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Grex > Health > #87: Sindi Keesan's Lymphoma Journal |  |
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rcurl
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response 290 of 480:
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Nov 20 20:42 UTC 2003 |
We say there are no ropes on sailing craft: they are lines in general and
otherwise they all have names according to their functions (stays,
shrouds, halyards, sheets, lifts, --hauls, etc). The fixed rigging, which
holds up masts, are stays; lines used to set sails are halyards; and lines
used to control sails are sheets. A tricing-line is a short line used to
fix something to something else. I didn't know the term so had to look it
up. I guess an outhaul - used to pull the sail taught along the boom - is
a sort of tricing-line, but since it has its own name, that is used.
A yard is a spar (pole, rod) set at right angles to a mast, usually
holding the top and bottom of a square-rigged sail on both sides of a
mast. (A "yardarm is an end of a yard.) There are specific forms of
"yards" that are just on one side of a mast, such as the boom (holding the
bottom of a sail) or a gaff (holding the top), or spreaders (holding the
shrouds (which are the side supports for the mast) away from the mast near
the top.
This nomenclature is great fun for sailors as it is so unique to ships.
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slynne
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response 291 of 480:
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Nov 20 20:55 UTC 2003 |
No so, rane. The soap in the head is still "soap on a rope" and
not "soap on a line" ;)
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keesan
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response 292 of 480:
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Nov 20 22:45 UTC 2003 |
In 1831 I bet they had no soap on a rope. There was never any mention of
washing bodies, just clothing. Once in a while half of the crew was chosen
to get a day free on shore and would borrow pieces of their 'fitout' from
everyone. I wonder how this became outfit.
Stays are another word for corset. I suppose a corseted torso might feel like
a mast in being just as inflexible.
Today I took another bath and noticed that when I rubbed the bottoms of my
feet large flakes of skin came off. The tub started to look like a fish tank
at feeding time. I looked and an entire layer of skin is peeling off my
soles, exposing a new layer beneath. A leukemia patient said she got this
effect from daunorubicin. I get doxorubicin. In her case it hurt, probably
because the skin peeled before a new layer grew in.
I also noted a light sprinkling of very small raised red dots on my torso,
which may be broken blood vessels. Maybe the fluid retention from prednisone
causes this and then they don't heal properly because nothing is able to grow
back for a few days. The shredding skin near my fingernails may be the same
phenomenon as my feet but it happens more frequently so the skin underneath
is not grown in and bleeds.
Jim thought a yard was a sail, as in 'the full 9 yards' being a ship under
full sale.
There were starboard and larboard on ships, not port. I wonder if port got
to be the name for the left side of the boat because that is how the boat was
always oriented towards the land when sailing downwind on trade winds in the
Atlantic. What are the etymologies for all these terms?
scudding-sail fore scuttle hawse-hole lee scuppers sky-sail fore-topmast
staysail, balance-reefed trysail reefed forespencer.
How many different sails could a ship have?
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keesan
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response 293 of 480:
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Nov 20 22:53 UTC 2003 |
Doxorubicin can cause swelling, pain, redness or peeling of skin on the soles
of the feet and palms of the hand. Not related to the numbness, which is from
vincristine. My palms are not peeling.
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gelinas
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response 294 of 480:
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Nov 20 23:21 UTC 2003 |
How many different sails could a ship have? Lots.
A "ship" has three (sometimes more, but generally three) masts. Each mast
has a lower course, a top course and a royal course, each with its own yard.
Three masts, each with three yards, is nine yards. So one theory of the
origin of the "whole nine yards" is all nine yards flying sails.
So. Just on the masts:
foresail fore topsail fore royal sail
mainsail main topsail main royal sail
mizzensail mizzen topsail mizzen royal sail
Plus, staysails are flown from the stays holding up masts, named for the
mast they support:
fore staysail fore top staysail fore royal staysail
Additionally, studding sails are flown outboard of the regular sails,
and skysails are flown above the royals. Then add another mast or two,
and a few gaffs, and have a grand old time. :)
One theory is that "starboard" came from "steering board", on the right
side of the vessel, and "larboard" came from "lading board", where the
vessel was loaded. After sufficient confusion of larboard and starboard,
larboard became "port," since it was next to the port.
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rcurl
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response 295 of 480:
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Nov 21 00:37 UTC 2003 |
Thanks, Joe, for taking over! Sindi was starting to exhaust my knowledge
of big ship terminology as I only sail small ships.....
