Slow Boat Research Articles

Representation of Minorities in the Context of the ‘Other’ in Haruki Murakami's ‘Slow Boat to China’

Makalede, Haruki Murakami’nin Çin’e Giden Yavaş Gemi adlı öyküsündeki Japon başkişinin hayatının üç farklı döneminde karşılaştığı toplumun dışlamasına maruz kalmış Japonya’da yaşayan üç Çinli karakter ile ilgili deneyimleri postkolonyalizm ve oryantalizmdeki “öteki” kavramı ile ilişkilendirilerek irdelenmektedir. Kolonyal söylemin haklı göstermeye çalıştığı uygulamalar sonucu bir toplumun içindeki farklı kimlikler ve kültürler daha aşağı görülerek, bilinçli ya da bilinçsizce bu bireyler üzerinde baskı oluşturulmaktadır. Öyküde toplumsal pratikler ve oryantalist söylemin etkisi ile ‘öteki’ konumunda olan karakterlerin toplumdan uzaklaşarak toplumun dışında kaldıkları görülmektedir. Başkişinin bu karakterler ile ilgili deneyimleri ve yaşadığı yabancılaşma duygusunun postkolonyal ve oryantalist söylemin ele aldığı öteki sorunu üzerinden değerlendirilmesi makalenin amacını oluşturmaktadır. Makalede öyküdeki Çinli karakterler bağlamında azınlıklara yönelik önyargılı bakış ve yabancılaştırılmaları oryantalist söylemin etkisi ve postkolonyal yöntem ışığında tahakkümün sosyal hayatta deneyimlenmesinin izleri sürülerek açıklanmıştır. Japon toplumunun algısında etnik etiketin etkisi ve başkişinin bilinçdışında ötekiye karşı oluşturduğu kültürel önyargılar ve ayrımcılık nedeniyle başkişinin kendi toplumuna yabancılaştığı sonucuna varılmıştır.

A method for correcting discharge of boat-mounted ADCP measurements

GPS data are usually used to measure boat velocity during boat-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements when bottom tracking is biased by moving bed. GPS cannot provide consistently accurate boat velocity reference because of multipath errors, satellite signal reception problems, and heading errors. In addition, the computation of water velocity from an ADCP mounted onto a moving boat is a vector-algebra problem, thus the discharge calculation is subject to the compass error when GPS is used for boat velocity reference. This paper proposes a method for correcting discharge based on the idea that the discharge calculation is independent of the boat path. The processing of two sets of boat-mounted ADCP measurements integrated with differential GPS and non-differential GPS was simulated to verify the method. The results show that the proposed method performs well in both differential and non-differential GPS conditions. The relative errors range from 0.1% to 1.5% for all measurements with the mean relative errors of 0.7%. Analytical assessment of the GPS errors shows the proposed method is insensitive to the positioning accuracy of GPS, but positioning error of non-differential GPS may induce relative discharge error of more than 1% when the river or stream is narrow. On the contrary, a relatively small compass or heading error can cause a significant error in water velocity and discharge when using GPS as the boat velocity reference. Therefore, integrating a differential GPS and maintaining a slow boat speed are best practices for discharge measurement, especially for narrow streams or short boat paths.

Assessment of acoustic Doppler current profiler heading errors on water velocity and discharge measurements

Boat-mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) are commonly used to make both water velocity and discharge measurements. Most ADCPs measure the direction of travel of the water and boat using an internal compass. The effect of the heading on measurements made with an ADCP depends on the type of measurement and the boat velocity reference. When bottom track is used for the boat velocity reference a heading error will cause a rotational error in the measured water velocity, but the magnitude of the velocity and the computed discharge is unaffected. When an external boat velocity reference such as a global positioning system is used, the effect of heading errors can be substantial. Potential heading errors include errors in the compass reading caused by distortion in the earth magnetic field due to local objects on the boat and errors in determining the magnetic variation for a specific location. When using an external boat velocity reference heading errors will affect both measured water velocity and discharge. Analytical assessment of the heading errors shows the effect of these errors on velocity and discharge is directly proportional to the ratio of the boat speed to water speed. Therefore, maintaining a slow boat speed is imperative to accurately measuring water velocity and discharge when using an external boat velocity reference.

