BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY

OF NORTH AMERICA

FALL NEWSLETTER AND PREVIEW OF COMING EVENTS

COMING EVENTS 16th September 2012—wine event at Great Meadow in the Plains, Virginia

14th October 2012—Curry Brunch—Maryland

3rd November 2012 6-10 pm—Guy Fawkes night with the British Players-– at Krops Crops in Great Falls, Virginia.

2nd December 2012 11:30 am —Christmas Lunch at the Renaissance Café—Vienna, Virginia.

26th January 2013, Black Watch and Band of the Scots Guards at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

Flyers with more details will be sent to members closer to the event—but—put the dates on your calendar NOW.

Jazz Night for B&CSNA members at the Cedar Knoll Restaurant 7/16/2012. It was a great night, the band “The Jefferson Street Strutters live Jazz band” was terrific. The food was good and the prices not out of sight. A repeat of this will be on the 19th August contact Barry Kelly for details (703) 323-0314 barrywkelly@netzero.com

15th December 2012, B&CSNA day at the Pantomime with the British Players, Kensington, Maryland. More on this later.

Black Watch & Band of the Scots Guards.

Afternoon Tea at Historic Green Spring June 3rd —Report

B&CSNA had a large and lively turnout for our afternoon “Tea Event” held to

celebrate the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth II reign in the lovely set-tings at Green Spring set in 27 acres of parkland and greenery. The 27 acres were once part of a 540 acre farm belonging to John Mass who built the original sec-tions of the house in 1784. The

last resident owners were Michael and Belinda Straight. They enter-tained the likes of Aldous Huxley and Hubert Humphrey at their

“out of town villa” before it was deeded to the County.

The highlight of the event was a pictorial review organized and pre-sented in the main park building by Green Spring presenter Ms. Deb-bie Waugh.

After the presentation we took a stroll over to the main house

where tea and goodies were served, judging by the noise level it was enjoyed by all.

During the tea our usual raffles were held, but, by way of a change there

were awards made for “best in class” ladies hats. Most original was won by Jill Holt while the most elegant hat was one by 2 other members.

Submitted by Don Hood.

“Green Spring”

Curry Brunch

Christmas Lunch

Wine Tasting

Guy Fawkes night

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

management areas – for the most part unfenced, allowing animals to roam wild and free – travel through many parts of the country has the feeling of moving through an immense Nature wonder-land.

Botswana is a rarity in our overpopulat-ed, over-developed world. Untamed and untameable, it is one of the last great refuges for Nature’s magnificent pageant-ry of life.

Experience here the stunning beauty of

the world’s largest intact inland Delta – the Okavango; the unimaginable vastness of the world’s second largest game reserve – the Central Kalahari Game Reserve; the isolation and other-worldliness of the Makgadikgadi – uninhabited pans the size of Portugal; and the astoundingly prolific wildlife of the Chobe National Park.

Botswana is the last stronghold for a number of endangered bird and mammal species, including Wild Dog, Cheetah, Brown Hyena, Cape Vulture, Wattled Crane, Kori Bustard, and Pel’s Fishing Owl. This makes your safari experience even more memorable, and at times you will feel simply surrounded by wild ani-mals.

The first – and most lasting impressions – will be of vast expanses of uninhabited wilderness stretching from horizon to horizon, the sensation of limitless space, astoundingly rich wildlife and bird view-ing, night skies littered with stars and

heavenly bodies of an unimaginable brilliance, and stunning sunsets of unearthly beauty.

As well, with more and more cultural

tourism options on offer, you will be

charmed by the people of Botswana,

visiting their villages and experiencing

first-hand their rich cultural heritage.

But perhaps most of all, Botswana’s

greatest gift is its ability to put us in

touch with our natural

selves. It offers that vital link so keen-

ly felt by inhabitants of the developed

world, a pervasive void we feel but

often cannot name – our connected-

ness

Editorial Note:

Articles with By-Lines, sources, items made available to the Editor are published as submit-ted, no punctuation changed, warts and all.

