M&D Deep Duck 4-6: The Whole Sick Crew

[alice malice]

The East River is not a river, but a straight. It is part of the great
estuary, the Long Island Sound, that place where Gatsby's  Dutch
Sailors had a vision of the unfathomable land, where Gatsby built his
home, where Pynchon grew up, and is the subject, though re-located to
an extent, of his short stories.  The "River"  is and has been a place
of danger, hazard, and disaster, including, of course, the great one,
commemorated on both sides of the river with memorials. On the East
side the memorial is at a place the Greeks, who have made it their
home, call Charybdis. From either side it is easy enough to see that
the name is fitting. The swirling waters at Hell's Gate can swing a
ship off course or swallow a small craft. In my brief career as a
fisherwoman I made that journey from Eatons Neck to Cold Spring and
then from the Sound through the Straight, passed Hell's Gate and
Charybdis. It did not start off well as the harbor master did not want
us to put our dingy in the water so as we could row out to our boat.
The wind was fierce and it was no easy job, but my betters were
skilled and brave men. It got worse. I'm glad to have survived it.
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l