Most of my watches are mechanical, which means they run down and stop when not in use. Any time I put one on I start from scratch: winding it, setting the time, setting the day and date. I now have three quartz watches to wear in rotation, and of course they never stop running. While they don’t usually need to be set, when a month with 30 days ends their date windows show the 31st, not the 1st. Simple to adjust, no? Actually a bit of a production, and since it only happens every few months, they’ve lost or gained a few seconds and that has to be adjusted as well.
While I was at it this morning inspiration hit and I swapped out a buckle on one of the straps, replacing a silver one with a black one to match the black watch it’s paired with. Time invested: almost half an hour, and I had fun doing it. Now for Donna’s quartz watches.
Such is the life of a watch nut. Hey, better this than being a gun nut or whatever.
Speaking of gun nuts, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, announced a $50,000 reward for “info on the criminal who killed 5 illegal immigrants Friday.” Not only did he go out of his way to brand the victims, he highlighted the shooter’s immigration status as well — he too is “in the country illegally.”
Next, I suppose, the cops’ll hold a press conference to tell us the slain family members (who brought on their own murders by asking their neighbor, the killer, to stop firing an AR-15 assault weapon in his front yard because their baby couldn’t sleep) were no angels, and possibly that the 9-year-old victim had overdue library books.
I grew up around nasty bigots like Greg Abbott. They filled the pews of the Southern Baptist churches my mother dragged me to. They are the reason I’m an atheist today.
This is brilliant. Understated and very British.
??”Our hope is…that when the Archbishop invites people to join in, that people wherever they are, if they’re watching at home…watching the telly, will say it out loud – this sense of a great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the Cierva Air Horse” ?? pic.twitter.com/FLpIkMWZx9
— Echoes in the Sky (@exoticaviation) April 30, 2023
But perhaps you didn’t see the news about citizens of the United Kingdom being encouraged to swear allegiance to the new king during his coronation this coming Saturday. The announcement, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, said “people around the world” will be asked to “cry out and swear allegiance” to King Charles. To wit:
“All who so desire, in the Abbey, and elsewhere, say together: I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.”
Good lord. The fun part is that in addition to making Americans squirm, the announcement apparently made the king’s subjects squirm as well, as indicated by the satirical tweet about the Cierva Air Horse.
Of course we Americans are used to pledging allegiance, so maybe I shouldn’t poke fun. We all gotta serve somebody, in the words of Bob Dylan. I remember reciting the pledge of allegiance at the start of every school day, at least up until high school. We may have said the pledge in high school too, but I’ve blanked out those difficult years and can’t remember. I remember deciding to no longer say the “under god” part at some point in my early teens, but continuing to go along with the rest of it.
Did I mention going to the library to pick up a reserved book and passing by the new acquisitions display, where a copy of Prince Harry’s memoir “Spare” leapt off the shelf and into my hand? Yes it did, and I’m reading it now.
Hmmm … what kind of watch do you think the king wears? Or Prince Harry? Lately I find my eyes drawn to the watches actors wear in movies and television shows. Also important people in news photos. But I rarely notice what kinds of watches everyday people wear, which isn’t very democratic of me.
Happy International Day of the Worker to you, friends!
I was raised as a ‘hard shell’ Southern Baptist as well and it’s hard to express the depth of my hatred and loathing for that bunch, who split with other Baptists over the hard shell’s love of human slavery.
My daddy (yep, that’s what Alabamians call their father) was a deacon who ‘tithed’ (donated 10% or more) his whole long life to these grifters and even left them many thousands of dollars in his will. I sure hope he made it to hebbin because otherwise his time and money were wasted on the SB con men. Who were 100% AWOL during his hard death in late 2021. He was probably the oldest church member in the congregation and I can count on one hand the visits made by these grifters when he lay dying. It would have meant so much to the old man. When my sister, the estate executor, dropped off the check at the Fair Oaks mega church not one word of thanks or acknowledgement was given and the ‘pastor’ didn’t even leave his office. If there was a Hell the evil Southern Baptists would fill it up. Tax the bastards.
I changed the band on my fine $20 Casio watch yesterday and would like to know who invented the ‘spring bar’ so I could go pee on their grave. This is the best we can do to attach a watch to a band in 2023? Put yer fuckin’ eye out.
Well you made me look up the Cierva Air Horse, pretty tragic story. Good short writeup here on Juan de la Cierva y Codoriniu, 1st Count of De La Cierva (a nobility connection with the new king):
https://www.solentsky.org/post/secret-files-cierva-autogyros
Cierva was dead by the time the Horse was being tested, ironically killed as a pax in a foggy Croydon DC-2 crash. When the Horse crashed, killing the test pilot, it was the end of his company and the end of indigenous rotor wing design in the UK, their production being US designed Sikorsky helicopters going forward.
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