Gabby talked with my friend as I was kicking around my “Getting there is a fraction of the fun…” post about driving to Eureka.

He was in Miami on account of Young Emily was talking at the annual conference of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music at the School of Music at Florida International University.  The speaker who had been planned on the subject of French Music in Milan via the Collected Papers of the Prince de Vaudémont had cancelled.  Young Emily had a good start on the de Vaudémont papers and was asked to present the intended speaker’s paper. With her own take of course.

Gabby checked Barry Popik’s website for “Getting there is half the fun.”  Popik is best-in-class on slogan and nickname and slang etymology research.  Popik shows the first usage of the slogan in Cunard ads on 25 August, 1952, in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post.

Gabby then went on a Cunard advertisement/poster binge. In two days in Miami he put together this mini collection of “Getting there is half the fun.”

Nice job Gabby!

I never went on a cruise, let alone Transatlantic, let alone getting there was half the fun.  They sure do make it look fun, don’t they?

We saw my grandmother Dami off on an ocean liner to France in about 1957.

Several of my 10th grade friends sailed to Europe with our school librarian Mr. Ridgeway. I didn’t.

When I had my dance with death in 2011, the follow-up care on my blistered arm was by a doctor who sold cruises on the side.  He did all his work as house calls.  If he liked you, he hung around and talked a lot.  He hung around and talked a lot. I didn’t buy a cruise and he didn’t push it.  He did love to talk about cruises though.

That is my experience with ocean liners. All about me!

I asked my friend about Gabby’s mini instant collection.  My friend has never been on an ocean liner either.  He is all about half the fun though.  His take on the collection?