The four-funnel liner

Dear Mago,
I love the “liner” that is the fabric closest to my skin, that is the artist who draws the funny lines, that is a clever joke or comment, that is something that women in particular use to draw attention to their eyes. I don’t think I’m a “good blogger”, i.e. a local media sensation, because we have lost our histories, lost our cultures, lost our collective consciousness, lost our mother tongue, and perhaps most unfortunately lost our interest in exploring…in taking the time and having the patience needed to open ourselves to new perspectives, new associations, needed to create new memories.

In a book called “Liners to the Sun”, the author Maxtone-Graham says that up until World War II, the Aquitania was the only “four-funnel” ship in the world. He mentions that on her first trip back to Europe during World War II, she was met by a destroyer from the reserves that signalled with an Aldis lamp asking the “four-funnelled ship" to indicate who she was. The captain's response was “We are the only *******four-funnel ship in the world and that *********wants our name. Tell him to read ‘The News of the World’ ”. The next signal from the Aldis lamp asked if the ship required an escort, and the reply was, “Can you keep up?” The final Aldis signal as the Aquitania quickly drew away was that the Godspeed of the Aquitania did not require protection.