The bell is a vital part of a Navy ship, symbolically and, in past times, practically for the marking of time and as an alarm. The British Royal Navy began a tradition hundreds of years ago of baptizing babies in the ship’s bell. While this ceremony started as a necessity for families at sea or foreign ports, it has remained a custom with significant meaning for many who serve on board military vessels. This past Saturday in Seattle, the bell of the Coast Guard cutter Polar Sea was turned over and filled with water for the religious consecration of baby Genevieve Carr, whose father serves aboard the ship. It was the first such ceremony on the Polar Sea and, as tradition dictates, Genevieve’s name will be engraved inside the bell. The Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum has a Christening Bells project with a database of names engraved inside ship bells it has catalogued. Those christened on a now decommissioned Canadian ship may search online and perhaps locate the bell with their name.

It was closed for refurbishing during our last two visits to Disneyland, but It’s a Small World is now open for business again. Purists are grousing over the addition of Disney and Pixar characters to the ride, but Disney maintains they are incorporated seamlessly into the scenes. Costume designers created new outfits for each of the 300 dolls plus new characters. There’s a new “Spirit of America” scene featuring cowboys, Native Americans, and farmers (and Toy Story characters). If you can stomach the repetitive tune, here’s a fresh video of the brand new ride. Or you can go retro and see the old version.

Bloom County fans, if you ever wanted a collection of every single strip, and you know you do, well, it’s finally coming. IDW (and fans) politely pestered Berkeley Breathed enough to make it possible. Starting in October, five volumes containing two years each of Bloom County strips will be published. To mitigate Breathed’s concern about republishing dated topical subject matter, the books will include “context pages” to help readers with the political humor. But most of us just have to recall the two words: Ronald Reagan.

I knew the term degauss from using CRT computer monitors, but didn’t know the origin of the term for eliminating magnetic fields. In World War II, Germany used magnetic mines that were triggered by ships’ hulls. I’ll quote Wikipedia so I don’t rephrase this incorrectly: “A large ferrous object passing through the Earth’s magnetic field will concentrate the field through it; the mine’s detector was designed to trigger at the mid-point of a steel-hulled ship passing overhead.” The term “gauss”, for Carl Friedrich Gauss, was used as the unit of measurement for the strength of the magnetic fields in the mines’ triggers, and thus “degauss” was used by the British for their countermeasure. Ships were degaussed by two methods, electromagnetic coils that could reverse the bias field being detected and a less expensive solution where an electrical cable was dragged alongside.

Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson has posted a discussion topic that can surely be repeated anywhere there are New York City area transplants: Where can you find a great Reuben sandwich in Seattle? Most interesting are the opinionated comments ranging from “there’s NO good East Coast deli anywhere in Seattle” to suggestions to mail-order from Zingerman’s (pricey!). And there are some actual decent suggestions which may help me break my terrible habit of harassing anyone I meet who mentions they are Jewish and has lived in the Northeast for Reuben and bagel recommendations.

Tom Furrier is a typewriter repairman in the Boston area. In addition to repairs and sales at his shop, Cambridge Typewriter Co., Furrier makes service calls at companies that still use typewriters. Certain official forms are keeping some typewriters in service. Says Furrier, “every maternity ward has a typewriter, as well as funeral homes, which might seem strange in this day and age, but is good for me, of course.” The Globe also published an article about Furrier’s unique occupation in 2006.

Out in Ocean Shores, on the coast of Washington, the library is home to two cats, Waldo and Olivia. When the library’s first cat, Trixie, passed away, the grief felt by the town and staff was so painful, the librarian decided not to replace her. But two years later, she reconsidered. Waldo likes candy wrappers and following Olivia, the more mellow of the two, around. (For your reference, here again is the Library Cats Map).

A gathering of fixed gear riders held a “Tweed Run” in London on January 24th. Quoting the invite: “Suggested attire: woolen plus fours, harris tweed jackets, flat caps, fair isle jumpers, alpaca coats, merino wool team jerseys, cycling skirts and perhaps a jaunty cape for the ladies, cravats or ties for gentlemen, and of course a hip flask of brandy.” Here’s a Flickr photo set of the event from Matthew J. Shaw.

In fond remembrance, photographer Jill Krementz offers up a lovely selection of her photos of John Updike taken from 1967-1994. It includes shots of him jumping rope, one of him shaving, and his 3 desks “one for writing, one for reading his mail, and one for his printer.” (Krementz is the widow of Kurt Vonnegut.)

Taking subway performances to a different extreme, “IRT: A Tragedy in Three Stations” took 30 audience members on a literal trip through subway trains and station platforms for the entire length of the play. It was written and directed by Jeff Stark — I assume he’s the same guy who does Nonsense NYC. (NY Times coverage)