JoshuaRed

I WILL RAISE THE SAFETY BARRRR! The "ghost girl" video is fake. Fake fake fake. As someone who does paranormal investigations for people, I can tell you that those of us that take it seriously do not scream like little kids when activity occurs. His buddies were trying to get him, and they sure did! It's actually really funny. Mad Jack, that's an amazing story about the monk - I don't doubt it for a minute.

I found this INCREDIBLE stop-motion animation short today at a site called Atom Films, where up & coming filmmakers can host their work. I only found it as my brother is putting something up there and I came across this while looking for his. Anyone with broadband and an interest in all things 17th century owe it to themselves to check out this film: The Periwig-Maker It's about a wig maker who is stuck in his shop during the Great Plague in 1665. He forms this quirky non-verbal relationship with a girl trapped in her home across the street. The narration is by Kenneth Branaugh, and the quality of the set, characters, and especially lighting all create one of the most hauntingly beautiful films I've ever seen. So check it out! It's only a few mins long and free! *Incidentally, the narration Kenneth reads is DeFoe's "Journal of the Plague Year" from 1722, even though this short is set in the 1665 plague.

Yeah it's so cool at Disney - people seem more excited by POTC than any other ride. Everytime we go, we get kids singing, older folks singing, parents, everyone! Cast members there are always enthusiastic too. It's just the "Sweet spot" of the park, imo.

Absolutely, brother.

Oh WOW what a cool site...thanks Greg! Very interesting how much customization was done on the knife handles...do you think European explorers/traders would have gone to the extent that the Indians did in terms of crafting unique handles?

The interesting thing about law-enforcement in England then was that it the machine of justice required some THOROUGHLY lined pockets to begin working. A poor person who was a victim of crime was pretty much out of luck. Foxe, you can check out Liss' site Here. I highly recommend his books -- very intelligent, very exciting without falling victim to the typical adventure-fiction traps. He's been tagged as inventing a new genre in fiction - the "financial thriller". A Conspiracy of Paper deals with the South Sea Bubble, Jonathan Wild, and many other cool GAOP phenomena. The Coffee Trader deals with the arrival of coffee as a tradeable commodity in the stock market in the 1660s.

Note the red heels and small buckles on the shoes. Very cool.

Foxe, you ever read any of David Liss' fiction? Particularly, A Conspiracy of Paper? Wild is characterized in this, very well I might add.

Yeah, true. Good idea!

*sigh* if only Magic Kingdom sold Dole Whips with rum! Can you IMAGINE? WOW.

Thanks for posting that Carter. Lots of good info there, but I think this statement: is little more than a sweeping generalization that this writer is using because it sounds good. There is absolutely no reason a "pirate" qualifies as a "Trade" that requires it's own gear as this text implies, the way a Fisherman does or a Calvaryman. Furthermore, how much booty could one possibly tuck into their boots and still expect to walk? Wouldn't boots full of booty jingle and clank with each step? Wouldn't the coins or jewels get stuck under your foot and hurt like hell? Wouldn't every pickpocket kid in town just reach down into your boot and help themselves?

Yeah, that is generally true...not sure if anyone wore breatplates at sea in the GAOP at all. I certainly haven't heard of it...I think it may be a 15th-16th C. throwback. "Retro" has always been cool, those guys knew it too.

You ain't kiddin'....those Dole Whips are nothing short of incredible.

Makes one wonder how the Golden Age Pirate dealt with the inevitable chafing one would incur from weeks of wearing the same sweaty, greasy slops under the Caribbean sun all day. Yikes -- imagine the march to Panama!! Bet it wasn't fatigue or disease that dropped half of em, but critical code-red chafing!

Ed! Love your post, love your boats! I don't think boots/shoes is an issue of slipperiness...barefeet are just as slippery on wet smooth wood. Growing up I slipped and fell on my share of docks & floats in the lakes & ocean we used to swim in. Boots are heavy, especially when wet, and wearing them up and down the shrouds all day would be most awkward I think, with the heels catching in the ratlines, etc. Standard GAOP shoes were worn because they are the closest thing to the comfy, lightweight, usable sneakers & boat shoes we have today for boating.

Well during March it's closed for general rehab, cleaning, "freshening up", then it reopens in April...then closes AGAIN for May and June when they will add the new stuff from the movie. Here's a question - word on the street is that for instance the girl that pops out of the barrel will be replaced with Sparrow. What will happen to the girl? Or any of the characters being removed? Any chance of a high-profile ebay auction? Or will they wind up in the highest-ranking exec/imagineer offices? Christine...it would be cool to spend a day in either Magic Kingdom with you...something tells me it would be a blast...if you're ever in Fla, let's have a Buzz shootout! Dole whips are on me!

Yeah those specials are always available on dvd as soon as the show airs.

"Belay you foc'sle swabs!" Glad to hear he's safe. Figured he must be, or they wouldn't have made an action figure of him.

Sure! That's how Captain Blood ended up in Jamaica in the story. Flogging Molly has a great song about the Irish being rounded up and sent to the tobacco plantations in Barbados too.

Just a couple buzzwords to throw out here that may help -- splinters. Infections. Blisters. Smashed Toes. More splinters. Rope burn. Sun burn. More splinters. powder burn. Stubbed toes. The same reason you'll never see a commercial fisherman going barefoot is the same reason a GAOP wouldn't want to spend much time barefoot. Tender lil' piggies surrounded by heavy gear, rough weather and gunpowder is not a good combo.

LOL Christine -- that's the look I get on Buzz here in Fla too!! And my son is purely interested in spinning the car in dizzying circles while I try and shoot....it's a riot! They just rehabbed Buzz here, it moves slower now so you can rack up more points. Sadly, due to me not ripping the pages of my desk calander off frequently enough we missed the last day of POTC being open. Major D'OH!!! I am a tool. But the good news is that they are gonna open it up in April after the general rehab, BEFORE the new characters are added. So I only have to wait a month. It was weird walking by the ride with it closed....took all my willpower to veer my legs away toward Frontierland. I can't wait till the rehab is totallty done...it was rather sad and unfulfilling to spend the day there without Pirates! To me, that IS the heart and soul of the park.

Why stop there - this whole issue is speculative, at least from the side of trying to make the case for boots. Pirates existed, and boots existed, both at the same time. We can only speculate as to whether or not any of them wore said boots. With that said, the cold issue is worth considering -- remember the GAOP was on the tail end of a mini-ice age...would have been colder then.

I have to get over there and join up...I keep forgetting. So many forums....

Better yet, Honduras! Or the Belize River. Let's bring some period axes and saws, setup camp and just start sawing down logwood...course sooner or later I'm sure we'd get arrested and tossed in some horrid South American prison until a mustachioed thug in aviator shades and Castro fatigues comes to "question" us...then we escape in a jungle mudslide and go plummeting over a huge waterfall..wait that's Romancing The Stone.

*Count me in!* Grabs a single malt, neat, steps to the balcony and lights up a CAO Brazilia Ahhhhh....now THAT's good. :)