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?

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Old People; or, The Dread Pirate Dewey Returns to his Dread Ways!





Shipmates, 

       As you’ve probably deduced from the title of this missive, I, the Dread Pirate Dewey, have once more let loose the dogs of war to take arms against a sea of troubles!* And let me tell you my fine friends, the seas are aboil with trouble! Trouble with a capital T, or, to be more accurate, the capitals AARP!** During my time ashore, this old salty dog had begun to feel as though perhaps he’d been too hard on the aged patrons that plagued my nightmares. Perhaps the leering faces that continually haunted those moments of solitude snatched from a busy world were only hungry for love and not, in fact, the youthful sap that flows through my veins. Perhaps it was I, your humble narrator, who was too harsh—harsher even than the florescent lighting on the ship that turns even the spryest septuagenarian into a haggard octogenarian!  

     Well shipmates, I was wrong. It turns out the hordes of porcine, grubbing animals that howled along the avenues of my darkest realms*** are, in fact, well, grubbing howling pig-like beasts. Now, my months of land-based reflection and personal growth have given me pause in these descriptions; I don’t want to imply that every person over the age of 60 is a shambling pile of poor taste and cellulite. No, the chattel that roam the hallowed halls of the Mighty Adventure**** are not your typical retiree. These bovine need holes have been fed a steady diet of unreasonable privilege, high-fat gruel, and Fox “News” for years by a secret organization of people who hate me! Or so I must assume. It is simply inconceivable that a group of some 1200 strangers could congregate and somehow all become so quickly skilled in the difficult art of annoying me!*****  

      This is why, dear friends, I have returned to these literary shores. I thought I was free from the shackles of the quill, but as I gaze about my library and watch the quietly shifting mountain seated by the window splay her wide digits across the screen of her expensive tablet whilst playing Bejeweled as part of the continual struggle to stave off boredom until the next feeding, I know that I need some form of mental retreat, some succor from the great unwashed masses that want nothing but my sanity!****** Thus, I have returned! I hope to write soon about my time ashore, about Mormon interlopers, and about sundry other pressing matters! 

 
*I’ve also begun mixing allusions! Fun and pretentious!

**Look it up.

***I mean my dreams pervert.

****My new home! Arrgh! The name is just as pretentious, trust me!

*****Actually, it’s not a difficult art. Probably not even, technically, an art at all. 

******Well that and 6 or 7 high-calorie meals a day.

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