Good morning Garrison: Reading this morning, I actually see and hear you as if you are here or I am there. We sail south this next Sunday from Fort Lauderdale. Will be reading "The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory". Should be enlightening for me. rr
I’m glad you enjoyed your cruise. I agree it’s great to get away from the overdone Christmas we have come to experience.
I want to comment on your priest and rabbi joke. People keep confusing celibacy and chastity.
Celibacy refers to being unmarried and chastity means refraining from sex. The priest was celibate as they can’t marry but he was not chaste according to the joke.
I know that the word celibate has recently come to mean chaste as well. I disagree with that change and will call out this misuse of celibate and celibacy. It’s just incorrect and confusing.
And, for the dismissive who brush it off with “Well, you know what I meant!”, no I don’t know what you meant. I might be able to infer, in context, what you meant but I don’t know unless you say it correctly. Then again, I’m not an English Major (barely a Corporal).
I went on my first cruise with my amazing daughter to Bermuda, Bar Harbor and back to Boston last August. I was enchanted by the way the water turned from Atlantic green to a glistening Caribbean azure blue. I asked my daughter why and she said it wasn’t teaming with life the way the Atlantic is. At night the sky was a bowl of stars with a bright white moon that looked like a communion wafer. The sunsets, like all sunsets, were beautiful. Our cabin was cozy and we ate our meals in the Summer Palace, all decked out with crisp white linen, served perfect delicious dishes by a delightful waitress, Ni, who we got to know at what became our table (#7) that had lace curtains and a stunning view. We were wise. We ate our three meals avoiding all day buffets which is a smart thing to do. (Well, I did have a soft serve once, more because I wanted to operate the machine) and we don’t drink but got the drink package and enjoyed unlimited delicious virgin fruit drinks, zero percent Heineken and fountain diet sodas. A young man named Louiz sang in the lounge at night, shattering all stereotypes about lounges and people who sing in them. He was delightful, and after a day of entertaining ourselves, each night we would settle into comfortable chairs to enjoy his music. And we met a lovely couple from the UK who we ended up sitting together with every night.
I swore I would never go on a cruise. To me, they were floating small cities with drunk people you couldn’t get away from where a lot could go wrong. I couldn’t stray further from the truth. Arriving back in Boston was a hard reset. It was pouring rain and we had a dickens of time locating a Lyft ride home where we needed to drop our luggage and drive to CT, a four hour drive that should have taken two to retrieve our dog who my sister was kind enough to take care of.
This year, I decided to design my own Christmas cards, with my back to the camera at the ship’s railing overlooking the bluest of oceans. It just said “Happy Christmas” and my name in a lovely aqua script. I addressed them in aqua ink and stamped them with various tropical stamps and an aqua Christmas bulb, a slice of summer in the midst of a cold, gray New England winter. They were appreciated.
We lived in Puerto Rico for five years but this was different. My parents both spoke Spanish, we went to an American School and spent the weekends taking a drive through the rainforest or walking the streets of Old San Juan or going to the beach. It became ordinary for us as kids.
Maybe as we age, the extraordinary is just that, and it is valuable and treasured.
Your daughter's answer regarding the sea's apparent color is widely repeated but false. The turquoise or azure look of some parts of the Caribbean is just the basic physics of light: the sea there is much shallower than the Atlantic and has white coral or pale sands as its floor. The waters of the Atlantic are deep enough that no sunlight is bounced back to the surface from its floor.
The Caribbean teems with life just as the top dozen metres of the Atlantic does, simply different mixes of species. (Arguably has more life in it per cubic metre, being of course much warmer on average than the Atlantic because, again, of being so drastically more shallow).
The guys who would have appreciated your jokes may be gone, but there are thousands of people you've never met who do so now, courtesy of your column. The priest joke made me chuckle (I'm Catholic); the rabbi-priest joke was laugh-out-loud funny. What a great start to my day!
