What the heck is Hampton Roads?

No, it has nothing to do with highways, interstates, streets or alleys. “Roads" in nautical terminology means a place less sheltered than a harbor where ships may ride at anchor.

You may remember an English gentleman who, with a few of his friends, dropped in to this place less sheltered after a wee bit of a boat trip from Merry Olde in 1607. If you slept through it in history class, maybe you remember the Disney Movie.

Then, there was the little dust-up in 1861-65, where some folks in the U.S. had a disagreement over that peculiar institution. I can see the site of one of the more historic engagements of that disagreement from a spot where I eat my lunch on nice days. This swoopy little cruiser wreaked havoc on March 8, 1962, sending the USS Congress and the USS Cumberland to the bottom along with 240 sailors.


The crew was looking forward to another successful day on March 9, when someone figuratively stuck a broomstick in their spokes. Another graceful vessel, with the appearance of a tuna can on a surfboard showed up. With much maneuvering, shooting, smoke, and sturm und drung they banged at each other all day with little result - finally withdrawing with no clear victor.



These days, Hampton Roads is the home of the world's largest navy base, Naval Station Norfolk, home of the U. S. Atlantic fleet. Ships like this Nimitz class supercarrier call Hampton Roads home.

I also call it home, but that's another story.

An email from my boss popped in to my inbox this afternoon . . .

Following are my comments on the Project:

Paragraph 9: "Hangar" is mispelled (capital sin!)

Paragraph 11: "Requirement" section discusses a schedule with a "must fund" required date of FY09. Is this still accurate? Did the schedule change any? If this was a must fund in FY09, what is the impact of deferring funding until FY10? Should that be discussed somewhere?

Paragraph 12: Need to update the site approval status/date

My response:

Once there was an African king who lived in a hut woven of sawgrass gathered from the plains. He sat upon a throne carved of beautiful ebony wood. To his good fortune, diamonds were discovered on his property, and he became very rich. Wanting to show his great wealth, he bought a large gold throne, and stored his old ebony throne in the attic. On the very first day he held court, he was sitting in his new gold throne receiving the tribe's nobles. Suddenly, the old ebony throne came crashing through the ceiling. It landed directly on the king, and killed him instantly. There are two morals to this story:

1. People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones, and;
2. Mispelled is misspelled.

I fixed the rest.

No, I'm not fired. We simply have an ongoing joust concerning English usage, grammar and spelling. I'm currently ahead on points.

Yes, I realize I have not introduced myself. However, I will eventually do that . . . assuming the mood strikes me.

Maxima enim..patientia virtus