the old man and the sea

is there any more to it?

You may not know but I could go on for hours or even days about local fishing practices, fun in the fishing community, the price of fish, the bait requiered with the changing seasons, but you asked about superstitions of the sea and our fishermen don't really indulge in that.

i asked about superstitions and traditions. feel free to prattle away.

It is better to use fresh sqid than frozen squid as bait in the season when squid is in, and this crazy lot go out first to catch a squid and it has to be caught in the evening before 2am or they might as well give up and go home to the freezer for some. Either way they then have to put the squid on the lines and then go back out to fish for real fish. As all the squid is used for fish bait this is why it's practically impossible to buy fresh squid here, and all the tavernas have to use frozen. Don't you find that perfectly fascinating JB?

extraordinarily so. where's walrus? you promised

He's on his way, but you'll have to have him in installments. I'm still answering eateries - remind me in about half an hour and I'll introduce him, still need to get his photo sorted to as my Greek life avatar.

Ok the Walrus as you'll now know is off limits.

I do however know a fisherman who believes (and this is true) that it is unsafe to turn his mobile on whilst at sea as he is CONVINCED, and this is true, that when his signal is on the UK MI5 are actually tracking his movements through his phone signal. He doesn't actaully need much tracking as he never leaves the village except to fish. And why you ask? Because he once worked in Australia, part of the British Empire, and committed the cardinal sin of leaving a bit of blumf paperwork unsigned and now believes the UK government are out to get him for his lack of signature. I didn mention there were plenty of interbreds round here didn't I. And to all intents and purposes this guy looks and acts sane.

brilliant one.

If you ask really nicely he has a few other characteristics which he hides well. He is most deinitely unaware that his little habits have been revealed to me by his cafenion cronies and if he was aware would probably go into hiding for the next few years, as at heart he would hate me to know the things I know.

pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease tell.

He also has issues about his chest hair

well it as is a supersition from one small area of scotland i'd be quite surprised if you had. take it your lake is really polluted then?

Beyond polluted. There are signs that warn you not to eat the fish (or no more than 2 servings a week) and how pregnant and older people shouldn't eat at all. Have you ever heard the story of "The Chicago Fire"? Hundreds of years ago businesses just dumped into lakes and rivers here in the US and they became so polluted that in Chicago the river actually caught fire and burnt most of the city. Although, we have now tried to regulate dumping companies still do it sometimes by accident and sometimes not. There was a company here in my city that "accidently" (not sure if it was an accident or not) dumped formaldehyde into the local river, the city didn't realize it until thousands of fish started washing up on the shore dead. The smell was so bad, you couldn't drive by the river area with your car windows down.

good god. formadehyde. have there been no proper attempts to stop industries using your lake as a bin?

sorry river. need to start paying more attention - was miles away.

Yeah but, the problem with our industry is that it uses the lake and river water to cool the production process. Needless to say that sometimes not only is the warm water discharged so is pollutants. Besides, as long as we keep up this whole Republican "less regualtion" thing we will always be in trouble.

i'm pretty sure that is easy enough to prevent.

Yes. Just as the nearby nuclear power plant close to my house could have prevented the radition leak that it had could have been but, it wasn't. The leak was so bad that it "ate" a hole in the reactor head and continued to leak radition for at least several years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission "missed" the leak as well.

how incompetent (or corrupt?) do people have to be to get a job with them?

It would be corrupt. My personal opinion on it is the "inspector" was paid off to ignore the "problem" and allowed it to go on. It's really sad but, all these Americans talk about how great America is but, little do they live in reality land where I do and know that we are just as bad if not worse than countries that don't regulate these things. At least the countries that don't regulate*China* don't sit on their high horse thinking they are so great like the US does. And, yes, I was born and raised here but, I see what happens and I am not afraid to say that I am ashamed of how my country behaves.

nice one. aren't they playing on grass though? or do they have special grimsby grass unlike that seen anywhere else?

so maybe it's the colour of the grass that makes them unlucky - not out and out incompetence!

Maybe they should dye the grass purple or something.

has to be the grass's fault. top up jobs would be required regularly though if dyed to stop the roots showing.

just noticed i spelt superstition wrong. twice. in different ways. the politics virus must be catching - better keep away for a while. i think the no women on board one is (or was) very common. i don't mind mountains (prefer hills though, not so high) but absolutely love the ocean. grew up near the sea, think i could probably cope with a little island too.

never heard that one before. good one sunny

wearing a ring made from such a nail is sometimes recommended by astrologers here.

everybody knows that bananas are bad. brilliant one liz. btw do you know why 'bananas' is used as a synonym for crazy?

no i don't, but you have certainly peaked my curiosity. Are you going to tell me, or make me use the interwebz to do a search and figure it out for myself? LoL

did you find out? i don't know either

hmm...even after doing some searching, it seems that the TRUE origin of this term is unknown as of yet.

There are a few guesses as to where the term came from.

The most popular guess stems from the decade of the drug riddled sixties. There were theories going around that smoking dried, roasted banana peels would produce a high with halucinogenic aspects. Thus to "go bananas" was to go on a drug induced trip.

Others think it has been derived from the term "going ape over" which also means "to go crazy about" or "to be fanatic about"...the term "to go ape over" (or the even more vulgar expression involving fecal matter) refers to the primal way in which these creatures act. The part involving the fecal matter refers to apes using their fecal matter as ammo when attacking. So, because in our minds we equate apes to eating bananas...the term going bananas came to mean the same thing. Someone who acts a little crazy, a little irrational, and possible to nuts as to throw their fecal matter around!

plausible enough both of them. of course could also be just because it's a word with a silly sound to it.