Too much meat to lose

Too much meat to lose

Slow boat from China: public discourses behind the ‘going global’ media policy

What mission and objectives does China want to achieve through its project of globalizing Chinese media? What are its moral and intellectual justifications? What key recommendations are being made in its policy deliberations so far, and to what extent do they represent continuity with or departure from China’s past? I pursue these questions in this paper through an analysis of a range of policy statements and scholarly research published in China. First, I examine the extent to which China’s public diplomacy policy has shifted, paying particular attention to both continuity and change over time. I then outline the major policy recommendations that have been proposed as part of China’s efforts to improve its global image through media expansion. Finally, I consider the ways in which various moral and intellectual resources have been marshalled to justify and propel such initiatives.

Human genetics of the Kula Ring: Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variation in the Massim of Papua New Guinea

The island region at the southeastern-most tip of New Guinea and its inhabitants known as Massim are well known for a unique traditional inter-island trading system, called Kula or Kula Ring. To characterize the Massim genetically, and to evaluate the influence of the Kula Ring on patterns of human genetic variation, we analyzed paternally inherited Y-chromosome (NRY) and maternally inherited mitochondrial (mt) DNA polymorphisms in >400 individuals from this region. We found that the nearly exclusively Austronesian-speaking Massim people harbor genetic ancestry components of both Asian (AS) and Near Oceanian (NO) origin, with a proportionally larger NO NRY component versus a larger AS mtDNA component. This is similar to previous observations in other Austronesian-speaking populations from Near and Remote Oceania and suggests sex-biased genetic admixture between Asians and Near Oceanians before the occupation of Remote Oceania, in line with the Slow Boat from Asia hypothesis on the expansion of Austronesians into the Pacific. Contrary to linguistic expectations, Rossel Islanders, the only Papuan speakers of the Massim, showed a lower amount of NO genetic ancestry than their Austronesian-speaking Massim neighbors. For the islands traditionally involved in the Kula Ring, a significant correlation between inter-island travelling distances and genetic distances was observed for mtDNA, but not for NRY, suggesting more male- than female-mediated gene flow. As traditionally only males take part in the Kula voyages, this finding may indicate a genetic signature of the Kula Ring, serving as another example of how cultural tradition has shaped human genetic diversity.

Life on Sandpaper (review)

Life on Sandpaper, by Yoram Kaniuk, translated by Anthony Berris. Champaign, IL, and London, UK: Dalkey Archive Press, 2011. 417 pp. $15.95. There had been a war and I was is how Yoram Kaniuk opens his novel that follows his Palmach soldier protagonist's search for identity, career, and the meaning of life. In the course of this bildungsroman, Kaniuk takes his protagonist through an exploration of the self in a series of encounters with Americans and Europeans. It is in America in particular where he learns that even in the Golden Land its citizens cannot always realize their dreams. The choice of America is meaningful, more than merely an occasion to fictionalize a chapter in his own experiences as an Israeli in America of the 1950s. Following the Holocaust America has become the alternative to Israel as a haven, and it is this that the author tacitly weighs as the story-behind-the-story in this long and multi-faceted work. The novel, which the author himself proclaims at the opening as entirely incorrect to call . . . a work of fiction, is a sophisticated molding of his experiences following Israel's War of Independence when he spent the 1950s in America, until his return to his home, which, significantly, is also the novel's last word. This novel is, in many ways, a literal and a spiritual journey of self-discovery. Indeed, for readers of Kaniuk's previous writings, Life on Sandpaper is another encounter with the same exploits his heroes have experienced in previous novels-The Acrophile (Ha-Yored le-Ma'alah), Rockinghorse (Susetz)- as well as a number of short stories, among which Hamesibah shel Charlie Parker (Charlie Parker's Party), Leni Tristano Ha-'iver (The Blind Lenny Tristano), and Timber are most characteristic of his America-centered tales. And while his writing spans numerous geographical and thematic spheres, Kaniuk's fiction may be viewed as a single whole, telling and retelling events from several vantage points. It is through the prism of these works that this novel is read most productively. Kaniuk is among those writers popularly labeled the Palmach Generation, or Dor ba'aretz (the generation in the land) as termed by Gershon Shaked, a reference to those who were of (or near) military age in 1948 and who experienced the war directly (in most cases) as soldiers. They represent, and have internalized, this event in their art and as a significant component of their protagonists' outlook in their transition into citizens of the new state. Other notable members of this group are Moshe Shamir, S. Yizhar, B. Tammuz, and Y. Amichai. For that reason, an alternate way of reading Kaniuk's work is by juxtaposing it with the work of his fellow writers of the same generation. Unlike most, though, Kaniuk is labeled a modernist by virtue of his analogical technique, one that resembles free-association of plot and character, with a loose plot whose causal links are not always comprehensible. Unlike the characters of most of his fellow writers, Kaniuk's chief protagonist in this work as in others is educated by exposure to the world beyond Israel, sometimes against the backdrop of America. As he witnesses the grinding harshness of life's experiences in the Land of the Free, as the title indicates, the protagonist, who had thought of himself as an omnipotent and heroic Palmachnik, becomes able to see himself more realistically, a process that facilitates his reintegration as a normal citizen in the new land where he can now lead a normal, less-than-heroic existence in Israel. After being wounded, a theme central in a number of works, particularly the short piece, Eytim (Vultures) and the novel Himmo Melekh Yerushalayim (Himmo King of Jerusalem), Kaniuk's protagonist leaves the country in quest of healing (literal and metaphoric) on a slow boat headed west. …

