Worrying: Kiss of Death?

[Farmer John]

It will. It will.

2nd iteration added to get above the laconic minimum.

The rest of the comment is there just to explain, then I put this bit on to clarify the rest of it.

[Engine Serang]

Originally Posted by BobClay

I was very lucky as sea sickness never bothered me,
]

Lucky man. I'd be sea sick the first day of bad weather, every trip, and it would take me about a day to stabilise and then my sea legs would be good to go for 4 months.

I have often tried to analyse Mal de Mer in a logical way and have tried all sorts of tablets and various remedies given by shipmates. Tablets work mostly, but drowsiness can be a problem. Homespun or natural remedies somewhat less successful, Dry toast and Guinness?, Ginger Nut biscuits?, tinned spaghetti?, an apple and a banana? none were very good.

I would be interested if any other shipmate suffered likewise and what was their fool proof remedy. ( Sitting under an apple tree will not be accepted).

[BobClay]

You're right, I think it was pure luck. Although sea-sickness is the source of much humour I think we all know that when you see somebody suffering from it, sometimes severely, it isn't funny.

I'm sure we've all been through those days of rough weather when you're not so much sea sick, but sick of the sea as you jam yourself into your bunk while the ship does a passable impression of a roller coaster combined with the waltzers on a fairground.

And then there's that 'whiplash' business when the ship takes a big greenie and the aft end goes into a mad jumping up and down spree. I've seen a game of 'Risk' in the bar turn into a real battle as all the pieces get scattered about the board. (No thought that the ship might be breaking up, just that the current invasion of Europe with little wooden blocks has been interrupted. )

[BobClay]

Talk about 'kiss of death.' One of the most active volcanoes in the world: Stromboli. Not a place you want to hang about in. I think these boaters got lucky....

https://abcnews.go.com/ABCNews/strom...n0V3U8tw14A6sk

[Engine Serang]

Originally Posted by BobClay

10¹⁰⁰ years.

(I've been trying to superscript for hours and finally cracked it by cheating. You try typing 'trillion' eight bloody times …)

Try Jeremy Clarkson's hack, just say "Many Years".

[BobClay]

Can't think where to put this post so I'll go for the 'Kiss of Death.'

Yesterday I watched an old British war moving made in 1957 which I suspect many here have seen at one time or another. "The Man who Never Was" based on the true story of 'Operation Mincemeat.'

Curious I went to IMDB to find out more about the making of this film. Some interesting facts:

The actual principle character in charge of the operation, Ewen Montagu, has a cameo part in the film.

Peter Sellers, (uncredited) did the voice of Churchill.

Even more interesting from the point of view of this site:
"The vessel used to deploy the body in the sea during in the real Operation Mincemeat was the S class submarine P219 HMS Seraph, the same vessel reprises its roll for the film."

[Malcolm G]

Kiss of Death ? Nah, I'm still alive. For the foreseeable future anyway.

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by Engine Serang

Lucky man. I'd be sea sick the first day of bad weather, every trip, and it would take me about a day to stabilise and then my sea legs would be good to go for 4 months.

I have often tried to analyse Mal de Mer in a logical way and have tried all sorts of tablets and various remedies given by shipmates. Tablets work mostly, but drowsiness can be a problem. Homespun or natural remedies somewhat less successful, Dry toast and Guinness?, Ginger Nut biscuits?, tinned spaghetti?, an apple and a banana? none were very good.

I would be interested if any other shipmate suffered likewise and what was their fool proof remedy. ( Sitting under an apple tree will not be accepted).

Seasickness can be very distressing, and exhausting if you get it bad. Dehydration is possibly the main problem to be conscious of. I was "lucky" to do my seafaring in small craft, and was only ill once crossing the North Sea in a whole gale from Holland on the first leg of the voyage to Seattle. We were taking a bit of a pounding, and the crew's heads were forward, which was doing a fair impression of the lifts in the Empire State building. I was ok until I bent over to press the flush, and then breakfast and lunch reappeared in the bowl. After that though, mal de mer never bothered me, even when having to duck into the motor room to check the twin Detroit diesels, generator and other sundry bits of mechanical necessities. It's all to do with your balance sensors in your ears getting upset by strange motion apparently. Some say that looking at the horizon helps when all around you is moving uncomfortably. If queasiness threatened, a shot of brandy helped. But then brandy is good for most stomach upsets I think, unless it's an ulcer!