Commonwealth Corner (continued)

Botswana

Botswana at a Glance

Location: Botswana is a land-locked country situated in southern Africa. It borders South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Approximately two-thirds of the country lies within the Tropics. Country Size: Botswana covers an area of 581 730 square kilometres – about the size of France or Kenya. Topography: Most of the country is flat, with some small hills in the eastern are-as. Kalahari sands cover 84 percent of the surface area. With the exception of the northern areas, most of Botswana is without perennial surface water. Capital: Gaborone Urban Centres: Francistown, Lbatse, Selebi-Phikwe Tourism Centres: Maun, Kasane Independence day: 30 September 1966 Government: Multi-party democracy Head of State: His Excellency Lt. Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama Population: 1.85 million, with an aver-age annual growth rate of 2.4 % (2006 statistics) National Language: Setswana Official Language: English Currency: Pula Main Exports: Diamonds, copper nickel, beef, soda ash, tourism

Botswana is well known for having some of the best wilderness and wildlife areas on the African continent. With a full 38 percent of its total land area devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife Continued on page 3

Botswana Moremi Gorge waterfalls

“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

More many acres of land in Botswana is

reserved as national parks and game

reserves. There are wide variety of safari

packages and adventure trips you can

select from such as lodge safari, camping

safari, adventure trips and vacation safa-

ri.

The common wildlife you will get to see

here are the Cheetah, Wild Dogs, Kudu,

Ostrich, Giraffes, Antelopes and so

much more. Wildlife lovers should make

Botswana tourist destination. Some com-

mon places of safari are Linyanti Game

Reserve, Moremi Game Reserve and

Chobe. Tuli Block is home to the

Shashe and Limpopo rivers. The topog-

raphy of Tuli Block is different from

other parts of Botswana because of its

hills and rock crops, which is extremely

beautiful.

Okavango Delta is the largest inland

delta in the world, it comprises of crea-

tures such as crocodiles, hippos, water

bucks and different species of fish. Kha-

ma Rhino Sanctuary of 4300 ha is a

sanctuary where you will get to see the

few remaining rhinos of the Botswana.

The most popular shopping area of Gab-

orone is The Mall. It has several embas-

sies, a well known hotel, commercial

banks, shops and offices. Here you can

find locally made crafts and daily grocer-

ies. If you go outside of Gaborone, you

can buy yourself a souvenir, since many

towns and villages have traditional craft

workshop and they sell woodcarvings,

jewellery, basket work and textiles.

Those looking forward to have a unique

shopping experience should make Bot-

swana tourist destination. Riverwalk

Mall has both shopping and dining facil-

ity. It has more than ten food outlets in

the form of restaurants and cafés. If you

want to buy some clothes you can visit

Fairground Shopping Mall.

Botswana cuisine is unique but it shares

some features of the cuisines of South-

ern Africa. Some important foods of

Botswana are Pap, Samp, Vetkoek, Mo-

pane Worms and Seswaa, heavily salted

mashed-up meat. Botswana has two

types of beer, clear and opaque. Clear

one is similar to European beer but the

opaque is a traditional beer.

So if you want an African experience make Botswana a tourist destination whenever you are planning for a vaca-tion overseas.

Above information from the Botswana gov-ernment tourist board

Botswana Chobe River

Two different ways of travelling the river.

Continued from page 2

Located in Southern Africa, Botswana

is known for its diverse beauties which

lie in its wilderness, wildlife and cul-

tural aspect. Botswana’s capital, Gabo-

rone was once proudly referred to as

“Africa’s fastest growing city”, which is

continually developing and expand-

ing. Botswana also boasts of unique

San rock art, geological wonders, tradi-

tional art and many other things

which equally interest the visitors.

Major tourist attraction of Botswana is

the Kalahari Desert. You will also find

the salt flatland expanse of

Makgadikgadi pans. To have complete-

ly unique experience travelers should

make Botswana tourist destination.

Canada is removing the penny from its currency from next year after the gov-ernment announced that one cent piec-es are too expensive to produce. Excepts from Telegraph.co.uk

Canada to phase out pennies

What’s the difference between a lawyer and God? God doesn’t think he’s a lawyer

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

Executives speak a language of their own.

A French diplomat recently shrugged

at news that Tunisians were rejecting

his language and enrolling in English

classes. “You can’t be in this globalised

world without being able to speak Eng-

lish,” he said.

