Pop's Irishman's Armful

Well, almost done. Soon (day after tomorrow!) Pop's Garage will return to where and what it should be, a subconscious set of principles, a memory with substance. Phew.

So, what's with the Irishman and his armful? I have no idea: the video explains the multi-pronged, fruitless, search I've made to find out.



(The video also talks to the issues the Politically Correct Police will undoubtably make. Sigh.)

Once again I use pithy sayings from my childhood -- adulthood actually: he said both phrases to me last week while I moved them into their new home -- that shaped my life and gave me the foundation of my work, and life. Today's phrases deal with carrying things. Kinda.

"Don't go empty handed" is the first of the two associated phrases. It can, but doesn't have to, refer to carrying anything. More it explains a principle of efficiency, that each step in a process should be productive. Maybe an historial explanation, China, the English and opium.

In the late 1800s Britain was importing a huge and growing amount of "stuff" from China, silk, porcelain and the new hot drink, tea. English ships would leave China full, sail to England, offload the tea and load British manufactures, then sail to India. The manufactures would be offloaded, then ... nothing was loaded. The Chinese didn't want anything English (except silver). Ships would thus sail from India to China empty, and every shipper knows you don't make money with empty bottoms.

This was inefficient: ships had to go from India to China, but were going "empty handed." Making a long story short, to fill these ships (and stop the drain of silver) the British East India Company came upon a brilliant (as far as business is concerned) strategy: fill the ships with India opium to sell to the Chinese. This began the famous triangle trade--British goods to India, Indian opium to China, and Chinese goods to England. Everyone is happy, or at least the British were, especially economists.

That is what "don't go empty handed" means: never waste a step. If you are already gpoing to be doing something, see what else uyou can do to make the thing more productive.

I will add more about the Irish and their armfuls later. Right now I must be off to Pop's Garage. I have help today, and can't be late.


try to make sure you