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Forums :: Blog World :: Carol Schram: A look at the quality of Canucks' contracts as we await Boeser's signing
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SRam19
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Messier the Greatest Canucks Captain
Joined: 02.12.2015

Jul 18 @ 2:19 PM ET
Moby Richard

Chapter 13

Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block, I settled my own and comrade's bill; using, however, my comrade's money. The grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between me and Queequeg- especially as Peter Coffin's cock and bull stories about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person whom I now companied with.

We borrowed a wheelbarrow, and embarking our things, including my own poor carpet-bag, and Queequeg's canvas sack and hammock, away we went down to "the Moss," the little Nantucket packet schooner moored at the wharf. As we were going along the people stared; not at Queequeg so much- for they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their streets,- but at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms. But we heeded them not, going along wheeling the barrow by turns, and Queequeg now and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs. I asked him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore, and whether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons. To this, in substance, he replied, that though what I hinted was true enough, yet he had a particular affection for his own harpoon, because it was of assured stuff, well tried in many a mortal combat, and deeply intimate with the hearts of whales. In short, like many reapers and mowers, who go into the farmer's meadows armed with their own scythes- though in no wise obliged to furnish them- even so, Queequeg, for his own private reasons, preferred his own harpoon.

Shifting the barrow from my hand to his, he told me a funny story about the first wheelbarrow he had ever seen. It was in Sag Harbor. The owners of his ship, it seems, had lent him one, in which to carry his heavy chest to his boarding house. Not to seem ignorant about the thing- though in truth he was entirely so, concerning the precise way in which to manage the barrow- Queequeg puts his chest upon it; lashes it fast; and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf. "Why," said I, "Queequeg, you might have known better than that, one would think. Didn't the people laugh?"

Upon this, he told me another story. The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held. Now a certain grand merchant ship once touched at Rokovoko, and its commander- from all accounts, a very stately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain- this commander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg's sister, a pretty young princess just turned of ten. Well; when all the wedding guests were assembled at the bride's bamboo cottage, this Captain marches in, and being assigned the post of honor, placed himself over against the punchbowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the King, Queequeg's father. Grace being said,- for those people have their grace as well as we- though Queequeg told me that unlike us, who at such times look downwards to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying the ducks, glance upwards to the great Giver of all feasts- Grace, I say, being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by the immemorial ceremony of the island; that is, dipping his consecrated and consecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage circulates. Seeing himself placed next the Priest, and noting the ceremony, and thinking himself- being Captain of a ship- as having plain precedence over a mere island King, especially in the King's own house- the Captain coolly proceeds to wash his hands in the punch bowl;- taking it I suppose for a huge finger-glass. "Now," said Queequeg, "what you tink now?- Didn't our people laugh?"

At last, passage paid, and luggage safe, we stood on board the schooner. Hoisting sail, it glided down the Acushnet river. On one side, New Bedford rose in terraces of streets, their ice-covered trees all glittering in the clear, cold air. Huge hills and mountains of casks on casks were piled upon her wharves, and side by side the world-wandering whale ships lay silent and safely moored at last; while from others came a sound of carpenters and coopers, with blended noises of fires and forges to melt the pitch, all betokening that new cruises were on the start; that one most perilous and long voyage ended, only begins a second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on, for ever and for aye. Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness of all earthly effort.

Gaining the more open water, the bracing breeze waxed fresh; the little Moss tossed the quick foam from her bows, as a young colt his snortings. How I snuffed that Tartar air!- how I spurned that turnpike earth!- that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish heels and hoofs; and turned me to admire the magnanimity of the sea which will permit no records.

At the same foam-fountain, Queequeg seemed to drink and reel with me. His dusky nostrils swelled apart; he showed his filed and pointed teeth. On, on we flew, and our offing gained, the Moss did homage to the blast; ducked and dived her bows as a slave before the Sultan. Sideways leaning, we sideways darted; every ropeyarn tingling like a wire; the two tall masts buckling like Indian canes in land tornadoes. So full of this reeling scene were we, as we stood by the plunging bowsprit, that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of the passengers, a lubber-like assembly, who marvelled that two fellow beings should be so companionable; as though a white man were anything more dignified than a whitewashed negro. But there were some boobies and bumpkins there, who, by their intense greenness, must have come from the heart and centre of all verdure. Queequeg caught one of these young saplings mimicking him behind his back. I thought the bumpkin's hour of doom was come. Dropping his harpoon, the brawny savage caught him in his arms, and by an almost miraculous dexterity and strength, sent him high up bodily into the air; then slightly tapping his stern in mid-somerset, the fellow landed with bursting lungs upon his feet, while Queequeg, turning his back upon him, lighted his tomahawk pipe and passed it to me for a puff.

