Train delayed by "cuff link" probem

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

I could make some comment about the citizens of Barrington being so snooty - remember, this is the bunch that didn’t like the prospect of dirty ol’ railroads running through their nice town and causing more traffic delays at the grade crossings - that they were harassing the train crews by holding them up until they met the town’s dress code . . . . but I think Carl and Murphy did much better at that. [bow]

More to the point, that’s exactly what happened at the grade crossings with this incident. I doubt if it was CN’s revenge, but it does illustrate the need for a better solution. By the way, whatever happened with or from the STB hearing back in May or so about the grade crossing delay monitoring and reports and possible ‘fudging’ of same ?

And on this article - if the reported problem had seemed to have been technical at all, I too would have cut the journalists some more slack. But “cuff links” - that’s so obviously wrong and out of context, it should have caught someone’s attention.

• Paul North.

[Deggesty]

I saw a pair of cuff links at a mall jewelry store the other day. They were quite like a pair I had, uh… oh dear… 50 years ago! A small gold square with a raised silver square inside it with a tiny diamond in the center… really nice!

I asked the sales girl about them and she pulled them from the glass case to let me see them better. Just for fun (and to distract her while I turned the price tag over to see what they cost) I scratched my head and said, “What are they?”

She smiled sweetly and very enthusiastically said (in a perky, lilting voice that only young, pretty girls have the capability of vocalizing), “They are cuff links.” (with the emphasis on the word “cuff”).

I said, “What’re… ‘cuff links’?”

She looked up at the ceiling while she scrambled her brain trying to find some purpose for them and finally said, “They are like ‘jewelry’ for men.”

So I said, “Um, uh, do men - ‘wear’ - them? How?”

She lost the ‘lilt’ in her voice and said, “I really don’t know.” Then the ‘lilt’ came back as she went on, “But they are really pretty, aren’t they?”

At least while she was looking at the ceiling I got the tiny price tag turned over… “$734.98 (per pair)”

I used to like shirts with French cuffs!

$734.98? I will stick with the two pair (somewhat less ornate) that had been my grandfather’s. I do have shirts that can be worn with cuff links or with the cuffs simply buttoned.