Having your Cake and Eating it Too: Jake Hafner's in North Syracuse, New York

Jake Hafner's in many seasons, courtesy of Hafner's Restaurant

When riding the Interstates, Americans like to have their cake and eat it too.

            We want the convenience and safety of a modern, high speed highway.  But often, we do not want to settle for the corporate franchises found at the on/off ramps.  We want unique experiences.

            If you are traveling on Interstate 81 through the Syracuse area, a stop at Jake Hafner’s allows you to have your cake - - and your salad, and your steak, and your chicken - - and eat it too.

            Hafner’s is a comfortable restaurant with a rustic ambiance in North Syracuse, a straight, five minute ride from the East Taft Road interchange on I-81.  On the Syracuse Convention and Visitor’s Bureau website, Hafner’s cuisine is classified as “American Mixed.”  The heart of its menu are wonderful steaks.  However, the comprehensive menu includes a great selection of: dinner and appetizer salads; seafood; and chicken.

            On a recent Wednesday evening, we had dinner at Hafner’s.  The place has a large dining room on one side and a big bar area with lots of flat screen televisions and sports programs. 

            My friend Mark made a reservation for the restaurant so everyone could talk and not have to compete with the high spirits in the bar.  We were seated in an intimate corner of the dining room.  The table was amazingly cozy for a large party; the acoustics were such that it was easy to have a conversation - - even with the liveliness of the bar nearby.

            After a large lunch, I chose a steak frites dinner salad.  It had sliced filet mignon, fresh field greens, blue cheese and an Everest-sized mound of frites, small crispy French Fries that were thinner than the shoestring potatoes found in burger places such as In ‘n Out. 

            While this was a great dinner, all around me were other dinners equally delightful: a chicken Marsala dish with thinly sliced chicken breasts, a solid-sized Delmonico and a pasta Alfredo dish.

            As dinner wound down, trivia night started and we could easily hear the questions announced in the bar.  By the time we got to the final question, our team had a respectable 75 points.  We bet it all on the last question, which turned out to be a one of the geekiest and hardest questions about Star Wars you could imagine. 

            We may have lost all our trivia points, but we still won big, with excellent food and capable, congenial service.

There is always something happening at Hafner's regardless of the holiday
Thanks to Seymour Singer for his help taking the blue of this photo!

 

A Superior Novel: Peter Geyes' "The Lighthouse Road"

 

Peter Geye uses Lake Superior, about as far north as you can go on America’s North Coast, as a vivid backdrop for his second novel, The Lighthouse Road. 

The Lighthouse Road, named after the main street in fictional Gunflint, Minnesota, chronicles the lives of two generations in Gunflint.  The present day in the book is the 1920’s, with flashbacks to the 1890’s to explain how history shaped the book’s present day.

The arrival of Thea Eide puts the story in motion.  Thea, a young Norwegian immigrant, comes to America to work on her aunt and uncles farm.  But two days before she arrives, Thea’s aunt commits suicide and her uncle is mad with grief.

Her new family in shambles, Thea is compelled to work as a cook in a lumberjack’s camp near Gunflint.

Thea has a son named Odd, a family name, and he is the main character in the present day of the book.  Odd is a herring fisherman, a boat builder and a smuggler.  He works for Hosea Grimm, an older man who runs the village’s apothecary and bordello.

Hosea and his daughter Rebekah have been his surrogate parents; Thea died shortly after Odd was born.  A key part of The Lighthouse Road is how Odd discovers his mother’s past and tries to find his independence from Hosea and Rebekah.

Searching for identity is also key to Thea’s and Rebekah’s stories.  Although this book is set well over a 100 years ago, its chronicle of the struggles of immigrants and women could have been written this year.

This literary novel is also a thriller.  At the book’s beginning, the reader has a certain view of the characters and their village.  As the story progresses, Geye reveals surprises and plot twists.

The Lake provides Odd’s occupation, first as an apprentice herring fisherman, then as a master boat builder and then as a smuggler.