"Capting! Capting! yelled the bumpkin, running toward that officer; "Capting, Capting, here's the devil."

"Hallo, you sir," cried the Captain, a gaunt rib of the sea, stalking up to Queequeg, "what in thunder do you mean by that? Don't you know you might have killed that chap?"

"What him say?" said Queequeg, as he mildly turned to me.

"He say," said I, "that you came near kill-e that man there," pointing to the still shivering greenhorn.

"Kill-e," cried Queequeg, twisting his tattooed face into an unearthly expression of disdain, "ah! him bevy small-e fish-e; Queequeg no kill-e so small-e fish-e; Queequeg kill-e big whale!"

"Look you," roared the Captain, "I'll kill-e you, you cannibal, if you try any more of your tricks aboard here; so mind your eye."

But it so happened just then, that it was high time for the Captain to mind his own eye. The prodigious strain upon the main-sail had parted the weather-sheet, and the tremendous boom was now flying from side to side, completely sweeping the entire after part of the deck. The poor fellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly, was swept overboard; all hands were in a panic; and to attempt snatching at the boom to stay it, seemed madness. It flew from right to left, and back again, almost in one ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed on the point of snapping into splinters. Nothing was done, and nothing seemed capable of being done; those on deck rushed toward the bows, and stood eyeing the boom as if it were the lower jaw of an exasperated whale. In the midst of this consternation, Queequeg dropped deftly to his knees, and crawling under the path of the boom, whipped hold of a rope, secured one end to the bulwarks, and then flinging the other like a lasso, caught it round the boom as it swept over his head, and at the next jerk, the spar was that way trapped, and all was safe. The schooner was run into the wind, and while the hands were clearing away the stern boat, Queequeg, stripped to the waist, darted from the side with a long living arc of a leap. For three minutes or more he was seen swimming like a dog, throwing his long arms straight out before him, and by turns revealing his brawny shoulders through the freezing foam. I looked at the grand and glorious but saw no one to be saved. The greenhorn had gone down. Shooting himself perpendicularly from the water, Queequeg, now took an instant's glance around him, and seeming to see just how matters were, dived down and disappeared. A few minutes more, and he rose again, one arm still striking out, and with the other dragging a lifeless form. The boat soon picked them up. The poor bumpkin was restored. All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump; the captain begged his pardon. From that hour I clove to Queequeg like a barnacle; yea, till poor Queequeg took his last long dive.

Was there ever such unconsciousness? He did not seem to think that he at all deserved a medal from the Humane and Magnanimous Societies. He only asked for water- fresh water- something to wipe the brine off; that done, he put on dry clothes, lighted his pipe, and leaning against the bulwarks, and mildly eyeing those around him, seemed to be saying to himself- "It's a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. We cannibals must help these Christians."

- A_SteamingLombardi


This crap is still going?
YeOldTimer
Vancouver Canucks
Location: BC
Joined: 09.26.2010

Jul 18 @ 2:22 PM ET
This crap is still going?
- SRam19


Yes. It's off-season training for our scrolling fingers.
golfingsince
Location: This message is Marwood approved!
Joined: 11.30.2011

Jul 18 @ 2:31 PM ET
luongo definitely needed that during that playoff game against anaheim.
- RealityChecker

A_SteamingLombardi
Location: Systemic failure / Slurptastic
Joined: 10.12.2008

Jul 18 @ 2:35 PM ET
luongo definitely needed that during that playoff game against anaheim.
- RealityChecker

A_SteamingLombardi
Location: Systemic failure / Slurptastic
Joined: 10.12.2008

Jul 18 @ 2:35 PM ET
This crap is still going?
- SRam19

Flag away.
Bettmanhatesus
Joined: 08.10.2016

Jul 18 @ 2:43 PM ET
We are better on paper as you claimed but alot of things will need to go right for this team to contend for the WC spot. ARZ and EDM will be moving up this year as well as VAN so I'm thinking there will be a log jam in the west. The game vs divisional rivals will be more important than ever. Injuries will still be a huge part on whether we contend for the WC IMO. If we get bit by the injury bug in Jan-Feb (as we normally do) I can see playoffs slipping away. Alot has to go our way.
- LordHumungous

Edm moving up?
Bettmanhatesus
Joined: 08.10.2016

Jul 18 @ 2:49 PM ET
Sorry, you believe Pettersson, Hughes and Boeser can carry this team through an intense playoff series, this year?
- 1970vintage

Bottom 6 seems to be the ones that carry teams in the nhl.
Bettmanhatesus
Joined: 08.10.2016

Jul 18 @ 2:54 PM ET
Someone won 2.1 million in a pg casino on a 3$ slot machine, most in canadian history!
SRam19
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Messier the Greatest Canucks Captain
Joined: 02.12.2015

