Wednesday 14 August 2019

10:15 We drive to our local dental clinic – today we have our regular 6-monthly check-up appointments with Daria, our charming Romanian dentist, also with Ursula, the clinic's charming hygienist.

Daria, the Romanian dentist with the good, relaxed conversation skills

and the charming smile, photographed here with a typical patient

I step inside the clinic in an optimistic mood - I have had no problems in my mouth since our last appointment last January, so I suspect there will be no need for further treatment in the near future, but I am completely wide of the mark - damn! Daria tells me that I have somehow lost a filling - it must have fallen out without me noticing - damn (again) !!!!

The receptionist arranges a second appointment for September 25, so Daria can repair the tooth with a new filling. And Daria says she intends to take two routine x-rays during the same appointment - damn it! X-rays of teeth are my worst phobia - no doubt about that !!!!

She also tells me that my lower front teeth are a little loose, due to my gigantic overbite. It can only get worse, she says - and of course it is not possible to correct the overbite at my age - I already knew that.

This “news” is actually nothing new - my former Canadian dentist Carolyn told me the same thing many years ago, and I have the feeling that the situation, if it’s deteriorating, is only doing so very, very slowly. These teeth don't feel particularly loose from my point of view: I can't move them with my tongue, so I'm not that worried, I have to say.

Unlike me, Lois has no problems that Daria can find - how lucky she is! And I realise I envy her a little.

I’m the unluckiest man in Cheltenham, no doubt about that.

I hate my teeth  !!!!!

12:00 We come home. We are a little annoyed that these two check-up appointments lasted the entire morning - there was a 30-minute delay before we could see Daria and Ursula. Damn!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. We discuss our plans for the next few days: we have a mile-long to-do list, as usual, damn it!

16:00 I look at the local news on my smartphone and I get a bit of a shock, to put it mildly. I read that "over 50,000 motorists" (in fact almost 60,000) have been fined for driving in the city centre in the past 12 months - the so-called Boots corner area (ie around the Boots pharmacy). My god, what madness !!!

When I made the same mistake back in January, the council’s cameras were fortunately not working for two weeks for some reason.

I am the luckiest man in Cheltenham - no doubt about that ha ha ha !!!!

Flashback to January 2019: I break the council’s ban

by not noticing a warning sign, which confusingly was on the right hand side of the road:

luckily the council’s number plate cameras were not working at the time - ha!

 the council’s car number plate recognition camera,

that was not working at the time, it seems.

17:00 I start vacuuming all over the house while Lois dusts off the shelves, pictures, etc. - our U3A Danish group will be holding its regular fortnightly meeting here tomorrow afternoon. Busy busy busy!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television.

An interesting documentary is on, in the "War Factories" series: a series looking at how British factories (in 1939) and American factories (in 1941) both started slowly but quickly overtook German factories when it came to the manufacture of weapons, warships, warplanes, etc.

One interesting factor was that Germany tended to suffer from a labour shortage - and the Nazis insisted that German women stay home and care for their children, while in the UK and the US there was no taboo about women working in factories: in fact, their participation was encouraged.

Tonight's episode is about the manufacture of warplanes in the United States. Lois and I did not know that when Churchill, after the collapse of France in 1940, asked Roosevelt to supply us with 1,000 new fighter jets, US factories were not even near to being in a position to accept Churchill's request. 

Lois and I had been assuming that, back then, the United States was already the military production superpower it has been in our lifetime, but this was far from the case in 1941, to put it mildly.

Roosevelt and Churchill in 1941

In fact the ideology of US isolationism had been so strong in the 1920’s and 1930’s that the United States Army was relatively small and the Air Force almost non-existent. Military production, especially when it came to warplanes, was also very limited. And American industry in general had been seriously affected by many of Roosevelt's strategies, designed to limit profits as part of his New Deal programme.

The capacity was there, but it was dedicated to cars, especially family cars: in the United States, unlike Europe, most families, including working-class families, owned their own cars.

