Well, since Dave is on vacation and so cannot convene the FEQAB to overrule
me, I declare Brian the winner this week.  Will send the boys to Cyprus for
a few crates of that jam.  Thank you Brian for all of your contributions
over the years.

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 10:28 AM John Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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>                 Wishing you well Brian,
> It’s been 31 years since we met last in Birmingham ‘nepcon
>
> All the best; as an observation on your email, if you call that “slowing
> down” what hope for the rest of us?
> Will miss your pithy sense of humor.
> Kind regards,
> John
> John BurkeEngineering FellowMech TG Chair SDASanDisk |a Western Digital
> brand951 SanDisk Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035T: + 1 (408 597 1423)| M: + 1
> (408 518 1496)[log in to unmask]
>
>                 Sent from my iPad Pro
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> On Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 7:07 AM -0700, "Brian Ellis" <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
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> Over the many years, I've made many friends (and probably foes!) in the
> IPC, some by personal contact, some on this forum. I'm now 86 and,
> honestly, am past it; enormous strides have been made in our technology
> since I 'retired' 21 years ago, plus my brain is retiring faster than I
> would like. I've therefore decided to close this account with the IPC at
> the end of the month but not without a big thank you for many years of
> information and enjoyment, hoping I haven't been totally useless, either!
>
> As a final tribute to the efforts of Doug and David, I'm announcing the
> discovery of a new half-element, brianium. On the periodic table it is
> half-way between barium and hafnium and its main characteristic is that
> its electrons orbit at half the usual speed relative to the temperature.
> It can be found native only on the surface of an outcrop of pillow lava
> around the sleepy village of Mosfiloti, Cyprus (incidentally where the
> cousins Clumpy and Kloumpios first met). This village is named after the
> mosfilo, the berry of a white hawthorn, which makes a very sticky jam
> and legend has it that the slow orbit rate of brianium may be due to the
> viscosity of the jam. It is also possible that Kloumpios' embonpoint is
> due to an over-consumption of mosfilo jam when he was a kid. The slow
> electron orbit of the element results in the density of the element
> being twice as great as may be expected, explaining why some of the
> inhabitants of the village are also dense.
>
> Farewell,
>
> Brian
>