Focus on Fundamentals

At the beginning of the year, Stacy Johnson wrote a piece for Money Talks News entitled "Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know." Among the items he listed on the endangered list were videotape, travel agents, books, magazines, newspapers, movie rental stores, watches, paper maps, wired phones, long distance, newspaper classifieds (my 14-year-old daughter read this and asked me what one was), dial-up Internet, encyclopedias, CDs, film camera, catalogs, fax machines and wires.

Thomas Edison invented the fuse more than a hundred years ago. Three days later, it blew and was subsequently bypassed with an aluminum-coated gum wrapper.

That last sentence is pure conjecture and has no basis in fact. Some might say it's an outright lie but I prefer to think of it as poetic license. That's when a writer is allowed to tell blatant lies with impunity. So please don't impugn my poetry.

Suppose that you are a high ranking U.S. naval officer just before World War II. Germany has successfully controlled the seas with superior numbers of submarines, Winston Churchill is very nervous about it, and the U.S. is feeling threatened. Along comes someone with an idea that could provide an edge in the undeclared war to keep shipping lanes open, thus insuring the survival of the Allied countries.

I was about 10 years old when I first learned just how important grounding is. My older brother had a garage band, and you couldn't have one of those back then without having a Bogen dual column PA system with two 8-inch speakers in each column. Nor could you have a legit garage band without the requisite electric guitars. And it goes without saying that no self-respecting garage band could exist without a garage.

When I was a kid, my two older brothers were standing in the front door watching a massive electrical storm through the screen door. I was afraid to get too close to the doors or windows because of what sounded to me like earschplittenloudenboomers. Each bolt of lightning shook the house and rocked the neighborhood.

A few years ago I bought a book called Standard Handbook For Electrical Engineers, but I never read it. It just sat on the shelf taunting me, making fun of me behind my back, sticking its $150 tongue out at me.

"I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee." -Bella Abzug

Yesterday I went to a meeting carrying a Fluke 43B power quality analyzer.