Geye’s Lake Superior is calm and bright on a moonlit night.  It offers a week of unseasonably mild weather before a severe winter.  In that winter it is locked in thick ice that allows people to walk a mile out and ice fish.

One of my favorite parts of the book concerns Thea’s travels from Chicago to Gunflint by steamer and schooner.  The distance that Thea travels and the power of the Lakes eloquently underscores the big changes Thea is experiencing in her life.

Geye describes the last morning on the schooner, The Opportunity, as follows:

“In the morning, they awoke to more heavy fog.  The lake was now coming in slow undulations . . . They waited for two hours, the fog more blown away than burned, and raised sails under a southwesterly breeze that brought as much warmth as it did smooth sailing.”

 

Thea, Odd, Hosea and Rebekah are fully developed people.  Geye persuades readers to care for them, even when they fall short.  He has written a book as strong and well constructed as Odd’s fishing boat, with a story with as many moods as Lake Superior itself.

Mark Gerchick and the Brave New World Aloft

Full Upright and Locked Position: An Insider’s Guide to Air Travel, By Mark Gerchick.  Norton: 368 pages paperback, $15.95

Mark Gerchick’s new book about airlines is must reading for anyone who flies.

For people planning a vacation for 2015, Gerchick’s chapters on fares and frequent fliers will help you do better in the cat and mouse game between cash hungry airlines and price-conscious travelers.

For ticketed passengers, information on airline schedules, delays, luggage processing, pilots, health conditions aloft and airline security will help you have a better - - or less bad - - flight.

For travelers serving a life sentence in coach, Gerchick offers a view of life in business class, flying chartered jets and the over-the-top world of first class on international flights.

Gerchick has worked in aviation all his life, starting with a summer job at Westchester County Airport when he was a teen.  He was Chief Counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and a staffer to the Secretary of Transportation.  He is now an aviation consultant.

But experience does not an author make.  Full Upright and Locked Position is compelling, often witty reading.  Gerchick carefully organized countless facts in the text, with some clarifying repetition.  He presents these squadrons of facts in a clear, mostly jargon-free and congenial writing style.

The book’s main theme is that a desire for financial stability and profitability drive nearly every airline decision.  Airlines use data on past flights and supercomputers to determine how many flights to schedule and to price seats as economy, super economy or business class. 

Data and computing power give airlines an almost supernatural ability to find every person’s “dammit price,” “as in, if the fare goes up just another few bucks, we’re cramming the kids in the backseat, dammit, and driving the ten hours to Grandma’s.”

Airlines have discovered that they are not selling “just a flight.”  “Airlines,” Gerchick explains, are “selling a bundle of separable, flight-related services. . . “  When my father joked that a bargain airfare “might not include the wings,” he was on to something!

Airlines charge bag fees, snack fees, drink fees, seat assignment fees, ticket change fees and fuel surcharge fees.  In 2010 and 2011, Gerchick says, checked bag and ticket change fees generated nearly $6 billion, more than all airline net profits in those years!

According to Full Upright and Locked Position, each time the price of fuel
increases by a penny, the fuel bill for all US airlines increases $175 million!

Since this book appeared in 2013, fuel prices have plummeted and airlines are jamming more people into skinnier seats.

In a recent conversation, Gerchick said “In public statements, airline CEO’s are emphatic that they will not lower fares with lower fuel prices.”  Passengers have little leverage to share these savings; airline flights are already nearly full and airlines have no incentive to charge less.

Gerchick observed, with a smile in his voice, “Airlines have a new term for tighter seating: ‘densification.’”  “Airlines,” he continued, “are creating a new product, selling space by the inch; they have made legroom a monetizable product.”

Pricing and legroom illustrate a key concept that any traveler will encounter.  Even with recent fare increases, airline fares are still, adjusted for inflation, much lower than they were in what people recall as the golden age of aviation. 

But airlines no longer sell all seats at the same price.  “If you are willing to suffer,” Gerchick says, “you can pay less.” 

