A Whale of a Tale


They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.

So starts D.H. Lawrence's poem Whales Weep Not. This poem was quoted by Captain Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, a movie about the importance of every species to the balance of life. Unless the USS Enterprise and crew brings the extinct whale back to the 23rd Century Earth will perish. That's what I call big game fishing!

Star Trek IV may have brought the first two lines of the poem back to the public eye, but few people know the full poem. It is available in Doc format on MemoWare. You can also find a Star Trek Movie Guide in JFile format that outlines interesting details on all of the Star Trek movies.

What else did I go fishing for? Well, does this sound familiar?

And he piled upon the whale's white hump, the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.

That's right. MemoWare also has Moby Dick, the ultimate whale tale, and another literary work with a Star Trek tie-in. Captain Picard spoke these words in Star Trek: First Contact as he exhibited an Ahab-like obsession with the Borg. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, many of Khan Noonian Singh's lines come from Moby Dick, a literary cue to the extent of Khan's need for revenge on Captain Kirk.

Now for some real fishing, or PalmFishing as the case may be. Yes, I am finally going to talk about a Palm app. PalmFishing by AraigumaSoft is a little 4KB freeware game that lets you hang out a line and wait for the fish to bite. Cast your line using the pageup button and wait for a bite. Feel that nibble and reel your catch in using the pagedown button.

If you're looking for something a little less virtual, your Palm can still help. Use the Guide to Estimating the Weight of a Fish Based on Length (also found at MemoWare) to substantiate your bragging. Caught a 17" bass? Must be a whole three pounds of fish - six pounds in bragging circles ;-)

Well, that's about it for the tall tales. This is what happens when I try to write at the end of a long day after getting no sleep the night before. I hope some of you will forgive me and return next week.

The copyright of the article A Whale of a Tale in Palm Computing Devices is owned by Janice Karin. Permission to republish A Whale of a Tale in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic