Posted on 05/30/2023 4:52:54 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Being a boat owner is not all it is cracked up to be.
Most people have their first experience with boats as a passenger on somebody else's boat.
A hot summer day on a New Hampshire lake, for example. They board a cabin boat of an acquaintance with a cooler full of alcoholic beverages early on a Saturday morning in Meredith, NH by Lake Winnipesaukee.
To them, it is a fun experience. Once out on the lake, cruising around Governor's Island, they enter a state of bliss while they crack their third can of beer, sitting on their deck chair in bare fee viewing the multi-million dollar homes, while "Miracles" by Jefferson Starship comes out over the cabin speakers.
However, for the owner/captain of the cabin boat, it is not so much fun. He (and it's usually a he) is always on the alert, making sure he does not run afoul of the buoys and encounter the sharp, jagged rocks that threaten to rip his $85,000 cabin boat to pieces, imperiling his slightly intoxicated passengers in the process.
Does he have enough life preservers on board just in case? That is the owner/captain's problem. The passengers don't have a clue.
Also, the owner/captain always has an eye out for the dreaded Marine Patrol, of the New Hampshire State Police. If he makes too much wake, if he goes a bit too fast, if one of his passengers do something stupid like pitch an empty beer can into the waters, he is solely responsible and he alone will pay a heavy price.
The owner/captain cannot enjoy the experience of being out on the lake like his passengers. He is probably thinking about how much he will have to pay to dock his boat in Center Harbor, so his passengers can de-board to grab a $15 burger and fries at the Bob House or maybe an ice cream cone at Dewey's Ice Cream Parlor. While the owner/captain remains on the boat to adjust this and that and ensure he has enough gas to make it back across the lake, his passengers don't even bother to bring him a cold glass of water. They re-board his craft after an hour or so and plop down on their chairs, while expectantly waiting for the owner/captain to rev up the engines and take them further on their adventure around the Winnipesaukee.
Lake Winnipesaukee, the setting for the classic 1991 Bill Murray movie "What About Bob", except the movie itself was filmed somewhere in Virginia. Go figure. But I digress.
The owner/captain of a cabin boat never gets respect and usually bears all the cost of the boat. When the short New Hampshire summer is over, and it's time to put the boat in storage, are any of the summertime passengers around to help out? No, they have all gone home to Massachusetts or some other infernal place like Connecticut. It is up to the owner/captain to clean the boat and get it into dry dock storage, which is quite expensive. $3000-$4000 at a minimum.
Rare is the passenger that shares the cost (and labor) of having a cabin boat on Lake Winnipesaukee. However, those who do occasionally purchase a tank of gas or help out with some of the constant maintenance required on a cabin boat, are forever in the owner/captain's good graces. Those people will be forever welcome on board as passengers in future seasons, while those who just sat on deck chairs with coolers by their side, complaining about the wind, the cold or the choppiness of the lake, are typically not invited back for the next season.
So why do they call three goals in hockey a hat trick anyway?
There are various theories on this but the one I am most familiar with is that up in Canada, a certain hat-maker would give a free hat to any hockey player who scored three goals in a single game. Eventually the spectators caught on to the gimmick and they would end up throwing their own hats onto the ice whenever a player scored his third goal of the game. Thus, the "hat trick."
The practice bled over into hockey about 30 years later.
* In cricket, taking a batsman's wicket is the same as striking him out, only it's done with just a single pitch by knocking the bail off the top of the stumps. From a scoring standpoint, taking three wickets in three tosses would be the same as striking out the first three batters in an inning buy throwing nothing but unhit strikes.
...... and still the area is getting too crowded.....
There are 250 rounds in a can of linked ammunition for the Browning M2. Measured from primer to primer, each link is about an inch long. 250 inches is not quite seven yards.
“...... and still the area is getting too crowded.....”
LOL...isn’t that the truth!??
“I read a long time ago the whole nine yards referred to the amount of material used to make a royal’s dress.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are any number of explanations for many of these older sayings, each as probable as any other. We’ll probably never really know where some of them come from.
I thought the same.
CAN ONE TRACE THE PHRASE ‘WHOLE NINE YARDS’ TO WWII? KIND OF…
Neil Oliver's page at GB News:
That history.net piece states pretty clearly that the machine-gun-belt story was not the actual origin. I agree with oldvirginian that we’ll never know for certain about that saying and lots of others.
The version I heard was that it was the Biltmore Hat Company in Guelph, Ontario (sadly went bankrupt a few years back), who originally gave out the hats.
Very true, just like we'll never know who in the Clinton White House hired Craig Livingstone.
Had a lot of time to think while rubbin’ in the compound and buffin’ up the Starbrite, eh?
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