Howcome

[Old Bingey]

This will be my first attempt at starting something on here. I originally paid to have this little wire to plug into my computer so I could email my latest rejection attempt to "The New Yorker" because they no longer want to pay a 22 year old sophomore English major to lick an envelope and they only read email submissions these days. So here I am. Anyway, I believe that it is possible to solve perplexing problems on this forum. I already found out a lot about drilling lead and not quite enough about what's in somebody's britches but what I want to know now is howcome Bob Cleek and I are the only ones making a comment on Matt's Blog? That's some pretty provocative stuff on there.

[ 12-16-2005, 06:53 PM: Message edited by: Old Bingey ]

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

Well you are on the wrong subject as you will note this must be about boats - try the bilge otherwise known as Misc. Non Boat Related.

[Donn]

I haven't read New Yorker for quite awhile. I used to love the rag, but they've gone downhill, in my opinion.

I checked out Matt's blog a few times after he first posted here about it, but there wasn't much going on that interested me.

[Old Bingey]

Frank,

I thought about that. I think Matt's blog is boat related.

[Old Bingey]

Donn,

I think TNY began to decline when E.B. MFEMF died. It is a little bit better now. I am trying to maintain my Guinness book record as the the most rejected contributor. This ain't boat related so I'll add another question. What do you forumites think would improve "WoodenBoat" magazine?

[ 12-16-2005, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: Old Bingey ]

[Old Bingey]

My durn thingamajig refused to send E.B. MFEMF's name. I am quite unskilled at circumventing the idiocy of these systems. Sorry about that.

[Donn]

Ha! I started submitting to them in '64 and stopped, with a 100% rejection rate, in the 70's. I think I have 100 or so. I got even by buying some of their remainders, at pennies on the dollar.

I recently let my WB subscription die. The last several issues I got are still unopened. I can't think of anything they could do to get me back. It isn't just them, I've stopped almost all mags over the past couple of years. There's just too little that interests me, and I can spend an hour in B&N, cruising the mags, and buy issues that have something for me. I still buy a lot of books, and re-read lots of others, but I grow far more 'paticlar' as I age. Friends in the industry still send me galleys of new McPhee's and such, so I have plenty to choose from.

[John Bell]

I read the blogs and enjoy them very much. Even though there is an easy feedback mechanism, I just don't often find much to say other than I enjoyed what I read. And simply saying "nice work" seems superfluous. Besides, I think recieving too many compliments leads one to mediocrity. I want to keep you guys working hard to entertain me.

I will admit that I only just read your bit on outboards and that is a subject that I have a comment on. But I'm off to a Christmas party right now, or at least as soon as my bride presents herself, so my comment will have to wait until later.

[Donn]

Can someone post the link, please? I don't have it anymore.

[Old Bingey]

Donn,

Maybe we should take this to the bilge. I started with TNY in '56 to follow in the footsteps of my father who had fought the good fight from the first. The only thing he got published in his lifetime was a letter which pointed out what he called a "grammatical error." TNY coldly replied that if something was grammatical, there was no error. Despite that, he wrote and got published about 56 books. I ain't been able to do that... wonder why?

[ 12-16-2005, 07:57 PM: Message edited by: Old Bingey ]

[Dave Fleming]

IMOOP, the New Yorker died when they brought in that Brit gal (NOTHING against Brits) just using the phrase as an identifier.

Up until that time reading the New Yorker was akin to a religious experince for me along with the NY Review of Books, Sunday NY Times.

I get gift subs to the WB but, I usually read 'em and pass 'em on now.

Books, I am with Donn, I find myself as does SWIMPAL, rereading stuff we have collected over the years.

Even the adventure stuff is not near as good.

Geoffery Household, Desmond Bagley, Hammond Innes, eary Alistair MacLean, early Jack Higgins.

The late MacLean was and, still living Higgins in their later stuff in particular seem to be writing just to cash in on previous good stuff.

