What if Herman Melville and Melvil Dewey made passionate love aboard a cruise ship? Would a blog such as this be the fruit of such an unlikely union?

Saturday, June 9, 2012

On Eating Dodgy Cruise Ship Mussels; or, The Dread Pirate Dewey’s Missive from The Hole.


Shipmates,

Well now, even if you were you the most cliché-loving, James-Pattersonesque hack squeezing out a living by convincing the reading public that your putrid prose deserves to packaged and sold as anything but dollar-store kitty litter, I would credit you with the imagination to come up with a scenario more original and less tied to the cruel whims of ironic fate than that that has befallen the Dread Pirate Dewey!* After months of surviving the vagaries of institution cooking,** dodging the quavering, germ-incrusted paws of the filthy elderly scamps I serve so lovingly, and even braving almost an entire cruise under the fearful Code Red, I, the mighty main-conquering bandit of the vast oceanic depths, have been felled by a mere plate of mussels!  

You see shipmates, the other night I received an oh-so-interesting “electronic mail” whilst happily ignoring the roving bands of slobbering retirees. It seems, according to this missive, that delicious mussels were to be served that very evening in the Officer’s Bar! Now, those who know me well know that if there is anything the Dread Pirate Dewey can never refuse it’s four things: damsels in distress,*** a good WOD with my CF people, a ship and/or coastal village ready to taste the buccaneer’s blade, and, of course, free, or at least reasonably priced, mussels! Oh, those disgusting-looking bivalva mollusca! How you look so like alien beings come to this world to spread hope and forgiveness! And oh, how wonderful you taste once cooked in a nice red wine, marinara sauce, or, failing that, a creamy, white wine-based sauce!

But now, even though I still have a lot of respect and love for my slimy little sea buddies, I fear it will be many a week—nay month!—before one shall know the pleasure of entering my oral cavity!***** For you see shipmates, I have send to the hole for my sins! Any GI symptoms reported by crew or passengers aboard the mighty Pequod are dealt with by quarantining the patient, and, since I share chambers with a lovely long-haired vagrant,****** they sentenced me to 48 hours of solitary confinement in the infirmary. Although this sounds harsh, remember that this is the Dread Pirate Dewey in the stir! The man who once wrestled giant ice sharks in the arctic circle! The famed plank-walker known for his ability to hold his breath underwater for over a minute! The sea-bourn legend who once spent 37 years on a desert island drinking naught but his own urine! OK, perhaps that last claim is not the most glamorous, but dang it! If there is a mortal that can stand the terrible trial that is the hole, it is without doubt the Dread Pirate Dewey! 

Actually, this has been the first day off I have had in 4 months,******* and if it wasn’t for the...unpleasantness...this would be quite enjoyable. I watched Cronenberg’s Crash (way better than that other crappy Crash that won an Oscar) and Lars Von Tier’s Dogville (if the gangsters showed up today and offered me the Power would I have all the elderly swine destroyed? Hmmmm), amongst countless episodes of Cougartown.******** I have also played video games, written this blog entry, got my nails did, read a Western, slept, and basically laid in bed for hours. I feel like this is a good taste of what my first week post-Pequod will be like, and all I can say is, bring it!*********      


*No I wouldn’t.
**Hint: the secret ingredient is probably not “love.”
***Or dude’s**** in distress; I’m actually a pretty nice guy.
****Is there a male form of damsel or is this another instance when the English tongue turns yet               another sensitive feminist soul into a Nascar-watching, “get-me-another-beer-hon” pleb? Curse you language!  
*****Get your mind out of the gutter! Is nothing sacred?
******Known as “Jazz Fingers” among land-based circles of solvent-huffing, underpass dwellers nation-wide.
*******Pathetic, right?  
********Thanks Kaitlyn! You are the best!
*********Except for the vomiting.

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