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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Naming the Floats


Boat Brand fishing float. We have some fifty in our collection. A three-masted schooner sailing a sea above the "trade mark" sign. Why are they are the same salmon-y-pink color as the parts of Barbie and Kens we find? Who knows? 

The "Lucky Brand" floats, which we also find, are a pale beige. Lucky Brand has a circle logo with the image of two fish, Pisces-horoscope style, swimming above and below one another. Now, just who decided what the things were going to be called? Is it wishful thinking? 

Fisherman are a superstitious lot. There is some science to it all, and a good fisherman tries for the repeatability of science, but a friend of ours who worked for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the World Bank told us a story of trying to introduce a little science to Malaysian fisherman. They scoffed—if Allah wants us to catch fish, we will catch fish. We pray to Allah for fish.