Well one of his more valuable contributions is GPSD which the maritime industry not only uses every day, but hourly. Every time we put to sea the GPS talks to GPSD which in turn drives the chart software that displays our position at the helm. For that code alone I would nominate Raymond for a MacArthur Fellowship.

Actually if you read the company history (the title of which escapes ,me at the moment, something to do with a plant as I remember), you will find their heritage is Scottish. A junior member of the great British trading companies in Hong Kong, they actually issue the currency for the Hong Kong government. They have a very interesting culture one element of which was a sinking fund, the annual contribution to which was never published before the annual statements were printed up. When the NY State Banking Dept. (Murial Seibert) objected they merely converted Marine Midland from a state to a fed charter. As savvy Scots they had some notable success until they bought Household Finance Corp. which was a disaster. They quickly righted the ship and cleaned up the mess well before the Mortgage meltdown. They are now the 12th largest bank in the world and own subsidiary in the Bank of the Middle East and Malaysia, Canada, Turkey and a host of others. In fact as an employee I had a 22 page memo of companies which we could not lend money to as they were in some way owned, controlled etc. by HSBC..

Number one choice among banking executives? No way! Ask your Repo man, it was the hardest car to steal. The ignition key on the console to the coil had a steel cable. In order to repo one we had to bring our own coil to hotwire it. We booked off sick when asked to bring one in.

When this happened to another famous Canadian author, Farley Mowat, he wrote a book about it. "My Discovery of America." It's true Mowat and a good read. Perhaps Watts ought to take a page out of Mowats book and start keeping notes in contemplation of a publication.

By the time a US driver hits the 16 lanes of traffic on the 401 north of Toronto (all doing 120k or better) you couldn't pry his fingers off the wheel with a screwdriver. By this time he has come from Detroit, (or Buffalo on the QEW) and has been traumatized by the new Canadians zipping by at the speed of light. If he has neglected to opt for the 407 (daylight robbery in the form of tolls by the Spanish owners), he is caught on the QEW which is a linear parking lot between Appleby Line and the Gardiner Exp. downtown. Its best then if he is packing lunch and a novel to pass the time. If you are enticed to stay with the traffic on the open stretches and they find you 20k or more over the limit, they fine you $2500cdn and impound your car on the spot. Best to keepit under 72mph. Actually I like driving there as they seem most professional.