[Donn]

Originally posted by Old Bingey:
I ain't been able to do that... wonder why?ROFL!! Don't take this as a slight, but I've read both of you, and he was better. :D

[Old Bingey]

Donn,

Yeah, and "yo momma" to you but you are right.

Have you read "Sailorman" by Cap. Jim Uglow? I like the books by small timers telling the detailed truth about their lives. Uglow was a sailing barge master along the channel coast of England in the last days. It's good.

[Old Bingey]

Dave

I ain't worth a flip at this rapid repartee. Wasn't that takeover sort of a "Vanity Fair" project. I think they are getting better now, though but pre-capsize was right. This is bilge stuff.

[Donn]

"Have you read "Sailorman" by Cap. Jim Uglow?" No, but I'll put it on my list, on your say-so.

[Tom Lathrop]

Bingey,

Read some of Bailey's stuff. Some good inspiration there.

[Old Bingey]

Tom,

Hell, man, I talked her into doing that so she could get out of the school teaching business.

[Greno]

Bingey

I thought the last one had some great stories. Never read your old man, but I spent 2 months living in the Shell Island Fish camp (where I met my wife), scalloped off the lighthouse and in Lanark,caught a cobia in the harbor at Dog Island one time. Know the area well and it brought back some memories. Thanks for the stories.

[Old Bingey]

Greno,

Dang! You don't have any pictures of those old Shell Island model-bow guide boats do you? They were a wonderful thing and I missed the chance to take a picture of them out of plain stupidity. Do you know any of the history of who built them? Lordy, it is a small world.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

I read The New Yorker for the comics ;)

[Old Bingey]

I have drunk my glass of Madeira and am ready to go to bed. The best book I ever read in my life was "The Lion's Paw." Reading that and "Our Virgin Island" is why I never amounted to anything... but I do hold the Guinness book record for rejection by "The New Yorker."

Good night, y'all.

RW

[Donn]

G'night, sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite, but if they bite you, bite'em back. ;)

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

G'Nite Rob

Might wanna give submitting a comic a try next, Just a thought ;)

[clancy]

Originally posted by Donn:
Can someone post the link, please? I don't have it anymore.RudderPosts (http://wbeditor.typepad.com/)

[Billy Bones]

Hi Old Bingey,

Well, I'm just not in the blog habit. I'll keep an eye on it though, now you brought it up.

Since Peter Spectre left the tone has changed for me. Sure the sawdust they replaced it with is interesting, and probably more on-target, but some how a connection to the emotion that mostly binds us is missing. Which brings me to a point I've been tempted to make for over a year now.

Caroline Magerl. I think I'll start another thread on the subject.

[landlocked sailor]

I read 'em and have commented once or twice, but like John Bell, I hate to talk just for the sake of talking. I have read ALL of Tony Baily's books though; good stuff there! Rick

[Greno]

Bingey
No pics of those boats, but a few years ago, Mr. Hobbs still had one, looked like steam bent ribs and in a little planked boat, is that the one. Sorry, no pictures. I understand the storms may have really flooded down there bad. We rode through earlier this year on the way home from Tampa, looked the same and I think it was still there.

[J. Dillon]

The subject on what the reader would like to see in the magazine was discussed several times here in the Forum.
I feel any magazine can be improved. A while back I think an article delt with one of the WB staff having shipped his boat down to the islands to do some cruising . In the article it was hinted on just what he did to cruise in a small open boat in that region but never expanded on. I think that type of article would be interesting to readers. How we customize our boats for our particular needs. God knows we have enough building articles but I feel the reader is left dangling for ideas on just how to improve his boat in his particular environment. Things like making it go faster, more comfortable safer etc.

JD

[Old Bingey]

Greno,

Those Shell Island skiffs were a big version of the indigenous "model bow" skiffs that everybody had down there (I wrote an article about them for the TSCA). Most of them were a little less than sixteen feet and were cross planked deadrise style with very thick sides and no chine log. The reason they were called "model bow" was that the forefoot planking was put on thick and carved out "modeled" to make a hollow forefoot. The Shell Island boats were over 20 feet and wider in the transom and were built with a flat, planing style run. They were good looking boats and we used to see them hauling a bunch of people out the river to fish on the flats and oyster bars. The guide always stood up in the stern and, according to rumor, knew exactly what he was doing. I never could afford to go... cost $20 even in the fifties.

