Monday, November 13, 2006

Purge

Posting things (as in going to the post office - not posting blog posts, that is kind of less of a thrill) always fills me with a big sense of relief.

These boxes represent a lot of work. They're packed to the gunnells (assuming boxes have gunnells, and whatever the hell gunnells are) with shirts.

Ready for posting

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

not wanting to be one of those annoying spelling nazis, but I think you meant, "gunwale" which, as a word, always used to baffle me, until my nautical father informed that it is not, infact, pronounced "gun - whale", but "gunnel", and is the top of the edge of a boat (when boats were all wooden and pirate like), and a Gunnel, is (it turns out), a fish.

And that could have possibly been the longest sentence I've ever written. Full stop girl, Full stop!!!

Unknown said...

You beat me to it - not to correct the spelling, but to illustrate the etymology...

stephen said...

ARRRRR! Gunwhales ahoy! Splice the mizzen and spurge the fo'c'sle bight! ARRRRR!

Martha Craig said...

Arghh indeed. I had a feeling it was nautical!

I think I'll make this a phonetic blog. People will have to ignore spelling and apostrophes.

Once again, blame the education...

Anonymous said...

if a gunnel is a fish, is that where packed to the gills comes from? Or have I made that one up?

Anonymous said...

well, anyway, nicely done on the shirts!

Anonymous said...

weren't gunwales the holes out of which the guns pointed

cannons, that sort of thing?

Hadyn said...

From Wikipedia (just in case you thought I would write something like "inboard of the sheer strake"):

The gunwale, pronounced "gunnel" to rhyme with "tunnel", is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.

Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a weal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design of the ship, at and above the level of a gun deck. It was designed to accommodate the stresses imposed by the use of artillery.

In wooden boats, the gunwale remained, mounted inboard of the sheer strake, regardless of the use of gunnery. In modern boats, it is the top edge of the side where there is usually some form of stiffening.

On a row boat (especially in sports), the gunwale is sometimes referred to as the saxboard.

Anonymous said...

Learn something new every day :)