Silver bullet: Difference between revisions

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::— Trench Art: A brief History and guide, 1914-1939, by Nicholas J Saunders.
::— Trench Art: A brief History and guide, 1914-1939, by Nicholas J Saunders.


It is said that combat troops would often carry with them a single bullet with their own name engraved on it. A superstitious amulet; a warder-offer of the soldier's deepest fear: ''the bullet with my name on it can't hurt me, because I’ve got it."
It is said that combat troops would often carry with them a single bullet with their own name engraved on it. A superstitious amulet; a warder-offer of the soldier's deepest fear: ''“the bullet with my name on it can't hurt me, because I’ve got it”.''
   
   
In financial services we have  silver bullets, too. They are just as effective at warding off evil, but they are a certain caste of fellow employee. Hard to categorise, but easy to recognise when you see them: the [[weak gazelle]]s.
In financial services we have  silver bullets, too. They are just as effective at warding off evil, but they are a certain caste of fellow employee. Hard to categorise, but easy to recognise when you see them: the [[weak gazelle]]s.
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They are (frail) flesh and blood; they are [[survivor|survivors]], the bullshit artists, those who, in twenty-five years managing securities financing operations, have never quite got to grips with  the idea that a [[stock loan]] is [[title transfer]] — who manage somehow to hang-on clutching dogged lichen to any rock on which they can anchor their  mortal coil in the most inhospitable climes. He — who shall remain nameless, because I really don’t want to hex him — is my succour and my prayer for relief: as long as he is here, may own days may yet be without number, and my grim comfort is the belief that there is at least one warm body between me and the wall I will eventually be lined up and shot against.  
They are (frail) flesh and blood; they are [[survivor|survivors]], the bullshit artists, those who, in twenty-five years managing securities financing operations, have never quite got to grips with  the idea that a [[stock loan]] is [[title transfer]] — who manage somehow to hang-on clutching dogged lichen to any rock on which they can anchor their  mortal coil in the most inhospitable climes. He — who shall remain nameless, because I really don’t want to hex him — is my succour and my prayer for relief: as long as he is here, may own days may yet be without number, and my grim comfort is the belief that there is at least one warm body between me and the wall I will eventually be lined up and shot against.  


Yet the fact that this chap — the one that says “[[due dilly]]” with a straight face, and throws around hymnal [[metaphor|metaphors]] — is still here while so many betters have fallen should give the lie to my belief of course.
Yet the fact that this chap — the one that says “[[due dilly]]” with a straight face, and throws around hymnal [[metaphor|metaphors]] — that he is still here while so many better mean and women have slid limply down that whitewashed wall, leaving a coppery stain behind them, gives the lie to my belief, of course.
 
But still I have my [[silver bullet]].


{{sa}}
{{sa}}
*[[Survivor]]
*[[Survivor]]
*[[Due dilly]]
*[[Due dilly]]