Catch the Wind

Trevor Bayliss came over to the mills yesterday to launch the Quiet Revolution wind turbine that now powers the Colour House Theatre.

Mark Marlowe was playing piano, and Bob Brunning bass in the quartet that jammed on "The Windmills of Your Mind" to celebrate the happy event.

It can be fun working here.

They had already set out the free booze when The Profit Burglar and I went over to check out proceedings at 11:30. The sun being over the yardarm, we indulged.

SUN IS OVER THE YARDARM - "(time for happy hour to begin). This expression is thought to have its origins in an officers' custom aboard ships sailing in the north Atlantic. In those latitudes, the sun would rise above the upper yards - the horizontal spars mounted on the masts, from which squaresails were hung - around 11 a.m. Since this coincided with the forenoon 'stand easy,' officers would take advantage of the break to go below for their first tot of spirits for the day.

There was a hush of expectation as the admiral adjusted his spectacles, produced a sheaf of papers from an attaché case, and began to read the following:

'By the might of the Navy our Empire was built up. By the might of the Navy it must be protected. Britannia did not rise from out the azure merely to sink back into it again. The salt is in our blood, and -'

By this time the court was filled with wild cheering, and several ladies waved small Union jacks.

MR JUSTICE COCKLECARROT. Yes, yes, Sir Ewart, but what has this to do with the case?

COCKLECARROT. Really, I shall have to clear the court if this goes on.

MR SNAPDRIVER. I beg leave to enter a residuum, with jaggidge.

COCKLECARROT. Don't talk rubbish.

MR SNAPDRIVER. Now., Sir Ewart, do you know these dwarfs?

SIR EWART. Dwarfs or no dwarfs, Britannia's bulwarks are her great ships. [Cheers.]

See how they churn the farthest seas, their enormous prows cleaving-

MR SNAPDRIVER. Please, please Sir Ewart, try to confine your remarks to the matter in hand. Do you or do you not know these dwarfs?

SIR EWART. I should be sorry to allow my acquaintanceship with dwarfs, giants, or anyone else to distract my attention from Britain's, needs today, a stronger Fleet [Cheers.] Britannia, Mother of Ships, Queen of the Deep, and-

COCKLECARROT. Mr Snapdriver, why was this witness ever called?

MR SNAPDRIVER. It was a subpoena.