When living on a boat and bathing at the marina’s showers, the nakedness of other men is unavoidable. Often, we are on the same schedule, heading to work at the same time. Day after day of toweling off together has born many friendships. I remember once discussing this, over a glass of wine at a…
Category: Fuckery
Weighted Coin: Spare a Dollar
I once passed out, drunk, resting my head on the curb outside a gas station. I was kicked awake by a Sheriff’s deputy. He sent me home after I explained that I was just waiting for the store to open so I could buy a pack of cigarettes. He could have bundled me into the back…
Avoiding Bad Renaming Juju
Last summer, a friend on my dock renamed their boat. We needed a ceremony that properly deflected the bad juju that often comes with a casual re-christening. What we also needed was as many unpronounceable deities as possible. This is not original. I stole liberally from several online examples. Wikipedia also helped with the names…
Brooklyn Sunrise
Molten on water. Crystals arranged on a breath. A threat for later.
Winter Arrives for Some
Standing on the fuel dock, filling cans with diesel for my heater, as a dozen or so Sunfish tacked to and fro, at the mouth of the Morris Canal basin and the Hudson River. As I loudly cursed my gloveless hands, aching as the wet snow melted on my skin, they filled the grey with…
The awful rise of boat name pun-ditry
Among boats built in the 1990s, the pun name SEAS THE DAY cracked the top 30. It was just the beginning. By the 2000s, the boozy HAPPY OURS and the medical KNOT ON CALL had joined it in the top 30. The next decade saw WHY KNOT added to the top names and why not?
When The Sails Are Stowed
There are thousands of reasons on hundreds of days that made him happy to be living on a boat. Winter, in New York, however tested him every year. He lay in the v-berth before dawn. The wind howled through the rigging while it blew snow upon the deck like tossed sand. He was bundled between a comforter…
Dreary Skies and a Dark Soul
Kicking through piles of crumbled ice at intersections, an angry white man was not sure if it was that dreary or felt that way because he was particularly so.
Who Am I and We and He and She and They
Many years ago, I went to my son’s back to school night. Typical stuff. In preparation for the evening, each of the first-graders was to draw their family. And in doing so, she told them to pick the colors that reflected reflect the ethnicity of themselves and their family. And, by way of explanation, she said the she was black….