The Shipping Forecast
Mar. 16th, 2010 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholm"Who NEEDS the shipping forecast?" asks today's PM newsletter. I do hope this is only because it's a slow news day, and the thing isn't really under threat - because the answer is, of course, "Reason not the need!"
Don't they recognize a liturgy when they hear one? Don't they know that the shipping forecast is Auntie's way of tucking the nation in safely at night, coast by neatly-folded coast? That it's an apotropaic, a nightly beating of the parish bounds? Don't they hear the watchman's cry, "It's 23.00 hours GMT and all's well!", and see his lonely lantern bobbing out upon the deeps?
I believe some sailors listen to it as well, for purposes of their own, but that's hardly the point. You don't need to work on a trawler to derive comfort from a Fisherman's Friend, O Powers that Be.
Don't they recognize a liturgy when they hear one? Don't they know that the shipping forecast is Auntie's way of tucking the nation in safely at night, coast by neatly-folded coast? That it's an apotropaic, a nightly beating of the parish bounds? Don't they hear the watchman's cry, "It's 23.00 hours GMT and all's well!", and see his lonely lantern bobbing out upon the deeps?
I believe some sailors listen to it as well, for purposes of their own, but that's hardly the point. You don't need to work on a trawler to derive comfort from a Fisherman's Friend, O Powers that Be.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 02:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 04:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 04:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 06:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 07:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 08:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-16 09:07 pm (UTC)I have, though, heard Les Barker perform his version. This probably doesn't count.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-17 10:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-17 11:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-17 05:53 am (UTC)If you start a petition, I'll sign.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-17 10:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-17 12:49 pm (UTC)But you're absolutely right. I can't think how many nights with dying relatives, small babies, crises, insomnia, I have heard that liturgy and felt reassured that Rockall, Hebrides and German Bight are still out there somewhere, westerly, moderate.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-19 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-19 06:41 pm (UTC)It was very strange to have my words read by an actor. Now I know how it feels to be Gerry Adams.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-19 06:57 pm (UTC)That's a disturbing prospect.