Had he been alive,  this past weekend my father, Frank Knight, would have been  joining his fellow veterans at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, London in the annual parade. He left his squadron as Flight Lieutenant, when it was disbanded - I’ve always suspected that he would have preferred to continue in the RAF after the war (he mentioned once that he had the opportunity) but his wife was going to have their first child and they chose to return to her parents in Argentina - where I was born a month before his official discharge.

He stayed for a while in Buenos Aires after his retirement (he worked as a salesman for a brewery, then for a steel company) and was at one time Chairman of the RAF Association there,  but returned eventually  to live in London, back to those of his surviving friends of that time - for though it was a tragic and awful time for humanity and the world - today we stop a little while in memory of all that die in wars and particularly this one -  I think that bonds made then can never be undone. So honouring the memory o all veterans, and to Flt. Lt. Frank Knight, our Dad … with love,

Peter, John and Jeannie

About his Squadron:

No.172 Squadron was formed at Chivenor on 4 April 1942 from No.1417 (Leigh Light) Flight which had formed on 8 March to operate Wellingtons equipped with airborne searchlights on anti-submarine patrols. The first operational night patrol was flown on 3 June during which two U-boats were located and attacked. In August, seven aircraft were detached to Wick for patrols over the North Sea and were the basis of No.179 Squadron when it formed on 14 September. Patrols over the Western Approaches and Bay of Biscay led to many sightings and in March 1943 the Squadron’s Wellingtons were fitted with ASV Mark III radar to guide the aircraft into a position where their searchlights could be exposed to reveal a U-boat. This method soon brought results, U-665 being sunk on 20 March and the overall the squadron averaged one sighting for every four sorties.*

Between October 1943 and April 1944 detachments were based at Gibraltar and later, in the Azores. In September 1944, No.172 moved to northern Ireland and flew patrols over the Atlantic until disbanded on 4 June 1945.

* Win one, lose one. From my father’s flight log: On  the 8th. of October 1943, the German submarine U-340 was damaged and later scuttled (all crew but one rescued safely) but on the 7th. of January 1944 a surfaced sub blew a hole in one wing of my dad’s plane - the sub may have been U-380 or U-952 - but they managed to get home and land safely. For better or for worse that’s why it’s me, Q, here and not somebody else.

Q

I’m parking this addy here, until I figure out how to insert it into this theme’s sidebar - it’s my own book in the series, and with my customary modesty, I want to have it at the front:

Still owing - the new ones. It is becoming an impressive collection - coming soon now. Check out the shop from any of these links, meanwhile.

August, stock taking time -  but I was setting up ‘the store - or shopping mall’ on my web page (still in Dreamweaver, unpublished alas, but coming along); found the series of books for writers at Holly Lisle’s shop:  the Hollyshop. As I got them together one more was  announced - ‘Worst Mistakes Writers Make About San Francisco‘ …. But here we are, all together:

(Most recent first - scroll down for all - Click each picture for details)

Mother Nature, by Katharina Gerlach

Disappearing, by Julie Roselia Edwards

The Celts, by Lisa Lawler

Ballet Dancers, by Gypsy Thornton

Hunting, by Tanya Drayton

Genealogy and Family History, by Judy Roselia Edwards

Courtroom Law, by Lynne Murray

Firearms, by …  (you’ve seen this one already - if not: what are you waiting for?)

And Horses , by Sue Huffman, who  was the first.

Somebody in this region tried this some years back: design a garden, with trees, flowerbeds, shrubbery and all, alongside a highway - it’s not too hard to do, as long as there’s some way of providing a water supply and some people willing to undertake a bit of regular maintenance (here, along Provincial Route 5 in Cordoba, Argentina, had the fire brigade of a town nearby provide irrigation services but it went to weed when enthusiasm from the volunteer gardeners ran out).

I posted about this in my other web log, Q’s Place - but I’ll repeat it here: An initiative prompted by The American Horticultural Society (as a ‘new idea’: fair enough as no one has published it formally as far as I know): From small, manicured beds of flowers maintained by community volunteers to extensive landscaping projects along America’s byways, roadside gardens are taking root.

Whoever can take credit, it is a good idea and deserves support from any authorities, groups, anywhere in the world: a win win thing if there ever was one. Best would be a cooperative of individual enthusiasts but it’s hard to imagine that many people that would take on a largely altruistic effort - this is a place where town councils, state and provincial authorities can meddle and provide fine outdoor work as ‘jobs for the boys and girls’ if they must. Better by far than enclosing inexperienced youths in administrative offices so that they can mess up peoples lives with careless form filling and messed up data gathering (but that is another rant).

If you happen on this post - keep it in mind and if you can, approach anyone you can to get this show - literally - on the roads in your region. And if you can, spread the word through trackbacks and comments on your space on the ‘net.

See this morning’s Science Daily , from where I picked this up.

Q

I had  to delete the original post last night. Something strange happened with the formatting and it became a long narrow column (as used in some mobile services, I think). Here’s the gist of it:

Cordoba, Argentina - daily

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La Voz del Interior, the local daily, ran a story on its crime and police section. In the city of Mendoza, western Argentina, a man (not identified in the report) told detectives that yesterday (for Wednesday July 23d.) he was stopped in his Renault 11 in the vicinity of the Military Hospital on Bulogne Sur Mer Avenue, in this city by a woman, about 45, who threatened him with a gun  got in his car and forced him to drive to a vacant lot.

The lady (sic) forced him to hand over all his money, then ordered him to drop his trousers or she would shoot. Once his pants were down she got on top of him and, with the gun pressed against his head, ordered him to satisfy her.

However,  he was so frightened that he could not get an erection. The furious woman pulled the trigger. Fortunately the gun misfired.

The man managed to escape and get home, where he told his family what had happened and then went to the Sixth Precinct and registered his report with the police.  The case was classed with ‘rape and attempted rape’ as well as robbery but was so unusual that it was derived to the Special District Attorney for Complex Crimes, Eduardo Martearena.

Denunció que una mujer quiso abusar de él (She tried to rape me, he said)

Q