Increased Y-chromosome resolution of haplogroup O suggests genetic ties between the Ami aborigines of Taiwan and the Polynesian Islands of Samoa and Tonga

The Austronesian expansion has left its fingerprint throughout two thirds of the circumference of the globe reaching the island of Madagascar in East Africa to the west and Easter Island, off the coast of Chile, to the east. To date, several theories exist to explain the current genetic distribution of Austronesian populations, with the “slow boat” model being the most widely accepted, though other conjectures ( i.e., the “express train” and “entangled bank” hypotheses) have also been widely discussed. In the current study, 158 Y chromosomes from the Polynesian archipelagos of Samoa and Tonga were typed using high resolution binary markers and compared to populations across Mainland East Asia, Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Polynesia in order to establish their patrilineal genetic relationships. Y-STR haplotypes on the C2 (M38), C2a (M208), O1a (M119), O3 (M122) and O3a2 (P201) backgrounds were utilized in an attempt to identify the differing sources of the current Y-chromosomal haplogroups present throughout Polynesia (of Melanesian and/or Asian descent). We find that, while haplogroups C2a, S and K3-P79 suggest a Melanesian component in 23%–42% of the Samoan and Tongan Y chromosomes, the majority of the paternal Polynesian gene pool exhibits ties to East Asia. In particular, the prominence of sub-haplogroup O3a2c* (P164), which has previously been observed at only minimal levels in Mainland East Asians (2.0–4.5%), in both Polynesians (ranging from 19% in Manua to 54% in Tonga) and Ami aborigines from Taiwan (37%) provides, for the first time, evidence for a genetic connection between the Polynesian populations and the Ami.

Ancient Solomon Islands mtDNA: assessing Holocene settlement and the impact of European contact

Archaeologists, linguists and geneticists generally agree that Near Oceania was subject to two major pulses of human dispersal: a Pleistocene occupation around 40,000 BP and a Late-Holocene migration at 3500 BP commonly associated with the Austronesian expansion out of Taiwan. The latter led to the development of the Lapita cultural complex in the Bismarck Archipelago which resulted in the settlement of Remote Oceania and there are a variety of competing models (express train, slow boat, entangled bank, etc.) used to explain this. Recent genetic studies have focused on this issue, but none of them have taken into consideration the bias possibly introduced by 19th-century historically reported population decline caused by European contact. In this paper we present a case study to test the effect of 19th–20th century colonial impact on the mitochondrial DNA diversity of Solomon Islanders and to investigate the complex stratigraphy of settlement in this archipelago during and after the Lapita period. We extracted DNA from hairs and teeth belonging to 21 individuals collected by the Somerville expedition during the late 19th-century, and typed them for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region I (HVS-I) and the intergenic COII/tRNALys 9-base pair deletion (9 bp-del). Comparison of these genetic data with those available from the modern Solomon Islanders and Southeast Asian and Oceanic populations conflicts with the hypothesis of drastic changes in Solomon maternal genepool diversity, indicating that the last century putative bottleneck is not detectable through our genetic data. In addition, the ancient and modern Solomon haplogroup distribution (e.g. M27 haplogroup) suggests, in agreement with some archaeological and linguistic models, that Early Lapita populations expanding out of the Bismarck Archipelago had little or no contact with indigenous non-Austronesian populations in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. This finding indicates smaller scale analyses reveal a more complex reality of genetic admixture in some parts of Oceania than is often assumed in current debates.

Field tests of a directional parametric acoustic alarm designed to alert manatees of approaching boats.