At book’s end, Gerchick looks at aviation trends.  Airline mergers could increase fares in the future.  The Federal government is likely to continue to press airlines to make airline fares as transparent as possible with fewer “gotcha fees” as a ticket is purchased.  An FAA overhaul of air traffic control could shorten travel times, improve safety and save fuel.

Despite the emphasis on profitability, Gerchick recognizes that frontline airline people try to do their best for the traveler.  The last story in the book, about a Southwest pilot helping a distraught parent, is likely to make you cry.

 

Note: WW Norton's website shows this book available in both hardcover and paperback.  The hardcover design looks like this:

Five Things We Like about Syracuse in the winter

Syracuse on a winter's dawn.  Photograph courtesy of Wainwright Photography

Syracuse has a reputation for being snowy.  But when we visited last weekend, there were only flurries and we found the city to be a lively place in mid-winter.  Here’s five things we enjoyed:




Albert Bierstadt's painting Nevada Falls
on display at the Everson Museum
Photo courtesy of the Museum

1.      The  Everson Museum of Art: The Everson in downtown Syracuse was designed by I.M. Pei; it was the first museum he designed, opening in 1968.  According to architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable, Pei's success with the Everson likely won him a subsequent commission to expand the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C.
 

We went to the Everson intending to linger in its superb collection of American paintings.  And the paintings did not disappoint.  The collection includes Edward Hicks’ The Peaceable Kingdom and a stunning landscape by Albert Bierstadt, Nevada Falls. 

The surprise in this museum is its ceramic collection.  I started into the collection to be a polite guest.  But in just a few steps, I was swept away.  The Everson’s ceramics cover a wide range of human experience.  Many pieces are functional, such as a Sumerian bowl from antiquity or Anasazi pottery.  But lots of other pieces are art for art’s sake, often with a sense of fun.  A recently created set of pieces shows a man shot from a cannon, including the cannon with a cloud of smoke, the flying man and his trampoline.

Scarab Vase, 1911 by Adelaide Alsop Robineau
Porcelain, photograph courtesy of the
 Everson Museum of Art

Self-Sufficiency, by Lois Hennessy, 2002
Bisque clay, watercolor, string, wood and knitting needles
photograph courtesy of the Everson Museum of Art

 

The Museum staff is informative and friendly.  An added treat was hearing a pianist rehearsing some of Chopin’s music in the Museum’s Hosmer Auditorium.

 

The Residence Inn at Armory Square is a new hotel
on the north edge of the Armory Square district

2.      The Residence Inn at Armory Square: After leaving the Museum, we found traffic like New York at rush hour.  I had checked Syracuse University’s website, to see if a game was scheduled.  It appeared there wasn’t but I was wrong: Syracuse’s men’s basketball team was playing Miami of Ohio.

Amazingly, the Residence Inn at Armory Square had a reservation when I called them a few days before. 

This new hotel shares a building with a Courtyard.  Rooms are bright, offer a full kitchen and feel roomy.

Staff at this Residence Inn are capable and welcoming.  They offered us a room that was likely to be quiet if there was post game revelry and gave us good information about the Armory Square neighborhood. The complimentary breakfast coffee the next day was hot and strong!

3.      KittyHoynes: Armory Square is a redeveloped neighborhood, whose character is influenced by a treasure trove of historic buildings.  In an old hotel building across the street from the Residence Inn is Kitty Hoynes, an Irish pub.  We had delicious fish and chips and a Reuben, along with perfectly made Manhattans and perfectly poured Guinness pints.  The fish and chips included an aircraft carrier-sized piece of perfectly fried haddock.  The Reuben had a perfect mix of sauerkraut, lean corned beef and melted Swiss cheese.

 

Kitty Hoynes is in a building that used to house the Crown Hotel

 

4.      Downtown architecture:  Armory Square is a delightfully walkable.  Beyond Armory Square, downtown Syracuse has much fascinating architecture and history.  For example, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, now housing the Mission Mexican Restaurant, is likely to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. 

