Souvenir Time

[Guest fountainhall]

Yup – it’s only two days away now. Roll Up! Roll Up! Get your centenary souvenirs here!

 

No, I know. It’s wrong to celebrate an event which caused so many deaths. But that has not stopped some merchants from ‘pushing the boat out’ with all manner of souvenirs of the sinking of the Titanic.

 

There’s a Titanic Cruise under way at this moment in which the organisers stress they are ‘retracing’ the voyage and not ‘re-enacting’ it! Watch this space in a couple of days to verify that fact!

 

On board, you can purchase Salt & Vinegar Titanic Potato Chips (Yuk! I trust these are being thrown over the side on that cruise!)

 

There’s an exclusive “official” Titanic T-shirt with on the front –

 

SHE WAS BUILT IN BELFAST

 

- and on the back –

 

SHE WAS ALRIGHT WHEN SHE LEFT HERE

 

But the tackiest “official” shirt is surely this one. In Ireland, you can buy T-shirts with the slogan -

 

BUILT BY IRISHMEN, SUNK BY AN ENGLISHMAN

 

- this being a reference to the fact that Captain Smith who went down with his ship was English.

 

If anyone plans to send me something, please make it the Titanic Hamper of Dreams (they’ve gotta be kidding – “Dreams”???). For around US$160, Kenny’s Wine Store hamper includes –

 

* McCaw Allan - R.M.S Titanic Tea Towel

* Titanic - Irish Whiskey

* Suki - Belfast Brew Tea

* Ditty's - Irish Oatcakes

* Grace's - R.M.S Titanic Strawberry luxury Jam

* Guinness - Extra Stout x 2

* Belfast City Centre - Chocolates

* Titanic Quarter - Beer

* College Green Brewery - Belfast Blonde

* Grace's - R.M.S Titanic Whiskey Marmalade Jam

* Offbeat Bottling Co. - Irish Apple fig and Onion Chutney

* Offbeat Bottling Co. - Rich Fruity Chutney with Irish Stout

 

Well, if my time’s up, I’d rather go with a full stomach and pissed out of my mind!

 

Orders for my hamper can be placed at -

 

http://www.homedeliverywine.com/prod_name/titanic-hamper.aspx

[Guest fountainhall]

Interesting programme on the National Geographic Channel last night in which James Cameron and his team from "Titanic" speculated if more lives could have been saved. Captain Smith and his crew stopped the ship immediately after they learned of the damage from the iceberg. The ship then remained stationary until it sank some two and a half hours later.

 

It is now accepted that the Californian, the ship that failed to respond to the distress signals and morse code requests for help, was about 15 miles away. Some of its crew were well aware of the distress flares. So look-outs were certainly on duty. Cameron's team reckoned that if Smith had turned and sailed towards the Californian, Titanic would have got close enough to alert that ship's crew that something was seriously wrong. Better, had they sailed the Titanic backwards, the draught of the ship would have slightly raised the bow and perhaps have reduced the degree of flooding.

 

If Titanic had been steaming towards the other ship, even though the engines might soon have been knocked out by the inrush of water, that act would have alerted the lookouts to a problem. With the Californian aware of Titanic's distress, it would have started towards the liner. With a top speed of 13 knots, it could have arrived within less than 75 minutes. It is therefore likely that many hundreds of passengers could have been rescued by the Californian and not drowned.

 

Hindsight is a great thing! Yet, I wonder why Captain Smith and his advisers - well aware of the Californian's position - literally froze and considered no other action than hoping for a response to the distress flares, a response they were increasingly aware was not coming? By then, of course, Titanic could not move - and was finally doomed.

 

We'll never know, but it seems both an interesting and highly plausible theory.

[Guest thaiworthy]

The movie of this tragedy (with Leonardo diCaprio ) is in re-release. There is a 3d version of it. How can they do that? The movie was made 14 years ago. Don't they actually have to use special cameras at the time of the filming? Interesting how technology works.

 

In China, Kate Winslet's breasts are censored:

 

http://latimesblogs....titanic-3d.html

 

Now who on this board gives a damn if Kate's breasts are seen or not? NOT ME!

 

Now if you want to show me more of Leonardo, that's quite a different story, but alas-- not in Titanic. He's much older now than this picture shows, but still quite a cutie in my opinion.

 

 

Now here's a scene I really like in a gay role, from Total Eclipse:

 

http://youtu.be/Jg60688pUrY