Re: Anchor terminology

At 19:22 30/12/96 +0000, Peter Flynn wrote:
>		     "When at anchor here I ride,
>		      My bosom swells with pride!
>		      And I snap my fingers at the foe-man's taunts  ..."
>	   - Gilbert and Sullivan, "HMS Pinafore"
>
>I prefer the last 6 lines of Goethe's _Torquato Tasso_, where the
>shipwrecked sailor clings hopelessly to the very rocks on which his
>ship has been wrecked :-) Perhaps the irony of this will not be lost
>in the pursuit of backward compatibility ad infinitum...

But remember, if the anchor had been firmly attached to the seabed (the
place where anchors temporarily reside when being used) there would have
been no shipwreck - its only when they are moved from a known spot on the
seabed that you run into trouble. My point was that anchors refer to where
the link chain is attached to, not to the ship that let go of the anchor.
----
Martin Bryan, The SGML Centre, Churchdown, Glos. GL3 2PU, UK 
Phone/Fax: +44 1452 714029   WWW home page: http://www.u-net.com/~sgml/

Received on Tuesday, 31 December 1996 06:17:08 UTC