Motor Pool

Posted by Smokey Stover on January 11, 2004

In Reply to: Motor Pool posted by Henry on January 09, 2004

: : : : : Does anybody know the meaning of the sentence: "he took a car from the pool"???

: : : : Some organizations/businesses will have a number of cars or trucks available to many users, not assigned to individuals. This collection ("pool") of cars can be taken out for an errand and returned, to be used by someone else.

: : : Thanks a lot!

: : there are a few usages of 'pool' similar to 'car pool' all deriving from a 'pool' being a collection of water - there is 'typing-pool' which is a collection of secretarial staff who do not have a particular person that they work for, 'pooling resources' meaning to cooperate, 'the pools' a gambling system that divides up money put into a scheme rather than has a fixed prize and 'pool' used in the same way as 'pot' - an amount of money to be used collectively.

: Sargeant Bilko worked in, well, was attached to the Motor Pool.

Forgive me, Henry, for treading in your territory. Sergeant Bilko was the comic protagonist of an American TV series, 1955- of the same name, in which he was assigned to the Motor Pool, the collection of motor vehicles available to his military unit. He was a somewhat shifty character, what we now call a scam artist, who would much prefer to accomplish his objectives (rarely the same objectives as those of the U.S. Army) by fraudulent or deceptive means rather than by the correct, but boring, discharge of his duties. Sergeant Bilko (Phil Silvers) was the epitome of the clever and likable rogue, and had a loyal and appreciative audience for several years. SS