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18 Nov 02 - 02:50 PM (#829184) Subject: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Just Amy I saw this on CNN.com and thought it was really funny. I just thought there should be a song about the whales of Lake Michigan. MUSKEGON, Michigan (AP) -- Teacher Deb Harris could hardly believe what she was reading to her fourth-grade class. Whales in Lake Michigan? But that's what it said in her "Michigan Studies Weekly," a newspaper distributed to 462 teachers statewide. Harris called Utah-based Studies Weekly Inc., which puts out the teaching aid, but she said an editor stood behind the story. "I've lived here all my life -- there are no whales in Lake Michigan," Harris recalled telling the editor. A retraction was later posted on the company's Web site with an explanation that the false information came from a different Internet site intended as a joke. "We at Studies Weekly want this to be a lesson to you," the apology said. "Not all Web sites are true, and you cannot always believe them. When researching, you should always look for a reliable site that has credentials (proof of truthfulness)." Studies Weekly publications have a circulation of 1.2 million readers in third through sixth grades nationwide. The article read: "Every spring, the freshwater whales and freshwater dolphins begin their 1,300-mile migration from Hudson Bay to the warmer waters of Lake Michigan." In reality, the closest whales get to Michigan is the salty estuary at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, which is home to beluga whales. |
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18 Nov 02 - 02:55 PM (#829191) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: MMario Seneca Lake in Upstate NY has an annual Whale Watch festival. Several locals claim to have seen "Sennie" - a alledged freshwater whale. |
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18 Nov 02 - 03:15 PM (#829206) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Naemanson Where's Charley Noble? He has a song about hunting the great freshwater whales. |
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18 Nov 02 - 03:17 PM (#829208) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: irishajo I grew up a few miles away from the lake myself. All these years I could've been whale watching! Who'da thunk it. Nice save by the newspaper. "Let this be a lesson to you..." |
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18 Nov 02 - 03:28 PM (#829212) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Rapparee Ah, but see http://superiorpublicmuseums.org/ssmeteor/NewMETEORMAIN.htm |
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18 Nov 02 - 03:29 PM (#829213) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: EBarnacle1 Many years ago, when younger and without a private personal abode, I used to take friends to the hill overlooking Raritan Bay in Perth Amboy to watch the submarine races. |
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18 Nov 02 - 03:42 PM (#829228) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Bee-dubya-ell They aren't whales. They're Iraqi submarines. |
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18 Nov 02 - 03:51 PM (#829235) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: gwonya I've been able to look out the window of my house at Lake Ontario just down the road for many years now - I've never seen a whale there ....Hang on a minute.... nope, still no whales....WAIT!!...no it's okay. |
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18 Nov 02 - 04:01 PM (#829241) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Don Firth Iroquoi submarines? Don Firth |
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18 Nov 02 - 04:03 PM (#829244) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: MMario You mean from the "lost" tribes of the Iroquois that moved underneath the Great Lakes and became aquatic in order to avoid the encroachment of the "white man"? |
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18 Nov 02 - 04:05 PM (#829248) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: PeteBoom Rapaire - Those are precisely the "whales" I thought of when I saw the topic. For YEARS there was a whaleback visible off the breakwater at the Muskegon (MI) harbor entrance in Lake Michigan. I've forgotten which one, but she missed the entrance in a storm - caught by a freak wave and thrown onto the breakwater. That holed her hull, broke her back and the next large wave lifted her off and down she went. If I remember right all her crew but one was saved. Cheers- Pete |
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18 Nov 02 - 04:05 PM (#829249) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: GUEST,Martin Ryan I'm tempted to guess U911 - but that would be poor taste, wouldn't it? Regards |
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18 Nov 02 - 04:38 PM (#829276) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Peter T. There was a proposal some years ago to bring some freshwater dolphins into the Great Lakes. yours, Peter T. |
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18 Nov 02 - 04:54 PM (#829289) Subject: Lyr Add: FRESH-WATER WHALING From: Charley Noble Back by popular demand! Original concept by Scott Alarik in the late 1970's; lyrics by Si Kahn. Mark Cohen learned this from sea music singer Mary Benson in Portland, Oregon. "Recalls those halcyon days when the St. Lawrence was deeper and broader; whales made their way into the Great Lakes to sport and play only to be later hunted to extinction."