Jul 18 @ 2:59 PM ET
Flag away.
- A_SteamingLombardi


I gotta scroll all the way back up, and that is too much.
belcherbd
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Nanaimo
Joined: 02.16.2007

Jul 18 @ 3:22 PM ET
Sorry, you believe Pettersson, Hughes and Boeser can carry this team through an intense playoff series, this year?
- 1970vintage


Horvat
golfingsince
Location: This message is Marwood approved!
Joined: 11.30.2011

Jul 18 @ 3:22 PM ET
Someone won 2.1 million in a pg casino on a 3$ slot machine, most in canadian history!
- Bettmanhatesus

The first thing they did was buy a ticket out of PG.
boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:22 PM ET
Benning is all about narratives. Last year the team needed to get faster. How many times did we hear him say how fast Beagle and Rousel are? This year they need to get tougher, I’m betting we’ll hear how gritty guys are, a lot.

I agree, I think he got good players, and for the most part got good value from his trades/signings. I would have liked him to do things a little differently, but I can live with things as they are. The team should be better this year than last. This is the goal.

- 1970vintage


Interesting way to spin it. In reality, he addressed separate issues in separate off seasons. It translates to narratives for you. That is you not JB.
LordHumungous
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Greetings from the Humungous. Ayatollah of rock and rolla!
Joined: 08.15.2014

Jul 18 @ 3:23 PM ET
This crap is still going?
- SRam19

Maturity Levels super high around here!

LordHumungous
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Greetings from the Humungous. Ayatollah of rock and rolla!
Joined: 08.15.2014

Jul 18 @ 3:23 PM ET
Edm moving up?
- Bettmanhatesus

Yep.
boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:23 PM ET
This is patently false. It was widely reported at the time that JB wanted Lucic first, LE second. He lost out on Looch and went after LE. He most definitely wanted someone who could put the puck in the net. Lucic and LE were the top 2 offensive players that year.

Both signings were mistakes and I hope JB learned his lesson with regards to signing 30+ free agents.....maybe not....

- chompsey


There was interest in adding LE to the Sedins before Benning arrived or so the burst of rumours suggested at the time.
boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:25 PM ET
Do you think the roster is good enough to make the playoffs? If they don't make it, then i'd say the coach is not part of the solution moving forward.
- golfingsince


He'll be fired if they miss.
dbot
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Auckland -Burn it all down
Joined: 10.22.2008

Jul 18 @ 3:27 PM ET
Yep.
- LordHumungous


McDavid is looking to the NBA for inspiration.
He'll demand a trade to Colorado to play with McKinnon after another disappointing season in Edmonton.
CanuckDon
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Las Vegas
Joined: 08.05.2014

Jul 18 @ 3:29 PM ET
Yep.
- LordHumungous

Delusional
boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:31 PM ET
I dont think that is as much of a factor as you claim. The media can hype it up all they want, doesn't make it true. LE, hands down, was the #1 offensive player that offseason, why wouldnt they want him?
- chompsey


True. He was the biggest UFA fish on the market and JB landed other biggest fish as well. Ryan Miller Vrbada, Myers were are all the biggest fish in their positions at the time.

It was believed the Canucks tried to trade for LE before JB arrived. I think they always wanted him.
boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:33 PM ET
This crap is still going?
- SRam19


Here's a d!ck pic to go with it.


boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:34 PM ET
Someone won 2.1 million in a pg casino on a 3$ slot machine, most in canadian history!
- Bettmanhatesus


I use to play poker in that Casino a lot.
Bettmanhatesus
Joined: 08.10.2016

Jul 18 @ 3:36 PM ET
The first thing they did was buy a ticket out of PG.
- golfingsince

Why, it's nice here, good people. Rather be here than van, lived in both.
dbot
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Auckland -Burn it all down
Joined: 10.22.2008

Jul 18 @ 3:42 PM ET
Why, it's nice here, good people. Rather be here than van, lived in both.
- Bettmanhatesus


Still got that smell though?
boonerbuck
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Not Quesnel, BC
Joined: 10.11.2005

Jul 18 @ 3:46 PM ET
Still got that smell though?
- dbot


Quesnel stinks from a pulp mill as well. In 13 years, only smelled it twice at home. I live just out of town but well above the stink that stays in the valley for the most part.
dbot
Vancouver Canucks
Location: Auckland -Burn it all down
Joined: 10.22.2008

Jul 18 @ 3:48 PM ET
Quesnel stinks from a pulp mill as well. In 13 years, only smelled it twice at home. I live just out of town but well above the stink that stays in the valley for the most part.
- boonerbuck


TBH Quesnel and PG would both not get into the top 10 places to live in BC lists.
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