The efficacy of the alarm was documented during controlled slow boat approaches under two experimental conditions: (1) approaches without an alarm and (2) same boat approaches with an alarm. Experiments conducted in a NASA security area provided controlled environmental conditions and minimized anthrogenic acoustical variables. An array of GPS instrumented buoys were deployed to acoustically and visually grid sites. HD aerial video synchronized with these buoys documented behavior and acoustic conditions at focal animal positions and throughout sites. Bathymetry and propagation measurements indicate shallow water constraints along with Lloyd’s mirror effect resulting in significant transmission losses at frequencies of 1 kHz. This could account for the lack of response observed during 94% of the boat approaches without the alarm. In contrast, 100%, of the alarm approaches elicited overt avoidance responses. The change in behavior during approach trials was significantly greater during alarm trials F=76.74, df=1, p<0.01). The distance at which manatees responded was significantly greater during alarm trials (F=143.42, df=1, p<0.01). Applying conservative critical ratio estimates for wideband noise, manatees could not detect no‐alarm approaches at distances of 9 m, while manatees responded to alarm approaches up to 35 m away at levels 18 dB above their estimated critical ratios. [Work funded by the U.S. Department of Defence Legacy Resource Management Program, (Navy), Florida Inland Navigation District, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.]

The Impact of the Austronesian Expansion: Evidence from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Diversity in the Admiralty Islands of Melanesia

The genetic ancestry of Polynesians can be traced to both Asia and Melanesia, which presumably reflects admixture occurring between incoming Austronesians and resident non-Austronesians in Melanesia before the subsequent occupation of the greater Pacific; however, the genetic impact of the Austronesian expansion to Melanesia remains largely unknown. We therefore studied the diversity of nonrecombining Y chromosomal (NRY) and mitochondrial (mt) DNA in the Admiralty Islands, located north of mainland Papua New Guinea, and updated our previous data from Asia, Melanesia, and Polynesia with new NRY markers. The Admiralties are occupied today solely by Austronesian-speaking groups, but their human settlement history goes back 20,000 years prior to the arrival of Austronesians about 3,400 years ago. On the Admiralties, we found substantial mtDNA and NRY variation of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian origins, with higher frequencies of Asian mtDNA and Melanesian NRY haplogroups, similar to previous findings in Polynesia and perhaps as a consequence of Austronesian matrilocality. Thus, the Austronesian language replacement on the Admiralties (and elsewhere in Island Melanesia and coastal New Guinea) was accompanied by an incomplete genetic replacement that is more associated with mtDNA than with NRY diversity. These results provide further support for the "Slow Boat" model of Polynesian origins, according to which Polynesian ancestors originated from East Asia but genetically mixed with Melanesians before colonizing the Pacific. We also observed that non-Austronesian groups of coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia had significantly higher frequencies of Asian mtDNA haplogroups than of Asian NRY haplogroups, suggesting sex-biased admixture perhaps as a consequence of non-Austronesian patrilocality. We additionally found that the predominant NRY haplogroup of Asian origin in the Admiralties (O-M110) likely originated in Taiwan, thus providing the first direct Y chromosome evidence for a Taiwanese origin of the Austronesian expansion. Furthermore, we identified a NRY haplogroup (K-P79, also found on the Admiralties) in Polynesians that most likely arose in the Bismarck Archipelago, providing the first direct link between northern Island Melanesia and Polynesia. These results significantly advance our understanding of the impact of the Austronesian expansion and human history in the Pacific region.

Epley and the slow boat from research to practice

Why does it take months or years for a new clinical procedure to go from awareness to regular use? Even with simple treatments such as a fixed dose of a...

Genome-wide Analysis Indicates More Asian than Melanesian Ancestry of Polynesians

Analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nonrecombining Y chromosome (NRY) variation in the same populations are sometimes concordant but sometimes discordant. Perhaps the most dramatic example known of the latter concerns Polynesians, in which about 94% of Polynesian mtDNAs are of East Asian origin, while about 66% of Polynesian Y chromosomes are of Melanesian origin. Here we analyze on a genome-wide scale, to our knowledge for the first time, the origins of the autosomal gene pool of Polynesians by screening 377 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci in 47 Pacific Islanders and compare the results with those obtained from 44 Chinese and 24 individuals from Papua New Guinea. Our data indicate that on average about 79% of the Polynesian autosomal gene pool is of East Asian origin and 21% is of Melanesian origin. The genetic data thus suggest a dual origin of Polynesians with a high East Asian but also considerable Melanesian component, reflecting sex-biased admixture in Polynesian history in agreement with the Slow Boat model. More generally, these results also demonstrate that conclusions based solely on uniparental markers, which are frequently used in population history studies, may not accurately reflect the history of the autosomal gene pool of a population.

