I stepped in it a bit this morning during the daily standup. A colleague based in Florida is an expert kayak fisherman who reported that sometimes the bigger fish down there can pull a fisherman in a small bote along a bit. That reminded me of Nantucket Sleighride. It is a song by Mountain from 1971 when I was still in high school. It’s kinda long and I won’t be insulted if you bag out.

I always loved the song (and Mountain) but it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I actually looked up what a Nantucket sleigh ride was. Which is when you are on an old-fashioned whaler and you snag a whale and it takes you for a ride.

I work with a whole bunch of people from all over the USA and world. I don’t know where all of them live and they don’t always know where I live. When my fisherman friend told about being towed for a bit in his kayak, I un-muted and interjected “Nantucket sleigh ride, when you are being towed by a whale.”

A new person (to our team but not to the company) immediately said, “Oh you are from the east coast?” Nope. I am from Lake Superior. No whales in Gitchee Gumee. I said that the reference was from an old Mountain song. I’m not sure anyone actually got the Mountain reference but this person lives in Massachusetts albeit not near the shore. I was dating myself but I didn’t care. At this point we moved on into the actual meeting.

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