The Green and White Agora

damndest thing today...remember elementary genetics?:  Two brown-eyed people get together and have four children, three of which have brown eyes and one has blue eyes?  always made perfect sense to me, the dominant/recessive thing...but until today, when we actually got to talking about it, the thought never occured to me that I've got blue eyes, three brothers with brown eyes and parents who both had brown eyes.   gee...ain at sumpin?

still wondering who I got these gills from? 

psst...76?...couldn't help but thinking how fun it'd be to be a ravaging during weather like this.  Sitting comfortably below, hot toddy balanced on knee, chatting amiably the daily log...heh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=T4FIS1FnOQg

Wouldn't find me casually sipping below decks on anything smaller than the USS Missouri.

Nah. I'd take it on with my 18 foot Buccaneer! Arrrr!  
  
Quite a lot of water movement there, eh?

the stuff final dreams are made of...

when I'm old and barely able
no home nor hospice be my stable
lash me to the helm and point my ravage
straight down the maw of a storm that savage    

You wouldn't catch me out in that example of Poseidon's Fury in anything less than an Aircraft Carrier.  Give me the relative calm waters of Lake Fenton and my 23' Party Barge (Pontoon) and a few cocktails anytime over that mess anyday.

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
 
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
 
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

that was part of Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, right?

Give me the relative calm waters of Lake Fenton and my 23' Party Barge (Pontoon) and a few cocktails anytime.

My old man was an Army Engineer stationed in the South Pacific before & during WW2.  He loved fishing, boating and cocktails.  I grew up living lakeside in Springfield, Illinois...where, in 1957, poppo and his drinking buddies strapped five 55-gal oil cans end-to-end underneath either side a 12' x 10' frame platform; hung an 10hp motor off one end; and proceeded for the next 5 years to motor party all over Lake Springfield - their contraption was dubbed the PONTANG in local media.  Pop and pals never foresaw the possibility, 50 years later, of Johnny Spartan cocktailing in the middle of Lake Fenton on his pontoon. 

that was part of Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, right?

You were there and you don't remember? 

My old man was an Army Engineer stationed in the South Pacific before & during WW2.  He loved fishing, boating and cocktails.  I grew up living lakeside in Springfield, Illinois...where, in 1957, poppo and his drinking buddies strapped five 55-gal oil cans end-to-end underneath either side a 12' x 10' frame platform; hung an 10hp motor off one end; and proceeded for the next 5 years to motor party all over Lake Springfield - their contraption was dubbed the PONTANG in local media.  Pop and pals never foresaw the possibility, 50 years later, of Johnny Spartan cocktailing in the middle of Lake Fenton on his pontoon.

My old man was in the Pacific submarine service during WWII. After the war up in the family enclave on Lake Keuka, he built a 12x12 "float" that had those same 50 gallon drums lashed underneath. We just anchored it off shore.

Grreat ideas never die even if they go by different names. 

A big thank you to the Gophers for handing Indiana a home loss last night and helping the Spartans move a little further ahead of one of the teams nipping at their heels.

that was part of Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, right?

You were there and you don't remember? 

His nicotine withdraws are having a negative impact on his long term memory.  Give it a week or so and he will be able to remember every second of that speech just like it was yesterday. 

We just anchored it off shore.
Grreat ideas never die even if they go by different names.       

I get what you're saying and resent it.  I wasn't implying that my old man and his drinking buddies invented the modern pontoon boat, but I AM implying they innocently played a significant role in the development of the genre - whereas your old man and thousands like him simply took what was for what it purported to be.  They stuck a motor on the "float" and drove it all over the lake...and people (who already knew what a "float" was) everywhere thought it a clever innovation...even gave it a silly name.  

I get what you're saying and resent it.

You got it wrong. I thought it was a great idea ESPECIALLY since all we did was merely float.

Pontang and pontoon. Different names...