But I happened to hear on TV, and just looked up with Google, that the
"whole nine yards" comes from the nineyard "length of a Browning .50 cal.
machine gun ammunition belt" - so if you shoot off the whole belt, you
have given the enemy the "whole nine yards".
Joe, you have to have twelve (12) yards to rig nine sails on a
square-rigged ship. Right?
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keesan
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response 296 of 480:
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Nov 21 01:23 UTC 2003 |
Jim also read something about a bolt of cloth holding nine yards.
What is a gaff?
Do I correctly understand that there are three masts (fore, main, and in the
rear mizzen or formerly spelled mizen). On each mast is a lower sail, a top
sail, above that a royal sail and sometimes above that a skysail, and to the
outsides of these sometimes a staysail?
So what is a balance-reefed trysail? What is a top-mast, as in fore-topmast
staysail or main top-mast-head? A marline-spike? I still don't think I have
staysail distinct from studding-sail.
The only sailboat I have ever helped sail had only two sails - main and jib,
I think they were.
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rcurl
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response 297 of 480:
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Nov 21 02:13 UTC 2003 |
I leave most of that to Joe, who seems to be into big ships.... 8^} But a
"gaff" in the sense I used it (not a hook for pulling fish aboard) is a
spar that supports the narrowed top of a trapezoidal sail rather than a
triangular sail. This allows the same sail area but without the height of
a triangular sail. However it is not as efficient for the same sail area.
The gaff supports the top of the sail like the boom supports the bottom.
Staysails (pronounced staysals) are clipped onto the fore-stays that
support the foremast from before. The jib is a staysail, but larger
ships have many forestays and sails can be put on all of them.
A marlinspike is a tapered rod put into a hole on the railing of a largish
ship to which a halyard can be cleated. It provides a temporary cleat.
Sindi, it is time for you to check out a book on sailboats, which will
give all the names of the parts. Let me know when you learn what the
gungeon and pintle are - you'll be ready to take the UM Sailing Club
exam.
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gelinas
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response 298 of 480:
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Nov 21 02:55 UTC 2003 |
How do you count four yards for three sails, Rane?
I've also heard that the belted plaid was nine yards of cloth. So the three
explanations (and I've heard all of them) are: the length of the cloth used
in the traditional Scottish costume, the number of yards on a three-masted
ship, and the length of a machine-gun's ammo belt.
A belaying pin is used as a temporary cleat. A marlinspike is used to
separate the strands of a rope when splicing.
A good unabridged dictionary will probably have an illustration of a fully
rigged ship.
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glenda
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response 299 of 480:
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Nov 21 03:36 UTC 2003 |
I have never met a bolt of cloth (other than, maybe, a specialty handwoven)
that was under 25 yards, with everything but the heaviest wools and fake furs
being closer to 50 yards.
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rcurl
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response 300 of 480:
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Nov 21 07:46 UTC 2003 |
Joe is right. I think I've not been thinking sailing for a while and the
old grey cells are luffing a bit. I was, actually, visualizing a lower
yard, below the lowest sail, to better set it, especially when beating,
but I reviewed a number of square rigged ships online, and they sheeted
the lowest sail to the rails. I suppose if they didn't set the lowest
sail, four yards would be used for three sails, but....oh well.
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fitz
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response 301 of 480:
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Nov 21 12:29 UTC 2003 |
Is the poop deck used for what it sounds like?
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goose
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response 302 of 480:
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Nov 21 14:19 UTC 2003 |
This has been a very enjoyable set of responses...thanks Joe and Rane.
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keesan
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response 303 of 480:
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Nov 21 17:23 UTC 2003 |
I know, at least, what beating is - going against the wind. It took the ship
3 weeks to beat north 100 miles along the CA coast and 1 day to return.
Today Jim has a sore throat and runny nose and I have been sneezing for two
days. Not sure who got this cold first but the timing could have been better
as my immune system is scheduled to conk out today. We are avoiding our
visitor from Chicago so as not to get her sick. I was going to avoid her for
a few days in order not to acquire imported diseases. She offered to cook
and drop off some chicken soup but we don't eat chickens. Jim is going to
treat his cold with a hot bath after he finishes trying to fix the boiler of
a friend who is practically living in another city while his mother is
recovering from hospitalization. She and the nursing home hate each other.
