T H R E A D R E V I E W
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
I blame Marvin the Martian for this. He posted a pic of a gator toy he had bought just the day before we heard Erin had left us.
So today I went on a road trip to a few nearby country centres. At not one, but THREE different places I had rather poignant gator sightings.
The first one surprised me. The second one amused me. By the time I got to number three, I was beginning to think someone was on my tail, because I was not looking for gator things, nor would I expect to see much of that kind of thing in my part of the world.
So this thread is for those weird encounters that make you think of Erin when you least expected it...
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Rowen
# 1194
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Posted
I am honoured that the stoles you made me are up in your album too. I will remember Erin all the more, when I wear them.
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
Well, I tried to put the Erin mementos in a separate album, Rowen, but my primitive skills obviously weren't up to it! Sorry.
BL.
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Chorister
# 473
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Posted
Many years ago I started a gator sightings thread on the Ship, sparked off IIRC by a photo we took at the Sidmouth shipmeet of a (plastic, inflatable) gator on the beach. We claimed to have had the first shipmeet with Erin in attendance, and thought it was very good of her to float all the way over from Florida especially to 'join' us.
It might take a while to find, but if I can, I'll post it here.
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Marvin the Martian
# 4360
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Banner Lady: I blame Marvin the Martian for this. He posted a pic of a gator toy he had bought just the day before we heard Erin had left us.
No I didn't. That was someone else.
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
Damn. It was Malin, not Marvin.
Bet the thought of Marvin buying fluffy gator toys would have given Erin a good laugh!
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Marvin the Martian
# 4360
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Banner Lady: Bet the thought of Marvin buying fluffy gator toys would have given Erin a good laugh!
You ain't wrong there!
It's my wife who has the stuffed fluffy toys thing going on. Don't think she's got a 'gator one though...
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Flausa
# 3466
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Posted
I was watching a sing-a-long video with TheLittleLady this morning. We'd never watched it before, so it took me a bit by surprise when this came on. It may be about a croc, but it sure seems that somebody had our gator in mind when that was written.
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Little Miss Methodist
# 1000
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Posted
A friend of mine is due to give birth tomorrow, and has been planning since she found out the sex to name her little girl Erin.
She has no knowledge of the Ship at all, but everytime she mentioned it, it made me smile as there is no way I can hear the name Erin and not think of our Erin here - there is something quite incongrous about imagining this little baby as an alligator.
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
Well, I could think of the perfect baby toy to give her, then!
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Malin
# 11769
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Posted
Yes, I have a 1.7 metre alligator in my lounge. It was that or a shark and the shark had none of the charm.
It doubles up as a draft excluder at night so it's in my sight all the time. Sometimes out of the corner of my eye it goes past, dragged happily by Malinette or it lays on the rug being chewed by Malino.
I hope Erin knows how much we are thinking of her and miss her. Even those of us like me who were never in close contact.
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comet
# 10353
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Posted
Now you mention it... she's been up in my son's loft the whole time...
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jlg
# 98
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Posted
Years ago when Christmas shopping I found a nice stuffed alligator toy and bought it with Erin in mind. Sadly over all these years I never found a troll doll the right size to go in its mouth, so it never got sent.
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tomb
# 174
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Posted
Few Shipmates know that Erin maintained an estate outside of South Park in Colorado where she would retire when the burdens of the Ship became too great in order to quarrel with her own kind:
Erin's South Park Homestead
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jlg
# 98
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Posted
Quote from the sign at "Erin's Western Estate": quote: Alligators are the only crocodilians that can take cold temperatures. They have been found frozen in the wild and at [Erin's Estate]. When thawed they climb back into the warmer ponds.
Sounds like Erin bitching about having to go to the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinics' mothership (as she called it) during the winter.
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
I'm glad I didn't have my iphone with me today. Ducked into a $2 store for some craft supplies to be confronted by a 'dead crocodilian' blow up pool toy. What sicko thought that one up?
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jlg
# 98
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Posted
I dunno, but somehow I think Erin would find that really funny.
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Kelly Alves
# 2522
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Posted
jlg- I agree.
