and the readership comes through ...

with many thanks to Beth & Rhonda & Cary & Garth, we have identified the saint on the bridge as Saint Nicholas of Myra. As with many other things I have posted on this blog, you can read up on him for yourself in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas). Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of:

• sailors
• merchants
• archers
• children
• and students in: Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, the Republic of Macedonia, Slovakia, Serbia, and Montenegro.

He is notably not the patron saint of students in the United States, so I hope that doesn't cause us any problems along the way. Thanks to Beth, I can also share that there are other patron saints of mariners, see: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saintS/pst00620.htm

Tomorrow we are celebrating Neptune Day, which (to my distress) was not celebrated on the actual day we crossed the equator. Neptune is the god of the sea in Roman mythology (analogous to Poseidon in Greek mythology). Sea-farers honor King Neptune as they cross the equator. He's getting us a day off, which makes us very happy! Actually, we're staffing the library 1600-2300, but he gets us the morning off and that'll do. (Incidentally, we are also staffing the library from on-ship-time to 2300 on our last day in port at each location).

So, anyhow, there's some more religious edification for you from the Jewish girl on Friday night ... Shabbat shalom.