Adapted by Charlie Ipcar in 2001 FRESH-WATER WHALING
Now when I was a tiny lad, no bigger than a youth,
The first ship that I signed on was called The Great St. Paul; Chorus:
Oh, the wailing of the women, I can still recall,
That night we heard the barking of them Apostle Island seals;
Now the wind it was a-rising, our decks were swept with spray,
After forty days and thirty nights our hunger pangs grew rough,
Now when we limped back to Duluth, they all did stand and stare,
Cheerily, |
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18 Nov 02 - 06:49 PM (#829373) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Bat Goddess There ARE fresh water dolphins in the St. Lawrence -- as far inland as Montreal. Hey, thanks, Charley -- I didn't have that last verse! Linn who was born between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan |
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18 Nov 02 - 06:50 PM (#829376) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Just Amy Charley - you are the best. Thanks. |
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18 Nov 02 - 07:46 PM (#829404) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: boab d As a residend in Jockland it could be that people have been mistaken and seena relative of the great Nessie. I would say that stranger things have happened but then I doubt it |
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18 Nov 02 - 08:53 PM (#829448) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Big Mick These folks are nuts, sayin' that there aren't any freshwater whales. Between the years of 1966 and 1969 I used to see them regularly while I was sitting on the top of the dunes...........I guess you had to be there..........hehehehehehe. But then again if you remember the '60s... Mick |
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18 Nov 02 - 09:46 PM (#829472) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Art Thieme Da man himself, old friend and folksinger extraordianaire, SCOTT ALARIK gets all the credit and at least fifty percent of the blame for this entire concept. Si Kahn gets the other 50% of the blame for writing that song. But SCOTT ALARIK is the originator of the stage rap that Si took and turned into da ballit. Scott is also the folk critic for the Boston Globe. As such he wrote about a third of my press packet over the years. (It's not what ya know, but who !!!) But we've discussed this in other threads I'm pretty sure. Art Thieme |
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18 Nov 02 - 10:03 PM (#829482) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: GUEST,paddymac Ya just gotta love a "whale of a tale." Factuality is irrelavent, or summpin like that. EBarnacle - I've heard it said that folks sometimes got torpedoed on that hill, especially on moonlight nights. |
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19 Nov 02 - 03:20 AM (#829589) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Jon Bartlett I don't know about the Great Lakes but there are certainly whales in the Big Brown (Lake Winnipeg): there's even a poem about it, titled "The Ghost Whaler of Gimli" by Brian Richardson. In Canada Folk Bulletin, Sept-Dec 1980, Vol 3, Nos. 5/6. Jon Bartlett |
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19 Nov 02 - 03:32 AM (#829590) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Wolfgang For another song angle, 1966 a beluga traveled up the Rhine as far as Bonn, many many miles from the Northern sea (click for article with picture). The nation went wild with exitement and did sing: Was will der weiße Wal im Rhein Er hat gehört im Rhein soll Wein statt Wasser sein. Was will der weiße Wal? Das wissen wir genau: Der weiße Wal wär gern einmal so richtig blau Wolfgang |
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19 Nov 02 - 08:50 AM (#829758) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Charley Noble Big Mick- You should always let "Sleeping Bears" lie!;~) Art, I did reference Scott and Si Kahn in what I posted, but I do confess to tampering with the geography of their original creation, moving the whaling grounds from a remote and smaller inland MN lake to the great Green Bay. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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19 Nov 02 - 08:53 AM (#829763) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Dave the Gnome There are indeed some great lakes in Wales. Not as big as the American ones but Bala is pleasant enough to sail a Mirror Dingy on... Cheers Dave the Gnome |
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19 Nov 02 - 09:02 AM (#829774) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Big Mick Charley...........that was reeeeeaaaaaalllllyyyyy, reeeeeeaaaaaallllly, bad. I loved it! I didn't think anyone caught the reference................LOL. Mick |
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19 Nov 02 - 09:47 AM (#829810) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: PeteBoom "I didn't think anyone caught the reference"... I did as soon as I read it this morning. Cheers - Pete |
