First line of Against the Day?

[Jasper Fidget]

On 10/11/06, Ya Sam wrote:
>
>"For it's said (and not without reason) that no sooner does a ship like the 
>Scaffold single up all lines than certain Navy wives are out of their 
>civvies and into barmaid uniform, flexing their beer-carrying arms and 
>practicing a hooker's sweet smile; even as the N.O.B. band is playing Auld 
>Lang Syne and the destroyers are blowing stacks in black flakes all over 
>the cuckolds-to-be standing manly at attention, taking leave with me and a 
>tiny grin."
>
>http://www.harperacademic.com/catalog/excerpt_xml.asp?isbn=0060930217
>

V
For it's said (and not without reason) that no sooner does a ship like
the Scaffold single up all lines than certain Navy wives are out of
their civvies and into barmaid uniform, flexing their beer-carrying arms
and practicing a hooker's sweet smile;
V-11

Early tomorrow deck hands would come out in the bleaching glare of the
pier's lights and single up all lines for some of these green berets.
The night before, then, was for sentiment, larking in shadows with jolly
barmaids, another pint and another smoke in this manufactured
farewell-hall; this enlisted men's version of that great ball, the
Saturday night before Waterloo. One way you could tell which ones were
going tomorrow: they left without looking back.
V-438

GR
How probable is the Anubis in this estuary tonight? Its schedule has
lapsed, fashionably, unavoidably: it should have been through Swinemünde
weeks ago, but the Vistula was under Soviet interdiction to the white
ship. The Russians even had a guard posted on board for a while, till
the Anubian ladies vamped them off long enough to single up all lines—
and so the last long reprise of Polish homeland was on, across these
water-meadows of the north, radio messages following them in clear one
day and code the next, an early and shapeless situation, dithering
between executioner's silence and the Big Time.
GR-489

One way or another, these Bulb folks are in the business of providing
the appearance of power, power against the night, without the reality.
GR-647

M&D
"Children, at that time Philadelphia was second only to London, as the
greatest of English-speaking cities. The Ships' Landing ran well up into
the Town, by way of Dock Creek, so that the final Approach was like
being reach'd out to, the Wind baffl'd, a slow embrace of Brickwork, as
the Town came to swallow one by one their Oceanick Degrees of free­dom,—
once as many as a Compass box'd, and now, as they single up all lines,
as they secure from Sea-Detail, as they come to rest, none. Here is
Danger's own Home-Port, where mates swallow the Anchor and have fatal
failures of judgment. Where a Sailor who goes up an Alley may not return
the same Swab at all."
M&D-258

"The Sign upon the Waggon says it all, Boys, 'Heaven or Bust,' those're
the choices, you've been out around the World and you know it's true,—
now what are you going to do about it? Go in another Tavern, fol­low
like a train'd Dog another flashing of Satinette, wait one Card too many
to gather up even a few small Coins,— stumble back to the Ship, single
up all lines, out once again into certain Danger. What do you think
Jesus feels like, when he sees you missing another Chance like that? Oh,
He's watchin'. He knows."
M&D-260

"The Stars wheel into the blackness of the broken steep Hills guarding
the Mouth of the Valley. Fog begins to stir against the Day swelling
near. Among the whiten'd Rock Walls of the Houses seethes a great
Whisper of living Voice."
M&D-125

"— yet, whilst they bide in this Realm of the Penny-foolish and
Pound-idiotick, till the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the
Savage Mountain, does there remain to them, contrary to Reason, against
the Day, a measurable chance, to turn, to go back out of no more than
Stubbornness, and somehow make all come right..."
M&D-683