Dorothy Marley's Journal

So, being the committed slasher that I am, one of the first things I did when beginning my Pirates of the Caribbean research was look for books about pirate sexuality. I found and read two that addressed the subject in detail, and thought I'd give some summary/review for the benefit of those attempting to discuss 17th Century pirates and their sexuality.

(Note: I should probably mention that there was no equivalent term for "homosexual" or "gay" in the 17th Century. Not only did the words not exist in their current meaning, there was in fact no actual formal concept of same-sex sexual preference. Same-sex sexual relationships were instead defined in the courtroom by the legal definitions of sodomy, which is why that term is used so frequently in my summaries.)

( Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B. R. Burg )

Excuse me while I wax rhapsodic for a few moments about the Nashville Public Library. I know that there are places with niftier and more extensive facilities, but it's only in the last two or three years that I've realized what a godsend it is to have a kick-ass public library system.

It doesn't matter that their actual collection isn't anything as impressive as even a half-decent academic library when I can get on the Athena system, browse the catalogs of darn near every local university for books about pirates and 17th century history, and inter-library loan what I need without even getting out of bed. Much better than driving the forty-five minutes to MTSU or paying $20 a year to Vandy for a max of four visits and no borrowing priviledges (both of them are on Athena anyway :)). Public library cards are free to residents of Davidson County, so it's like getting borrowing rights to every local academic library for free. How cool is that?

(No, I'm not obsessively researching POTC, why do you ask?)

I can't believe how sleepy I was all day yesterday. I didn't stay up particularly late the night before, and got to sleep an extra hour, but I was still a walking zombie all day. When Boo had her morning nap, I had one, too, and when she woke up I was still so groggy that I just got her out of her crib, carried her straight into the living room, and laid down on the floor to keep snatching z's while she played. Naturally, since I could barely keep my eyes open, Boo was a playing machine all day. She didn't have an afternoon nap to speak of, and stayed up a good hour and a half past her normal bedtime. Possibly some sort of infant vampirism was involved.

No gaming Saturday night, so instead some of us got together and went to the movies.

( The person responsible for the initial Pirates of the Caribbean trailers and promotions should be shot )