Roosevelt chose William S. Knudsen, president of General Motors, who had immigrated to the United States from Denmark as a 21-year-old, to be the mastermind behind the development of giant aircraft factories capable of manufacturing the brand new Mustang fighter jets, and later the B24 and B29 bombers.

William S. Knudsen, the Danish immigrant who became GM president

Not every American industrial big wheel was eager to help Roosevelt and Britain, however. When Rolls-Royce developed a better engine, the Merlin, for the Mustang, because the aircraft's original engine was not very efficient at the higher altitudes, Knudsen asked Henry Ford to manufacture thousands of Merlin engines. But Ford rejected Knudsen's request – like many American industrialists he did not like Roosevelt, whom he considered a tyrant in the making, and he was a great supporter of isolationism. For that reason Knudsen was forced to turn to Packard in Detroit instead.

It was only after the United States itself was attacked by Japan late in 1941 that Henry Ford became willing to support the war effort.

Henry Ford

It is interesting that Roosevelt and the US government chose to increase military production simply by letting normal capitalist motives lead the way - there was no government direction or coercion: the profit motive was the sole key to America's success in so quickly becoming a true military production superpower, of the type never seen before or since – my goodness! Which was also fortunate for Britain, I have to say - my God!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation: onsdag den 14. august 2019

10:15 Vi kører over til vores lokale tandlægeklinik – vi har vores regelmæssige 6-måneders checkup aftaler hos Daria, vores charmerende rumanske tandlægen, også hos Ursula, klinikkens charmerende hygiejniske specialist.

Daria, den rumanske tandlæge med de gode, afslappede samtalefærdigheder

og det charmerende smil, fotograferet her sammen med en typisk klinikpatient

Jeg træder ind i klinikken i en optimistisk humør – jeg har ikke haft nogle problemer i munden siden vores seneste aftale sidste januar, så jeg har formodet, at der ikke vil nogen grund til yderligere behandling i den nærmeste fremtid, men jeg er helt ved siden af – pokkers! Daria fortæller mig, at jeg har på én eller anden måde mistet en plombe – den må være faldt ud, uden at jeg bemærkede det – pokkers (igen) !!!!

Receptionisten arrangerer en 2. aftale til den 25. september, så Daria kan reparere tanden med en ny plombe. Og Daria siger, at hun har til hensigt at tage to rutinemæssige røntgenbilleder under samme aftalen – pokkers! Røntgenbilleder er min personlige værste fobi – ingen tvivl om det!!!!

Også hun fortæller mig, at mine nederste fortænder er lidt løse, på grund af min gigantisk overbid. Det kan bare forværres siger hun – og det er selvfølgelig ikke muligt at korrigere overbiddet i min alder – det vidste jeg allerede.

Det er ikke noget nyligt – min tidligere kanadiske tandlæge Carolyn fortalte mig det samme for mange år siden, og jeg har på fornemmelsen, at situation forværres kun meget meget langsomt . Tænderne ikke føles særlig løse fra mit synspunkt: jeg kan ikke flytte dem med min tunge, så er jeg ikke særlig bekymret, det må jeg nok sige.

I modsætning til mig har Lois ingen problemer, som Daria kan finde – hvor er hun dog heldig! Jeg misunder hende lidt.

12:00 Vi kommer hjem. VI er lidt irriterede over at disse to check-up aftaler varede næste hele formiddagen – der var en 30-minutters forsinkelse, før vi kunne se Daria og Ursula. Pokkers!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Vi diskuterer vores planer om de næste få dage: vi har en mile-lang gøremålsliste, som sædvanligt – pokkers!

16:00 Jeg kigger lidt på de lokale nyheder på min smartphone, og jeg får lidt af et chok, for at sige mildt. Jeg læser, at ”over 50.000 bilister” (faktisk næsten 60.000) er i de seneste 12 måneder modtaget bøder for at køre bil i bykernen – det såkaldte Boots-hjørne-område (dvs omkring Boots-apoteket).  Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Da jeg begik samme fejlen tilbage i januar var kommunens kameraer i to uger gået i stykker af en eller anden grund.

