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Home » Columnists

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The Shamrock and other memories

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Nov 26

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

It was a sunny day in late June 1970, and the new and freshly painted ferry plowed and lumbered into a light southerly swell. I was heading to Block Island for the first time since 1960 and my childhood buddy Tim and I were going to check this place out, and he’d help me schlep my gear up to the...
Summer of 2020

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Nov 19

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“The island got eaten alive.” — Anonymous. Is there anyone on the south coast of Rhode Island who didn’t think that this summer was a combination of a Federico Fellini film and an apocalyptic zombie movie? Especially during and after the Fourth of July weekend? If there are, they must not...
The right to read a book in your own way

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Nov 5

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

A French writer named Daniel Pennac created, in 1992, the “The Rights of the Reader,” which is about a reader’s right to read anytime or anywhere as long as it is a joyful experience. Here is my spin on these inalienable rights: The Right to not read. This is my favorite right because it gives me...
Theme Radio

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Oct 23

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Singer, songwriter, troubadour, wiseass, painter, and businessman Bob Dylan is stumping his own whisky brand around the ether these days, and is part of what brought him back to doing his radio show. He had such a show 11 years ago and then took a hiatus. The new show recently aired on Monday, 21...
Sailing Ships

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 24

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

I’ve been around Newport Harbor since the 1960s and I’m never bored in my roaming and hacking. The place has been the locus for centuries of maritime tradition and history since the early days of the American Revolution. It’s where the French fleet mustered their ships and land forces — about six...
Of foils and sails

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 17

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

One day this August I was sailing across Narragansett bay toward the Pell Bridge and saw this kid tear-assing by me on a foiling boat called a WASZP. It’s a sailboat with a foiling rig and the kid displayed some skills as he powered by my bow. He flew by me going 10 to 14 knots — maybe faster. This...
Weather anomalies

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Sep 11

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“If you don’t like weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” — Mark Twain Twain’s quote is baked into the psyche of many New Englanders who reside in the mountains or along the coast. We can all cite our own personal experiences regarding, hail, twisters, squalls, blizzards,...
Two wheels

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 3

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“I’ve had this particular bike going 180 miles an hour. It feels like you’re floating at that speed,” said biker number one. “A guy ran a red light up in Providence and missed me by an inch. He was on his iPhone because I saw him never look up while nearly running into me,” said biker number two. “...
Hideouts

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Aug 27

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In mid-April during the early days of pandemic isolation, my little brother called to tell me about a place along the south coast of Rhode Island that very few people frequented. It was a little hideout he’d found and he was wanting to tell me about the place to hang out and avoid people and walk...
Deep Pockets

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jul 31

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The word around the campfire of late is that music mogul David Geffen’s boat, Rising Sun, was anchored off Block Island, along with Johnny Depp’s former boat. These are big sleds. Geffen’s rig is on the ostentatious side at 452 feet, while Depp’s old boat is a much smaller ride at a mere 156 feet...
Normal routines

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Jul 23

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Since mid-March the world as we know flipped over on us, and now we are all seeking to find a sense of normality and stability in our daily lives. We all need and want routines, schedules, timetables, appointments, and deadlines. Things get done because of these daily structures, and because of...
Two geezers acting un-geezer-like

Fri, Jul 17

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Eight weeks ago, I was standing in the Dog Park at the old Charlestown Naval Air Base, and was pondering what to do to help our new charge, Maddox, also known as “Mad Dog,” burn up some of his unbridled, Cairn terrier energy. Yup, I felt pretty stupid standing there with arms akimbo and looking...
A nod to the new way

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Jul 9

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In early March, I took a trip over to Martha’s Vineyard to see some friends, and grab some slack time before the season cranked up at the ferry docks. I do the same trip every year in late March; however, this year I went early and I’m glad that I did because a series of events were in play; going...
Wind, redux

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Jun 25

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

On a late April weekend in 1965, my parents piled their four kids into our 1962 red Plymouth Valiant and we took off on a day trip to Falmouth, Mass. Our dad liked to visit the Cape when we were kids; we’d visit the outer Cape beaches, Truro and Provincetown. I can see now that he and my mom were...
Rumrunners

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Jun 4

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Hi there,” said the man on a Ocean Avenue front porch. “Nice night.” The man’s home was midway between Old Harbor and New Harbor. His name was Murphy and was from my hometown of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I noticed the austere and gabled house had a brass plaque that read Spartan — it was once a...
Purposefully forward

J. V. Houlihan

Thu, May 14

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Last week I was in Newport to check on our sailboat, and was shocked at seeing the harbor completely empty. There wasn’t a single sailboat on a mooring, and there were very few people out and about in town. This is not what the City of Newport is supposed to look like on a mild day in early April...
Horizon Bound

J. V. Houlihan

Fri, Mar 27

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

John Walmsley grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and spent his summers at Point Judith’s Breakwater Village. Walmsley started angling at the age of four and would fish the east wall or go out on his dad’s boat. (I remember his grandfather, Samuel Walmsley, when I was growing up in the Village — he...
Breaking nice

J. V. Houlihan

Thu, Feb 27

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“I don’t like Walter, and the writing is weak since Gus died. I don’t like this program, anymore.” This is how the hit series “Breaking Bad,” ended in our household. It was not a negotiation for the bride to continue for a few more episodes to see how the writers would wrap up the hellacious...
To windward, charge! (Or, how did we make it this far?)