I know the father of the man who runs Shell Island camp and he says they got flooded real bad during Dennis (water halfway up the windows at Joy Brown's grocery store) but they are running again.

[Tristan]

Hi Donn and Bingy, I too are a rejected righter. Well, not entirely. I've had about 60 magazine articles and book reviews published, wrote for Sport Diver, Adventure Travel, Back Packer, Rodales Scuba Diver, and a bunch of smaller mags. Had all expense assignments to Bonaire, the Virgin Islands (week long sail charter), and a wonderful four week all expense trip to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark for my wife and myself. Of course being such a hotshot writer I decided to follow my star and write a prize winning children's book. Wrote, "The Panther and the Windigo," which my wife's small publishing co. (she's had a lot of success with three books about a computer graphics program) published, got it listed with Ingram, put it on Amazon, had wonderful feedback via The Midwestern Book Review, and from kids in local schools, did some book signings, and discovered that advertizing and distribution (marketing!) are areas I am totally ignorant of. Bingy, send me your snail mail address and I'll send you a copy (its about kids in S. Florida, everglades, etc. etc.). I've sold a couple hundred copies, am sitting on 2,000 copies, developing a plan to market it to local schools (a couple schools bought ten copies each). By the way, "The Lion's Paw" was a top favorite of mine, and guess what, my 15 year younger wife also read and loved it. I gave her a copy shortly after we were married. Cheers, Lowell P. Thomas edited to "15 years yonger wife"

[ 12-19-2005, 10:25 AM: Message edited by: Tristan ]

[Old Bingey]

Tristan,

You got it all wrong. I am not trying to get stuff published. I am trying to get rejected and am doing mighty good. I figure it two ways. If the normal pap that gets accepted is any indication, then getting something rejected must be a sign that it is some good. The other way to look at it is that, if these publishers are meeting my goals, it keeps me from whining about what a bunch of twits they are all the time.

Anyway, my mailing address is on my website www.robbwhite.com. (http://www.robbwhite.com.) We'll reciprocate. I love books about the Everglades. You ever read "Summer Lightning" by Judith Richards? Whooeee what a bad little boy and that's a true story.

Good luck, RW

[Tristan]

Will get a copy of mine in the mail, probably tomorrow. Haven't read the book you mention, but will check on it at Amazon. Letter to accompany the book.

[StevenBauer]

Howcome? Well, I've posted there a few times. And I really enjoyed the Norway trip. I guess I think of it as Matt's Blog, not mine. smile.gif
But I think it's great that you will be contributing there regularly. I really love your writimg, I've subscribed to 'MAIB' since around 1992 so I've been reading your stuff for a long time now. :D Keep it coming.

Rick, I think Tom was talking about Bailey White, (Robb's sister?) not Tony Baily.

"Bailey White was born in Thomasville, Georgia in 1950. She is the daughter of a writer, Robb White, III, and a farmer, Rosalie Mason White. She received her B.A. from Florida State University and became a first grade teacher in Thomasville, a job she has held for over twenty years. Bailey White's first book, a national bestseller, Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living, was published in 1993. White's witty comments on daily life can be heard on National Public Radio's show "All Things Considered.""

If you're not familiar with her NPR work with 'All Things Considered" you should look here:

http://www.fsu.edu/~wfsu_fm/specials/bw/bwsound.html

Steven

[ 12-19-2005, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: StevenBauer ]

[Old Bingey]

Yeah, Steven,

Bailey White is my baby sister... ten years younger than me almost exactly. She is good ain't she?... kind of shy and reclusive... except she is banjo player.

It is good that there are people peculiar enough to read all that nonsense I put out. I mean you can't beat approval by a "trim carpenter." Thank you and happy days to you and your family.

