DoomsdaysCWRE: https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/115163665564095883
A model for #SustainableCommunities everywhere!
Taran Rampersad@DoomsdaysCW that's really cool!
I would love to live in a place like that.
There is a photographer (#AlexDeSteiguer) who lives on the island in the winter. Some days, I really want her job! @knowprose
Isles of Shoals caretaker
Bill RickerSOME days. The other days are why our settler ancestors whom the ocean hadn't yet killed moved to the mainland.
Yup. And if the "King of the Shoals" and the missus didn't survive, I wouldn't be here, @n1vux !
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux With all of that considered, at any point in my life I would have chosen this if it were an option.
Interesting factoid -- #ThomasMorton, who supplied guns to the local Native Americans and celebrated Pagan rituals atop Merrymount in Quincy, was banished to the Shoals as punishment for his "crimes". He was rescued by some friends before winter set in. @n1vux @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux wow.
Society is weird. But I guess it's not for everyone for obvious reasons.
But give me that, some paper and a good supply of pens, and shelves full of books...
I would consider that a good life. Active in mind and body.
I didn't like winters in a lot of places because of that entrainment to a productivity tempo I didn't set. I could have set my own there.
@knowprose @DoomsdaysCW
Cornell may have occasional postings for a resident caretaker there? IDK if seasonal or year-round these days, I try not to read their fund-raising solicitations.
Cornell may have occasional postings for a resident caretaker there? IDK if seasonal or year-round these days, I try not to read their fund-raising solicitations.
Oh, I wonder if that listing is for the lab on Appledore, @n1vux ? There used to be a hotel there, but it burned down. Now there are some cabins, a few lab buildings, and a weird black monolith thing that used to be some sort of experimental radar. @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
Probably it's Applsdore where Cornell Ornithology spends Mother's donations.
Probably it's Applsdore where Cornell Ornithology spends Mother's donations.
@n1vux @DoomsdaysCW well... wouldn't be a bad spot for me to land.
Been... 35 years since I worked a radar. Lol.
Oh, the radar has been long out of use (maybe). There was a similar structure in nearby Ipswich, MA, @knowprose .
Here's the link to the job I think @n1vux is referring to,
@knowprose
www.shoalsmarinelaboratory.org/community/opportunities-work-sml
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux Man.
I'm betting I would not pass the physical requirements these days.
But what a fun opportunity that would be!
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
Experimental Radar? hmm that intersects other interests and my currently addled brain isn't remembering that.
Experimental Radar? hmm that intersects other interests and my currently addled brain isn't remembering that.
So, here's a link to an archived version of the website (the original is not secure), which talks about the installation on Appledore, @n1vux . It was a "Base-End Station"
" Built in April of 1944, the Appledore Island Base-End Station (location 141 site 1A) was a seven story square reinforced concrete building that stood over fifty feet tall. The fifth story was used for Battery Barry at Fort Dearborn (station designation B3/1 S3/1), the sixth story was going to be used for Battery Curtis at Fort Foster (station designation B2/6 S2/6), the seventh story was used for Battery Seaman at Fort Dearborn (station designation B7/2 S7/2) and the roof was used for anti aircraft purposes (station designation AAIS OP 6). The 7th story also had a depression rangefinder and the roof had a SCR-296A fire-control radar. The tower still exists but is on private property and there is no public admittance. Also built on Appledore Island were Army barracks (location 141 site 1B), a Navy Magnetic Indicator Loop Station, two searchlights (positions 6 and 7) and, built in 1943, an Army Crib Wharf and Pier. Magnetic Loop Indicators were cables laid on the ocean floor to detect submarines passing. The cables were laid from Sisters Point, Kittery, Maine, to Appledore Island, Kittery, Maine to Rye Ledge, Rye, NH. The Crib Wharf and Pier was destroyed in 1947 in a storm. No other buildings still exist. Tours of Appledore Island are available through UNH Marine Docents. Tour information is available on their site."
So, in my work-in-progress, the tower on Appledore is some sort of weird experimental energy tower, using long-lost technology to do "invisibility" experiments, @n1vux . My addled brain totally brought up the fictional version! lol @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux May have even been related to some of Nikola Tesla's black projects. :)
Tee hee. In my story, it was the technology used to keep the nearby "city beneath the sea" hidden. @knowprose @n1vux
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux Yeah, that tracks with some of Tesla's work.
Electricity from earth inductance. ;)
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux (I'm a Tesla nerd)
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
Sure, if Isle of Shoals wasn't mentioned as an undersea outpost in the Lovecraft/Cthulhu-in-R'lyeh/Miskatonic mythos, it should've been!
Sure, if Isle of Shoals wasn't mentioned as an undersea outpost in the Lovecraft/Cthulhu-in-R'lyeh/Miskatonic mythos, it should've been!
Actually, Devil's Shoals was based on the Isles of Shoals, and Lovecraft was very much aware of the Shoals and the fisherfolk. He ventured to Portsmouth, NH, but did NOT take the boat ride to Star Island, instead admired it from afar while collecting local tales, @n1vux . @knowprose
(My wife probably knew that.