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Jan 30

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

This coming year of 2020 my wife and I are both charging on the quick step toward our 70th trip around the sun, and sometimes we have little discussions about how we got this far — in one piece. We both came up in Scotch/Irish/Yankee working-class families in Pawtucket, R.I. in the 50s. We came of...
The Collaborators

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Sat, Jan 4

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“ You get something remarkable and unique when it’s a combination of collaborative, that you just can’t do with your own DNA. You just can’t.” — Jakob Dylan The night I witnessed Jakob Dylan’s dad play his Fender Stratocaster in Newport in ’65, it was clear that a shift was happening in...
The Watermen

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Dec 20

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Never leave the playground and you won’t grow old.” — Anonymous South County resident Paul Murray and Block Island’s Jeff Cowles have known each other for years and share a couple common interests. They work — Murray’s retired — on home heating boiler systems, and they both have passions...
The Watermen

J. V. Houlihan

Fri, Dec 13

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Never leave the playground and you won’t grow old.” — Anonymous South County resident Paul Murray and Block Island’s Jeff Cowles have known each other for years and share a couple common interests. They work — Murray’s retired — on home heating boiler systems, and they both have passions...
Corpus delicti

J. V. Houlihan

Thu, Dec 5

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The first three-and-a-half minutes of the new movie, “The Irishman,” is tightly packed with the story’s expository information of the main character, Frank Sheeran. Right out of the gate, there is a long tracking shot of the interior of a nursing home; clients in wheelchairs accompanied by...
Making memories, bumpkin-style

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Wed, Nov 27

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

By definition, a bumpkin is “ an awkward, simple, unsophisticated person from a rural area .” I meet many New Yorkers who pull into Paradise Alley in Point Judith on their way to spend some slack time on Block Island. I always feel these people have a leg up on me; they’re quick on their...
Wind

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Nov 7

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Fall is the best time of year to pump the halyards and go sailing in Narragansett Bay. Late September and October of 2019 provided this sailor with some challenging trips up the bay to the north end of Prudence Island. There were five days in September that I got to burn some vacation time and put...
Boat Books

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Oct 17

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“About books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri Reading is my favorite pastime and it’s ironic because as a young guy I never read anything except Surfer Magazine, and feeble runs at “The Hardy Boys.” Books got in the way of my Type A personality and my...
Summer 2019

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Oct 3

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

It was a busy and fast paced summer season and here are some nods from the day-to-day in Point Judith: *The weather folks had a field day on 22 June. A cold front went north of Point Judith; the wall was black and ominous as it headed east dumping hail on Newport, and points east to...
The Discovery Deck

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Sep 19

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“This is one of those little museums that you walk into, and you can actually learn lots of great information in a very small space,” says contractor Mark Holden. I do lots of reading and writing at Seamen’s Institute on Bowen’s Wharf in Newport. It’s a hideout. I was recently setting up my laptop...
Reservations

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Aug 22

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In 2016 I wrote a column simply titled, “Standby.” I wrote the piece while I was out sailing, and was laughing like a loon as I punched the keys — I’m easily amused. I told my wife that I thought the column was funny in a Mark Twain sort of way. “Well, we’ll see when it runs,” she said. My wife is...
Old Sailors

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Aug 15

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“If you haven’t played the Garden, you haven’t played anywhere.” — Anonymous In 1968 while playing center for Providence College, Ray Johnson strode to the middle of the basketball court at Madison Square Garden. There, he stood face to face with a local New York City street player named Lew...
A random inspection

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Jul 26

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Hello, sir. When was the last time you were boarded by the United States Coast Guard, sir?” asked the crewman aboard the 30-foot Defender Class vessel. “I was boarded in Point Judith about 30 years ago for a random inspection, sir,” I replied. “Thank you, sir. We’d like to come aboard to inspect...
The General Slocum

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Jul 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The Hyannis home’s basement contained brass wheels, binnacles, brass lanterns with green and red glass, barometers, binoculars, a brass diving hard hat, various frayed charts of Vineyard Sound, Cape Cod, and Nantucket shoals, postcards of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard steamships, compasses of...
Grounded, redux

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Jul 11

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Only two sailors in my experience never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar.” — Don Bamford Running aground on any type of boat can be a humbling experience, and such an experience does, indeed, leave one grounded — complete ego deflation —...
Tempus fugit

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Jun 27

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

While rowing out to my sailboat a few weeks ago, I passed a 70-foot sailing yacht named tempus fugit — time flies in Latin. Leave it to the Romans to figure out such a precise phrase like that to give the good citizens of Rome something to think about while they were paying their taxes and...
Sailing season is on!