村上春樹裡面的中國：以〈雪梨的綠街〉、〈開往中國的慢船〉、《聽風的歌》三篇小說為主

Murakami Haruki was deeply influenced by China. His first work Hear the Wind Sing (1979) begins as follows: ”The perfect writing is not in existence as well as faultless desperation.” From this citation, we can see that he might be inspired by ”Desperation is as well as hope for nihility” written by Lu Hsun. Murakami Haruki was fond of Lu's True Story of Ah Q in his high school days and had been attracted by him since then. Afterward, he even wrote the short story the Fall of the Kingdom in which the protagonist named ”Q” is an elitist white-collar class. In A Guidance of the Short Stories for Young Readership, which can be regarded as an orthodox literary criticism, Murakami intermittently demonstrates his comments on ”Ah Q”. In addition, as a son of participant being involved in the aggressive war to China, grown up in harbor city Kobe where the China town is located, since his first short story Slow Boat to China, Murakami Haruki's works, such as A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark and so on, constantly focus on the historical memory of China. I think that Murakami literature cannot avoid the issue of China. This paper will examine the issue of China in Murakami literature with Murakami Haruki's early works.

On China's Slow Boat to Women's Rights: Revisions to the Women's Protection Law, 2005

The 2005 revisions to the Women's Protection Law represent the first major reform of the various social protection laws (shehui baozhang fa) that have been steadily introduced in China during the post-Mao period, and build on a number of changes introduced through a refurbishment of the Marriage Law in 2001. This paper examines the nature and significance of China's latest attempt to promote the position of women in Chinese society, and more specifically to discourage discrimination against women, by means of law. The revisions to the Law suggest a growing concern with problems of achieving equality between men and women, and with protecting women's rights and interests. However, while important reforms have been introduced by the revised Women's Protection Law, overall the statutory changes that have been put in place indicate that in reality only slow progress is being made.

Melanesian and Asian Origins of Polynesians: mtDNA and Y Chromosome Gradients Across the Pacific

The human settlement of the Pacific Islands represents one of the most recent major migration events of mankind. Polynesians originated in Asia according to linguistic evidence or in Melanesia according to archaeological evidence. To shed light on the genetic origins of Polynesians, we investigated over 400 Polynesians from 8 island groups, in comparison with over 900 individuals from potential parental populations of Melanesia, Southeast and East Asia, and Australia, by means of Y chromosome (NRY) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers. Overall, we classified 94.1% of Polynesian Y chromosomes and 99.8% of Polynesian mtDNAs as of either Melanesian (NRY-DNA: 65.8%, mtDNA: 6%) or Asian (NRY-DNA: 28.3%, mtDNA: 93.8%) origin, suggesting a dual genetic origin of Polynesians in agreement with the "Slow Boat" hypothesis. Our data suggest a pronounced admixture bias in Polynesians toward more Melanesian men than women, perhaps as a result of matrilocal residence in the ancestral Polynesian society. Although dating methods are consistent with somewhat similar entries of NRY/mtDNA haplogroups into Polynesia, haplotype sharing suggests an earlier appearance of Melanesian haplogroups than those from Asia. Surprisingly, we identified gradients in the frequency distribution of some NRY/mtDNA haplogroups across Polynesia and a gradual west-to-east decrease of overall NRY/mtDNA diversity, not only providing evidence for a west-to-east direction of Polynesian settlements but also suggesting that Pacific voyaging was regular rather than haphazard. We also demonstrate that Fiji played a pivotal role in the history of Polynesia: humans probably first migrated to Fiji, and subsequent settlement of Polynesia probably came from Fiji.

Traces of archaic mitochondrial lineages persist in Austronesian-speaking Formosan populations.

