And, as with this morning...

Tomorrow morning will be full of regulatory excess as I go about doing what I'm supposed to be doing, so blogging will again be light.

I forgot about it until just a minute ago, but Little Boy was in town today to go see the Titanic exhibit at the McWane Center up the street a bit. I didn't get to go see him, but I know that he and his little class full of smarty pants kids had a grand time.

This morning he was the first one dressed--he came in with his school shirt on and all brushed and combed as close to perfection as little boys can get.

"So, buddy. You going to McWane today?"

"YES, SIR!!"

"Going to go see the thing about the Titanic?"

Head nod yes. Well, little shaver, let's just see what all you know about this here boat deal..."Do you know how the Titanic sank?"

"Mm-hm...it hit an iceberg, and instead of hitting it with the bow, it turned to the side, and it scraped all down the side of the hull, and it made a big tear in the side, and..."

Whoa. The little rat's in fourth grade! "And do you know what about the design of the compartments caused it..."

"They didn't get all the watertight doors closed, and the water came in and it flooded a bunch of the compartments in the bow, and as they filled up, the ones behind got filled up because the water went over the top of the walls, and when they got flooded the whole stern lifted out of the water and it broke off and it sank."

Wow. "And what did they say about the Titanic when it was built?"

"That it was unsinkable. But it wasn't."

"And did they build another one like..."

"Yes, they built one called the Olympic, and it was just like it."

Good grief, the stinker's a derned encyclopedia!

"And was there a ship that came by and resc..."

"Yes, the Carpathia came by and picked up around 700 people out of the water."

"Were there not enough lifeboa..."

"No, they didn't put enough on because the company wanted the decks open for people to walk, and they didn't think it would sink anyway, and if they had only put about 20 more on board everyone could have had a space on a boat."

Doggone it all. Time to see if I could stump him one last time, "Were there any passengers from Alabama on board?"

"Ahhh. Hmm. I don' t know, Daddy, were there?"

Well, thank goodness I finally found a way to save a little face!

Yes there were--there was Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, namesake of the Gracies who built Gracie Mansion in New York, who was born in Mobile in 1859 and later lived in Washington and New York; and there was Mr. Martin Rothschild, born to Prussian immigrants who lived in Alabama for 20 years, although Martin only lived here for the first three years of his life before the family moved to New York.

To be fair, this morning the only thing I could remember about this was that I thought there were some people, but I wasn't real sure. I had to get to work to look it up.

Thank goodness for the Internet, or else I would have to remember stuff on my own.

ANYway, it's about time to go for today, so I'll see you all later on tomorrow.
posted by Terry at 4:21:00 PM