The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by DCA:

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Posted on entry Strike plate ::: November 12, 2007, 11:45 PM:
ctat@55: People at Caltrans (Calif state highway agency) call the concrete barriers "K-rail".

Some railroad terms:

consist (accent on the first syllable): the makeup of a train.

frog: the double V-shaped piece of rail that is needed at a switch (NB switch is American, points British). One of my grandfathers worked at a "frog and switch" company.

hostler: handler of locomotives where they are maintained:
interesting because this used to be the person at an inn who took care of your horses.

car knocker (obsolete): inspector of railroad car wheels who would check for flaws with a hammer: if it rings its OK, if it thuds, replace it

Posted on entry Nothing's changed at FEMA ::: October 26, 2007, 08:50 PM:
Two points from San Diego:

1. FEMA? Who's that? So far as I could tell the lead agencies
for fighting the fires were all the fire crews, with a lot of support from the state. The lead for information was the county. Relief
was the Red Cross (at schools) and the city (at Qualcomm). So yes, local competence counts. We will see how FEMA does at the reconstruction phase.

2. This was a LOT easier than Katrina. Outside the fire everything was normal--if someone from the unaffected part of the city wanted to bring food to Qualcomm, they could. And, since everyone (nearly) has a car, evacuation was pretty easy. Finally, 5/6 ofthose evacuated stayed with friends--again, the fire effects are local.

Posted on entry Sentences You Won't See Very Often on Making Light ::: November 18, 2005, 03:47 PM:
Of course (?) he gets his facts wrong. Newton was Anglican only because he never admitted to denying the Trinity (not suprising, this was explictly denounced by the Toleration Act of 1689.
Posted on entry Plan of the day ::: October 21, 2003, 10:27 PM:
I remember hearing this as "pompous, aweful, and artificial" (the spelling helped), but my source was the epigraph to a Poul Anderson story--I think. Since this memory is at least 35 years old, add as much salt as you like.

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