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THE POET AS SCIENTIST

THE POET AS SCIENTIST, THE POET AS SCIENTIST

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The Geek's Raven
[An excerpt, with thanks to Marcus Bales]

Once upon a midnight dreary,
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets:
Having reached the bottom line,
I took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command
But got instead a reprimand: it read "Abort, Retry, Ignore".

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Form input - by Günter Born

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

What if Randolph Churchill had murdered W.A. Harriman in June, 1941?

In April 1942, Randolph Churchill, the spoiled, tempestuous son of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, arrived home on leave in London from his job as an information officer in Cairo, Egypt. He had become gradually estranged from his wife Pamela over the previous year, and this had become clear in their correspondence. What Randolph had not expected, was that Pamela would be living openly with the manager of the American lend-lease program to Britain, Britain's life-line to billions of dollars in essential American military aid, W.A. Harriman. Harriman was the spoiled, millionaire playboy son of Railroad robber baron E.H. Harriman. In some ways, Randolph Churchill and Harriman had a good deal in common, but, Randolph certainly had not been aware up to this point that they also had Pamela in common. Needless, to say, Randolph was not pleased. He fumed that he and his wife had been pimped out to the Americans by his father in return for American military aid, and demanded that the relationship be terminated or he would say as much to the British and American media. What is particularly interesting about this relationship, is that W.A. Harriman had been sent by Prime Minister Churchill to Cairo Egypt in June, 1941 as his personal envoy to oversee and critique British military preparedness in Africa and the Middle East, and Randolph Churchill was his personal escort while he was in Cairo. Winston Churchill had told his son to befriend Harriman, and, Randolph dutifully complied. Now, it seems pretty clear that Randolph certainly did not know about Harriman's ongoing relationship with his wife in June 1941. It also seems rather likely that he would have been much, much less cooperative, if he had. Suppose, somehow, unbeknownst to his father, Randolph had gotten wind of the relationship? Certainly, Harriman's daughter knew about it, she was living in a cottage with Pamela, and sometimes the three of them together. Randolph's sisters suspected it. So, let's just suppose one or the other of them gives Randolph a little hint, unbeknownst to his father Winston, or to Harriman himself. What would have happened? So, Randolph has his father pimping him and his wife out to an oily, slimy rich playboy American, and he's supposed to grovel at his feet for American aid. I don't think so! I think, under these circumstances, Randolph may simply have had enough. He's going to confront Harriman, and they're going to get into a physical confrontation. Maybe one or the other will reach for Randolph's sidearm, and, BANG!, Harriman is dead. What happens next? Well, I think this might be the end of the American lend-lease program. After all, when the son of the British Prime Minister murders the head of the American program for aid to Britain, this has a very negative effect on American and Congressional opinion in the matter. Most Americans didn't see any need to get involved in the European war anyway. This would simply confirm their opinion that Europeans were all crazy and they were better off without them. And, bear in mind, Hitler is about to invade Russia. And American lend-lease, negotiated by Harriman was also essential to the Russians winning their own war against Hitler. So, so much for that! Furthermore, with no lend-lease programs to Russian or Britain, Hitler has no reason whatsoever to declare war on the U.S. after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. declares war on Japan alone, and Hitler is left unmolested. So, could this have been the hand of fate, the bolt out of the blue, that won the war for Adolf Hitler?

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