Remarkably, no one to that point had suggested MRIing my leg, which is where my pain actually was. Everyone surmised that the issue was really in my back. Dr. Smith scheduled an MRI for that very day.

Most big Unix machines are big-endian, but Intel x86 machines and older Digital machines are little-endian.

I waited too late to book my holiday flight, so I had to take the red-eye.

Then it was across the narrow gang plank from Forth to Triad, steaming kits through a narrow hatch and down through the engine room and the motor room to the stokers' mess right aft.