Non Fortran thought from JFK.

[JohnNichols]

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kennedy

LOL it was on a British photographic site today, I immediately thought of you human beans.  

https://www.lakelandcam.co.uk 

it is worth a daily look. 

[AlHill]

This sounds like dynamic inaction.

[JohnNichols]

Perhaps. 

But I have never thrown a wooden boat against a destroyer in the South Pacific filled with very hungry sharks. 

[jimdempseyatthecove]

I love the English language... ambiguity abounds!

is "I" filled with very hungry sharks?

is the wooden boat filled with very hungry sharks?

is the destroyer filled with very hungry sharks?

is the South Pacific filled with very hungry sharks?

Jim Dempsey

[JohnNichols]

Jim: 

Thanks for the comment, I laughed, then cried, and then laughed again, whilst crying.  

My kindergarten teacher, Mrs Paul, who was a close family friend, as I found out later, taught me context.  Sharks live in water, not in destroyers and not in PT boats.  The reason we can understand any sentence is that we understand the English symbols and the context.  

As my grandmother, an English teacher, once told me, your 英語 is as appalling as your paternal grandfather's English.  I was about 14 at the time, so I am well aware of my failings.  Brutal grandmothers of the world unite.  

My 15-year-old daughter, yesterday, reminded me, whilst eating at a Chinese restaurant, she is Chinese, that the old lady who hit me with a handbag once, for something I said to my second daughter, 爸爸, she should have put a brick in her bag when she hit you.  My last daughter has a way with words.  

爸爸, she said recently, "those Chinese people are talking about you".   

You should be able to learn the Chinese symbol from the context.  

JFK was apparently saved by two Islanders in the war, at considerable risk.  He invited them to his swearing-in, in Washington.  The British, god love them, refused to allow the men to travel because they spoke pidgin English. JFK spoke pidgin.  They sent two officials instead of the brave men.  I learned this story by reading the Guardian, whilst eating Chinese with my 女兒. The Guardian, yesterday, reported that JFK's 女兒, who is the female ambassador to Australia, met the children of the rescuers in the Solomon Islands.  

No Fortran was hurt in the typing of this message.  

John