Not P but Moby-Dick (100)

[Michael Bailey]

How about this:

simply it’s a loose metaphor - the glass harmonica was played with the
fingers, not a mallet, anyway.




On Fri, Apr 5, 2024 at 2:32 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> The mallet is LIKE a cork.....
>
> On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 9:08 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > The only problem is that you don't pound a glass harmonica, and there's
> no
> > cork involved in it, as far as I can determine. The other possibility is
> > that he was tuning the glass harmonica, but I don't know how that works
> > either.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 12:06 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> tarred fiber. Oakum is a type of rope made of tarred fibre. It is
> >> normally used to fill gaps. The main traditional use of oakum was in
> >> shipbuilding. It was used for caulking, It was used to fill areas
> between
> >> timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships.
> >>
> >> I think it means that the wooden mallet is like a cork as it pounds down
> >> the oakum caulking.      As the mallet pounds it is like playing a
> >> harmonica.
> >>
> >> On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 10:52 AM Mike Jing <
> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> From Chapter 127:
> >>>
> >>> He’s always under the Line—fiery hot, I tell ye! He’s looking this
> >>> way—come, oakum; quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is the
> cork,
> >>> and I’m the professor of musical glasses—tap, tap!”
> >>>
> >>> Is the "cork" here a stopper for a bottle, or is it something else?
> What
> >>> does it have to do with musical glasses (glass harmonica)?
> >>> --
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> >>>
> >>
> --
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>