2 More Links - Liveaboards at the 79th St Boat Basin, and Dog in the Mooring Field?

Another busy day, but a good chance to post a link to another interesting Times article - this one about liveaboards at Manhattan's 79th Street Boat Basin.

Messing About in Boats actually picked it up a week ago but I SWEAR I am not getting my NYC news via the UK! Saw it in the paper on the way to work that day.

Reminds me of a story I heard once about Frank & Malachy McCourt. Frank is of course the author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis. And Malachy...I wonder how tired Malachy gets of being "brother of Frank" when he's a pretty well-known writer multi-talented gent himself. Anyhow - the way I'd heard the story, the two brothers, who'd known such privation in boyhood, decided that they wanted to get their hands on something that was hard to get - just for the having of it. So, they signed up for the waiting list for a mooring in the seasonal mooring field & eventually, after a few years' wait, they got their mooring ball & began paying their annual fee.

And once a month, they gathered at the 79th Street Boat Basin cafe to drink a toast to their unused mooring ball.

I'd heard this a while ago & never known whether it was true - posting the liveaboard story made me think of it & do a new search on the Times.

Well, although the details aren't QUITE right, it would seem that there is actually something to the basic story.

Oh those whacky literary folk.