Dear Jim, John, and All, This morning, I was sorting some books -- not something I do very often -- when I picked up, quite by chance,
'The Sizesaurus' by Stephen Strauss (Kodansha America 1995). It fell open at the Acknowledgements page where I noticed the name, 'Joe Reid'. My first thought was that this was purely coincidental. However, when I read: 'On a personal level, I have worked in the shadow of a master measurer. Joe Reid, my neighbour and metric conscience, went through a version of the manuscript and made numerous wise suggestions and corrections. No, I mask the truth. He caught many errors and saved me more heartache than I can think of. And he did it all, as would any good editor, with encouragement and not scorn. In the land of measurement Joe is, as T. S. Eliot said of Ezra Pound, il miglior fabbro'*. I soon recognised the 'Joe Reid' that Stephen Strauss was talking about. * 'Il miglior fabbro' means 'the better craftsman' -- When T. S. Eliot was having trouble finishing his poem, 'The Waste Land', he asked Ezra Pound for help. Subsequently his dedication of the poem read: 'For Ezra Pound, Il miglior fabbro'. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia --
