Of big brothers and glass spheres
TONY AMOS

Tony Amos is a research fellow at The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Adventures in Mowing - Part III. Tree-mowing presented some problems, too: one had to get the equipment and the worker up the tree. As older brother Tom was more agile than I (said he) he became our tree-mowing specialist. This venture didn't go very far either; the branches didn't easily yield to the mower blades. So it was off to mow, not a meadow, but Front Street, Hamilton, Bermuda (next week).

Talking about brother Tom, he recently thwarted an arrow of outrageous fortune and is now doing well in Bermuda. This was the same brother who rescued me from the local bully of Walton Avenue, who was trying to stuff me into a metal rubbish bin and then held me upside down by the feet inches from the sidewalk, threatening to drop me.

He may not remember an earlier rescue when we were evacuated to the English countryside during World War II. A Devonshire lad threw a metal can that hit me on the head, and Eric (Tom) threatened to "Bash him up" (an excellent English threat - "Oh yeah, you and whose army?" was the usual response).

Tree trimming COURTESY PHOTO BY TONY AMOS Older brother Eric (Tom) Amos, senior partner in the Amos Bros. Specialty Mowing Company, takes a run at a tree limb in Bermuda.

Of course, being an older brother, his actions were not always so protective: Witness the whittling the rubber handle grip to our baby sister Jill's pram with his new knife while I was pushing the pram in the Devonshire woods event (I fainted at the sight of my blood, Eric ran to get Mum, and I awoke with Jill bashing me on the head with her rattle).

And what about a trusting toddler who rode his tricycle around while the big brother threw darts at the (solid rubber) tires to see how accurate he was? He was not, and my ankle was a bigger target than the tire!

You may recall that I found a large glass sphere in its protective "hardhat" plastic case washed ashore on Mustang Island a few weeks ago. I traced it by its serial number to the manufacturer, Benthos of Massachusetts, who sold it to their representative company in England -- who, in turn, sold it (and dozens more) to a group of researchers from the UK, Spain, Germany and the US involved in a project called RAPID Climate Change monitoring. Arrays of current meters and other devices are strung across the Atlantic Ocean at the latitude of the Bahamas and will be deployed for years to see if the great thermohaline circulation system of the North Atlantic (the Gulf Stream is part of it) is changing with the advent of global warming.

The company said we could keep the glass sphere (value $600) and when I told them I would put it up for auction at our next Treasures Sale, their representative said, "…and I hope the float contributes at least some small part to your funds."

A note: I wish the media would stop calling both McCain and Obama "presumptive" nominees for President from their respective political parties. It sounds like they have some sort of dreaded disease from a bygone age ("what are the odds for two presumptives, both running for president!"). It reminds me of the equally annoying "gravitas" of a few years ago and it needs to be dropped immediately. I mean, is it likely that someone else will leap in to the ring and become either party's nominee?

And talking of correctness, someone remarked that they hoped I hadn't damaged the reef by mowing it all those years ago: Of course we didn't actually mow anything. The mower was a prop; a symbol of conformity, perhaps. We were breaking out, rebelling, doing outrageous things that had humor and a surreal sense and we didn't care what people thought. I invented the Amos Bros. Specialty Mowing Company, too, in the interest of full disclosure.