They sedate people who don't cooperate. They put them on chairs with alarm
cushions so they won't try to get up and go to the bathroom on their own and
maybe fall. They change their clothes to pajamas at night (I wear my pajamas
all day) whether the patients want this or not. This makes the patients'
children feel guilty for putting them into the nursing home but what else can
they do with parents who are not thinking clearly and are very weak?
They also make them do 2 hours a day of physical therapy and I am going to
write the friend's mother and encourage her to exercise hard so that they will
let her out sooner (or at least let her walk around on her own).
Please share your ideas on nursing homes. The patient in question lives alone
and has been refusing to take insulin, drinks a lot of soda, is incontinent,
and is not acting very logically. She had to be hospitalized because of
extreme weakness following weight loss and high blood sugar. Medicare will
pay for a nursing home but not for a nurse to come by to give insulin because
the doctor is trying to force her into a nursing home, probably so he cannot
get sued for not doing so.
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gelinas
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response 304 of 480:
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Nov 21 17:46 UTC 2003 |
"The 'poop' deck on a sailing ship is the aftmost deck at the ship's stern,
and takes its name directly from the Latin 'puppis,' meaning 'stern'"
(http://www.word-detective.com/100297.html#poopdeck).
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rcurl
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response 305 of 480:
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Nov 21 18:34 UTC 2003 |
It might be added it is a raised deck, above the main deck. Joe, do you
know why early warships, in particular, had poop decks? Later commercial
sailing ships didn't. Was it to provide something like a castle tower
that could be defended more easily when boarding was a part of warfare
at sea?
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flem
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response 306 of 480:
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Nov 21 18:39 UTC 2003 |
Here's a bit about "the whole nine yards".
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/nineyards.htm
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gelinas
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response 307 of 480:
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Nov 21 19:50 UTC 2003 |
No, I don't know why a raised deck was added. However, I seem to remember
seeing it on the great rowing ships of the Mediterranean: galleys, biremes
and triremes. I'd never thought about the 'why' of it.
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rcurl
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response 308 of 480:
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Nov 21 20:48 UTC 2003 |
The captain had a nice stateroom underneath (according to the movies) -
with stained-glass windows sometimes. Maybe with merchant ships the
captain had to lump it with the crew....
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gelinas
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response 309 of 480:
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Nov 21 22:00 UTC 2003 |
I suspect even merchantmen had at least one (relatively) decent stateroom aft,
for the captain.
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keesan
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response 310 of 480:
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Nov 22 00:05 UTC 2003 |
On this ship (in the book) the senior crew had their own little badly lighted
room and the officers slept somewhere else. The junior crew slept in steerage
without permission to put nails in the wall to hang their clothing. There
was one 10 year old and two 19 year olds, 4 other crew (and one who drowned)
and three officers, a nigger cook, a steward, and a carpenter. The crew spent
most of their time rowing to and from shore and carrying hides, once they
reached California. Food was salt beef, salt pork, biscuit, and for a treat
something made with flour and molasses, and grog, and tea. The cook had a
pet pig.
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twenex
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response 311 of 480:
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Nov 22 00:21 UTC 2003 |
Sings: "Oh, a life on the ocean wave, is better than being at sea..."
No, I don't know what my grandfather was on about when he used to sing that,
either.
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gelinas
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response 312 of 480:
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Nov 22 01:47 UTC 2003 |
After you finish this book, Sindi, you should try Patrick O'Brian's series
that begins with _Master and Commander_ (the movie is, apparently, based
on a later book in the series). It's fiction, but he uses period records
as the background and for a lot of the details.
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slynne
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response 313 of 480:
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Nov 22 02:17 UTC 2003 |
I just saw _Master and Commander_ tonight. It is pretty good especially
for anyone interested in things nautical.
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keesan
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response 314 of 480:
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Nov 22 03:14 UTC 2003 |
Jim just had out Master and Commander on CD, to try reading books on CD. Her
prefers them on tape so he can speed them up. I will ask him about it.
I liked a book about how the Chinese discovered America in 1421, also
Australia, Antarctica, and lots of Pacific Islands. They spent a few years.
We are apparently going to have a Chinese Thanksgiving dinner, possibly at
the house of some Macedonian friends with our imported cook. Jim is trying
to come up with appropriate cooking utensils such as a large steamer. She
brought him her castiron wok (not very useful on an electric stove) and
assorted other little gifts such as three bags of split peas, some duct tape.
We like people who don't waste things when they are moving.
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