I spent this week hauling containers into the distribution center. We used to have outside contractors doing it, but they figured out it was cheaper having our own guys doing it. It's a plum job, and the 2 most senior drivers are doing it, but they were both off this week, so another guy and I did it. (By the way, I worked an almost 60-hour week, but I made nearly $1300 doing it.)
So, the containers are interesting, and inspire a lot of random thoughts. Such as...
Maersk, which sounds Russian, is actually an American company. The inventor of container shipping owned/operated a trucking company called McLean, and Maersk is a successor company to that.
The slow lane on interstates used to be referred to as "the McLean lane." Slow trucks.
The fast lane was the "Monfort lane." Monfort, the meat producer, is still in business, but they sold off their (very fast) trucking arm some years ago.
P&O (the containers these days mostly say "P&O Ned Lloyd") is one of the oldest shipping companies in the world. It's an English company, Peninsular and Oriental. They carried the English back and forth to India, when it was part of the British Empire.
P&O supposedly invented the term "posh." It was added to bookings of the highest-class passengers, and it stood for "Port Out, Starboard Home." This would be the cooler, shady side of the ship in the days before air conditioning.
Until very recently P&O owned Princess Cruises, and it still has a related cruise arm.
Today Princess is owned by Carnival.
Carnival's first cruise ended in embarassment; on its first cruise out, their only ship ran aground. The ship was the TSS Mardi Gras.
