What made you smile today?

on board the Yabber-Liner

come on board, especially if you have any photos of yourself in a sailor sweater

Damn! I still remember having to memorize this from John Masefield - 50 years ago:
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.
All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."

I learned the whole thing, but I am a life-long redneck from the red clay mountains of Virginia.
I regret that I will not be able to provide any photos of me in a sailor's costume.

I can just hear your mournful sound

Getting my plane ticket today :0)

But wait! When I was a lad of about 13, I was dragged into a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. I, and another hapless lad, entering puberty and dressed up in tight pants and wearing sailor costumes, came out on stage and scanned the horizon during a scene change. We were both, perhaps, warped for life.
I hope no photos exist of that.

Shame on ya, Johnboy.

If you really did learn "the whole thing", then you should remember that the first line actually reads --

"I must down to the sea again...[etc.]" (not "go down" and "sea", if I remember a-right, was singular. Don't have a book handy to look it up now.)

You are picking for a fight, Merry Andrew, and I aint going to role over. I remember it as I quoted it. I googled John Masefield just now and I see my version is there and your version is there. Which one is the "authentic" one?

Where you going?

New York

I ain't a-spoilin' for no fight, big johnboy. I recall that one version of that poem, in a high school level textbook, did have the "go down" phrase in it. And I also recall a teacher explaining that it had been put in by some editor because "I must go down" makes sense whereas "I must down to" doesn't seem to make semantic sense. And this teacher explained that the "must down" version is the way Masefield actually wrote it and wanted it. And this was because by inserting the word "go" you screw up the scansion and the whole metric scheme of the piece.

Anway, all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

Sea Fever

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 gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray 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.

John Masefield


and


I must go down to the Sea Again John Masefield87


I Must Go Down to the Sea


I must go 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 go 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 go 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.

rjb said:


I thought this was a thread in which anyone was allowed to communicate anything which made they themselves smile - whether or not it would work to make anyone else at all smile at all or not- its purpose being that whatever made the individual smile in the first place might then cause at least a doubling of smiles when the initial smiler relived the experience and smiled again. That seemed to be purpose enough for me.

Spendius said:

That's a novel image alright and that made me smile

But I don't know what 'ring sting' is - so that's where I lost the plot and the image and just sort of said, 'What?'

A baby frog the size of my Pinky Nail rescued from the pool by my 9yo son.
When I tried to take a picture his fear that the flash will blind the little froggy.

That made me smile.
What a good heart.

Aw, very sweet.

Smiles.... when I saw the baby bird that Shewolf is caring for. And after the last final for the 8th graders I work with. I think I was happier than they were. I am done with them until Monday evening when they graduate!

My friend might not have to move! This has really been stressing me out. (It's not definite yet that she's staying, but it looked very likely that she WOULD be moving, so just taking things down a notch makes me smile.)

(Sweet froggie story!)

Sorry about that, Sozobe. Friends close by are essential.
My brother is moving from California to within 20 miles of me. I've been walking on air since I heard of it.

Oh, great, JL!

I've spent quite a bit of time in the last two days checking out websites I've found in a couple of articles re travel deals, and hotels in different places. Not that I'm going anywhere soon, but I get vicarious pleasure out of this. Today I went through a list of 600+ hotels in Rome, many of them with slashed prices, on booking.com. This included a lot of map looking and photo looking.. and funny or beautiful memories.

I got to spend a lazy day with my husband. No errands to run, no obligations to get through, just the two of us. It happens so rarely.

I also got to buy some much needed art supplies!

I was looking through some old videos from my younger days when I was an animal lover and I found this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE4bZbcdrM0