[SOC] Runway 39 Redux

[Jan]

Well, Jim, you can only go up to Runway 36 since runway designators are 
compass headings without the last digit, so Runway 1 (10) through Runway 36
(360, or due north) are all there is. Runway 39 (390 ??) means someone did
not proofread the screenwriter who probably thought that sounded pretty cool
without a clue what it meant (I saw some radio business on a cable channel
the other day, noticed that they were tuning 20 meters while doing something
related to covert military penetration, and were sending morse in the clear
at about 25 wpm (I was picking out words in the clear between the dialogue). 
Usualoly the code is nonsense in these movies.

Claude - My full name is Jan Clute (I have an Irish middle name, irrelevant
for these purposes) so my ancestors were from HOlland (mid-17th Century).
I gather that the dialects in Belgium are French or Dutch (which is Walloon?)
and even the odd German dialect on that side. So I'll just bet they all 
have interesting attitudes about one another. I was raised up and won both
(won = down) coasts since my father was in the Navy (a pilot) while I grew
up. But I have been in Iowa for about thirty years (east central, I could
be in either Wisconsin or Illinois in a bit over an hour (that's how long
it takes to get to the Mississippi, about 70 miles from here) and Minnesota
or Missouri in somewhat longer (3-5 hours). They all joke about each other,
I'm sure. The ones I am aware of, however, are Iowa/Minnesota jokes, and 
they are hilarious. Why we don't do this with Wisconsin, Illinois, and 
Missouri, I don't know. And on the other end of the state with Missouri,
Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas... are these just much more localized
than I am aware of? (Now, just to show how arbitrary these musings are,
I found a family tree and pulled out all of the women's maiden (unmarried)
names and discoverfed Dutch (lots), English, Welsh, Irish, and German 
ancestors (no French or Scots... my wife's are Scots-English as far as we
can tell, so we can tease each other based on these). Anyway, I am leading
up to the fact that I did not get the joke!!!!! (Blush.) So why are Belgian
runways as wide as they are long, Claude? 73 Jan KF0Z #389 (10-X 27,000)