"St. George's peace be with you masters! Have you seen aught of a falconer yonder"
Rob K
Your criticism of the Commando Cubs story reminds me of a German propaganda screed aimed at the Superman Comics of that era. Lighten up, its not Adult Fiction, Few Adult Fiction stories are much more believable for that matter.
There were plenty of Americans living in the UK with their families during WW2, military officers, diplomatic staff, scientists and engineers, staff of American owned companies, etc. Its likely those American kids going to English schools would hang together.
The US Boy scouts had a Sea Scouts branch that taught kids to navigate and handle seagoing boats including sail boats. Those youngsters often would later join the navy or merchant marine.
A couple of years ago I saw one of our books which was a largish compendium a bit like this. There was some really cool stuff in it, including a story about a cat who worked as a waitress ... or ran a bar or something like that. For the life of me I can't find it. Anyone know??
she had the disease we now call "Sleep Apnia". She'd always have a lazy and half-hearted attitude towards her new job, based on the racist stereotype of a lazy, dimwitted African-American servant. She would start off by being bored or going overboard, giving customers more than they deserved. She was the ultimate terrible employee. She'd always start off with the attitude that "this new job will be easy to handle" (a snap), (e.g. she'd finally succeed at keeping a job for more than one day). But, then, she'd always fall asleep, and lose her job on her first day, as ALWAYS happened! (Back in the late 1800s till the mid 20th Century, "Sleepin' Lena" was a generic term for a woman who slept a lot, or had sleep apnia).
Robb, Glad you bought this character to our attention. But!Quoteshe had the disease we now call "Sleep Apnia". She'd always have a lazy and half-hearted attitude towards her new job, based on the racist stereotype of a lazy, dimwitted African-American servant. She would start off by being bored or going overboard, giving customers more than they deserved. She was the ultimate terrible employee. She'd always start off with the attitude that "this new job will be easy to handle" (a snap), (e.g. she'd finally succeed at keeping a job for more than one day). But, then, she'd always fall asleep, and lose her job on her first day, as ALWAYS happened! (Back in the late 1800s till the mid 20th Century, "Sleepin' Lena" was a generic term for a woman who slept a lot, or had sleep apnia).
Having a 'lazy and half-hearted attitude towards a job' is not a characteristic of somebody with Sleep Apnea
I have Sleep Apnea myself. Basically, in some people, quite commonly if you get older, and particularly if you have a sedentary job like a Truck Driver - where you don't get a lot of physical exercise,or if you are overweight, work night-shifts regularly or keep bad hours like regularly staying up most of the night, you may not enter deep sleep at night because your throat constricts and you - for a microsecond- stop breathing. You are not at all aware of this. So your body kick-starts itself, without waking you.This can happen multiple times during a night. I wasn't conscious of this but my wife certainly was. At the time and for many years after,I was working from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 5 days a week as a teacher, a lot of that time multi-tasking, keeping tabs on up to 30 students and constantly on my feet. And quite alert. What did happen tho, was when I came home in the evening, I would nod off in a chair for about an hour.
When I realized why that was happening, and when I put a medical remedial program in place, I ceased doing that. You wouldn't believe how common sleep Apnea is. Many people would have the condition [not a disease] and be completely aware of it.
Hey, I'm not angry, offended or upset. just wanted to set the record straight!
Cheers!
For the record, the chronic condition where someone falls asleep all the time is narcolepsy. It's a chronic condition that can really screw with your life. I once talked with a guy with narcolepsy. He said he couldn't drive because he never knew if he'd fall asleep at the wheel. Here's a description from the Mayo Clinic site:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcolepsy/symptoms-causes/syc-20375497
But, she had the disease we now call "Sleep Apnia". She'd always have a lazy and half-hearted attitude towards her new job, based on the racist stereotype of a lazy, dimwitted African-American servant.
QuoteBut, she had the disease we now call "Sleep Apnia". She'd always have a lazy and half-hearted attitude towards her new job, based on the racist stereotype of a lazy, dimwitted African-American servant.
Or perhaps its because she was a bloody cat. Have you ever seen a cat that did not fall asleep without a moments notice and sleep 18-20 hours a day? Have you ever known a cat to ever show a good work ethic?
Precisely why it was not likely a coincidence that "Sleepin' Lena" was chosen to be an anthropomorphic cat, as it was a way to emphasize the racist stereotypical lazy Black fat lady to poke fun at the supposedly "subhuman" African Americans.