 

Before you hit town, contact Downtown Syracuse or the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and ask for a copy of the pamphlet, Historic Downtown Syracuse Walking Tour.  This full colored publication offers sharp color illustrations of nearly 70 historic buildings.  Each building is keyed to a clear, easy to follow map.

5.      Wegman’s Supermarket: On our way home, we made a pilgrimage to Wegman’s.  It’s certainly a fun place to shop. A current favorite is the nearly oil can-sized can of de-caf coffee.  The store’s mini-chocolate chips and pizza are also appealing.

Since first posting this article, I learned from Nikita Jankowski, at the Syracuse Convention and Visitor's Bureau, that there is a website which lists the high points of each season in Syracuse.  The list can be found at http://syracusevisitorsguide.ny.newsmemory.com/ . 

This photograph of ice skating at Clinton Square
shows another fun winter activity in Syracuse and it shows the architectural riches found in down town. 
Photograph courtesy of Wainwright Photography

 

The Best of 2014

 

Fishing in the Pacific, photo courtesy of D. Greninger

            In 2014, fishing continued to be a delight.  Unlike prior years, I fished in saltwater over five times.  On my birthday, I fished beneath Montauk Lighthouse in a swim suit and flip-flops.  Of course the warm water likely kept the striped bass away. 

            Later in November, I fished in the Pacific Ocean; my friend Carl organized a saltwater fly fishing trip to a beach just west of LAX.  It was a great but fishless day and the practice may land a fish in the future.           

            Dorothy, Lily, Dennis, Seymour and I had great bonding moments during my ill-conceived project to reverse the orientation of a salt water fly fishing reel.  In my haste to switch the line from a right-handed to left-handed set-up, I tangled the fly line, running line and backing.  Almost everything but a stubborn knot of backing got untangled.  Seymour led a valiant effort to fix the reel drag; when I fix a small detail, everything will be wonderful for the upcoming fishing season!

            This past 2014, many favorite experiences were food-related.  Dr. Freud probably would have had something to say about that, but, to paraphrase what he said about cigars, sometimes a good meal is just a good meal.

            Here is my list of 2014 favorites:

1.      Pizza: My favorite meal continues to be good pizza - - or ok pizza with family and friends.  Readers felt the same way, too; a post on New York City pizza got the most hits of all the 2014 blog posts.

2014 started with Steve and me sharing a deep-dish pizza at Ralph’s Tavern in Colonie, New York.  Later in the year, it was back to Tom Cavallo’s in New Hartford, New York for sausage and pepper pizza.

If you are in the Rochester area, Mark’s Pizza, which is cheesy with a thicker crust and good sauce, is worth a stop.  Mark’s has expanded east and now has a restaurant in Auburn, New York in the Finger Lakes region.

On Long Island, Prima Stella, in Manorville (631-281-0003) continues to delight with its crispy, thin crust pizza and excellent service.  Branchinelli’s (631-474-1200), a pizzeria from Port Jefferson, opened a branch in Miller Place and offers a delicious thin-crust pizza.

 

2.      The Cheesecake Factory: Yes, it’s a chain - - but it’s a chain with class.  The menu includes large, fresh salads with unusual - - but delightful - - flavor combinations.  The staff is attentive, capable and welcoming without being a pest.  Restaurant décor suggests a movie set from Hollywood’s golden days; that suggests a warmer place than the Capital Region has been this week.

 

3.      The Barnsider Restaurant: This steakhouse has been going strong in suburban Albany for almost 40 years.  In addition to beef cooked exactly right, the restaurant offers a salad bar loaded with selections, great seafood and an incomparable martini.

 

4.      The Gateway Diner: Barry Levinson didn’t realize it, but when he decided to make his movie Diner he was thinking about the Gateway.  While the place is no longer open 24/7, it still has an appealing busyness and offers an epic variety of food.  Our family gives high marks to the Reuben, the large salads and the generous servings of rice pudding.

 

5.      The Lost Dog: This restaurant in Binghamton, New York has an eclectic menu and great service.  If you are lucky, they will be playing opera arias while you dine.