I mentioned in that long-winded screed I posted the other night-- sorry about that- that the school I am subbing in has a reptile theme in one of the rooms. Several gators, but the one that gets me is a three foot long microfleece stuffed gator with a baby gator sewn in its mouth. I found myself carrying it around at some point. [ 07. January 2011, 02:50: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
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jedijudy
# 333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by jlg: Quote from the sign at "Erin's Western Estate": quote: Alligators are the only crocodilians that can take cold temperatures. They have been found frozen in the wild and at [Erin's Estate]. When thawed they climb back into the warmer ponds.
Sounds like Erin bitching about having to go to the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinics' mothership (as she called it) during the winter.
Or, complaining mightily about the disgustingly cold Florida winter weather.
72 is acceptable. 32 is not.
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Ye Olde Motherboarde
# 54
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Posted
And, who can forget this from the Colorado meet?
The infamous photo!
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jedijudy
# 333
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Posted
X-posted with Motherboard who is about eight feet from me!
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
THAT is an amazing bread roll, Mother.
Or should it be called a 'death roll'????
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jlg
# 98
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Posted
Oh, Motherboard, I had completely forgotten about that Gator Bread! God, it was beautiful, wasn't it.
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Kelly Alves
# 2522
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Posted
Freakin' yummy as well.
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Wesley J
# 6075
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Posted
Might make another Gator Bread in dough time?
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jlg
# 98
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Posted
Banner Lady, if my notoriously poor memory serves, many of us badgered Erin to come to the 2005 Colorado International Shipmeet, to no avail.
The Bread Gator was provided (by you Motherboard, or someone else?) as a substitute for the real thing.
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tomb
# 174
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde: And, who can forget this from the Colorado meet?
The infamous photo!
I was wondering if someone had kept a picture of that. As I recall, some wanted to take a picture of me slicing off the tail.
As.if.
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tomb
# 174
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by jlg: Quote from the sign at "Erin's Western Estate": quote: Alligators are the only crocodilians that can take cold temperatures. They have been found frozen in the wild and at [Erin's Estate]. When thawed they climb back into the warmer ponds.
Sounds like Erin bitching about having to go to the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinics' mothership (as she called it) during the winter.
The keeper told me they are in a foul mood after they thaw out.
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Grits
# 4169
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Posted
I'm not sure if this link will work, but these are a couple of photos of a Shipmeet in Nashville in September 2003. I made up "goody bags" for everyone, and they included a cute little stuffed 'gator. You can see one on the table at the front of the pic of me and Benedictus, then Sine is modeling one in the second photo.
Just shows she permeated all aspects of the Ship and of us, as well.
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Golden Key
# 1468
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Posted
On the "Western Estate" page, there's this:
quote: People caught throwing objects at the alligators will be asked to retrieve them.
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Banner Lady
# 10505
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Posted
So I'm reading this biog, right; it is the real memoirs of a stewardess who survived not just the sinking of the Titanic, but the torpedoing of the Britannic as well among her 200 voyages. She never married, despite several offers, and I get to this passage, where she and one of the ship's engineers have gone ashore for some afternoon leave in Jamaica:
'Dusk was approaching. It comes quickly in the tropics once the sun has set, and arriving at the beautiful inlet we discovered an old log among the luxuriant ferns, where we decided to rest a while before returning.....' and you can guess the rest. The romance was rudely interrupted by the awakening of a very large crocodilian, from which they fled poste haste.
What is it with all the reptile references in the last few days? This is getting out of hand. Stop laughing, Erin.
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Rosa Gallica officinalis
# 3886
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by tomb: quote: Originally posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde: And, who can forget this from the Colorado meet?
The infamous photo!
I was wondering if someone had kept a picture of that. As I recall, some wanted to take a picture of me slicing off the tail.
As.if.
We may have video of that! It may take a few days to track down. I seem to recall a ritual sacrifice by a bunny with an axe .
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Niteowl2
# 15841
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Posted
Apparently an orange alligator has been spotted in Venice, FL: Orange Gator I saw this first on CNN and wanted the local version.
