Mothballing
Categories: Company Management
When moths meet on Tinder, they often retreat to the backseat of a mothmobile and...yeah, ok, ok we won't go there. As much as we'd like to.
Instead, mothballing just means "storing"...like tucking away today for safekeeping tomorrow. And yes, your grandmother put mothballs in her closet around her finely woven Shetland pony sweaters so that the moths wouldn't eat them.
The most famous application of mothballing? Much of our naval fleet after World War II. We were caught naked in a bad way when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. We had only anemic warship supply, and our best ships were destroyed in the first bombing runs. So we had to build them from scratch...fast. In mothballing the older ships for a decade or two later, if we were again attacked, we'd at least have mostly-ready ships which could be made war-ready in weeks, not years. If we were bombed again (at least with conventional bombs) we could then swipe right and quickly be fighting back with teeth.
Or whatever moths gum those sweater yarns with.