On Getters
In any club there are four types of bone - the wishbone, jawbone, knucklebone and backbone. The wishbone knows what should be done and wishes that someone would do it. The jawbone talks about it but does little else. The knucklebone is the floccinaucinihilipilificator who knocks what others try to do. The backbone carries the load and gets on with the job. I am a wishbone.
The stars of the Henley Get-together this year were Paul's home-made computer and IsoMec. With the personal computer came the paperless office and now Meccanoless Meccano modelling. For years, I knew that the Meccano system could be programmed into a PC, and wished that someone would do it. At last, IsoMec is born and it has taken the Meccano world by storm. I and my wishing must claim some of the credit.
"Beam me up, Scotty!". The crew of the Star Ship Enterprise could extricate themselves from anywhere with those four magic words. How often, at a Meccano gathering, have I wished for one of those Star Trek transmitters! Certain exhibitors should wear a compulsory warning triangle marked "GETTER". Ask any question of a Getter and one gets the Encyclopedia Britannica. Just glancing at a Getter's model can be a fatal error! Being "got" is both painful and demoralising, especially when the listener loses the thread early on, and from that point on is pretending to understand, feigning interest and desperate to escape.
We are all prone, at times, to be Getters. Having laboured long researching, designing and building a model, it is tempting to dilate on it to anyone who looks its way. But resist! Give the onlooker only the information he wants and can easily digest. Be concise. Let him probe deeper if he wants to know more. This way, he probably will, both then and in the future.