The Doctor

It seems that the former teen heartthrob (no pun intended) looks like this before the cameras... and this while pursuing his lust of trading in souls....

But we have had the commandeering of two ships, kidnapping, the sacking of a town, a jailbreak, the rescue of a convicted pirate from execution, and the hostile boarding of an English man o' war. Granted, that was all in the first movie, but those seem more than a bit piratical to me. :)

Probably no legendary sea monster was as horrifying as the Kraken. According to stories this huge, many armed, creature could reach as high as the top of a sailing ship's main mast. Kraken's would attack a ship, wrap their arms around the hull and capsize it. The crew would drown or be eaten by the monster. What's amazing about the Kraken stories is that, of all the sea monster tales known, we have the best evidence that these are real. Early stories about Kraken, from Norway in the twelfth century, refer to a creature the size of an island. Even in 1752, when the Bishop of Bergen, Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan, wrote his The Natural History of Norway he described the Kraken as a "floating island". "Its back is about a mile and a half in circumference - it looks like a number of small islands surrounded by what looks like seaweed." He also noted: "It seems these are the creatures's arms, and, it is said, if they were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, they would pull it down to the bottom." Later Kraken stories bring the creature down to a smaller, but still monstrous, size. The Kraken of legend is most probably what we know today as the giant squid. While a colossal octopus might also fit the description, the squid is thought to be much more aggressive and more likely to come to the surface where it might be seen by man. Though giant squids are considerably less then a mile and a half across, they are large enough to wrestle with a sperm whale. On at least three occasions in the 1930's they attacked a ship. While the squids got the worst of these encounters when they slid into the ship's propellers, the fact that they attacked at all shows that it is possible for these creatures to mistake a vessel for a whale. What if a large squid, say a hundred feet long and weighing two or three tons, attacked a small sailing ship? (Remember many early vessels, even those that crossed the Atlantic, measured much less than one hundred feet in length) It might well have been able to turn it over. According to the Speculum Regale ("The King's Mirror", Norway, 1250): "There is a fish not yet mentioned which it is scarcely advisable to speak about on account of its size, which to most men will seem incredible. There are, moreover, but very few who can tell anything definite about it, inasmuch as it is rarely seen by men; for it almost never approaches the shore or appears where fishermen can see it, and I doubt that this sort of fish is very plentiful in the sea. In our language it is usually called the kraken. I can say nothing definite as to its length in ells, for on those occasions when men have seen it, it has appeared more like an island than a fish. Nor have I heard that one has ever been caught or found dead. It seems likely that there are but two in all the ocean and that these beget no offspring, for I believe it is always the same ones that appear. Nor would it be well for other fishes if they were as numerous as the other whales, seeing that they are so immense and need so much food. It is said, that when these fishes want something to eat, they are in the habit of giving forth a violent belch, which brings up so much food that all sorts of fish in the neighborhood, both large and small, will rush up in the hope of getting nourishment and good fare. Meanwhile the monster keeps it mouth open, and inasmuch as its opening is about as wide as a sound or fjord, the fishes cannot help crowding in great numbers. But as soon as its mouth and belly are full, the monster closes its mouth and thus catches and shuts in all the fishes that just previously had rushed in eagerly to seek food." Since the late 18th century, Kraken have been depicted in a number of ways, primarily as a large octopus-like creature, and it has often been alleged that Pontoppidan's Kraken might have been based on sailors' observations of the giant squid. The earliest descriptions of the creature were more crab- than octopus-like, however, and generally possess traits that are associated with large whales rather than with giant squids. Some traits of kraken resemble undersea volcanic activity occurring in the Iceland region, including bubbles of water, sudden, dangerous currents and appearance of new islets. In 1802, however, the French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort in Historie Naturalle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, an encyclopedic description of mollusks, recognized the existence of two kinds of giant octopus. One being the kraken octopus, which Denys de Montfort believed had been described not only by Norwegian sailors and American whalers, but also by ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder. The second one being the much larger colossal octopus (the one actually depicted by the first image) which reportedly attacked a sailing vessel from Saint-Malo off the coast of Angola. Montfort later dared more sensational claims. He proposed that ten British warships that had mysteriously disappeared one night in 1782 must have been attacked and sunk by giant octopii. Unfortunately for Montfort, the British knew what had happened to the ships, resulting in a disgraceful revelation for Montfort. Denys de Montfort´s career never recovered and he died starving and poor in Paris around 1820 (Sjögren, 1980). In defence of Denys de Montfort, it should be noted that many of his sources for the "kraken octopus" probably described the very real giant squid, proved to exist in 1857. The Kraken a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides: above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumber’d and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages and will lie Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. (Cobbled together from a number of Internet sources by yours truly)

It strikes me as odd how people are forgetting that the PotC movies are, at their heart, monster movies in a pirate setting. Curses, undead pirates, etc... So why wouldn't we see that supernatural aspect amped up in subsequent movies?

