The tyres used on DC-8s have a tread portion that contains three fabric re-enforcing layers. These layers protect the tyre carcass to some extent against foreign object damage. A tyre tread, however, does not contribute to the carcass integrity; even when a tyre is worn to the third fabric layer, the normal change point, it does not lose any structural integrity. The mandatory change point for a tyre is when it is worn to the carcass layer; however, at this point, the tyre could not undergo a retread.

'I think no savvy. This one mo' betta,' he added, pointing to the house where the drunken captain slumbered: 'Take-a-sun all-e-time.'

Pa made much of me—ma made much of me ; so did her brothers and sisters, and uncles and aunts, and cousins and cousinettes, and cousiniculings.

I am not, in this instance, referring to the belligerati - Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and chums - ever-present in the liberal press on both sides of the Atlantic.