Three persons in a boat: To say nothing of a blog

update - 25 Aug 2010 - added last but one para.

It has been a long time since I’ve read "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome, considered one of the finest humour writing of the Victorian Era.  Whenever I think of that novel, I remember

• the ‘smell of paraffin oil ruining the sunset, the moonbeams’ and the vow to never take paraffin on a boat ‘except in case of sickness’
• the subsequent ‘smell of the cheese in the train’ and the ‘mean’ undertaker who abandons ‘J’ after drinking his brandy
• the dogs of Oxford and how Montmorency had ‘11 fights the first day, 15 on the second and thought he was in heaven’

I don’t know whether these 3 carried paraffin, cheese or a dog, but they went out to see sea in a dinghy, (not very far from Oxford) and were promptly thrown from dinghy off Aberthaw.  Good show!

update: The incident is of concern but hilarious because a dinghy is itself a 'rescue' or 'life' boat.  Generally, it is the type of boat used in sea rescue and therein lies the irony.  The 3 people took a rescue boat to sea and have to be rescued in turn.

That’s what reminded me that its been a long time since I’ve read ‘Three Men in a Boat: To say nothing of the Dog’, and sure enough it is in the public domain – should make a nice after dinner read.  As for the blog, that’s mine – the monkeyshines’

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