I traveled on a riverboat with Mark Twain, and now I went on a cruise with you and your loved ones. I feel lucky to have traveled so far while sitting in my living room, especially because my chosen form of moving around and looking out is to paddle my kayak in the early morning. I have been under a grandfather oak while a flock of ibises took off. They looked like small white umbrellas taking flight. Your heartfelt experience reminded me of the beauty I know.
This is my favorite so far! I love that you are on a cruise and looking at the stars at night, with your beloved, and your daughter, and that you recognize that the French would have held onto the Louisiana purchase if there were sugar beets planted in Minnesota before they gave up! You are a wonderful star in the sky of my life!
Perhaps I just missed it before, but I enjoy how the romantic side of you has found a home in your recent written musings. I'm single at the moment and in my late 60's. But I get a smile and a warm feeling whenever I read about you and the love of your life and imagine what life would be like having such a partner again. Happy 2024 to you both.
I have only been on a cruise once despite any consternations about the floating city on the high seas.
It was definitely an experience. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary pointed in the direction of Bermuda. I must admit that you feel as though you are buoyant on the water. I stayed away from the gambling machines. Nothing good can come of mixed drinks doused by the failure to earn back your winnings. Yes, I do feel like some relaxation was in order for u. Your wife must have been flush with delight. As for the Rabbi joke, it tickled me heart. I'm a non-practicing Catholic btw. Thanks for this destination journal entry. I won't apply the J word. he he.
Good morning Garrison: Reading this morning, I actually see and hear you as if you are here or I am there. We sail south this next Sunday from Fort Lauderdale. Will be reading "The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory". Should be enlightening for me. rr
I’m glad you enjoyed your cruise. I agree it’s great to get away from the overdone Christmas we have come to experience.
I want to comment on your priest and rabbi joke. People keep confusing celibacy and chastity.
Celibacy refers to being unmarried and chastity means refraining from sex. The priest was celibate as they can’t marry but he was not chaste according to the joke.
I know that the word celibate has recently come to mean chaste as well. I disagree with that change and will call out this misuse of celibate and celibacy. It’s just incorrect and confusing.
Bob Huba
Indiana
And, for the dismissive who brush it off with “Well, you know what I meant!”, no I don’t know what you meant. I might be able to infer, in context, what you meant but I don’t know unless you say it correctly. Then again, I’m not an English Major (barely a Corporal).
Oh, but I should say that all is forgiven if it’s funny!
I would like to hear a Catholic priest's view on this.
I went on my first cruise with my amazing daughter to Bermuda, Bar Harbor and back to Boston last August. I was enchanted by the way the water turned from Atlantic green to a glistening Caribbean azure blue. I asked my daughter why and she said it wasn’t teaming with life the way the Atlantic is. At night the sky was a bowl of stars with a bright white moon that looked like a communion wafer. The sunsets, like all sunsets, were beautiful. Our cabin was cozy and we ate our meals in the Summer Palace, all decked out with crisp white linen, served perfect delicious dishes by a delightful waitress, Ni, who we got to know at what became our table (#7) that had lace curtains and a stunning view. We were wise. We ate our three meals avoiding all day buffets which is a smart thing to do. (Well, I did have a soft serve once, more because I wanted to operate the machine) and we don’t drink but got the drink package and enjoyed unlimited delicious virgin fruit drinks, zero percent Heineken and fountain diet sodas. A young man named Louiz sang in the lounge at night, shattering all stereotypes about lounges and people who sing in them. He was delightful, and after a day of entertaining ourselves, each night we would settle into comfortable chairs to enjoy his music. And we met a lovely couple from the UK who we ended up sitting together with every night.
I swore I would never go on a cruise. To me, they were floating small cities with drunk people you couldn’t get away from where a lot could go wrong. I couldn’t stray further from the truth. Arriving back in Boston was a hard reset. It was pouring rain and we had a dickens of time locating a Lyft ride home where we needed to drop our luggage and drive to CT, a four hour drive that should have taken two to retrieve our dog who my sister was kind enough to take care of.