How will these eager new English

speakers fare? If you believe Jean-Paul

Nerrière, they will learn enough to

communicate with Peruvians and In-

donesians but not enough to talk to

Britons, Americans or Australians

As a long-time IBM executive, Mr Ner-

rière, a Frenchman, spent years observ-

ing English conversations. When a

Japanese employee met a Belgian, a

Chilean and an Italian, they managed.

None spoke English brilliantly but

each knew the others were making

mistakes too. When an American or

British manager walked in, everything

changed. The native speakers talked

too fast and used mysterious expres-

sions, such as “from the horse’s

mouth” (which horse?). The others

clammed up.

Mr Nerrière saw no need for this sense

of inferiority. His own English may, to

a native-speaker, have sounded heavily

accented. But he noticed that interna-

tional clients understood him better

than they did his Texan boss. This led

him to develop Globish, a language of

1,500 English words that he judged

perfectly sufficient for international

business. Globish speakers avoid all

figurative language and never tell

jokes.

Globish, as presented by Mr Nerrière

in his language courses and books, is

more than a lingua franca. It is a libera-

tion movement, freeing its speakers from

any need to engage with Anglophone

literature, culture or humour.

Mr Nerrière’s thesis has merit. Globish

is spoken wherever prices are negotiated

and deals signed.

But there is another group of non-native

English speakers. Their vocabulary is

bigger than 1,500 words. They engage

with native English speakers with confi-

dence. And they are taking over the

world.

I have had two opportunities to observe

them recently. Last year, I moderated a

discussion of heads of European tele-

communications groups, including

César Alierta of Spain’s Telefónica,

Franco Bernabè of Telecom Italia and

Ben Verwaayen, the Dutch head of Al-

catel-Lucent of France. And last week I

chaired a discussion of shipping leaders

from, among other places, Greece, Italy,

South Korea, Finland and the Nether-

lands.

The discussions were fast, free-flowing –

and entirely in English. There were fre-

quent questions from the audience.

Speaking at a conference is hard enough

in your own language. There is the nerv-

ousness of being on stage, the discom-

fort of the clipped-on microphone and,

above all, the lights – sweaty-hot and so

bright you can barely make out your

script.

But this is the extraordinary feature of

this international under-the-lights bri-

gade. They can manage without scripts.

When the subject changes, they impro-

vise. You can appreciate how impressive

this is only if you have attempted to mas-

ter a foreign language yourself. These

elite performers actually do better than

many native English speakers. Multina-

tional audiences find it easier to under-

stand them because, in accordance with

Mr Nerrière’s strictures, they avoid fig-

urative language.

How do they manage to raise their Eng-

lish to this level? Do you need to start

young? Intuitively you would think so,

but Lessons from Good Language Learners, a 2008 collection of research studies,

finds that, while early starters do have

the edge, the advantage is not universal

or overwhelming. There are people who

sit in school language classes for years

and can barely order a beer.

Joan Rubin, a pioneering researcher,

argued that effective language learners

are prepared to guess – from context

and from verbal and non-verbal clues.

They are good at talking their way

round a problem if they don’t have the

exact words. They can live with uncer-

tainty; good language learners don’t

mind making mistakes.

It is, of course, far easier to learn Eng-

lish if you live, study or work in an Eng-

lish-speaking country. Having to pay

bills, listen to lectures and tell colleagues

how you like your coffee are fast ways to

fluency.

Above all, language learning requires

motivation. And as it is no longer possi-

ble to get to the top of most internation-

al organisations without a thorough

command of English, that should be

motivation for many. Globish is all very

well; the best of those new English

learners should be aiming higher.

By Michael Skapinker for the Finan-

cial Times.