RW

[Hwyl]

There's a great movie of "Raid Boats" on Matt's blog. I won't post the link. Go and look for it.

Billy Bones has a thread on here mourning the lack of the old "on the waterfront". i think he's looking back through a rose colored rear view mirror, there were gems in there, but toward the end, I don't think Peter Spectre was putting his heart into it. (The preceding comment is colored by the fact that I hope to have a piece this month in "around the boatyards")
What I was going to say though, is that i think Matt's blog has a lot of the pizazz of the early "on the waterfronts" and I envisage it being incorporated more into the magazine.

Robb, I enjoy your writing, strangely enough, I often disagree with you and somehow, I think you'll be pleased with that.

I didn't know that Bailey was your sister, I enjoy her stuff, too many NPR commentators reference TV stars these days, I don't watch TV so it makes no sense to me.

[StevenBauer]

I love the banjo. I made a wooden one - the one from Fine Woodworking Magazine. I'm very slowly learning to pick on it. :D

Steven

[John B]

banjo.. now isn't that funny( thread drift but in the humorous spirit....please forgive)
My Brother in law from Californ Eye Eh is here staying with me at the moment. He's doing a bit of property prospecting down country with view to selling up his home and moving here. So there's one particular place he's interested in and he drives a few hours south to look at it. He winds up a river valley on a dirt/gravel road and just before he gets to this paragon of pasture, he comes to a bridge. At the bridge there's this group of wild looking types using the bridge to hang their pigs from while they're killing and cleaning them into the river.

My question: " did you hear banjos playing in the background?"

But Bingey.. back to the original. I guess its Matts ( and yours)Blog and we just read it .I check it from time to time. ( currently I'm looking out for any tree branches that just happen to be lying around and a month ago we invited ourselves along on an 'openboat' mini raid/cruise. Poor people, I don't think they realised just how thirsty a fellow can get sailing a gaff rig).

Besides... all those famous people there in one place. Its a bit intimidating if you know what I mean. :D

[ 12-19-2005, 08:28 PM: Message edited by: John B ]

[landlocked sailor]

Aha! Bailey White of course! I got sidetracked by the reference to The New Yorker. Really wonderful stuff on NPR years ago; I haven't heard anything by her lately though. I have read virtually everything you have written in MAIB since '97 Rob. I am one of the subscribers that believe your stuff alone is worth the price of admission. Rick

[Billy Bones]

Originally posted by Hwyl:
Billy Bones has a thread on here mourning the lack of the old "on the waterfront". i think he's looking back through a rose colored rear view mirror, there were gems in there, but toward the end, I don't think Peter Spectre was putting his heart into it. Hwyl is right about towards the end. To my everlasting damnation, I think I posted something here about how I could do without OTW at the time.

But he's wrong about looking back. At the risk of giving you all too much information, my shop has a bathroom in it, and my bathroom has a shelf in it, within easy reach, and that shelf has every WB on it from the last 6 years, and a good many before that. I reread them all, mostly, between issues. Surprising I don't have 'em memorized, frankly. Anyway, the point, well wide of Old Bingey's thread, (sorry) is that after a couple of years now, the new column doesn't replace the old in any meaningful way, and that what Spectre brought, and subsequently took with him when he got shoved out the door, hasn't been replaced.

Oh, and my thread was actually about Caroline Magerl, which see. (http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=005297)

[Old Bingey]

I really don't see the point to sticking to the original point on these threads. A conversation evolves and it is natural for it to diverge. Anyway, NPR has changed since the Bob Edwards, Bailey White days. My sister still does the Thanksgiving Day story, though. This last one was about those old Gravely garden tractors. Good things come and go, y'all. Better get it while the getting is good.

[Hwyl]

I just read the Robb White article in Classic Boat, sadly it turned into an obituary. I decided on the drive home that I would bump this thread. I see we have a new White family forum member. It's on one of the Rescue Minor threads.

Welcome and comiserations on your relatives passing. he added something to everything he touched and we were lucky on this forum to be one set of recipients of his knowledge and wit.