert to their normal state unscathed. We all love to visit historic sites and battle grounds. At least I do. The battlefield of Gettysburg was especially interesting to me as was Yorktown.

I have mentioned how Lord Cornwallis passed by near here on his way to Yorktown. Lafayette spent the night in a cabin very near my old home place on his tour of America, Sherman's troops burnt the cotton mill near our ancestral home and dared to water their horses in the spring there. They also looted the plantations in the area. As a boy I found medicine bottles and other items that date to the period that were tossed into the spring by persons unknown.

There was a brief skirmish near here between local militia and British redcoats during the Revolutionary War. No one was injured as far as I know. The fight was not a named battle however it is proudly remembered in these parts for the singular fact that our boys clearly proved they were able to run faster than the redcoats.