 

6.      The Grateful Dawg: In Scotia, New York is a comfortable storefront restaurant with a Grateful Dead motif.  The main item on the Dawg’s menu is a quartet of small hotdogs with meat sauce and onions but they also have cheese steak sliders and pulled pork sandwiches.  The onion rings are also delightful.

 

7.      Guilderland Community Garden: All the gardening and nearly all the vegetables described in the blog this year happened at the Guilderland Community Garden.  In addition to providing great vegetables in season, the Garden delighted this year with a late harvest.  After the snow, a late holiday trip to the Garden yielded nearly two dozen carrots, some Swiss chard and broccoli. 

 

8.      Pitchfork: This year’s birthday gifts included a pitchfork.  Along with a torch, a pitchfork is useful for angry villagers in a Frankenstein movie.  But more importantly, it is exactly the right tool for turning over and stirring up a compost pile!

9.      Brown Trout Samoyed Calendar: Rose the Dog was a Samoyed who graced our lives for nearly 15 years.  During this time, Brown Trout Publishers included a Samoyed calendar in their offerings.  Sadly, Rose died but Brown Trout has continued to publish the calendar.  It reminds us of all the wonderful times we had with the greatest dog who ever lived.

 

10.  Family and Friends: Thanks to all my family and friends for all the great times in 2014.  The places and events chronicled in this blog are possibly mostly because of you!

 

December Full Moon: 2014

 

 

This morning, December 7^th, I awoke early.  There was a bright light in the corner of the living room and I thought that a light was left on overnight.  After crossing the living room, I looked around, then looked out the window and discovered the “light” was the full moon.

Although the moon was on the way to setting for the night, it was amazingly bright.

It’s cold in upstate New York and yesterday was gray and rainy.  Perhaps the ease of seeing the full moon, the relative lack of clouds, means it will be sunny today.  At least there is no wind - - and no wind chill factor.

Some years ago, Joe Bruchac, a Saratoga County author, wrote a children’s book called Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back.  Joe described the names that American Indians gave the moon in each month. 

Our copy of the book is mislaid, so I went to the Internet and found the following information about the December full moon on Moon Connection.

December: The Cold Moon
Winter takes a firm hold and temperatures plummet at this time. Sometimes this moon is also called the Long Night Moon as the winter nights lengthen and the moon spends more time above the horizon opposite a low sun. The full moon name often used by Christian settlers is the "Moon before Yule".

Yes, the weather is cold and no, all of us cannot be lucky enough to live somewhere warm.  My friend Mick Harking, in Ireland, observes, "Hibernation is yer only man."

But there is always something gone on in nature -  - regardless of the season.  For the next few months, bundling up and dealing with the shorter days will be unwelcome extra steps.  But as these photos show, there can be beauty even in the cold.

Late Season Fishing

 

Just as Ahab was fixated on finding the white whale, I am fixated on winter’s arrival.

Buffalo, New York was clobbered with snow.  Dorothy has a photo of a dusting of snow in our front yard and my Hoosier friends Bill and Mark have winter photos on their Facebook pages.

However, if you are an angler who likes to fish moving water, the fishing is not yet over.

On the East Coast, Russ Drumm suggests, in his weekly outdoors column in The East Hampton Star, that the striped bass migration has not reached Long Island, it is somewhere near Cape Cod.  On the “North Coast,” steelhead and salmon are fair games as they ascend Great Lakes tributaries.

On the West Coast, a bouillabaisse of fish species are within casting distance of the beach.  The fish include surf perch, corbina, halibut, sharks and even stripers. 

This past Saturday, I joined the Pasadena Casting Club for saltwater fly fishing at Dockweiler State Beach, just west of Los Angeles International Airport. 

With a string of informative and congenial e-mails, Carl Crawford, the trip organizer persuaded over 20 anglers to show up - - despite the dark and an early morning start time.

Waves and undertow add challenges to saltwater fly fishing.  Jacob Gorman and Nick Vargas, avid anglers and sales managers at Orvis Pasadena, fished with us and offered good advice, often using examples that related freshwater fishing to the maelstrom of surf in front of us.

