05 August 2010

i'd wanted a tugboat captain the most, but I get seasick

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Once again I am waaaaay behind in my New Yorker thing, waiting too long to get in bed, and I only seem to be doing my magazines in bed. Was hoping this wouldn't be only for subscribers, but there's an abstract there. The piece was so interesting because you only think of tugboats parking ships in harbors or hauling a barge from one side of a bay to the other. They do a heck of a lot more than that, and it's pretty darn Wild West stuff.

I used to gaze wistfully at them from the ferry on my way to work every morning....

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2 comments:

  1. ...and it's pretty darn Wild West stuff.

    You ain't just whistlin' Dixie

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  2. They haul oil rig stuff to Nigeria, across the Atlantic, and park the stuff offshore a few miles, radio in the coördinates, turn off all their electronics while they hightail it outta there, only turn it all back on when they've put about a hunnert miles between them and the guys trying to kidnap them to get the money for the delivery back out of them. They haul heavy and expensive shit through narrow channels in high seas. They risk life and limb with barges loaded with relief food for starving people and gangs of thugs trying to grab it and hold it before it can be distributed. All sorts of horrific/amazing stuff. Seriously ain't whistlin' Dixie. Yikes!

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