Just *hic!* doing my civic duty!

Here's an idea that would be fun for the kiddies (and adults, too) - Word Search Puzzle Generator Type in your list, and it generates a printable puzzle for you. :)

Looks like "Dead Man's Chest" is tearing it up in the foreign markets, as well! Box Office Mojo

One part key lime juice Two parts raw sugar Three parts dark rum Serve over ice. And make sure you don't have far to fall once this concotion hits.

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun. Shine on you crazy diamond. Now there's a look in your eyes like black holes in the sky. Shine on you crazy diamond. You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the steel breeze. Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine! You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon. Shine on you crazy diamond. Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light. Shine on you crazy diamond. Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the steel breeze. Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

That all depends on who you get to throw them to.

As always, I take these reports with a grain of salt, Bess. You've yet to steer us wrong. I still have doubts they can keep him upright for more than 3 minutes unless they stuff him in a barrel.

Just caught this over at Fox News - Rolling Stones' Keith Richards Says He Has Recovered From Fall, Is Ready for Tour Monday, July 10, 2006 MILAN, Italy — On the eve of the relaunching of the Rolling Stones' European tour, Keith Richards said he's recovered completely from a head injury suffered in a fall — and shrugged off a question about whether he had worried about dying. "I feel great. I can't wait to get back on the stage again. Basically everything is cool," Richards said Monday. The 62-year-old guitarist fell from a tree April 27 while vacationing in Fiji, forcing the Stones to postpone their European tour. He later had surgery in New Zealand to relieve pressure on his brain. "Of course they put me out like a light. I was surprised myself. ... I had total comfort. When you got to do it, you got to do it," Richards said. The Stones were to resume their "A Bigger Bang" tour Tuesday at Milan's San Siro stadium. The 21-date tour wraps up Sept. 3 in Denmark. Asked what he's been doing since the fall, Richards responded, "I recovered. ... Six weeks, I mean not bad for a brain job." Did he ever worry about dying? "Good one," he said, good-naturedly. The Stones were in a jovial mood, and when the inevitable question came — what was Richards doing up in a coconut tree and did he find what he wanted? — everyone was ready to set the record straight. "That's a good one. If you saw the tree, you'd realize the joke. Fiji is not just made of coconut trees. It was a little tree," Richards said. Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood were eager to illustrate the point, indicating a height less than half of Richards. Richards also confirmed his role in the third installment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, saying he'd be filming for a week or so in September. Richards is to have a cameo role as the father of the flamboyant Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp. "Now I know why (Depp) paid for all those lunches," Richards deadpanned. Asked what success meant to the Rolling Stones after 44 years, Richards responded: "The opportunity to continue." His bandmates nodded in agreement. _____________________________________________________________ Any bets as to whether he ends up with the Port Royale piggies?

Aye! You know, we should come up with a drinking game for when the movie arrives on DVD! Like, take a shot whenever Jack makes a funny face, and two shots when he falls down. Hmmm.... at that rate, most folks would be passed out 20 minutes into the flick. Never mind!

Some stories take time to tell. "Lord of the Rings", for example. Or "Star Wars". As much as I love the PotC franchise, I can't imagine sitting in a theater for 5 or 6 hours straight. My own home is another story. I have rum there.

Giddily optimistic!

I got as bunch of people hooked on "Shut the Box". It's great to while away the time at horse shows! :)

Only until May, love. Only until May. :)

And exactly would one be finding that version, mate?

Nah, mate. The beans are what got him into this fix!

I hate those carpet-commando carriages! They're almost as big as my SUV, and carry as much junk! Don't get me wrong; I love kiddies, if prepared properly. Especially with mint sauce or a nice peppercorn bernaisse.

I hope his wife enjoys fire-roasted weenies.

I like having a beard. Without it, I look like a kid.

You are 34% Taoist! You're soooo close...if you would spend some extra time investigating Taoist thought and practicing arts such as yoga or taiji, you might discover the hidden Taoist in you! Wow, that was a surprise. Higher than I expected. :)

Hah!! Now, I'm perfect!