Friday, June 3, 2011

Booty: Follow the Fleet

In conjunction with Memorial Day, May 25 through June 1 saw Fleet Week come to the Big Apple here in the U.S. Ships from the Navy and Coast Guard as well as men and women from those services and – of course – the Marines converged on New York. Events ranged from tours of ships to community outreach and just a little time ashore for the sailors. Fleet Weeks will continue all year in port cities throughout the U.S. with San Diego’s coming in September and San Francisco looking forward to theirs in October.


Of particular interest to Triple P is the recent Fleet Week in New Orleans, which corresponded with New York’s. Here the Navy announced their intention to open four years of world wide commemorations of the War of 1812’s bicentennial next April in my favorite city. You don’t imagine it will end with a bang round about, say, January 8, 2015 in the Big Easy too? Rain or shine, I plan to be there with bells (and probably piratical attire) on. More information can be found here at NOLA.com.

To highlight Fleet Week, Slate.com did a pictorial featuring archive photos from celebrations past (including one from New Orleans and the picture featured at the header). Though Slate has not always embraced the service over the last decade, as the child of many a sailor I’d like to commend them for this brief but lovely tribute. Click here to see the slide show, and happy Friday!

Header: Marilyn Monroe at Fleet Week in 1955 with sailor Arnold Lincoln

2 comments:

Timmy! said...

Ahoy, Pauline! And huzzah for fleet week! Nice slide show too... Do you think Marilyn liked sailors?

Pauline said...

Ahoy, Timmy! I'm going to say yes for two reasons. First, all right thinking women like sailors. Second, the picture tells the story: it's not how comfortable MM appears but how at ease able seaman Lincoln looks with someone who was already a cultural icon. Clearly she likes him and wants him to feel relaxed, and this when she probably doesn't know him at all.