Wow, has it been so long since my last post? Syndicated columnists must face this problem, but it messes around with their whole money flow if they fail to complete a writing assignment on time. Luckily bloggers face no such interruption, only the conscience-tweaking recognition of failure.
As such, to rectify this deficiency, I post. As the title of this entry suggests, there's a watery theme to this post. Do you remember Ursula the Sea Hag in The Little Mermaid? Her two pets were named Flotsam and Jetsam. I always thought that these words just referred to different types of sea garbage, natural or man-made, and that the distinction lay in whether one was "floating" on the surface, or carried suspended in the water. Yeah. Pretty dorky.
What's even dorkier is actually looking up the meanings. Apparently flotsam and jetsam are not distinguished by any physical differences; rather, they are distinguished by their origin. Flotsam is equipment or goods left over from a shipwreck or sinking. Jetsam is equipment or goods that have been thrown overboard by a vessel in distress (i.e., jettisoned), whether or not the ship subsequently wrecks. Thus, the distinction lies in the intent that resulted in the particular piece of garbaggio di mare.
The reason the distinction exists is apparently from Admiralty Law where I assume the possession of a certain piece of salvage might depend on whether it was intentionally thrown overboard or if it was overboard only as a result of a wreck. I can imagine the salty crew of some fine vessel mutinying and hanging a "sea lawyer" because of an adverse decision that affected their share of the booty. Yarrr. (Monday was "Talk Like a Pirate Day"!!)
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