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

Report on the Cutty Sark According to the chairman of the Cut-ty Sark Trust, Maldwin Drummond, visitors to the newly restored 19th–century tea clipper – to be opened by the Queen– will see the ship as she was in her heyday, "as though for some unexplained reason the crew had gone ashore". Odd: I didn't realise they had shop-ping–centre–style glass lifts in their ships in 1869. The new Cutty Sark has three. One entire side of the vessel is now dominated by a 30–foot high steel tower to hold two of the lifts, rearing up above the ship's open main deck like a small block of flats. The tower also contains an air–conditioning plant. In another conspicuous nod to the mall experience, the Cutty Sark will be the first Victorian sailing vessel in the history of the world to be fully

air–conditioned. The new "steelwork lower deck, of contemporary design, incorporating an amphitheatre feature" in the main hold might come as a sur-prise to 19th–century seafarers, too. Then there's the glass pod that's been plonked, quite clearly visible, on the open main deck to accommodate a staircase. The old stairwells were of wood, but that's so 19th–century. There's yet a third glass lift, cutting right through the ship itself, popping up on that open deck with a glass pod of its own. The lower end of this lift is the first thing you see when you enter the Cutty Sark, along with a bright new fir ceiling that looks like my kitch-en table. All the decks, indeed, are new – the main deck is plywood, with a thin teak veneer on top. A new zinc and copper coating – a copy of the original material – has been placed on the hull to add extra bling for visitors.

But the key change is even more dra-matic. Twenty-eight steel girders have been attached to the sides of the ship, bolted to modern thick, grey steel braces which run across and along the decks. The ship's original planks and metal-work are essentially stuck on to this modern frame. The new Cutty Sark dan-gles from the girders, 11 feet off the ground, to create what the Trust calls "a corporate hospitality venue to rival Tate Modern" underneath. All the way around the hull, extending about halfway up it and several feet out-wards in each direction, sweeps a giant new smoked glass cushion, utterly oblite-rating the ship's thrilling lines. From outside, at least in the daytime, you can't see the shape of the Cutty Sark's hull anymore. You can't see her prow. Her wonderful, gilded stern is almost totally obscured from casual view by the glass surround. To get any real sense of the ship, you must pay up your £12 and go inside. In her years of cutting ribbons, Her Maj-esty has had to smile politely at many brave new mistakes. But few can com-pete with this clucking, Grade A, Ber-nard Matthews–class turkey. One of Britain's most precious maritime treas-ures now looks like it has run aground in a giant greenhouse. "It reminds me of a funfair ride," said Steffan Meyric Hughes, news editor of Classic Boat magazine. "Just about every-body [in the historic ship world] is agreed that the ship should not be on legs. It is undignified, as well as being structurally inadvisable." English Herit-age has condemned the lift tower; the Greenwich Foundation, which runs the Old Royal Naval College next door, called it "very disappointing… a signifi-cant visual intrusion". The project was supposed to take three years, and cost £25million. It has ended up taking six years, and costing £50million. The contractors and the project managers have been sacked. The Heritage Lottery Fund, which is paying most of the bills, suspended funding for almost a year amid "serious concerns" over the operation's "governance and

financial controls". Mr Drummond ad-mitted that his Cutty Sark Trust issued misleading statements about the project, at variance with what the trust has said in internal documents. But what is worst of all is that for many experts, including the Cutty Sark's own former chief engineer, Professor Peter Mason, the new Disney Sark actually puts the very survival of the ship in dan-ger. Professor Mason resigned from the project in 2009 after computer simula-tions showed that hanging it from the steel girders would put unacceptable strains on the vessel. "The lifting sup-port system will do damage to the fabric of the ship," he said. "It will have quite an impact on it. They should not lift up the ship." Julian Harrap, the naval architect be-hind the restoration of Brunel's SS Great Britain, said: "They are putting the artefact itself at risk, and that's a fundamental issue." Martyn Heighton, director of National Historic Ships, the maritime equivalent of English Herit-age, said: "This is an extremely delicate object; we did not believe she should be lifted, and you don't try out something new on the Cutty Sark." Some of the ship was, of course, de-stroyed in a terrible fire in 2007. But that fire was avoidable; and most of the new damage seems deliberate. William Edgerley, one of the Cutty Sark trustees, asserts that the ship is under far less strain now than before, when she rested on her keel in dry dock. "At the beginning of the restoration, Cutty Sark was found to be in an even worse condition than had previously been assessed," he says. "The conservation works have included the installation of a new steel structure inside the original wrought–iron frames.