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19 Nov 02 - 11:34 AM (#829907) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Rapparee Once, at a wedding reception in DC, I was talking with another guest about the availability of fresh seafood in South Bend, Indiana (where I lived at the time -- it was readily available, flown in or frozen). Anyway, she said that we probably didn't get much, I was replying with stories about the oysters, squid, crabs and lobsters we got from Lake Michigan when my wife showed up and confused reality (mine) with facts. |
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19 Nov 02 - 11:43 AM (#829913) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: MMario The freshwater dolphin populations of the Great Lakes, quite possibly (like those of New England) were decimated as part of the harvest of their wool - naturally water resistant, it was the prime choice for knitting of fishermen's sweaters. Glouchester alone is reported to have consumed the fleece of over 1200 freshwater dolphins annually during the heyday of the fishing fleets. |
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19 Nov 02 - 12:54 PM (#829987) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Joe Offer MMario, I was drinking coffee when I read the first sentence of your message. The results were disastrous. -Joe Offer, mopping things up a bit- |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:02 PM (#829996) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Schantieman Presumably though, if it's the fleece, it's shorn annually and sustainably, like sheep. This is clearly why you never actually see a freshwater dolphin with its fleece on. Steve |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:10 PM (#830005) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: MMario In this enlightened age, of course! However in earlier days the delpherders would slaughter their charges, being reluctant to shear while waist deep in water. |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:10 PM (#830007) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: artbrooks Are those the same dolphins that were drafted during WWII...to escort the North Atlantic convoys and rescue torpedoed sailors? |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:20 PM (#830014) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Barbara Actually, Charley, as you may be in a position to know, I misspent significant portions of my college years at the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes Park on Lake Michigan, and EJ, we watched the submarine races at night in the Red Cedar River (or else we went down there to get fresh mud for our turtles), rather than drive all the way to Lake Michigan, tho the sand is softer, as I recall... Mick is right, Charley, that was REALLY BAD... Blessings, Barbara |
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19 Nov 02 - 05:38 PM (#830171) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Charley Noble It's nice to be appreciated! Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes Park may have been where you and Mick spent significant parts of your youth, Tehquamenon was my downfall. ;~) Cheerily, Charley Noble, who has several hundred Michigan place name puns to unload |
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19 Nov 02 - 09:30 PM (#830320) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: ballpienhammer aren't they somewhere on the evolutionary tree near the Jackelopes? |
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20 Nov 02 - 01:24 AM (#830426) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Bert Of course, they are not REALLY fresh water whales. They spend most of their lives at sea and just swim up The St. Lawrence to spawn once every 27 years. It's really quite a sight to watch them jump up Niagara. |
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20 Nov 02 - 08:38 AM (#830616) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Charley Noble Very nice image, Bert! I seem to have vague memories of another fresh-water whaling song from Chicago, sung by The Privateers. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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20 Nov 02 - 01:05 PM (#830853) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: GUEST,The O'Meara I have an ancient 8-track tape bootlegged for me by a friend in St. Paul MN, of an old Prarie Home Companion broadcast before the program was national. It contains the Song of the Freshwater Whalers, and explains some of the mysteries about the song. For instance rowing out to "The Horizon" refers to a supper club in Two Harbors just north of Duluth on Lake Superior. And in fact, the freshwater whaling expedition was on Lake Superior, where they hunted the Superior Sperm.The story remained unknown for so long because of the tragic end of the expedition, when Captain Ingemar Thorvaldsen was struck down in his youth when a decoy fell on him. (Your grandparents can explain about 8-track tapes. O'Meara |
