In some ways your point makes sense Plan9, but there's another point of view. if you had lived in a place for generations, and you were told that your family and community could have one small bit of it, it would probably be really important to you to hang on to that small bit. Also judging by the type of man he is, I can't see him leaving his community behind and flying off to the other part of the world.

Interesting question, Chris. I come from a Buddhist country, and my mother's side are all Buddhists -- and Sri Lanka had one of the longest nastiest civil wars in history. I think deep down, people are all the same, good and bad... But one thing I said to Izzeldin was this: when I was a kid, it seemed like the Northern Ireland war, the Sri Lankan war and the Middle East war would never end. Now two out of the three are over... Did you read Steven Pinker's book? The world is statistically become safer. With people like Izzeldin making a noise, maybe there is potential for peace..

Okay, thanks, Chris: here it are the morse code conversations above translated: From Chris: DEAR UNCLE I REALLY LOVE YOUR COLUMN AS USUAL YOU MAKE US LAUGH. From Grandpa: CHRIS YOU REMIND ME OF MY CLASS IN LATIN AND PHILOSOPHY, WHERE I WOULD TAKE NOTES IN MORSE CODE.THE PROBLEM WAS THAT I MADE MISTAKES IN MY NOTES, WHICH I WAS UNAB ME TO READ BACK From Chris: GRANDPA, DID YOU ALSO WRITE YOUR EXAM SHEETS IN MORSE CODE? NO WONDER THAT YOU GOT BAD SCORES.

I can't work out the morse code above, and can't find a Google app to do it...! you guys are too smart for me

Arthur C Clarke the science fiction writer used to live near me in Sri Lanka. He used to never use the word birthdays. When it was his 80th birthday, he said "It's my 80th orbit around the sun."

Wow, Chris, so much good stuff, I love it. I also really like the way that the song lyrics (which I had never read before) span the "oure science" of carbon atoms and the primal metaphor of humans coming from a garden. I had no idea the song was by Joni Mitchell--my admiration for her grows. Uli -- lovely to hear your comments too.

That's pretty funny, Abdul, thanks. Note to Chris: Got your message, will check the workings, make sure the spam-blocker isn't stealing your gems of wisdom

Hey no flirting

Grandpa, looks like aviation people are going to be criticized again!

Good story, thanks Ram

Hey, Fardel, Karuna picked up your lovely video above and put it on Facebook, thanks for the smile

Nice one! I'm going to save this till December, and we can turn this into an Otis piece for Playtimes (see banner at top) or Readers' Digest or something!

Grandpa, you are already beautiful. I think the problem is your nickname. "Grandpa" is not a sexy word. I think we should call you The Pilot.

I once took part in a tongue-twister contest. It was really hard. I should have pretended to have lost my voice, and then I could have just written my entries--easy

Like this

So you can write straight into the box below OR you can press reply under the comment

Okay, trying out a third comments system. This one will add your pic (if you use one of the log-in systems above) and allows replies to individual comments....