Two things in the current issue of Wooden Boat make me think of you all (in
fact, the entire magazine makes me think of you all).

1.  Peter H. Spectre's column, quoting Ashley David on a trip through
Malayasia:
"On another day I snuck away from the bike race early in the morning to visit
the island of Duyong Besar.  It is near the mouth fo the river marking the
northern boundary of the town of Kuala Terengganu on the northeast coast of
the Malay Peninsula and has some of the best shade-tree boatyards [B-P'rs: is
ours a shade-tree listserv?]  I've ever seen.  I mean no disrespect by the
term 'shade-tree'.  The boat building in these yards may be small-scale, but
it is isn't exactly small time.  Most of the boats are working craft for the
local market.  They are built from plans in the builders' heads and are
framed out after planking rather than the other way around [B-P'rs: sort of
like our responses, no?].  The bark of the cayy gelam, a local swamp tree, is
used to caulk the seams and has been so used for generations."

2.  Captain/boatbuilder Gary Maynard's hilarious account of the refitting of
the schooner Alabama (owned by the founder of the TShirt-famous Black Dog
restaurants in the Vineyard):

"... I guided the whaleboat onto the beach and lifted my children ashore.....
I knew that my answer was here....  I was part of the continuum, part of the
tradition.  I could now let her go, and she would sail on.  And her futtocks
would, perhaps, outlive me."  Article also has enough obscure nautical lingo
to make technical discussions of masonry look like a Dick-and-Jane reader.

Sign me,  Perfect Hailstorm