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20 Nov 02 - 02:37 PM (#830934) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Charley Noble O'Meara- "Superior Sperm" was the original title for the song but some of us thought that might be too much for the audience to swallow. Glad to get some additional notes on this song, such as the significance of "rowing out to the horizon." Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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20 Nov 02 - 02:46 PM (#830946) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Naemanson Oh God, Charley, Superior sperm was "... too much for the audience to swallow"! You ought to be ashamed of yourself. |
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20 Nov 02 - 04:06 PM (#831002) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: open mike 10-15 years ago a mis-guided whale came up the sacramento river delta and was turned back by squads of whale lovers with recordings of whale songs. I believe he got named Harvey th Hump-backed Whale, and there is a children's book about this by Ernest Callenbach, who also wrote Ecotopia , which is about CA, OR and WA succeeding from the union and fornming n ecologically correct society with mass transit, recycling, organic lifestyle, natural living, etc. I have some friends who yused to publish a magazine called Seriatim, a journal of ecotopia... the correct title of the book is: Humphrey The Wayward Whale |
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20 Nov 02 - 04:10 PM (#831003) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: MMario There was a whale frolicking in the Cape Cod Canal this summer - I suspect that this behavior is the remnents of spawning behavior. (the canal follows for a large part the track of fresh water streams that almost met...herring still approach their spawning grounds only from the original direction) |
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20 Nov 02 - 11:09 PM (#831309) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: GUEST,dex That Tehquamenon pun doesn't hold much water, now does it? |
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20 Nov 02 - 11:58 PM (#831336) Subject: ADD: THE SEAFOOD SHOP CHANTYMAN'S SONG From: Seamus Kennedy This beauty from Greg Trafidlo & Neal Phillips speaks very movingly of the Midwestern deep sea-fisherman, I think. THE SEAFOOD SHOP CHANTYMAN'S SONG (Greg Trafidlo & Neal Phillips) In the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, A frustrated sailor was born; He read about ships that rolled out of the slips, And went sailin' for years round the horn. He learned all the hornpipes and chanties, Still he's twelve hundred miles from the shore; Instead of sea-farin', he sells pickled herrin' At the IGA grocery store. Chorus: And it's way, hey, rig out the sails, We're off for the catch of the day! He sings, "Yo, ho! Rig out the sails, To broil, to bake or fumé; There's roughy and schrod, catfish and cod, And we're runnin' a special on prawns, He sings straight from the heart To your shopping-cart, It's the seafood shop chantyman's song. He bellows his tunes o'er the speakers, Like the chantyman sings to the crew: "Set sail for the seafood department, There's plenty of oysters for stew. There's turbot and trout, And you'll knock yourself out, On the salmon from Frobisher Bay, There's swordfish and shrimp, We never skimp on the salad made fresh every day. Chorus: To broil, to bake or flambé. With his gaze on a bottle of Old Spice, Halfway down on the right in aisle ten, He longs for the days of the tall ships. And he dreams they're returnin' again. And he sees himself out on the watchdeck, Singin' cadence off Prince William sound, While he's manning his station, It's no imitation like those crab legs for two bucks a pound. Chorus: To broil, to bake, or étouffé. |
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21 Nov 02 - 09:43 AM (#831584) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Charley Noble Some old friend of mine used to live out in Manhattan, Kansas, and used to regale me with stories of the daily tide reports for the local lake. THE SEAFOOD SHOP CHANTYMAN'S SONG is certainly a keeper. Maybe we'll work it up for the next time we're singing at Sea Food Festival Day at Portland's Public Market. That is to say if they'll invite us back again after our rendition of "Dramamine" last spring... "Tehquamenon" by the way is the name of a scenic waterfalls in the Upper Pininsular (UP) of Michigan. I was looking for it one year, when I was led astray in Paradise. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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21 Nov 02 - 10:20 AM (#831621) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: GUEST,dex Charlie Noble, Huron a roll with your location puns; they are superior to any. |
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21 Nov 02 - 04:59 PM (#831962) Subject: RE: Whales in Great Lakes? From: Charley Noble Dex- With towns like Bad Ax, Climax, Shaftsburg - Hell, how could I miss? Cheerily, Charley Noble |