Friday, 9 April, 2004

Oakum The word Oakum popped into my head one day earlier this week. Oakum, I thought - after it had been there half the day or so - that's something sailors used to make. When a piece of rope got too old to be used it was thrown aside. In spare moments sailors would sit and pick it apart into fluff, soak it in a pot of pitch tar and then with a mallet and chisel they would pound this oakum into all the cracks and places in the deck where the boards had loosed and pulled apart. In this way the captain's cabin below could be kept dry from leaks. There must appear to be cracks and gaps among my planking and some kind stranger has come by and hammered oakum into my head. I peered at the MARC record on the screen in front of me. Encoding level 4, correct copyright date in the 008 fixed field, the 050 tag and the 300 tag. 020- check, 245 (2nd indicator 4) title is as it appears on the title page- check, 440 - check. DLC in the 040. Hit enter; next. Oakum. In the [[checksum dropped cannot resolve packet]] years since I left high school and hometown and meandered off into the world. Most effort, in what people tell me is the working or realworld has felt like days spent picking cordage and pounding oakum into the creaking deck. All to the good I imagine, if it keeps rain and leaks off the people below. 10:36:00 AM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2004 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 5/05/04; 10:03:28.