Jacob and Nick taught us how to read the progression of waves to find the right time to cast: too soon and there is bare sand; too late and the wave is sweeping away the fly.  Compared to a trout stream, surf looks featureless.  But Jacob and Nick taught us how to see places where fish might shelter from the current and pounding waves.  For example, if you keep seeing a low spot in a line of breakers, the low spot suggests a deeper spot that might hold fish.

 

It’s a good idea to fish the surf with a shooting head sink-tip fly line.  The first 30 feet, the shooting head, pulls a light, strong running line off the reel.  The combination of lines allows a longer cast than is possible with a fly line alone.

A casting basket is essential.  It keeps the line from falling into the surf and tangling.  The deeper the basket you can find, the better.  The Santa Cruz Fly Fishers sell a casting basket for a donation of $20 plus shipping; their design or something similar will save much frustration.

In four hours, the expedition caught a single fish.  While we climbed the salt water fly fishing learning curve, a quiet young man with a spinning rod and Mepp’s spinner caught four surf perch.

Yet, all were delighted by the trip.  We learned how to time our casts with the waves. We practiced how to rapidly retrieve, or strip, the fly line to animate the fly and most had surprisingly few times when the fly line tangled up.  Carl, Jacob, Nick and angling friends new and old: it was a great trip.  Let’s go again!

Fall Foliage: It's not too Late!

In this photograph, the leaves are just starting to turn on Storm King Mountain
in New York's Hudson Highlands

This is a great time to enjoy fall foliage and fall weather.  On the East Coast and along the Great Lakes, the “North Coast” of this blog, leaves are at or approaching peak colors.  In the eastern Sierras, aspen leaves are turning from green to gold.

What's more iconic than fall in Vermont?
Stowe, Vermont photographed by CJ Hamblin

On the way to Stowe, by CJ Hamblin

We enjoy the bright colors of autumn leaves thanks to the shorter days and the tree’s response to those shorter days.  The beauty of the changing leaves offer some compensation for those of us who get up early and are finding that is night still while getting ready for work.

Maple Tree in Rensselaer County, NY.
Photograph by SJ Edelman

In October, hotels in foliage country fill with tourists driving through to see the leaves.  If you do not have time to get out of town overnight, you can enjoy the leaves walking in the neighborhood or a nearby park.  Even an hour’s drive will take a person into the country, where the changing leaves spread across hills and woods like a brightly colored quilt.

The view south from an overlook on Route 6, on the way to
the Bear Mountain Bridge

Fall foliage in Niskayuna, NY
from a new viewpoint, black and white,  JJ Faulkner

When in pursuit of leafy vistas, there are other pastimes to enjoy along the way.  Fresh and saltwater fishing gets livelier in the fall as fish migrate, spawn or start eating in preparation for winter.

There are lots of fun stores along the way.  In Bennington, our friends John and Sue told us about Shaffe’s Men’s Shop, 475 Main St, Bennington, VT 05201
(802) 442-2521. Shaffe’s is the kind of place that is becoming too rare in this age of malls and big box stores.  The store sells and rents tuxedoes, including tuxedoes with camouflage trim.  It sells dress and casual clothes and what may be the world’s greatest sock. 

Made in Vermont, the Darn Tough Sock has an unconditional lifetime guarantee and is made of a durable blend of merino wool and nylon.  The socks come in all thicknesses and sizes. They even have a line of dress socks that could be worn to work. 

First or second pumpkin of the season
Photograph by E. Rowen

Pumpkins, apples and apple cider are front and center at farm stores and roadside stands.  However, corn, tomatoes and other late summer produce are still around.

Along with apples and apple orchards, fall is the time of the cider donut.  If you have one or two of these smallish, sweet delights mid-morning, you may very well have no room left for lunch!

Foliage in northern Rensselaer County by David Brickman

Tricoastal Maritime Superstitions

The clipper ship Flying Cloud, courtesy of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum

On a recent Hudson River fishing trip, my friend Jack Brennan brought a bag of snacks.  When he took out a banana, the guide became agitated, saying, “You can’t bring bananas on board, they’re bad luck!”