Personal note: A relative of mine trained and instructed on the “Cutty” - Editor

Above article will be continued in the Fall Newsletter—it is from The Telegraph

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

British. Analysts said Wednesday’s meeting also represented a strategic move by the media-savvy Sinn Fein — not only the largest Catholic political party in Northern Ire-land but also a growing political force in the Republic of Ireland — to bolster its image as a party that is relevant and in the public eye. Peace is seen now as largely accomplished in Northern Ireland, where a stable Protestant-Catholic power-sharing government is in place. Tensions remain But several small IRA splinter groups still exist, and tensions persist in some neigh-borhoods that are almost exclusively Protestant or Catholic. On Tuesday even-ing, rioting in West Belfast left nine po-lice officers with minor injuries. But the political landscape in Northern Ireland has transformed dramatically since the “the Troubles,” the colloquial name here for the three decades of armed conflict and bloodshed that largely ended with the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. Wednesday’s meeting was hardly the first in the peace process to be billed as a land-mark event, but the Queen’s two-day visit is yielding what are viewed as important symbols of reconciliation on both sides: the Queen’s handshake with McGuin-ness; the sight of the Queen and Prince Philip being driven around Wednesday in an open-topped Range Rover; and the announcement of her trip to Northern Ireland weeks in advance instead of on the day. Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, a party committed to the unification of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, said in a statement that the meet-ing’s “significance will be seen in how much we can build upon it.” Although the 86-year-old monarch is the head of state of the entire United King-dom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — observers noted that Adams referred to her in his statement simply as the “Queen of England.”

Queen Elizabeth II and a former Irish Republican Army commander offered each other the hand of peace in a long-awaited encounter.

LONDON — It was an image that millions never expected to see. Queen Elizabeth II, smiling and wearing a mint-green hat and dress, extended a gloved hand Wednesday to an equally gracious Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander, in an encounter that marked a milestone in Anglo-Irish relations. For decades, McGuinness was an avowed enemy of the British Empire — a repre-sentative of a paramilitary group that in 1979 killed the Queen’s beloved cousin Louis Mountbatten with a bomb planted on his fishing boat.

Potent symbolism But in a potent sign of just how far the peace process in Northern Ireland has come, the Queen and McGuinness, now deputy first minister in Northern Ireland’s provincial government, exchanged pleas-antries at a meeting in Belfast that would have been difficult for McGuinness’s Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, to stomach even a few years ago. “You could see it as a last piece in a jigsaw peace process which has been very slowly and carefully put together over 20 years,” said Diarmaid Ferriter, a professor of mod-ern history at University College Dublin. Not all of Britain’s royalist tabloids viewed the gesture as easy for the Queen. In an editorial published before the meeting, the Daily Mail worried that in shaking McGuinness’s hand, “the Queen will be performing one of the most distasteful

duties of her reign” and offered a “suggestion”: “Her Majesty may care to wear gloves — and burn them afterwards.” Hard-line Irish republicans accused McGuinness of selling out and ignoring the Queen’s role as formal head of the British armed forces, members of which killed 13 unarmed people in 1972 during a march known as Bloody Sunday. Organized by a charity in Belfast that works to bring Catholic and Protestant communities together, the carefully cho-reographed meeting was also attended by Peter Robinson, the first minister of Northern Ireland, and Michael Higgins, the president of Ireland. When the Queen departed, McGuinness wished her well with an Irish Gaelic phrase and reportedly told her it meant, “Goodbye and Godspeed.” Earlier in the week, McGuinness de-scribed the upcoming event as “stretching out the hand of peace and reconciliation to Queen Elizabeth, who represents hun-dreds of thousands of unionists in the north.” The Queen helped clear the way for the handshake last year when she became the first reigning British monarch to visit Ireland since it gained independence from Britain in 1922. Her trip was hailed as a success and has helped reshape the language of Anglo-Irish relations, which are as warm as they have ever been. Prince Charles, the Queen’s eldest son, said in a recent television special that his mother’s 2011 visit to Ireland was “in many ways . . . her greatest achievement.” Her itinerary was marked by events ac-knowledging the strained and often bloody history between Britain and Ire-land. Sinn Fein boycotted that visit, but McGuinness has since spoken of how moved he was by many of the Queen’s gestures including her speech — partly in Irish Gaelic — at Dublin Castle and her placing a wreath at a garden honoring republicans who died fighting for Ire-land’s freedom, often at the hands of the Above article from the Washington Post

