Pop Culture

What is the popular fascination with the personal lives of people like Joey Butafuco and Anna Nicole Smith? Why does the media focus on people who act on the outskirts of propriety? I suppose it is entertaining to fantasize on the possibility of acting with outrageous abandon, but it gets tiresome to see characters like this constantly on mainstream TV.
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Why can't the focus be on renegade boatbuilders, or wireless telecom contractors, or basement tile layers? I suppose that will never happen, but that would be truly fascinating. I mean, I could get into that.

Unlikely Committment

A rainy Saturday.
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I told Mike that I'd like to have the Tender done for a launch when he comes home next weekend, but I'll need a combination of good weather and lots of time. With Nanepashemet Telecom getting red hot, and meetings scheduled throughout next week, it appears that I shouldn't have opened my mouth. If the WhaleEye is in the water, it won't matter though.
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I'll have to bug Ryan Marine to put the WhaleEye on the Salem Harbor mooring.
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In the meantime, I might as well tile the basement today.

UMASS Club

Had lunch at the UMASS Club today on Franklin Street in Boston with DiMatteo and Elsier. Great views, good food. I'm glad that Ryan told me about it. The only trouble is that those guys now have my club number.

Unimaginable

So I get a series of comments from Lindsey K. asking why she was named a POTW last week.
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Very annoying... even retroactively so.
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Loyal Blogger Peeps know that such information can never be disclosed. It would be like anti-matter ripping a hole in a parallel universe.
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I can't be held responsible.

Logical

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
- Voltaire

Since I don't sing too well, the Blog will have to suffice.

Week 20 - Peep of the Week

For the first time in a long time, all of the POTW selections are males. Don't make a big thing out of it!! It's just the way it happened. I'm not going to pick a woman just to be politically correct! That would be so un-Nanepashemet-like. Why can't we all just get along????

ANNOUNCING...
NANEPASHEMET PEEPS OF THE WEEK for the 20th Week of 2007

Bill Hillegas
Pat Piscatelli
Steve Lewis
Peter Crawford
Timothy, the Gay French guy at the Paris Whiskey Bar
Tony Blair

Next week I will take care to see if any women meet the criteria, which bears repeating here due to the enthusiasm by which some peeps seem to feel when they are honored/disgraced.

To be a Nanepashemet POTW, one has to meet one or a combination of the following conditions...

• Do something Annoying
• Do something Inspiring
• Not be Dead
• Not be an Animal
• Have given me a bottle of Lagavulin 16 yr old single malt scotch over the past week

The Lagavulin condition is automatic. A side rule is that if you ask to be a POTW, you can never be selected, unless I forget later on.

BTW, I'm starting to run a little low on Lagavulin.

POTW Time

Keep your pants on. We'll be annointing the chosen this evening.

Marblehead Gunning Dory

With the Herreshoff Columbia Yacht Tender coming to a conclusion, I have to get serious about the next project. Even though I was set on a Maine Peabod, I've always liked this dory which was popular in Marblehead at the turn of the last century, and is known as the Chamberlain Marblehead Gunning Dory, as drawn by John Gardner.
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Ryan was saying that my next project should be a boat that can be motorized, and could be used to flyfish in close to the rocks.
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The dory design has a flat bottom and this version has a motor well. I can envision three people in this boat rather comfortably, with a fishing station in the bow and stern and the middle reserved for the "guide" handling the motor.
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I would modify the design by decking the bow and stern to be conducive to flycasting, changing the motor well so that the shaft and propeller could be tilted back up clear of the bottom, and rounding the hard chines so that I could plank the sides with cedar strips.
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The boat is 18' long and has nice lines. Some feel that this is the culmination of the dory line. I've seen this boat at Grace Oliver Beach in Marblehead and at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle.
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Bill Hillegas was freaked out that I knew so much of this boat when we were on a business trip in Seattle and saw it on Union Lake, and when I told him that I had a set of plans in my room, I knew that he thought I was bullshitting him. So I went up to the room and brought the plans down to the bar.
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I wish that I had bet him money. He couldn't believe it.
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Maybe this will be the choice.

Feeling the Heat

Memorial Day heralds as the first real day of summer.
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I'm going out on a limb to say that the Tender will be ready. It would be great to have it done before Mike comes home from Washington. Looking forward to trolling for stripers by rowing close to the shoreline and islands.
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Ryan is already showing tuna fever - practicing Bimini knots and stuff. Mark Ryan at Ryan Marine says that the WhaleEye will be in the water by the end of the month. We have to take on the Maddie's Anglers in the Tuna Tournament.
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This is going to be the year.
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Adding sushi to the menu... not just the daily specials.

Waiting for Someday

This is an Apha dory that I plan to build at a future date. I hope God gives me the time. I'm thinking of building it in cedar strips rather than marine plywood.

KMA

More to Come.

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I haven't even started yet.

Cleveland - Minnesota

Lucky Mike is sitting in Cleveland at the Indians - Twins game in the 2nd inning with Cleveland leading 7-2.