That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for April 14, 2020

“Sorry,guys, I forgot the sail.”

He tried to get his rag-tag XFL team to the next venue, but when he couldn’t make payroll, they were ready to “punt” the whole voyage.

Ahab’s brother Carl, while hunting the great white trout he wanted to capture St, Elmo’s fire like his show off brother

Huck and Jim take on some paying passengers on their raft.

Tom Sawyer Cruise Lines: Period costumes provided at no extra cost.

Huck Finn wanted to be a steamboat captain, but the red pants revealed he never got above Rafter Third Class.

After three months of social distancing, some people were so eager to be in a crowd that they didn’t care where it was.

whew… i was momentarily afraid that this was another great moment in phallic portraiture…

… and when we hit the white-water… when I scream “on the left” everyone on the left of the raft paddles like crazy…

“Row row row you’re boat, now you come in”

If he doesn’t stop telling tales of his rafting past, I may just push him in

So I found this guy in a checkered coat. He lived down by this river in the weirdest looking hut – he called it a van.

The Rowing Team consisted of kids from the parents in the college admissions scandal.

“Worst Cruise Ever”, fifth place.

The Trump government, steering the ship the ship of state.

We got ourselves a raft of troubles.

His wit was the envy of all/ his jokes held the crew in thrall/ they were roaring with laughter/ at the red-trousered rafter/..and did not hear the waterfall..

Ike (without Tina) – Poling down the River.

Tote that barge, lift that bale!

Cruisin’ down Old Man River…

“For the last time, stop calling me Noah.”

AOC’s green new deal cruise line.

In the heyday of the steamboating prosperity, the river from end to end was flaked with coal-fleets and timber rafts, all managed by hand, and employing hosts of the rough characters whom I have been trying to describe. I remember the annual processions of mighty rafts that used to glide by Hannibal when I was a boy,—an acre or so of white, sweet-smelling boards in each raft, a crew of two dozen men or more, three or four wigwams scattered about the raft’s vast level space for storm-quarters,—and I remember the rude ways and the tremendous talk of their big crews, the ex-keelboatmen and their admiringly patterning successors; for we used to swim out a quarter or third of a mile and get on these rafts and have a ride.

“Life on the Mississippi” -Mark Twain

The Nothing-To-See-Here Sight-Seeing River Cruise.

Olympic team bobrafting.

Steve’s comment today is impossible to top! Not that we won’t all try like hell…

From Wikipedia: “Poles were used as a practical means of passing over natural obstacles in marshy places such as the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, along the North Sea, and the great level of the Fens in England across Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Artificial draining of these marshes created a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other. To cross these without getting soaked, while avoiding tedious roundabout journeys over bridges, a stack of jumping poles was kept at every house and used for vaulting over the canals.”

Shut the eff up and push the damn barge.

“One in the middle and you can’t jump Josie, Jump!”

“Ok men, here’s the deal. Those government loans to keep a small business afloat, no pun intended, ARE BS! The banks don’t know anything about them and the Department of Labor won’t answer the phone. So, you’re all laid off. We weren’t going to make it anyway because we never had any room for passengers or cargo…”

Okay guys, I hope we learned our lesson up stream; no sneezing or coughing when we try to dock.

♫♪ “…I’m Mike Fink – King of the River…” ♪♫

Like they used to say in Rhode Island, “The guy is all mast pole but no sail!”

“You aren’t gonna do the shortest straw crap on me this time.”

Having lived on the river his whole life, George knew exactly when and where the steamships would run aground. Passengers either paid George for a ride or swam.

Lighter Relieving a Steamboat Aground : 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Caleb_Bingham_-_Lighter_Relieving_a_Steamboat_Aground_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg 

has info and links that point to info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting. First Other versions has strip coloration.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/bingham_george_caleb.html 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7096/george-caleb-bingham 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/george-caleb-bingham 

https://prabook.com/web/george_caleb.bingham/3742872 

https://www.wga.hu/bio_m/b/bingham/biograph.html 

http://www.all-art.org/history458-2.html 

https://www.askart.com/artist_bio/George_Caleb_Bingham/8368/George_Caleb_Bingham.aspx 

http://www.avictorian.com/Bingham_George_Caleb.html 

http://hoocher.com/George_Caleb_Bingham/George_Caleb_Bingham.htm 

http://web.archive.org/web/20190323013956/http://www.georgecalebbingham.org/bio.htm 

https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2936_300061879.pdf 

all have info, or links that point to more info, about this artist (again, the askart.com can be read in full for free on Firdays), perhaps in addition to what’s pointed to by the title URL. This is the first work by him used here.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (⌘- or Ctrl-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2427 (April 13, 2020) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment.

seeing how cute Huck Flynn was everyone wanted to share the raft with him, he got off on if.

“Y’see ya got yer oak poles an’ yer ash poles an’ yer hornbeam poles. But gimme a good ol’ hickory pole anytime. Many’s the time I poled from one end o’ the river t’ the other with nuthin’ but a hickory pole an’ me not worried ‘bout it. Ain’t nuthin’ kin beat a hickory, an’ that’s God’s truth.”

This is what’s left of Princess Cruises when the economy reopens.

Which one of youse wants to be the first to be shown the difference ’tween a 6 foot pole and a 10 foot pole?

on location for deliverance – the part that got cut after the studio insisted on major rewrites…