Oh my, I sure feel another government bailout
coming on, don’t you?

I’m talking about a cruise line — let’s say
they are called something like Cornyval Cruise Lines (not their real name)
that’s had a rash of problems lately, what with their generators failing out at
sea, hmmm, which makes the plumbing fail out at sea, hmmm, which doesn’t make
for the best of cruise conditions, hmmm, out at sea.

So anyhow, I heard an interesting comment
about all of this in the office today.  A co-worker said she thought it
was sabotage.

Now hey, I’m no contheoracy spirist
(obviously since I can’t even spell it).  And this just may be office
gossip.  But in the fine contemporary journalistic tradition of not
letting facts get in the way of a good story, I’ll just keep talking.

So anyway, during our conversation, it
crossed my mind that the cruise lines purportedly pay their basic employees
squat, and work them 90 hours a week, and, hey, I started thinking someone
might finally get so peeved about that – well, that they just might
accidentally on purpose let a wrench fall into a generator spinning a gazillion
RPMS just to see the sparks fly.

So if you hear this broadcast in the
mainstream news sometime (who seldom let facts get in the way of a good story also), well, you heard it here first.

And if not, hey, it was just office gossip -
I already indemnified myself and I can’t be held responsible for that kind
of stuff… like the mainstream news, like the politicians, etc.

Have a nice day – J. Daniel (who is
definitely not a contheoracy spirist)

P.S. So I was talking to another coworker who
said that the hotel personnel on a ship get paid squat, but they don’t have
access to any of the equipment, engine room, etc.  The operational crew who sail the ship,
Captain, Mates, etc., get paid quite well.

Now see how boring the real story is… I mean,
you just can’t work a juicy conspiracy into that set of facts, can you.

P.P.S. So I changed the ship name in this
cartoon a couple of times – and like this version of ECK-AT-SEA best.

The Italians have a word for this – when an
artist (or hack cartoonist) changes his mind and paints over something and changes it.  It’s
called “pentimento.”  Literally, the artist “repents.”

Now there’s no doubt I have much to repent
over, although those things will be held close to the vest, so to speak, and
they are not the point — hmmm — to get off of that subject rather quickly.

The first name I chose in the original
drawing was ECKH-TASY, then Eck-Tasy, and finally ECK-AT-SEA.  So the point is — which ship name do you like
better?

You can send me your opinion at JDaniel@TheWoodChips.com.

And you can read an interesting article on “pentimento”
here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento.

P.P.S. And don’t forget to forward this email to your friends.  They might have a good cruise line ship name as well.  And, they can sign up for their own free newsletter by clicking here.