LETTERS
211 Seton Road Port Townsend, WA 98368 Toll Free: 1-866- 583-4055 Email: info@edensaw.com MARINE PLY Okoume BS 1088 Okoume BS 6566 Hydrotek BS 1088 Aquatek BS 6566 Douglas Fir Marine Teak and Holly Teak VENEERS (Over 150 species of raw & paperbacked in stock.) EXOTICS (Too many species on hand to list here. TRICEL HONEYCOMB
LUMBER Honduran Mahogany Philippine Mahogany African Mahogany Western Red Cedar White Bending Oak Sitka Spruce Douglas Fir Ironbark Apitong Teak Makore Aniegre Bubinga Over 60 species in stock.
Now Stocking System 3 Epoxy
Our Okoume products are available from the following distributors. CALIFORNIA Sorensen Woodcraft 13307 Avenue 22-1/2 Chowchilla, CA 93610 Toll Free: 800-891-1808
MINNESOTA Midwest Marine Plywood 2259 James Street Eagan, MN 55122 Phone: 651-882-9704
www.edensaw.com Page 82 •
Latitude 38
• March, 2006
the slit was slammed shut without a word being spoken. After having stood in the little room for about 15 minutes, the elevator door suddenly opened and a large and very animated African-American man stepped into the small room with us. When the elevator door shut, it occurred to us that we were all but in a cell with him. Given the rather crazed look in his eyes, it didn't make us feel all that comfortable. After about five minutes, the slit in the door opened again, and a voice asked the African-American what he wanted. He said he'd just gotten out of the jail — oh great! — and thought that he might have forgotten his belt. The slit again slammed shut without a word. As soon as it did, the African-American guy started laughing hysterically. "I didn't lose any belt," he confided in us, "I just came back to fuck with the guards' heads." And he started laughing wildly once again. More concerned with our well-being than ever, we were glad when a steel door opened and we were admitted to one of those rooms where the prisoner sits behind bulletproof glass and talks to you over a phone. It turned out to be a fascinating interview, and we featured it in two issues of Latitude. Perlowin, who had become a Buddhist or something to survive in jail, expressed what seemed to be genuine remorse for having lured a lot of law-abiding fishermen into a life of crime. He said he realized that he'd not only ruined the fishermen's lives, but also the lives of their wives and children. The only time we thought Perlowin might not have been telling the truth was when he said that he hadn't managed to stash any of the tens of millions he'd made before he got caught. How could such a smart guy be so dumb? Expecting to be released from prison about eight years later, Perlowin expressed confidence that, given his managerial experience, he could be an effective asset for a legitimate corporation. So yeah, we know Bruce Perlowin. It would be interesting to know what happened to him after he was released from prison. ⇑⇓THE MOST BRILLIANT FLASH WAS AT SUNRISE It never occurred to me that one could see a green flash more than once by changing one's elevation. It makes perfect sense — until you think about it. What are the physics — and trigonometry — of lowering your head at a rate greater than the sun’s traverse across the sky? Call me skeptical, but don’t call me a disbeliever. Over the course of the past 30 years or so, as a sailor and a merchant officer, I have observed green flashes on more occasions than I could possibly keep track of. But the total number remains relatively small as compared to the total number of days I have seen the sun slip below the horizon without a flash. So for me, a green flash remains a relatively rare astronomical event. However, the most brilliant green flash I have ever observed was at sunrise. It happened while I was aboard a crude oil tanker about 100 miles due west of the Golden Gate Bridge on our way from Valdez, Alaska, to Los Angeles. Until that time, I also would have been skeptical of anyone telling me that they had observed a green flash at sunrise. But this flash was so brilliant that it forever changed the scale upon which I subconsciously measure green flashes. It happened in '87, and to this day I consider that sunrise green flash to be the most brilliant and colorful that I'll ever see in my life. Since then I have observed one other green flash at sunrise, but it was no different from any of the hundreds of green flashes I'd witnessed at sunset. My guess is that I will be one of many who report having