When we attended old NecronomiCon, late last century, I was the +1. I'm only HPL-adjacent ... )
Heh, @n1vux I almost went in 2019. Now I don't travel as much. Goudsward has never been, and his brother gives him shit about it. lol. @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
(2019 is under New Management.
Chair-for-Life of the Ancien Regime was a dear family friend. RIP Joane. We attended '97 and '99 [3d & 4th] and WFC'99 [25th] Providence. I was glad to see the New Mgt is keeping her biennial schedule.)
(2019 is under New Management.
Chair-for-Life of the Ancien Regime was a dear family friend. RIP Joane. We attended '97 and '99 [3d & 4th] and WFC'99 [25th] Providence. I was glad to see the New Mgt is keeping her biennial schedule.)
I'm friends with a Lovecraftian historian who has access to HPL's letters and travelogues. @n1vux @knowprose
He's written a few books about HPL's travels, and just finished writing "Lovecraft in Florida". His name is Dave Goudsward. He used to be in the Fediverse, but left it. Too bad. But yeah, I've asked him tons of questions about places I knew Lovecraft went to and wrote about, and also learned that Lovecraft once hung out where I grew up, and even took a trolly by my grandparents' house. @n1vux @knowprose
Lovecraft was there visiting old historic houses, one was a house I used to hang out in. And yeah, there were some old burial grounds and a spooky swamp (my childhood haunts). I hated HPL's views on minorities, women and gay folks (and suspect he was closeted gay himself), but I felt a kinship with his writings about the spooky places I loved. @n1vux @knowprose
Lovecraft's boyfriend lived in Newburyport (Innsmouth) and worked at the Garrison Inn. My friend has NOT written about those letters, but I know what they say. @n1vux @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux well, people were products of the societies they lived in.
To survive as any type of minority required a public mask above reproach.
It's not an excuse. It's simply how people survived. The same happens even now. Virtue signaling. Tribal calibration. Etc.
Safe spaces for many are what they build, not what they have.
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
FWIW, reportedly, very late in HPL's short life, his Aunt from whom he got much of his politics returned from visiting Germany, and was quite disenchanted with Adolf's (u-)(dis-)topia; reputedly HPL moderated a number of his views accordingly, but wrote so little after that that shift, if real, is not reflected in published works much if at all. I would be interested in your archivist friend's reading on that!
FWIW, reportedly, very late in HPL's short life, his Aunt from whom he got much of his politics returned from visiting Germany, and was quite disenchanted with Adolf's (u-)(dis-)topia; reputedly HPL moderated a number of his views accordingly, but wrote so little after that that shift, if real, is not reflected in published works much if at all. I would be interested in your archivist friend's reading on that!
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
and thank you for sharing his history in Innsmouth / Newburyport.
I'd long wondered why/how "I am Providence" was centering Essex Co Miskatonic & Innsmouth, when frankly the Mass. communities nearer R.I. were more "Swamp Yankee" territory in his day.
and thank you for sharing his history in Innsmouth / Newburyport.
I'd long wondered why/how "I am Providence" was centering Essex Co Miskatonic & Innsmouth, when frankly the Mass. communities nearer R.I. were more "Swamp Yankee" territory in his day.
Miskatonic = Merrimack River. Dunwich = Haverhill. Danvers = Arkham. Salem = Salem. lol @n1vux @knowprose
One of the many Goudsward books I own, @n1vux .
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux Really interesting. WWII era.
Well, that tech is older than me anyway. lol
@DoomsdaysCW
I haven't visited THAT one, but most of the survivor as that are even rarely open for visitors.
I am acquaintances with the keepers of Cape E and Rye towers, if you need a tour. Or blueprints.
https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/New_Hampshire/Towers/Appledore.html & CDSG . ORG
More of the base-end stations had RADAR bolted-on at the last-minute than appeared in the lesser-classified harbor reports ...
There was also a modern (ish) Wind Profiler Radar on Appledore in this new century.
@n1vux @DoomsdaysCW Lovely solar panels too. :)
I wonder how the fisherfolk felt about Morton being exiled amongst them.
Those Isles, NH, & ME were distinctly less Puritan[ical] than Mass Bay and New Plimoth Colonies; p'raps they found use for him until he was rescued.
So, Morton's exile (1628) was before Andrew Haley and family settled on the Shoals in the 1650s (I'm a descendant of Haley). There wasn't much there at the time. Maybe a dock? Native Americans had been living there prior to 1623, but had abandoned the islands by the time Captain Leavitt set foot on them. I don't wonder if maybe Morton's Native American friends rescued him. @n1vux @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
Cousin! ❤
(I'm on the (T) returning from a Scotch-infused Wake 💔🥃 , so I don't have my references at fingertips RIP Joe.)
Oh geesh, is that like an Irish wake, @n1vux ?
And yeah, the fisherfolk were pretty wild, @n1vux . The women were as tough as the men, they say. @knowprose
@DoomsdaysCW @n1vux that was a different era. Tough was relative. Survival was different.
And... it was simpler.
The era when poking bears was literal.
I imagine that phrase came from counting coup.
@DoomsdaysCW @knowprose
Song says
🎵 "Cape Cod Girls, they got no combs;
They do their hair with Codfish bones."
Isles of Shoals would only be more-so! ❤
Heh. That sounds like my ancestor all right, @n1vux !