Another rainy day

I will write my 2025 Year in Review in a few days. But, first, let me catch up on what I’ve been doing.

I scurried around to get out of the house for my first trip of the year, which was late on the afternoon of New Year’s Day. I didn’t quite finish everything on my to-do list, alas, so I resolved to just ignore that I’d be returning to even greater chaos than usual. I had no issues getting to DCA. My flight on American up to BOS was delayed about a half hour, which was no big deal since I’d opted to stay at the Logan Airport Hilton that night. In the morning I took the Silver Line to South Station (which is still free from the airport) and got the newish train to New Bedford. I actually had to change trains in East Taunton, but it was just across the platform. When I arrived in New Bedford, I got a Lyft to my hotel. While it was not particularly far, the sidewalks hadn’t been cleared from snow a day or two before and my backpack was heavy.

I stayed Friday night at the New Bedford Harbor Hotel, which is a reasonably short walk to the Whaling Museum. The room was perfectly adequate, though the soundproofing could have been better. I had time for a short nap before walking over to the museum for the opening dinner (which is pricy, but good for meeting people). I found it interesting how many people hadn’t read a lot of literary classics before reading Moby Dick. (If I remember correctly, my gateway drug was Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year.) Most of the people at my table were from New York, but there was one guy who came all the way from Vancouver. Anyway, the speaker, Dr. Joe Roman of the University of Vermont, talked about the positive impact of various environmental laws on whale populations. Apparently, some countries (e.g. Japan) had expressed concerns that preserving whale populations would diminish the fish populations they relied on for food. His studies (which focused on whale poop) showed that actually the fish populations increased with the whale populations.

The hotel breakfast was pretty mediocre, with no hot food. But it was adequate and I was able to store my backpack overnight. The actual marathon started late in the morning on Saturday, with several people reading Excerpts. The official opening was at noon (8 bells!) with Regie Gibson, poet laureate of Massachusetts proclaiming “Call me Ishmael.”



I had been lucky and won the lottery for a ticket to the Seamen’s Bethel for Father Mapple’s sermon. I’d been in the building before (many years ago), but it was still amazing to see the sermon acted out. And, yes, everybody stood and sang “The Ribs and Terrors in the Whale.”



On my way out, I got a picture of Herman Melville’s pew.



The reading continued up on the third floor of the museum, which was very crowded. I later heard that approximately 3500 people attended some part of the marathon. (This was, by the way, the 30th Moby Dick Marathon in New Bedford. The first one ever was in Mystic, Connecticut, and I do need to get to that one some day.)

I’d also been lucky enough to get a seat in the theatre for Chapter 40, which is done as a play by a local theatre group. The song “Yankee Whalermen” is still stuck in my head.



The reading continued overnight in the theatre. Senator Ed Markey read via video. I had gotten a reading slot (reader #102) off the waiting list. The whole marathon is available on YouTube, but if you just want to hear me read, you can do so in the second (of three) videos starting a little after 2:45.



I listened to more reading for a while after I was done, but I also had to take breaks to obtain coffee. The previous time I’d gone, they sold snacks and drinks all night, but they didn’t this year. They did have coffee and tea available free for a while but ran out. I spent some time chit chatting with other attendees. I went back into the theatre and may have dozed off for a while. (After the marathon was over, I did go back and read the sections I had missed.) Eventually, they did start selling food again and also served free malasadas (Portuguese fried dough) which are really better if eaten still warm.

They shut down the theatre and people went back up to the third floor, but there were also several overflow rooms which were less crowded and, hence, more comfortable. The actor who read the final chapter was very good. The Epilogue is brief and was received with thunderous applause. They gave out bags to the hardy souls who had spent the whole day and night. There was a poster (which I declined, as it would be too awkward to carry home), but also a book of pictures, a bumper sticker, and some stickers.

Overall, this was an excellent weekend. I’d been to the Moby Dick Marathon before (in 2023) and I found this ran even more smoothly, despite the crowds. I still consider the book to be THE Great American Novel and find new things in it every time I read it (or hear it read). This experience is, in particular, a great way to appreciate Melville’s humor. For example, I know many people dread Cetology (the chapter describing whales, which is horribly inaccurate scientifically) but this was an audience that was able to laugh along with it.

I walked back to the hotel and retrieved my bag. I decided it was worth taking a Lyft to Providence to avoid having to either go all the way to Boston and back out by train (which would take over 3 hours) or to wait nearly 5 hours for the direct Peter Pan bus. I’ll write about that part of the trip in a separate post.