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Jun 13

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Last October, I wrote a column about sailing and mentioned that my boat, Reverie, needed a new headsail — jib — because I wore the other one out from several years of constant use. The sail was patched, sail taped, careworn, and frayed; however, it had served Reverie well. I had...
In good hands with Jennifer Egan

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Jun 6

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

One of the greatest things about reading a good book is that we are able to learn something as we flip through the pages. A fringe benefit of reading is that we don’t need to travel, because good writing is like traveling. Whether we are reading fiction or non-fiction—if we get the sense that we...
Rule of thumb for the summer: situational awareness

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, May 30

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The phone rang and a voice with a southern drawl said, “Hey, Joe, how’re you doin?” “Good, long time no hear Captain, how are you and yours? You still flying the big wagons?” I asked. “Yup, but I’ll tell ya, last week I crashed my Stinson Gullwing in New Mexico, some guy hit me while I was on final...
Class of 1969

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, May 2

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett In 1969 I graduated from Saint Raphael Academy in my hometown of Pawtucket, Rhode Island — I was last in my class. The road to this ranking was rife with academic failure; school was not something I...
Stoked

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Apr 11

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The guy was swimming toward the rocky shore of the Point Judith Lighthouse as the whitewater pounded and rumbled him forward. The swell was pumping well over head and there were 40 surfers out jockeying for position in the crowded lineup. This swell popped up very quickly and the word spread fast...
A saloon musician gets his due

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Apr 4

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

”Bear down on that guitar, Houlihan,” said Jon Campbell from the stage as we were performing a benefit on Block Island for the moving of the Southeast Lighthouse. My response was a sneer at my music mate as I bashed down a solid G chord on my Guild guitar. That’s how Campbell rolled when we played...
Wind and Words

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Mar 21

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

For several years I had a monthly ritual that involved reading a particular character’s stuff in Soundings magazine. It was written by the late Jack Sherwood, who had a column called “Bay Tripper.” I found interesting stories by a guy who loved sailing on the Chesapeake in a beautifully maintained...
Bridging two glimmering cities

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Feb 28

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Judy, we’re kind of close to this guy,” said Pat Hackett from the backseat of a black boxy Mercedes Benz as it swerved ahead into the right lane after zipping past the Metro bus. “It’s okay, Pat, I see him. Joe, you’re a writer. Look! The Village Voice ,” said Judy, as she deftly wove the...
You know you’re a geezer...

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Feb 21

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

You know you’re a geezer when you realize that the benchmarks and milestones that make it clear you’re going at a different speed happen more frequently. For example, I heard of a guy who had his kids at age 60. One day he was asking where the diapers were in the supermarket and the clerk directed...
Old school nods

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Feb 7

Category:

News, Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

One morning after parking his car at the ferry landing, Chris Walken stopped over at the shack to talk with Capt. Matty Rooney and me. After some standard greetings and salutations, Matty suggested we get a picture of us with Chris. Note well in the background of the shot there is something that...
A coastal dweller

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Jan 31

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In 1957 our dad took us all to Galilee — The Point — in his two-tone green ’55 Plymouth sedan to walk along the bulkheads and docks. I clearly remember walking by a gallows frame where some giant tuna hung, where they were being weighed — before they were gutted and headed. The frame was right...
Bruce Springsteen’s Odyssean quest

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Jan 10

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Bruce Springsteen, like Odysseus, is a man of twists and turns trying to get home — both finally did get home; Odysseus got home to the island of Ithaca, and Bruce got home to Freehold, New Jersey, and to Penelope and Patti. In the bardic tradition of Homer, Springsteen is a hell of a story teller...
Sometime in New York City

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Jan 3

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Last November I decided to go to New York City to learn about a place called Gramercy Park and meet some New Yorkers. Reading New York City history is one of my favorite past times; authors Russell Shorto, Pete Hamill, E.B. White and Luc Sante have told me The Big Apple story. Beginning with the...
Let us entertain you

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Dec 27

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Online retailers have fairly recently jumped into the creative arena, producing original content that is disrupting the old distribution models for television shows and movies. My wife and I finally hopped aboard to see what all the fuss was about and I’m glad we did. The first show we dialed up on...
The giving and receiving season

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Dec 20

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

I was alone in the elevator of the Prudential Tower in Boston as it was going up to the observation deck like a bat out of hell; after absconding with the pen and stationery from the lobby for my mission at the top of the building. It had a been wild night in ‘68. I had gotten lost near Roxbury and...
Dog Star

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Thu, Nov 29

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Some folks don’t like the cold winters of the Northeast, that’s why these reasonable people of means go to warmer climates and dodge the snow, ice, heating bills, dead batteries, slick roads, black ice, broken snow shovels, snow blowers, power outages, sore backs, bread and milk shortages, cabin...

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