[rescue] Re: Alphaserver

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Rip Loomis writes, quoting me ...

> > All kidding aside, at least you have a pretty good idea that
> > it's British
> > currency at issue; with "dollars" it could be US, [...] Hong Kong [...]
> We always called those "Honkers" to avoid confusion, amongst ourselves
> when in port there.

A friend of mine used to travel for a major US TV network's news
organization.  One of the guys in his crew carried "the money".  A gym-bag
of US currency, say $50,000 at the start of a trip.  He would dole out daily
allowances to the crew for meals and minor necessities, or use large wads of
the stuff for major purchases, camel rentals, airplane charters, etc.

When they left a country, the rule was that the crewmembers would give him
back their "leftover" local currency, and he'd deal with it.  It was not at
all unusual for them to hit three countries in a single day, so he had a lot
of it to deal with.  At the end of the usual trip, the side-pockets of the
gym-bag would be packed full of crumpled currencies from numerous nations,
and he'd sort it all out and exchange it back in New York.

So much of this went on that the crew sorta lost interest in the actual
names of the local currencies in the countries they visited; they called all
the bills "goo-goos" and the coins "washers."

-Shel