0579 - Designators

The year opens with more to do, and more to worry about, than ever before. The TV is still crammed with terrible pictures of that monster tsunami off Indonesia. As Readers know, Anguilla is notably flat, and even heavy rains have been known to flood low-lying parts. Here, you can’t run to the mountains, because there aren’t any. Yet, a soothing scientist, making a penny being interviewed (there can’t be a good living in being a tsunami expert, can there?), this expert said that Caribbean tsunamis aren’t a big threat. So we can relax and worry about the fate of the dollar, which seems to be crumbling, largely due to the U.S. Government deficit, not to mention the enormous trade deficit, and the current threats to add a few trillion dollars in aid of a Social Security makeover. Our Revered Investment Guru doesn’t think much of the idea of workers depending either on their own investment smarts, or on the tender mercies of what are called “Money Runners”, a term that reminds one, quite properly, of piracy.

Meanwhile, here at the Observatory, work is proceeding on the preparation of the great compilation of OO columns from day one (in July 1993) to date. This is some considerable task, requiring conforming column widths, numbering each column [in early days the columns didn’t bear a number], and making sure that any errata are corrected for future generations. This involves reading each past column, and so far this is illuminating, sometimes repetitious (roads, goats), and sometimes amusing. One curious factum unearthed is that there wasn’t much mention of our Staff in the earliest days, until say late 1996. Worker’s rights give the Staff much more power these days, as does the need for specialists in today’s world. Another curious finding on our further review is that the column numbering seems to be wrong. The column called Bicentennial, proudly declared number 200, seems to be only number 197. But the missing manuscripts may yet be found. [One theory is that they were articles urging Anguilla to get on the Web]. We’ll report further.

Now, after a brief news flash, we’ll get to today’s subject, maybe. The flash is that there is in Afghanistan a character named Mullah Rockety – we do NOT make this stuff up. At first we thought he was a character in a re-make of Star wars (Mullah Rocketry?), but no, he exists and is now collaborating with the estimable Karzai. So, to the subject. Amid the innumerable bits of paper trash accumulating at this season, mostly pleas to subscribe to magazines already renewed, is an enclosure from a package of pills bought in St. Martin. On the fourth page of instructions (in French) is a list of the offices of the maker all over the world. The street names are amazing, and may offer a rich vein for Anguilla.

Here are just a few: Avenue de la Métrologie; Ringager 4A, Lyngáisi 13, Govert van Wijnkade 4B, Koppstrasse 116 ... and so on. Now here is Anguilla, with no street names and numbers, and what an opportunity! Instead of just going to Albert’s you could go to 19 van Wijnkade [wine cask??]. Great for business, and streets could even be named for donors, thus alleviating our usual fiscal stringencies.

We were also going to recommend a new business to be set up here. It seems that this Christmas a lot of web sites were offering calls from Santa to your trusting children, all for a fee, naturally. Why not a call from Anguilla, also for a fee? Best in bad weather up there. Just thinking. Well, back to work.

Next time: Backwards [OO #580]

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