A positive (and timely) announcement from JZ, as if he wanted to...

A positive (and timely) announcement from JZ, as if he wanted to be one step ahead of a significant re-trace on a day such as this...

After gazing fondly at the nice white halite in the core sample displayed in Fig. 4, my attention was drawn to that hydralic lift arm mounted on the rig's mast.

Summertimes spent core drilling dawn-to dusk, two weeks on, four days off at very remote drop-in sites paid for my Bachelors' degrees. But we had to roustabout 20' drill pipe by shouldering the female -end, walking the length near upright until we could get our fingers under the male-end (no jokes, please), lifting the length and, like a circus performer (at first), walking the damned unweildly thing over to the drill-head or to lean against the mast holding arm and then--oh-so-carefully so as not to damage the threads or lose fingers--mating the two with the aid of a 36" pipe-wrench (my most subtle tool) until sure of the coupling before yelling "Go!" for the Driller to spin it down and recommence drilling. Did I mention that this was done whilst everything (I mean everything) was covered with driller's "mud"--i.e., Bentonite, used to bring up the cuttings and having almost exactly the consistency of human male ejaculate?

Anyway, seeing that lift-arm--for it could be nothing else--dredged up 40+-year-old memories, like cuttings, from a re-opened casing; prompting me to say, like the old codger in the Four Yorkshiremen Python sketch:

"Kids these days. Tell 'em that -- and they won't believe you!"

GLTA, especially LTH's!