Resurgence of piracy

There is obviously a resurgence of interest in piracy due to the recent capture of a USA-flagged ship and the hostage situation with the ship’s captain that happily ended in his rescue just this morning.

Many of us, of course, still think of pirates in terms of 1700s brigands in tall ships with parrots, bandanas, striped shirts and eye patches, hoisting the Jolly Roger and keelhauling their victims. I remember watching the movie The Phantom and rolling my eyes a bit at the mention of his ancestor’s oath to fight piracy.   It’s an okay film, saved by the dedicated performance of Billy Zane and the thigh-high boots on an unknown Catherine Zeta Jones.  I liked the movie.  But pirates?  It’s a bit hard to make that relevant, isn’t it?

However, some years later, I heard the author of “Dangerous Waters” on the radio, and the interview was so intriguing that I picked up the book as a gift for my dad.  The book explains how piracy has never fully gone away.   The author was surprised to learn this in person, when his craft was raided by a species of criminal that he thought was extinct: pirates.

Modern laws make it a very profitable enterprise for many third world ruffians.  Many companies would rather pay exorbitant ransoms rather than having to mess about with training their crews to fight pirates (or equipping them with security personnel), and some ports have strict laws that don’t allow arriving boats to carry weapons.

Maybe a modern-day Phantom dedicated to fighting pirates could take on their modern counterparts.  I know I’d buy that book!

Interesting note:  When I went out to Amazon to find Dangerous Waters, I discovered that this six-year-old book is now in the top 1000 books.  What’s more,  it’s currently #2 in the category “International Security”, #5  in “Current Events – Terrorism”, and #9 in “Politics – International Relations”!  That must be a nice little windfall for author John S. Burnett.

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My local Star Trek Museum!

I live over on the east side of Rochester, Minnesota. One fine day I was out walking when I noticed an odd blue sign in the distance. It was fuzzy and I could barely make it out…

The heck?  I’ve never noticed that sign before.  Now, it’s probably been there all along, and I’ve been passing it for years.  But how could I not have noticed that that’s the USS Enterprise on the sign!

I was still several blocks away from the sign.  It was a sunny day and I was squinting in the brightness.  I quickened my pace to get to this sign and find out what it was.  I mean, how could there be something Star Trek-related in my own neighborhood all this time and I haven’t known about it!?

My mind was racing. Could Rochester be the birthplace of Gene Roddenberry, maybe?  Couldn’t be anything to do with Shatner or Doohan, they’re Canadians.  Takei was from California or thereabouts, since he was in an internment camp during WWII.  That leaves a number of major castmembers.

Maybe Enterprise designer Matt Jefferies was born here!  That would explain why they have this schematic-looking overhead view of the Enterprise on the sign.

I was getting closer.  Now it was just across the street.

Perhaps, instead of a Trek birthplace, there was a little Star Trek museum?  This is a residential area, so maybe some Trek collector let his collecting get out of control and take over his house.  He collected action figures, bought authentic props, built dozens of models, changed all his decor to be Trek-related, and he turned his entire basement into a replica of the set, and it finally reached a point where it was either put it all into storage or turn his house into the Star Trek Museum of Rochester.  That would be pretty cool.

I crossed the street.  Now I could definitely see the details of the sign.  That most certainly is the Enterprise against the blue background!

Oh, wait.

It’s Jesus.

Well…Star Trek is practically a religion, so I wasn’t too far off.

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