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

Roman Coins found in Bath

Hoard of Roman coins found near Roman Baths in Bath

The coins were found close to the Ro-man Baths More than 30,000 Roman coins were found by archaeologists working in Bath in 2007, it has been revealed. The silver coins are believed to date from 270AD and have been described as the fifth largest UK hoard ever found. The coins are fused together and were sent to the British Museum. Conserva-tors are expected to take at least a year to work through them. A campaign has now been started at the Roman Baths to try to raise £150,000 to acquire and display them. The size of the find is not as large as the Frome Hoard in April 2010 when more than 53,500 coins were discov-ered by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near Frome in Somerset. The coins found in this hoard date from a similar time and are thought to be the largest ever discovered in a Ro-man town in the UK. Roman Baths spokesman Stephen Clews said: "We've put in a request for a formal valuation and then hope to buy the coins to display them at the baths. "At the time there was a lot of unrest in the Roman Empire so there may be some explanation for why the coins were hidden away. "The find is also unusual as it was dis-covered by professional archaeologists opposed to an amateur using a metal detector," he added.

Riding the M25 By Patrick Barkham—Guardian UK M25 fans can now tour the orbital mo-torway for £15 a head and the round trips are proving popular. Photograph: Graeme Robertson Long in tedium, short in dramatic ac-tion and inescapably circular, the M25 is not so much The Road to Hell, as Chris Rea once sang, but life itself. On a bright spring morning, however, Britain's least loved motorway was al-most beneficent on Monday when viewed from the seats of the first sell-out coach tour of the 117 mile, London orbital. The Middlesex County Asylum, Heathrow Terminal 5, South Mimms

services, Badger's Mount; all these land-marks took on a pleasing sheen when subjected to the scrutiny of Nigel Pullen, the guide for the Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company's surprise hit day-trip. With his strawberry blond thatch and light-reactive glasses, Pullen looked the tour-guide part and did not disappoint with his deadpan delivery of a stream of trivia that flowed as freely as the traffic. Like estate agents or tabloid journalists, tour guides have their own peculiar ar-got: toilet stops are "comfort breaks", Thorpe Park's amusements are "thrill rides" while Middlesex Asylum was "now a residential development of outstanding prowess, ie, quite expensive," explained Pullen. We joined the motorway at Godstone and climbed Reigate Hill to the dizzying heights of 220m, the most elevated spot on the orbital. "Oxygen masks will be dropping from overhead shortly," quipped Pullen. Later we passed a farm where meerkats live 20 yards from the carriageway. "They would be out to sell insurance if we were stuck in a queue," he observed.

After lunch at South Mimms, one of three service areas on the motorway, Pullen was surprised to still have a full coach. Some punters were just surprised to be there. "I'm speechless and I don't think that's ever happened," said Julie Hayes, 45, taken on the £15 tour as a surprise by her boyfriend, James Smith. "What have I learned?" mused Hayes. "Never to go out with a man from south London." Working as a gas engineer in south Lon-don, Smith knew a thing or two about traffic jams and was fascinated by roads. "It's a random thing, it's abstract, it's eccentric. People have different inter-ests. How do you quantify normality?" And so we learned about the man log-ging every set of concrete steps on mo-torway edges around the country and the meaning of those enigmatic blue signs with M25 and a random number on them, which give the distance in kilometres from the Dartford tunnel for the emergency services. Like life, the M25 seduces you with its banality before subjecting you to occa-sional dystopian extremes. Severe weath-er on the nation's biggest car park in 2010 caused the Red Cross to provide blankets and tea for motorists stranded in their cars for 17 hours. Death is also always just around the corner, from the adverts for prostate cancer awareness above the urinals in the services to the coach's own warnings about the risk of deep-vein thrombosis (hence two comfort breaks). Just as we entered Buckinghamshire – one of six counties the motorway passes – Pullen gave an intake of breath. "This is what we've been waiting for — an inci-dent, folks," he declared as dot-matrix signs ordered us to slow to 50mph. "Let's see if there are bodies!" cried one passenger. It was nothing – just a lorry on the hard shoulder. There were several coach tours of the M25 in the 1980s and perhaps it is no coincidence that the 2012 version has proved so popular. The M25 was opened by Margaret Thatcher in 1986 and will endure as a monument to her era far longer than wars or broken un-ions. A visible symbol of individualism and the triumph of the car, continued on page number 8 —————-

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BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

Continued from page number 7

the motorway was widened by the Blair

government, building on the Iron Lady's

legacy in every way.

