Re: (Big Hair Big Guns!) Fevre Dream by George R R Martin

In article <v8il1c$3cq$1@reader1.panix.com>,
James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

In article <pan$910d2$e4b50469$258960b2$73b5797a@cpacker.org>,
Charles Packer  <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:

On Thu, 1 Aug 2024 20:58:10 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:
>

In article <v8ghsp$28gvp$1@dont-email.me>, BCFD 36  <bcfd36@cruzio.com>
wrote:

On 8/1/24 06:15, James Nicoll wrote:

Fevre Dream by George R R Martin
 
Steamboat entrepreneur Abner Marsh is rescued from financial disaster
by a mysterious benefactor who is curiously averse to direct sunlight.
 
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/got-the-fever

>
I listened to Fevre Dream whilst doing my organlegger job. Lots of hours
stack up between Boulder Creek and Sacramento via San Francisco Airport
and then home or Boulder Creek, to the airport, to UCSF Hospital and
back. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If his info on riverboats was correct
(adding fat to the firebox to increase heat, etc.), I learned a bit
about them in the process.
>

Pity my grandfather is dead. He was a font of knowledge about ship steam
engines. Engineer on the last paddlewheeler across the Atlantic.

>
You had me looking that up. Would that have been the Eppleton Hall?
>

>
It would!

I reviewed Newhall's book on the adventure:

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/the-tyne-tug-caper

For some reason, my grandfather Scott* attracted counter-
intuitive descriptions. "Scottish", and "Edwardian", even
though he was raised in Hawaii, and the Edwardian era was
a small part of his long life. Plus, since he was American,
why use a British period? Meanwhile, over in the folk music
scene, there is this line:

"Scott turned the pages of his book and said in accents raw,"

He sound pretty bog-standard American to me.

https://www.malvinareynolds.com/mr147.htm

* Yes, he was a ship's engineer nick-named Scotty.
--
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