My friend Allen has a friend, Neil, who fishes the Hudson.  When Allen asked Neil about bananas, Neil explained that when ships brought bananas in large bunches from South America to the United States, sailors disliked this cargo.  Snakes or spiders hid in the bananas and bit/stung sailors.

Bob Frisbie, Executive Director of the Ashtabula(Ohio) Maritime and Surface Transportation Museum, on Lake Erie, understands the banana superstition.  “I used to work with produce at A&P, which received bananas in metal cases.”  “Whenever I worked with these cases, I was always petrified; I knew big spiders could come out of them; I once saw a spider the size of a silver dollar.” 

a

Ashtabula Maritime and Surface Transportation Museum 

Chris Gilchrist, Executive Director of the National Museumof the Great Lakes, explained the line in Gordon Lightfoot’s Edmund Fitzgerald, about “the gales in November” is true.  Chris said a researcher proved this legend is fact by reviewing Great Lakes shipping records from 1913 to 1948.  During November in these years, marine insurance rates and crew salaries increased; more gales are found in weather records.

Chris noted that when Mrs. Fitzgerald tried to christen the Edmund Fitzgerald at launch, it took three swings before the bottle broke.  Then, an onlooker died of a heart attack during the launch; it’s always considered bad luck if a person dies at a launching.

A diagram of the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald from the Coast Guard inquiry into its sinking

Liz Ruth-Abramian, Librarian at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, suggested I read Sea Classics magazine for superstitions.   In the May, 1972 Sea Classics, Doris Kloss offered christening comic relief, to offset that sad story about the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

Eleanor Roosevelt was going to christen the USS Yorktown in 1943 but the carrier started moving down the ways before the christening program was over.  “Jumping to her feet,” Kloss wrote, “Mrs. Roosevelt barely managed to crack the bottle of champagne” against the Yorktown’s bow before the ship got away. 

Liz also suggested reading Cedric Windas’ Traditions of the Navy.  According to Windas, the term “Raising the Wind,” slang for raising funds for a specific purpose, “dates back to early days when a shipmaster would go to a witch or fortune-teller and pay big money for the .  . . assurance that good winds” would grace the trip and bring everyone safely home.

Windas explains the term “whistling for the wind” comes from old Norse times.  Vikings believed if they whistled loudly, Thor “would whistle in answer, creating a breeze” that would enable sailors to stop rowing and raise the sail.

In 1975, my father and I enjoyed visiting a maritime state park in San Francisco.  The park is now the San Francisco Maritime National Park.  Gina Bardi, the Park’s Librarian, found superstitions in the Park’s research collection. 

In Horace Beck's Folklore and the Sea, Beck writes, sailors believed that piercing one ear would improve a “sailor’s eyesight in the opposite eye. . . sailors would have both ears pierced to improve their usefulness on watch, and the skipper pieced the ear on the side opposite to the eye used for telescopes.”

In Superstitions of the Sea: A Digest of Beliefs, Customs and Mystery, author James Clary

explained "some sailors wore a tattoo for protection.  A tattoo of a pig on the instep or knee was considered a guard against drowning; pig and chicken tattoos gave one the assurance of never being without ‘ham and eggs’; a star between the finger and thumb was believed to help bring a sailor safely home . .  . a wide and handsome display of tattoos was thought to be an effective guard against venereal disease."

Fletcher S. Bassett observes, in Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and Sailors In all lands at all times, that "A writer in the Shipping Gazette in 1869 says, ' it is a well-authenticated fact that rats have often been known to leave ships in harbor previous to their being lost at sea.'"

Of sailors’ dreams, Bassett writes, "To see a dolphin . . . portends the loss of your lady love and to dream of drowning was a sign of good luck." To dream of an anchor, the sin of hope, was always an esteemed happy omen. A dream of fish indicated rain, while one of wading or bathing in the sea was indicative of future bliss"