I own a small “runabout.” It is called a runabout because it is less than 6 meters long. It’s an 89 knot handful, though.
Since I captain this small craft, I know a little about channel navigation and the difference between port and starboard, for example.
When I see the “Full Speed to Port” signification above Gary Horton’s left shoulder, I chuckle a bit.
I am not certain if the editor and/or the publisher were intentional in the “depth” of the nautical reference humor I see, but if he/they were, I want to bestow “fathoms” of hearty thanks.
You see, if a captain navigating a channel makes a move full speed to port, he navigates at full speed directly into the path of oncoming traffic.
So, that’s very fitting. Gary’s column is most often a stirring against the normative right-wing rancor that is dominant in The Signal (opinion pages).
Often, predictably, the precipitate from Gary’s column is an acid rain of disfavor from the gallery. This seems well designed by the editor and the publisher. That’s good journalism, providing at least one alternate view, a single intrepid icon to absorb the slings and arrows. For us as readers, as Kurt Vonnegut says in “Slaughterhouse Five,” so it goes.
But what if an equivalent “Full Speed to Starboard” column had been granted? Such a captain would, if in the channel, end up full-speed on the rocks. For me, Right Here Right Now authors have many times been found high and dry on those rocks, sooooo …
A recent example? Though not expressed in the RHRN column, local conservatives have expressed laissez faire opinions about a calculating automaton that can outsmart any of them, and myself, giving me pause to chuckle at their naive opinions about these emergent digital overlords.
All that aside, and with great appreciation, I offer a “deep blue sea” thank you to the editor and/or publisher for their constructive humor.
Christopher Lucero
Saugus
