Titanic's 100th Anniversary

With the anniversary of the Titanic sinking, I have been thinking about how tragedies seem to be required to force us to make changes.  Many laws were put into effect that are still in use today because of the Titanic sinking.  One is that there has to be a lifeboat seat for every person on the ship.  Another is the requirement of lifeboat drills.

What was special about the Titanic that caused these changes?  There must have been other passenger liners that had sunk and had much loss of life.  First of all, the irony that an "unsinkable ship" would sink on its maiden voyage had to help.  The maiden voyage of the Titanic was a major event.  All the best were on there, from crew to passengers.  The finest of the crew were collected from other White Star Lines to make this the finest voyage to date.  Many of America's most influential men of the time were also gathered.  I believe that it was the loss of these influential men that caused the changes.

I also find it interesting that the Titanic is credited with being the first to use the, now common, distress signal SOS.  I have heard that SOS is an acronym for various things, but in reality, in Morse code, it is just easier to pick out of a conglomeration of sound than the CQD that was used until that time.  CQ basically stands for "calling anyone" and the D is for "distress".  So, if CQ is used for looking for others, whether or not there is an emergency, a CQD could easily be missed.  On the other hand, SOS has a distinct sound, being easier to distinguish.  Also, when in an emergency, our adrenaline kicks in and it can be harder to think clearly.  The 3x3x3 of SOS is much easier to remember than the, well, um, I don't remember, of CQD.  (Da-di-da-dit, da-da-di-dah, da-di-dit)

Have you ever wondered what happened to the life boats the survivors were in?  I guess I always assumed they were left at the site of the Titanic.  They were dumped shortly before the Carpathia came into harbor so they wouldn't be available to be photographed.  This was done out of respect for all those that were suffering the trauma of the event.  What a difference it would be in America today...

One last note:  Titanic: A New Musical is my favorite musical.  I saw it performed by the Phoenix Youth Theater (?).  It is NOT a stage production of the James Cameron movie.  Besides the amazing talent of the young performers, I fell in love with the music.  It is quite an amazing and powerful musical.

More Animal Joy

In the last couple of weeks, I have had two more times that I have enjoyed "animal watching."

The first was a gila woodpecker.  They were making a new nest in our palm tree.  The male was working on the inside of the nest.  Every 30 seconds or so, he would pop his head out and blow the wood from inside his beak. It was such an awesome and rare site.

The other was a cat.  He lives down the street from us.  There are actually two of these cats.  One has a tail, the other doesn't.  The coloring of these cats are what first caught my eye.  They have tabby coloring and markings on their backs and haunches, but on each side, they have a huge spot surrounded by an open ring.  In all the books I have looked at about cat breeds, I have never seen anything like these markings.  Anyhow, we had a "situation" in our park and down the street from us was part of a crime scene.  There were two police officers watching the crime scene.  There was also one of these cats.  He wanted attention from these officers so badly.  He would weave in and out of their legs and lay on their feet.  He almost got stepped on a couple of times.  He stayed with them for at least three or four hours.

Take time to listen to the birds or marvel at a flower.  If you get a chance, watch a bird as well.  If you are someplace where a cat or dog wants attention, give it to him.  Taking the time to slow down and enjoy these things are good for us.