This year, I decided to design my own Christmas cards, with my back to the camera at the ship’s railing overlooking the bluest of oceans. It just said “Happy Christmas” and my name in a lovely aqua script. I addressed them in aqua ink and stamped them with various tropical stamps and an aqua Christmas bulb, a slice of summer in the midst of a cold, gray New England winter. They were appreciated.
We lived in Puerto Rico for five years but this was different. My parents both spoke Spanish, we went to an American School and spent the weekends taking a drive through the rainforest or walking the streets of Old San Juan or going to the beach. It became ordinary for us as kids.
Maybe as we age, the extraordinary is just that, and it is valuable and treasured.
Your daughter's answer regarding the sea's apparent color is widely repeated but false. The turquoise or azure look of some parts of the Caribbean is just the basic physics of light: the sea there is much shallower than the Atlantic and has white coral or pale sands as its floor. The waters of the Atlantic are deep enough that no sunlight is bounced back to the surface from its floor.
The Caribbean teems with life just as the top dozen metres of the Atlantic does, simply different mixes of species. (Arguably has more life in it per cubic metre, being of course much warmer on average than the Atlantic because, again, of being so drastically more shallow).
Double like! I LOL’d at both of those jokes!! Thanks!! (Did 7 PHC cruises...❣️)
The guys who would have appreciated your jokes may be gone, but there are thousands of people you've never met who do so now, courtesy of your column. The priest joke made me chuckle (I'm Catholic); the rabbi-priest joke was laugh-out-loud funny. What a great start to my day!
I traveled on a riverboat with Mark Twain, and now I went on a cruise with you and your loved ones. I feel lucky to have traveled so far while sitting in my living room, especially because my chosen form of moving around and looking out is to paddle my kayak in the early morning. I have been under a grandfather oak while a flock of ibises took off. They looked like small white umbrellas taking flight. Your heartfelt experience reminded me of the beauty I know.
Pretty good final comment of the year GK!
Thanks for your cheer, always welcome!
Lady older than you from MN.
This is my favorite so far! I love that you are on a cruise and looking at the stars at night, with your beloved, and your daughter, and that you recognize that the French would have held onto the Louisiana purchase if there were sugar beets planted in Minnesota before they gave up! You are a wonderful star in the sky of my life!
Oh how joyous!!! I got a voyage for zilch, what with your comments, sparkling wine and gratitude.
You continue to point us in the right direction, muddied as it may be by commentors crowding us into compliance with distractions.
That cruise is lighting a fire under your literary brain, GK. Great piece.
Unlike certain others, I enjoyed the bicycle joke and the pork joke.
I am wondering if these are in the GK Joke Book I gave at Christmas (and it's a hit!). Does it have an index? Is the "bunny farts" joke in it?
dang I thought you’d make it through one whole column without a mention of touching or being touched by your Beloved.
Good for you. We all need you to take good care of you.
Thanks for the oceanography lesson. Not really the point of my comment.
Perhaps I just missed it before, but I enjoy how the romantic side of you has found a home in your recent written musings. I'm single at the moment and in my late 60's. But I get a smile and a warm feeling whenever I read about you and the love of your life and imagine what life would be like having such a partner again. Happy 2024 to you both.
I have only been on a cruise once despite any consternations about the floating city on the high seas.
It was definitely an experience. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary pointed in the direction of Bermuda. I must admit that you feel as though you are buoyant on the water. I stayed away from the gambling machines. Nothing good can come of mixed drinks doused by the failure to earn back your winnings. Yes, I do feel like some relaxation was in order for u. Your wife must have been flush with delight. As for the Rabbi joke, it tickled me heart. I'm a non-practicing Catholic btw. Thanks for this destination journal entry. I won't apply the J word. he he.