[Malcolm G]

I just thought about what I said - Foreseeable future, now that is a bloody stupid expression isn't it?
There is absolutely nothing 'foreseeable' about the future.
Unless you commit suicide there is no way you can 'foresee' the kiss of death or just plain death coming. It just sneaks up behind you and taps you on the shoulder. Although it might cosh you first. None of it foreseeable.

[Malcolm G]

Originally Posted by Dartskipper

. If queasiness threatened, a shot of brandy helped. But then brandy is good for most stomach upsets I think, unless it's an ulcer!

Brandy and Lovage was recommended to me by the then landlady of the Bull in Totnes - Maybe had more to do with her turnover than my health, but it does seem to work.

[BobClay]

Reminds me of a quote from the 'Kingdom of Heaven.' :

Balian of Ibelin: "You go to certain death."

Hospitaller: "All death is certain."

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by BobClay

Reminds me of a quote from the 'Kingdom of Heaven.' :

Balian of Ibelin: "You go to certain death."

Hospitaller: "All death is certain."

Are you sure, Bob?

[BobClay]

Well … except for this thread.

[Engine Serang]

The Balian of Ibelin drinks every Friday evening in the Crown Liquor Saloon in Belfast and has a fish supper on his way home. Nice enough chap but not a great conversationalist.

[Varley]

Googling suggests that the noble baron's survival to prop up a bar with E-S is, indeed, down to drink. Given time even this thread will die. Any score on the scale of mortality off 100% is a fleeting abstraction.

[BobClay]

I'd support that. Given the Second Law of Thermodynamics, I'm afraid everything is f***** in the long term. (And not so long if Dark Energy has anything to do with it.)

[Varley]

Agreed, of course. Why is it, then, that the young and relatively young take it "that's cool" as a good thing? Also why, when I try joining with "indeed! that is entropy", do I get weird looks?

[Engine Serang]

I used to be au-fait with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, learned it, passed all my exams but never knew what the hell it was all about. And still don't.
Bob's sort of explanation doesn't help much but it is on a par with the best brains in 1970 Hull.
Is the Third Law something to do with pee running down your leg? Or is that Boyle's Law? Bugger it.

[BobClay]

It's a bit like infinity. We sort of know it's there (ish, nearly, almost, sort of.) But nobody really understands it.

If you can stick this out, the time clock increases it's pace exponentially, which gives you an idea of how incomprehensible these large numbers really are:

A true Kiss of Death … (or at least one idea of one.)

https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA

[Engine Serang]

Understood, cheers ma neighbour.
Next goal is to master the upper end of the Eleven Times Table, everything above eleven nines.

[Harry Nicholson]

Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument about it and about: but evermore came out by the same door as in I went.


Omar Khayyam

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by Harry Nicholson

Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument about it and about: but evermore came out by the same door as in I went.


Omar Khayyam

Wasn't he the one who had the fight with Ivan Skavinsky Skavar?

[BobClay]

Omar Khayyam also gave what I think is yet another way to state the Second Law of Thermodynamics:

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

[lakercapt]

Originally Posted by Engine Serang

Lucky man. I'd be sea sick the first day of bad weather, every trip, and it would take me about a day to stabilise and then my sea legs would be good to go for 4 months.

I have often tried to analyse Mal de Mer in a logical way and have tried all sorts of tablets and various remedies given by shipmates. Tablets work mostly, but drowsiness can be a problem. Homespun or natural remedies somewhat less successful, Dry toast and Guinness?, Ginger Nut biscuits?, tinned spaghetti?, an apple and a banana? none were very good.

I would be interested if any other shipmate suffered likewise and what was their fool proof remedy. ( Sitting under an apple tree will not be accepted).

Each time after leave when I went back on board I knew the first time there was bad weather I would be seasick. Never got over it except when on the "Lakes" as never there. I often heard the story the great admiral Lord Nelson suffered sea sickness but it was not a consolation!!!
I can emphasize with anyone suffer from this a it really is terrible.

[Tom Alexander]

Originally Posted by Engine Serang

Bob's sort of explanation doesn't help much but it is on a par with the best brains in 1970 Hull.
Is the Third Law something to do with pee running down your leg? Or is that Boyle's Law? Bugger it.

All I know is that Archimedes principal states something about not peeing in the pool -- I think. (Think I'll have another one, anyway)