From the Line Locker 35

Ideas get thrown into the “line locker” aka “catch-all space in my brain” when I read and sort.  We all read different items in varying ways:  skim the news, scan for a reference number, word by word for meticulous directions . . . .  A friend describes himself as bouncing through life repeatedly attracted by the next shiny thing . . . yet he gets a lot of work done.  I’m drawn in by shiny things too, and some of those i share here, like seeing an ice cream boat for sale.  Click on the image below to see what you’d get for almost $220k.  I think the price is a bit steep.  Excuse the verizon ad.

Here’s a shiny thing I noticed the other day as I was studying a map of the north side of Staten Island.  See it . . . ?

Here’s a closer look . . .  to the right of Reinauer Transportation.  In fact, when last I drove by here on Richmond Terrace, I noticed a new business sign next to the Reinauer gate . . .   WindServe Marine, the folks who have taken delivery of this crew transfer vessel.  Should I expect one of these days soon we’ll see Windserve Odyssey transiting the KVK?  Has it already been in this port and I missed it?

How about water taxis in another country?  I’m surprised by the informality of these transits. Click on the image for the video . . ..

Having seen this and more, I wondered about the word for skipper or captain in Japanese language.  And the answer is su kippa and kya pu ten.  Other loan words are bijinesu (business), konbini (convenience store), and more.

HT, frequent commenter on the blog,  sent along this good news about a “maritime careers” grant won by Noble Maritime Collection. 

Here are three great youtube channels I sometimes watch: 1) for sixth boro and environs, Tim B at Sea, excellent explainer.  2) for the Upper Mississippi, marktwained, showing a very different barge handling.  And 3) Schooner Issuma and Richard Hudson, who has put more sea miles on his sailing vessels than Henry Hudson ever did.

 

And finally, the other day I broke down and created an Instagram account.  I learned in doing that that tugster is a fairly widely used account name.  WTF!@#$!  I made the name up 15 years ago, thinking it unique, a variation on what makes the words “teamster, gangster, jokester, pollster . . . .”  Here’s only one of the pages of folks using tugster in their Instagram account.  Coincidence or not?  I’m baffled.  For what it’s worth, I’m not that impressed by Instagram so far.

We can leave it here.  By the way, my Instagram account name is vandorpwill.  Someone had even beat me to my name!!