I received a Kindle for my birthday & love it!
I've been reading Moby Dick - - thought that as a native New Bedford-ite I should finally read this tale that is so celebrated in the city that Ishmael started his voyage from. I went to a parochial high school and for some unknown reason they didn't make us read this book.
I've discovered some interesting tidbits -- in case you never read the book (or forgot details) the first mate is named Starbuck and sure enough the coffee company that is so ubiquitous in the US is named after him. (according to Wikipedia)
"The company is named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate in the novel Moby-Dick, as well as a turn-of-the-century mining camp (Starbo or Storbo) on Mount Rainier. According to Howard Schultz's book Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, the name of the company was derived from Moby-Dick, although not in as direct a fashion as many assume. Gordon Bowker liked the name "Pequod" (the ship in the novel), but his then creative partner Terry Heckler responded, "No one's going to drink a cup of Pee-quod!" Heckler suggested "Starbo". Brainstorming with these two ideas resulted in the company being named for the Pequod's first mate, Starbuck."
And, due to some research regarding some of the language in the novel, I now know where the term "scuttlebutt" originated.
Again from Wikipedia:
"Scuttlebutt in slang usage means rumor or gossip, deriving from the nautical term for the cask used to serve water (or, later, a water fountain).[1][2]
The term corresponds to the iconic colloquial concept of a water cooler in an office setting, which at times becomes the focus of congregation and casual discussion. Water for immediate consumption on a sailing ship was conventionally stored in a scuttled butt: A butt (cask) which had been scuttled by making a hole in it so the water could be withdrawn. Since sailors exchanged gossip when they gathered at the scuttlebutt for a drink of water, scuttlebutt became Navy slang for gossip or rumours."
Amazing things you can learn from reading!!!!
My librarian daughter should be proud.