Genetic affinities between aboriginal Taiwanese and populations from Oceania and Southeast Asia have previously been explored through analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosomal DNA, and human leukocyte antigen loci. Recent genetic studies have supported the “slow boat” and “entangled bank” models according to which the Polynesian migration can be seen as an expansion from Melanesia without any major direct genetic thread leading back to its initiation from Taiwan. We assessed mtDNA variation in 640 individuals from nine tribes of the central mountain ranges and east coast regions of Taiwan. In contrast to the Han populations, the tribes showed a low frequency of haplogroups D4 and G, and an absence of haplogroups A, C, Z, M9, and M10. Also, more than 85% of the maternal lineages were nested within haplogroups B4, B5a, F1a, F3b, E, and M7. Although indicating a common origin of the populations of insular Southeast Asia and Oceania, most mtDNA lineages in Taiwanese aboriginal populations are grouped separately from those found in China and the Taiwan general (Han) population, suggesting a prevalence in the Taiwanese aboriginal gene pool of its initial late Pleistocene settlers. Interestingly, from complete mtDNA sequencing information, most B4a lineages were associated with three coding region substitutions, defining a new subclade, B4a1a, that endorses the origin of Polynesian migration from Taiwan. Coalescence times of B4a1a were 13.2 ± 3.8 thousand years (or 9.3 ± 2.5 thousand years in Papuans and Polynesians). Considering the lack of a common specific Y chromosomal element shared by the Taiwanese aboriginals and Polynesians, the mtDNA evidence provided here is also consistent with the suggestion that the proto-Oceanic societies would have been mainly matrilocal.

Human Evolution in Polynesia

The number of eastern Polynesian females required to found the Maori population of Aotearoa (New Zealand) has been recalculated. Our estimates use computer simulations that incorporate realistic sigmoid population growth models and include previously published and new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 3' hypervariable region 1 sequences from Măori (N = 109) and other eastern Polynesian (N = 125) volunteers. Approximately 190 (170-230) women are estimated to have been present in the founding waka (canoes). This new figure is more than double the previous estimate (Murray-McIntosh et al. 1998). Our claim for a large Maori founding population fits well with Măori oral history and has additional support from Măori paleodemography studies based on fertility estimates (Brewis et al. 1990; Pool 1991). An increasing body of data, including our own, supports the concept of planned multiple settlement voyages to Aotearoa by Polynesian navigators, leading us to suggest that theories for an "accidental discovery" of Aotearoa can now be completely disregarded. Four rare and novel Măori mtDNA haplotypes have been identified in the present study, but we are unable to assign the immediate origin of Măori to an exact Pacific island "homeland" because these haplotypes are not currently known elsewhere in Polynesia. We also discuss briefly the ultimate origin of all Polynesians (including Măori) in a wider context. In general, we support the emerging consensus for Pacific origins most closely encapsulated by the "slow boat" model (Oppenheimer and Richards 2001a). Previously "competing" models for the settlement of Oceania are seen as extremes in a continuum of possibilities with the slow boat representing an "intermediate" model. We suggest that a complete account is now close, incorporating data from all relevant interdisciplinary fields to provide a "synthetic total evidence theory."

Spanish Science Taking the Slow Boat?

Spanish Science Taking the Slow Boat?

Days Given Over to Travel

When Mama came for me, my older boy was sailing off the coast of Brazil. I'm not kidding. My boy, sailing off the coast of Brazil. Of course, I always think of him as little but he wasn't so little anymore, he had a wife, a family and they were grown, and he was a man enjoying a big fancy trip on a big boat. A ship, he called it. The kind our people never traveled in, not even in the old days when my father first came to this country from the old country. My father, God rest his soul and I hope to meet him in just a little while, crossed in steerage, the way you see in the movies, below the deck, the cold Atlantic beating against the side of the boat, the inside of his stomach beating against the wall of his chest. Ten days before my son left on his boat trip he told me about it, at the wedding in Connecticut where we all had gathered, my cousin Marvin's daughter's wedding, which makes it sound like a distant relation except Marvin was always like a nephew to me. He and his wife Phyllis, they made a nice wedding for their daughter Susan and her fiance. The weather was cooperating. A cool night in November, but it hadn't snowed yet so it still seemed like early autumn. The food was delicious, the music was playing, I was waiting for dessert and coffee. At the table in my wheelchair, where lately I had decided to sit, it wasn't all that comfortable. My companion, Irving, went to the bathroom. My older boy was bringing me a fresh drink, he was always so polite to me, asking if I needed anything. Here's your scotch, Mother, he said, handing me the glass. I was leaning to one side in my chair what a lousy contraption, that I should ever have to ride in one! The music was nice, old songs, Strangers in the Night, Slow Boat to China, and old country music, f reilichs and whirling around, all the young ones even they knew them, jitterbugging, and the lindy, and the dancing in a circle while the clarinet sounded like a sad child wailing