Jeg er Cheltenhams heldigste mand – ingen tvivl om det ha ha ha!!!!

Tilbageblik til januar 2019: jeg bryder kommunens forbud

ved ikke at bemærke et advarselsskilt:

heldigvis var kommunes gadekamerare ikke fungerende på det tidspunkt – ha!

capturecamera2: kommunens bilnummerpladekamera,

der på det tidspunkt ikke virkerede, lader det til - ha!

17:00 Jeg går i gang med at støvsuge overalt i huset, mens Lois støver af på hylderne, billederne osv – vores U3A danske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige fjortensdagsmøde hos os i morgen eftermiddag. Travlt travlt travlt!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn.

De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”War Factories”, der handler om, hvordan britiske fabrikker (i 1939) og amerikanske fabrikker (i 1941) startede begge to langsomt men begyndte hurtigt at overhale tyske fabrikker, når det kom til fremstillingen af våben, krigskibe, krigsfly osv.

Én interessant faktor var, at Tyskland havde tendens til at lide af en mangel på arbejdskraft – og nazisterne insisterede på, at tyske kvinder burde forblive hjemme og passe på deres børn, mens i Storbritannien og USA var der ikke noget tabu om den idé, at kvinder arbejder i fabrikkerne: faktisk var deres deltagelse opmuntret. 

Aftenens afsnit handler om fremstillingen af krigsfly i USA. Lois og jeg vidste ikke, at da Churchill i 1940 efter kollapset af Frankrig bad Roosevelt om at forsyne os med 1000 nye jagerfly, var USAs fabrikker ikke i stand til at acceptere Churchills bestilling. Vi formodede, at USA dengang allerede var den militærproduktion-supermagt, det har været i vores livstid, men dette var langt fra tilfældet i 1941, for at sige mildt.

Roosevelt og Churchill i 1941

Ideologien af isolationisme havde været så stærk i 1920’erne og 1930’erne, at USAs hær var forholdsvis lille og luftvåbnet næsten ikke-eksisterende.  Militær produktion, især når det kom til krigsfly, var også meget begrænset. Og amerikansk industri i almindeligheden havde været alvorligt ramt at mange af Roosevelts strategier, designet for at sætte begrænsninger til profiter, som en del af hans New Deal program.

Kapaciteten var der, men det var dedikeret til biler, i sær familiebiler: i USA, i modsætning til Europa, ejede de fleste familie, inklusive arbejdeklassefamilier, deres egne biler.

Roosevelt valgte William S. Knudsen, præsident af General Motors, der havde invandret til USA fra Danmark som 21-årige, til at være hjernen bag udviklingen af gigantiske flyfabrikker, der kunde fremstille det spritnye Mustang- jagerfly.

William S. Knudsen, den danske indvandrer, der blev GM-præsident

Ikke alle amerikanske industrielle stor kanoner var ivrige for at hjælpe Roosevelt og Storbritannien imidlertid. Da Rolls-Royce udviklede en bedre motor, Merlinen, til Mustangen, fordi flyets oprindelige motor var ikke særlig effektiv på de større højder, bad Knudsen Henry Ford om at fremstille tusindvis af Merlin-motorer. Men Ford afviste Knudsens anmodning – han kunne ikke lide Roosevelt, som han betragtede som en kommende tyran, og han var en stor tilhænger af isolationisme. Så derfor blev Knudsen tvunget til at henvende sig til Packard i Detroit i stedet for.

Det var kun, efter selve USA blev angrebet af Japan sidst i 1941, at Henry Ford blev villig til at støtte krigsindsatsen.

Henry Ford

Det er interessant, at Roosevelt og den amerikanske regering valgte at øge militærproduktion ved at lade de normale kapitalistiske motiver føre vejen – der var ikke nogen direktion eller tvang fra regeringens side: profitmotivering var nøglen til USAs succés i hurtigt at blive en ægte militærproduktion-supermagt, af den type aldrig set før eller siden – du godeste!  Hvilket var heldig for Storbritannien: det må jeg nok sige!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!