Watching the History Channel on Battleships and the launching of these new goliaths down the ways. A politician / dignitary is present to do the christening. More accurately, the honors are usually bestowed on the wife. I was struck by something. She swings the champagne bottle across the iron plated bow and — nothing happens! The bottle survives! She stands there in stunned disbelief. The officials gasp. Well, the mighty ship is leaving without waiting and it’s bad luck to fail so the manly man quickly grabs the thing and finishes the job. I can’t imagine anything more awful then having the world witness this spectacular failure not to mention that the cameras have just archived the embarrassment for posterity. Did these women just shrug the whole thing off or were they flaming mad at whomever (set them up) with the invitation to be “honored”. It seems so strange that such engineering expertise goes into the design and construction just to leave the importance of such a grand moment to chance. Perhaps it is okay. A generation ago maybe it was alright to be lady like and not smash the thing to smithereens. No shame at all. What were they thinking?