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Ye Olde Motherboarde
# 54
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Posted
JLG. This lovely french bakery in Santa Fe makes the alligator bread. And the bunny with an axe did try to sacrifice it. I have the photo, too. (for blackmail purposes only).
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Ye Olde Motherboarde
# 54
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Posted
ROSA - you took a movie of the event ? Oh My Goodness well, no more blackmailing for me, then. DARN! [ 07. January 2011, 12:30: Message edited by: Ye Olde Motherboarde ]
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St Everild
# 3626
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Posted
At about 3 pm, as I was driving around Wednesbury (in the English Midlands) I saw a sign on a warehouse.
It said:
Alligator Storage.
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fletcher christian
# 13919
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Posted
I've been away for a bit of this week to return to this news, but when I saw the posts I couldn't help but think of a story from Timor about a crocodile (I know it's not an alligator, but they are kinda similar). It's a story that has many different forms depending on the tribal region or familial association, but runs roughly like this......
A crocodile was once happy in the ocean, but happier still when exploring. So he swam the great oceans until he came to a shallow area with some rocks coming up out of the sea. He climbed on the rocks and liked the place, but he stayed for too long in the sun. With no food, and in the heat of the day, he died...... But the sea made a coral of him and soon it grew, until it formed the island of Timor. And so to this day, when the Timorese swim in the ocean, before their toe dips in, they say;
'Don't eat me Mr. Crocodile, for you and I are friends; for your life is in my life and in your death you left a paradise in which I live and play and work.'
A little like an alligator and a ship.... maybe.
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basso
# 4228
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Posted
I got a link this morning to a BBC video about managing stress. At about 30 seconds to 1 minute in you may be able to sight a familiar figure.
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Chorister
# 473
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by basso: At about 30 seconds to 1 minute in you may be able to sight a familiar figure.
But why is she attacking Alan Cresswell?
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Lothlorien
# 4927
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Posted
I loved the speed of the attack. Nothing doing , then wham! Snap! Very familiar.
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fletcher christian
# 13919
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Posted
.......but with better words
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Deputy Verger
# 15876
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Posted
MATT
Today's cartoon on the front page of the Daily Telegraph.
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Kelly Alves
# 2522
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Chorister: quote: Originally posted by basso: At about 30 seconds to 1 minute in you may be able to sight a familiar figure.
But why is she attacking Alan Cresswell?
The rest of the NoCal crew hadn't seen this post when I mentioned it this afternoon at the meet. When I told them about it, a shout of laughter arose from the table that frightened all the sports fans in the bar.
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duchess
# 2764
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Posted
A small thing but I have to tell it somewhere to someone who will listen and understand. My company has an office in Florida. And one of the Europeans running it turns out has a penchant for owning alligators! Somebody was visiting over there from California and the European guy had a small alligator on his lap. The person telling the story today is a guy and he said "I would never put an alligator THERE...on my lap" <shudder>. And we all laughed at this and also the fact this guy keeps alligators apparently as pets out there. "You just turn them into shoes after they grow past 5 feet".
I thought of Erin, she must be looking down and having some kind of reaction.
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Jengie Jon
# 273
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Posted
This news item is on the BBC News at present. How do you tell the family it wasn't hungry, just looking for a computer to log in from.
Jengie [ 24. February 2011, 17:17: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]
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Wesley J
# 6075
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Deputy Verger: MATT
Today's cartoon on the front page of the Daily Telegraph.
And here's the permanent (it is to be hoped) link to the specific cartoon in question: Matt cartoon, 8 January 2010.
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basso
# 4228
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Posted
Here's a gator sighting that was too good not to share here.
I love the idea of an upside-down gator on the ceiling of a shop.
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Lamb Chopped
# 5528
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Posted
I think (from reading historical fiction, no nobler source) that that was a bit of an advertisement--suggested that the apothecary could supply you with dragon's blood and other difficult-to-procure items.
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St. Stephen the Stoned
# 9841
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Posted
Somebody made the Baby Jesus cry , and Erin has a message for the Fluffy Bunny!
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Jengie Jon
# 273
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Posted
Homage at today's market in Sheffield. I suspect it was nearly life size
Jengie [ 29. April 2011, 19:11: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]
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