All human life was here, including the only Taco Bell restaurant in Britain and the Dartford bridge (designed by a Ger-man and opened by the Queen). There was wildlife too: five buzzards, two kes-trels, a sparrowhawk and at least 100 plas-tic bags fluttering in trees. Clacket Lane services is "quite good for rats", pointed out Mark Weston, who works for the RSPB and was assessing whether the coach tour would interest his members.

As we completed our road to nowhere, applause broke out. "Please tell other peo-ple," implored Pullen. "Now I've got this far in my research I want to do it every week. Is that all right, Graham?" The driv-er shuddered. "Find another driver," he growled.

Did you Know?

On St. Patrick's Day—Saturday, March

17—millions of people will don green

and celebrate the Irish with parades,

good cheer, and perhaps a pint of beer.

But few St. Patrick's Day revelers have a

clue about St. Patrick, the historical fig-

ure, according to the author of St. Pat-rick of Ireland: A Biography.

"The modern celebration of St. Patrick's

Day really has almost nothing to do with

the real man," said classics professor Phil-

ip Freeman of Luther College in Iowa.

(Take an Ireland quiz.)

Who Was the Man Behind

St. Patrick's Day?

For starters, the real St. Patrick wasn't

even Irish. He was born in Britain

around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Chris-

tian family with a townhouse, a country

villa, and plenty of slaves.

What's more, Patrick professed no inter-

est in Christianity as a young boy, Free-

man noted.

At 16, Patrick's world turned: He was

kidnapped and sent overseas to tend

sheep as a slave in the chilly, mountain-

ous countryside of Ireland for seven

years. (See Ireland pictures.)

"It was just horrible for him," Freeman

said. "But he got a religious conversion

while he was there and became a very

deeply believing Christian."

St. Patrick's Disembodied Voices

According to folklore, a voice came to

Patrick in his dreams, telling him to es-

cape. He found passage on a pirate ship

back to Britain, where he was reunited

with his family. The voice then told him

to go back to Ireland.

Memorial to long time member FREEMAN C. THIBAULT (Age 74) Of Adamstown, MD died on June 14, 2012 at Frederick Memorial Hospital. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Margot Thibault; his son, Lt. Col. Charles K. Thi-bault, USAFR and wife, Crystal; a sister, Patricia Knowles; a brother, David Thi-bault and wife, Brooke; and three grand-children, Chas, Joshua and Jason. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Colette in 1991. A memorial service was held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 23 at Bucking-ham's Choice, 3200 Baker Circle, Ad-amstown, MD 21710. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Bucking-ham's Choice Residents Assistance Fund at the above address.

Prince Harry in Jamaica

The prince, who was on a visit to Jamaica to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, was watching a group of dancers at "Rise Life", a project for young people in one of the more deprived districts of King-ston, when one of the dancers pulled him on to the dance floor. Wearing blue suede shoes and beige trou-sers, Harry danced with the group for a short while to cheers and applause from onlookers. Prince Harry began his over-seas tour in Belize and has also paid an official visit to the Bahamas. Above article from The Telegraph.

Prince Harry dances up a storm in Jamaica in blue suede shoes His choice of footwear was more Elvis Presley than Bob Marley, but Prince Harry showed off his danc-ing skills in a pair of blue suede shoes as he danced to reggae music on his official tour of Jamaica.

Programming

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof pro-grams, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.— Rich Cook Quote 738

Page 9 of 10

BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

BCSNA Autumn Newsletter 2012

This one really brings back some lovely memories!... read on... I remember the clothes line. Just like Mum was here again explain-ing how to hang clothes. Mum's Clothesline... I remember... 1. Hang socks by the toes not the top. 2. Hang pants by the legs not the waistband. Remember?? You have to be a certain age to appre-ciate this. I can hear my mother now.......

