Fish for Friday

Cascading stairs at the Garden

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

I just love your well-crafted poem about miss lanky legs [“Prize,” November 14]. My wife still recalls several years ago when a man did basically the same thing with her. He smiled as they passed and voiced how beautiful she looked. He didn’t stop, nor turn around. Just kept walking. It still brings her joy thinking about it. So pure and meaningful.

“A 13-year-old takes North Carolina to court over climate change,” [Billy Ball, Indy Week] Excerpt:

[Last] Friday in the Wake County Courthouse, oral arguments are scheduled to begin in a lawsuit brought by a 13-year-old from Raleigh named Hallie Turner, a climate change activist since the fourth grade. The teen is asking the state to issue an edict that would require North Carolina to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 4 percent each year. It’s an idea that has never caught on with industry leaders or, for that matter, legislators in Raleigh....
    Turner says she was inspired to take up the issue of climate change by Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming. [read more]

“Judge promises ruling by Thanksgiving...” [Billy Ball, Indy Week] Excerpt:

Hallie Turner sounds tired. Oral arguments are finished in the 13-year-old Raleigh girl's climate change case against North Carolina, and Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan is promising a ruling by Thanksgiving....
    Turner is hoping the judge will force North Carolina to take action on climate change. The teen called on the state’s appointed Environmental Management Commission late last year to draft a rule requiring the state to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 4 percent each year.
    “Our government has a responsibility to create a healthy and sustainable environment,” says Turner. “Our leaders haven't been living up to that.”
    That petition, however, was denied by the EMC, which claimed that it did not have such power, leading Turner, with the help of the Oregon-based climate change nonprofit, Our Children's Trust, to turn to the courts. Turner and her lawyers, which include attorneys with Duke University’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, argue that the commission’s former chair, Benne Hutson, acted outside of his authority in denying Turner’s petition for rule-making. [read more]

Only in Australia:

Qantas Airlines – Repair Division. Remember, it takes a college degree to fly a plane but only a high school diploma to fix one.
    After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a “gripe sheet,” that tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.
    Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded by maintenance engineers (marked with an S):

P: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tyre.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

Limerick of the week:

Old Horace Bottle was losing his mind,
non-senior moments very hard to find;
    the wits he could muster
    he urged not to bluster,
“Please do something ere I leave you behind.”

Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean