Not a cover idea, merely a visual juxtaposition. The poor guy being shanghaied is Charlie Chaplin. The book I have been writing to fulfill my obligation with History Press is now in its final stages. The title that has been given the impremater is "Portland's Lost Waterfront, Tall Ships, Steam Mills, and Sailor's Boardinghouses." My first draft was so heavily overwritten that in order to come close to my 40,000 word maximum I had to delete two entire chapters and reams of relatively unknown details that will have to land somewhere. So unless I write another, thicker book, this blog will start to get more interesting. I am also delighted to announce that the upcoming book will contain about 65 images, many of which will be photographs from deep within the vault of Thomas Robinson's Historic Photo Archive. These will not be the photos one always sees in books on Portland's history, but long forgotten photographs, some that have not seen the
Barney Blalock's views and memories of the waterfront unclouded by advanced years, opinionated stance, and ignorance of the facts.