[conspire] No CABAL meeting in December; see you January 9th

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Rick,
> 
> Have a good cruise.   
> 
> Since it will be next month before another CABAL, may I be the first to wish you and Deirdre a Happy New Year.

Thank you, on behalf of both of us and also Cheryl.  (Odds are high of
Cheryl having a happy new year if Deirdre and I do.)

Itinerary on this one:

Dec. 3rd, we fly out for a several-day stay in Marigot, Sint Maarten,
then cross the island to Saint Martin, French West Indies (one island,
two countries) to board SeaDream I

Dec. 5th:  Marigot, Saint Martin, French West Indies
Dec. 6th:  Sandy Ground, Anguilla, British West Indies
Dec. 7th:  Saba, Netherlands (formerly Netherlands Antilles)
Dec. 8th:  Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies, France
Dec. 9th:  Falmouth Bay, Antigua and Barbuda
Dec. 10th:  Iles des Saintes, Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles, France
Dec. 11th:  Coconut Grove, Nevis, Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis
Dec. 12th:  Marigot, Saint Martin, French West Indies
Then, we'll be in Saint Martin & Sint Maarten for a couple more days,
arriving back on Dec. 15th.

One of the peculiarities of the above is the countries involved:  Saba
and Sint Maarten are both Dutch, but:

  Saba: classed as municipality in Netherlands, the country.
  Sint Maarten: classed as a country in its own right.

Both are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a meta-country
comprising four countries:  Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten.
_However_, 'country' diesn't mean sovereign state, as 'Kingdom affairs'
are not in its power, but rather that of the royal-apointed Governor of
Sint Maarten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Netherlands#Kingdom_affairs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Sint_Maarten
'Staat' (country) appears in this context to be Dutch for 'About 50% a
colony, though we'd rather you didn't call it that.'

Saint Martin (the French half) and Saint-Barthélemy are collectivités
d'outre-mer (overseas collectivities) of the French Republic.
Guadeloupe, by contrast, is a région d'outre-mer (overseas region) of
the French Republic.  My understanding is that Guadeloupeans vote in
France's national elections (presidential, legislative), e.g., have full
French political participation.  Saint Martiners and Barthélemois
cannot, but are represented in the French Senate.  

A cynic might say that collectivité d'outre-mer is French for 'S'il vous
plait, don't call it a colony'.

Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is a country, full stop, independent
from the UK since 1983.  Likewise Antigua and Barbuda, independent since
1981.

Anguilla is 'an internally self-governing overseas territory of the
United Kingdom', which is British for 'Yes, basically a colony.'