I've got an important question for all you readers out there today [That makes a change! - Ed]
Dear Reader, do you sometimes feel that your life is in a bit of a mess, and you're looking for a new direction? I know my long-suffering wife Lois and I sometimes do. And then, so often, along comes local pundit David Ferguson to show us not only how to do it, but also when to do it - on nights and weekends mainly, it turns out, which is convenient!
Do you read Ferguson's stuff in "The Onion" (West Worcestershire Edition)? I know a lot of people kind of write him off as just another local "pub bore" - and it's true that, more often than not, he's to be seen "propping up the bar" at local watering-hole "The Plough and Harrow", not 100 yards from his home over at the beautiful Worcestershire village of Nob End. But he can really show readers some canny insights once in a while, like this one last week.
Well, it's no secret that what Lois and I are most passionate about is doing the big "puzzles section" in the back pages of the Radio Times magazine, and we even do it in bed sometimes. And it's no secret either that we take particular pride in our performance on the "Popmaster" questions, which feature tests of knowledge on pop music and pop singers from the 1960's to the present day.
I've got a confession to make. Lately we've been more than a little concerned that our performance on the "Popmaster" section has "dropped off" and dropped off more than a bit, I might add (!).
Although primarily the story of the contribution made by US women to the allied effort in World War II, the programme, to its credit, doesn't overlook the part being played since 1939 by British women, who, the programme is kind enough to say, were a great example for American women to follow: although to be fair, I'm sure that the Americans were more and capable of working it out for themselves!
a typical weekend scene in our living-room:
my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois struggling
with the puzzles in the coming week's Radio Times
We're lucky if we get 2 or 3 right out of 10 these days, I'm ashamed to have to say! What's wrong with us? My theory is just that they're making the questions harder, but when you're our age - 78 - there's always a nagging fear that there's more to it than that, isn't there. Yikes!!!!
[Is that really all you've got to worry about, Colin! - Ed]
Luckily we do a bit better on the intellectually more prestigious "Eggheads" questions: 8 out of 10 again this week - which is fast becoming our "score to beat". See how many of these "doozies" YOU know haha!
Well, maybe it's not too surprising that our Popmaster performance is not that great this afternoon, because it's also true that we've had a bit of a busy day today [I'd like to see proof of that! - Ed], so our "recall" is not at its best this afternoon, to put it mildly (!).
Earlier today I drove Lois over to Ashchurch Village Hall near Tewkesbury so she could take part in her church's two Sunday Morning Meetings. But - alert: another bad sign for old codgers like us - we both said afterwards that we couldn't understand what John, this week's president, and Alf, this week's preacher, were saying half the time, because, in our words, "Don't they just love to mumble!" - oh dear !!!!
Lois likes to say that it's not our hearing, it's just that our brains can't process other people's words as fast as we did when we were younger, but I'm not sure if that explanation is a comfort or the exact opposite haha - oh dear (again) !!!!
we get to the Village Hall early as usual "to get a good
seat near the front": Lois (ringed) settles me down
at one of the "good" tables, and then goes over to the
drinks-and-snacks area to make me a coffee
while waiting for my coffee, I check that the Parish
Council thankfully still hasn't replaced the portrait of our
late Queen, so we've got her for one more week at least (!)
the scene in the lunch break, "sandwiched" (no pun intended!)
between the "Bible Hour" and the Exhortation: seated at the desk
in front of the screen are John (left, this week's president)
and Alf (this week's preacher)
Alf, this week's preacher, adjusts his laptop
to display his keynote slide this morning:
the 12 metals in the Ephod Breastplate, that
the High Priest of the Temple used to wear
Yes, Alf's keynote slide this morning lists the 12 jewels traditionally displayed on the High Priest's "apron".
No, don't ask!!!! Lois says that the precise meaning of the jewels, representing the 12 tribes, has led to hot debates both among both Jews and Christians. So best not to go there, perhaps !!!!!
20:00 We settle down on the couch and watch an interesting documentary on the PBS America channel on the part played by women in World War II.
The women's roles were essentially the same in both countries. They involved not just women in non-combat roles in the armed forces, but also, and probably much more importantly, women working 12-hour days in the arms and munitions factories.
And, again to its credit, the programme does not overlook the experiences of women in German and in occupied Europe, like the terrifying ordeals in June 1944 of the French women who lived near the beaches of Normandy: and also the terrifying experiences of German women, first and foremost the Jews, but also housewives and others in the towns and cities being bombed by the allies.
For me personally it's fascinating to hear about the women who were working in America's code-breaking units in the US Navy and elsewhere, like Julia Parsons, a veteran of one of these units, who was interviewed for the programme.
She recalls how her unit, like those at Bletchley Park in the UK, using computers of the kind pioneered by Alan Turing, were tasked with breaking the Germans' Enigma codes every 12 hours - they changed settings twice a day.
flashback to 1998: I visit Bletchley Park with
a group of UK and US work colleagues
Spouses were invited to come along on the trip: here Lois
stands and listens, outside the famous "Hut 6", to
Bletchley Park museum director Tony Sale's historical overview
Breaking the codes was often made much easier by German mistakes, Julia Parsons says. In the Atlantic the German U-boats, which had to surface periodically to recharge their batteries, were constantly reporting back to base that they hadn't received the messages sent to them during the battery-recharge process, and HQ would then respond by resending the messages verbatim but enciphered under the new settings. This was a "free gift" to the allied code-breakers because it supplied them, free of charge, with the perfect plain-text "cribs" guaranteed to break the next half-day's cipher settings.
a German U-boat cipher officer using
his submarine's "Enigma 3" machine
Simples! The U-boat commanders, however, couldn't help noticing that the day after these incidents, an allied plane would be reliably expected to come over and try to bomb them, obviously knowing exactly where they were. The U-boats insisted to HQ that they were sure the allies were deciphering their radio traffic, but the German Navy's Admiral Doenitz refused to believe them: "Our cypher systems are unbreakable!", he boasted.
That's "top brass" for you, though, isn't it. What madness !!!!!
Julia Parsons, veteran of one of America's
wartime code-breaking units
While agreeing that the programme is an excellent overall coverage of the story of women in the war, Lois says she would have liked to have heard, also, or maybe in another programme, more about the personal side of the life-changes that affected women's family lives in general, i.e. the everyday changes it brought about for women with families, especially mothers with children, who stayed at home, and weren't able to be part of the war effort in such a direct way, either in the Services or in factory production.
Fascinating stuff, though isn't it!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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