THE BASIC RULES FOR

CLOTHESLINES: (if you don't know what clotheslines are, better skip this) 1. You had to wash the

clothes line before hanging any clothes - walk the entire lengths of each line with a damp cloth around the lines. 2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites," and hang them first. 3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail!. What would the neighbors think? 4. Wash day on a Monday! Never hang clothes on the weekend, or Sun-day, for Heaven's sake! 5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in the middle (perverts & busybodies, y'know!) 6. It didn't matter if it was sub zero weather ... clothes would "freeze-dry." 7. Always gather the clothes pins

when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were "tacky!" 8. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item. 9. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed. 10. IRONED?! Well, that's a whole other subject!

A POEM (Anon)

A clothesline was a news forecast To neighbors passing by, There were no secrets you could keep When clothes were hung to dry. It also was a friendly link For neighbors always knew If company had stopped on by To spend a night or two. For then you'd see the "fancy sheets" And towels upon the line; You'd see the "company table cloths" With intricate designs. The line announced a baby's birth From folks who lived inside - As brand new infant clothes were hung, So carefully with pride! The ages of the children could So readily be known By watching how the sizes changed, You'd know how much they'd grown! It also told when illness struck, As extra sheets were hung; Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too, Haphazardly were strung. It also said, "Gone on vacation now" When lines hung limp and bare. It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged.

With not an inch to spare! New folks in town were scorned upon

If wash was dingy and gray, As neighbors carefully raised their brows, And looked the other way .. . .. But clotheslines now are of the past, For dryers make work much less. Now what goes on inside a home Is anybody's guess! I really miss that way of life. It was a friendly sign When neighbors knew each other best By what hung on the line.

Above articles from Storie’s, etc.

Travel Tips

British Airways has introduced its up-coming four-class cabin experience on the route from London Heathrow to Moscow. Starting March 25, British Airways will be the first airline to offer customers first class travel between Lon-don and Moscow, as well as Club World, World Traveller Plus and World Traveller onboard a daily Boeing 747 service. The flights are four hours long. As well as operating a daily Boeing 747 service, British Airways is also put-ting two daily long-haul Boeing 767s on the route to replace the existing short-haul service. The change of aircraft means the route will change from a short-haul service operated with two cabins to a long-haul operation, offering customers up to four classes of travel, with the oppor-tunity to enjoy the premium service, fully flat-beds, comprehensive in-flight entertainment and wide selection of meals and drinks. British Airways has been flying to Moscow since 1959.

**Margaret Thatcher took a neigh-bour to court to stop her hanging wash out on a Sunday—she lost..

Did you know: Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not happy!

P.O. Box 100171 Arlington, Virginia 22210

British and Commonwealth

Society of North America

www.bcsna.com

SURVIVING

The American Heart Association does not endorse "cough CPR," a coughing procedure widely publi-cized on the Internet. As noted in the 2010 American Heart Associa-tion Guidelines for Cardiopulmo-nary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care, “cough CPR” is not useful for unresponsive vic-tims and should not be taught to lay rescuers. During a sudden arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), it may be possible for a conscious, responsive person to cough forcefully and repet-itively to maintain enough blood flow to the brain to remain con-scious for a few seconds until the arrhythmia is treated. Blood flow is

maintained by increased pressure in the chest that occurs during forceful coughs. This has been mislabeled "cough CPR," although it's not a form of traditional resuscitation. Why isn't "cough CPR" appropriate in CPR training courses? "Cough CPR" should not be taught in lay-rescuer CPR courses because it is generally not useful in the pre-hospital setting. In virtually all lay-rescuer CPR courses, the finding that signals an emergency is the vic-tim's unresponsiveness. Unrespon-sive victims will not be able to per-form "cough CPR." Are there situations when "cough CPR" is appropriate?

“Cough” CPR may be considered in

settings such as the cardiac catheteri-zation laboratory where patients are conscious and constantly monitored (for example, with an ECG ma-chine). A nurse or physician is also present who can instruct and coach the patients to cough forcefully every one to three seconds during the ini-tial seconds of a sudden arrhythmia. However, as this is not effective in all patients, it should not delay de-finitive treatment.

Above article from the American Heart Associ-ation

If you are not receiving your B&CSNA newsletter in glorious col-our via email please make sure that we have your email address (this will also save the club some pennies) send your email address to: anita@darkassociates.com