My 10th Anniversary on this site

[Reef monkey]

...was three days ago. Huh. I hadn't gotten on in quite a while, honestly I got off all internet discussion boards about a year and a half ago, and then today for some reason I decided to see what's going on here. I couldn't put my finger on it, and then I looked down at what I'm wearing today:

Pink Lacoste polo shirt
Faded Levi's 501s
Light tan Sperry Topsiders (no socks)
Light tan (almost off-white) woven macrame belt
My Seiko Prospex Turtle Diver with Pepsi bezel (though on a black rubber strap)

Pretty close to an outfit TM would have worn back in the day.

[Mark de Croix]

...was three days ago. Huh. I hadn't gotten on in quite a while, honestly I got off all internet discussion boards about a year and a half ago, and then today for some reason I decided to see what's going on here. I couldn't put my finger on it, and then I looked down at what I'm wearing today:

Pink Lacoste polo shirt
Faded Levi's 501s
Light tan Sperry Topsiders (no socks)
Light tan (almost off-white) woven macrame belt
My Seiko Prospex Turtle Diver with Pepsi bezel (though on a black rubber strap)

Pretty close to an outfit TM would have worn back in the day.

I salute you for several reasons for: 1 having a great name, one of the best at this website; 2 fully inculcating a TM lifestyle; and maybe most of all, 3 writing a brilliant essay referenced below. The tenor reminds of my visit on Guam during which coincidentally the liberation from Japan was celebrated. Yet as some locals lamented, Japan practically owns it. Rather a paradox that the U.S. is in vis a vis East Asia. As you so thoughtfully point it, the paradox seems represented through the stories and life in MPI, and certainly Hawaii itself, though called a melting pot, ethnic tensions simmer just below the surface. You sum it up well why the reboot could not possibly fit today as MPI did so masterfully the 1980s.

[eagle]

You had me look mine up -- it will be on October 9 of this year. Fun!

[Reef monkey]

...was three days ago. Huh. I hadn't gotten on in quite a while, honestly I got off all internet discussion boards about a year and a half ago, and then today for some reason I decided to see what's going on here. I couldn't put my finger on it, and then I looked down at what I'm wearing today:

Pink Lacoste polo shirt
Faded Levi's 501s
Light tan Sperry Topsiders (no socks)
Light tan (almost off-white) woven macrame belt
My Seiko Prospex Turtle Diver with Pepsi bezel (though on a black rubber strap)

Pretty close to an outfit TM would have worn back in the day.

I salute you for several reasons for: 1 having a great name, one of the best at this website; 2 fully inculcating a TM lifestyle; and maybe most of all, 3 writing a brilliant essay referenced below. The tenor reminds of my visit on Guam during which coincidentally the liberation from Japan was celebrated. Yet as some locals lamented, Japan practically owns it. Rather a paradox that the U.S. is in vis a vis East Asia. As you so thoughtfully point it, the paradox seems represented through the stories and life in MPI, and certainly Hawaii itself, though called a melting pot, ethnic tensions simmer just below the surface. You sum it up well why the reboot could not possibly fit today as MPI did so masterfully the 1980s.

Thank you very much! The name is one I've been using as a forum name probably since the late 90s. To be honest, I didn't put a lot of thought into it at the time, just combined two things I like - coral reefs, and monkeys. Also seems that no matter what forum I've used it on, the nickname "Reefer" gets used, which is kind of funny because I've only smoked pot twice in my life, and didn't care for it .

It's hard to know how much my love of Magnum from a young age has continued to influence my lifestyle, or how much I would have been predestined to otherwise. My parents are tropics-loving University of Miami alumni who love the water and have had boats since before I was born, and so we had a house on Galveston Island, so I would have gravitated towards an island watersports lifestyle anyway, and have always worn deck shoes whenever I can get away with it, and I think loving fish and watching Thunderball over and over as a kid is what propelled me to become a diver, but I have to believe when I discovered sit-on-top kayaks in the late 90s, subliminal memories of TM on his surfski were nudging me to buy one of my own.

Thanks for the kind words on the essay, and interesting observations about Guam, with the Japanese losing the war but winning the peace.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

and I think loving fish and watching Thunderball over and over as a kid is what propelled me to become a diver

THUNDERBALL is the ultimate summer Bond movie!! It doesn't get better than that. Bond in the Bahamas! I suppose DR. NO is a good companion piece too - Bond in Jamaica. When you watch the film you just want to get out there on the water. I know many complain that THUNDERBALL drags and the underwater scenes are far too long and dull. But when you watch it remastered in all its glory and taking into account when it was made (in 1965) you can't help but marvel. And combined with John Barry's sublime score (one of the best film scores ever!!) it's just such an atmospheric experience. They don't do film scores like that anymore. In fact when I was in the Bahamas all I could hear humming in my head was Barry's TB score... over and over and over... Loved it!

[Mark de Croix]

Thank you very much! The name is one I've been using as a forum name probably since the late 90s. To be honest, I didn't put a lot of thought into it at the time, just combined two things I like - coral reefs, and monkeys. Also seems that no matter what forum I've used it on, the nickname "Reefer" gets used, which is kind of funny because I've only smoked pot twice in my life, and didn't care for it .

Thanks for the kind words on the essay, and interesting observations about Guam, with the Japanese losing the war but winning the peace.

You're welcome. I didn't imagine the connection about reefer but you can count yourself lucky. You avoided possibly a disrupted life. In my case I only had happy experiences with it, but I knew someone, maybe you too, who was continually high day in and day out, eventually kicked out of school, and the final word was that one night he passed out in a field and the next morning he was run over by a tractor trailer. A complete wasted life.

You obviously were very close to water growing up and your alias fits well. I had the good fortune of spending many adventure at the beach each summer growing up though I never came away with any acquired water sport skill. I just loved body surfing or drifting on my raft aimlessly going wherever in New Jersey, which, by the way, I have come to see have or had great beaches. I still remember fondly capturing at age 8 a huge, I mean huge, deep sea starfish that clung under a huge rock at water's edge at the beach after a terrific storm the previous day. Sadly I was immature and thought I could keep him in my bucket. Innocence. Just a marvelous creature.

[Styles Bitchley]

Two summers ago, I picked up a dogeared Thunderball paperback at a used bookstore and spent some downtime consuming it in a lounge chair by a lake. I highly recommend you all run out and do the same this summer. I've been going through all the Flemming novels since. I had read many of them in my teens, but I'm enjoying them even more at this age, for some reason.

Happy anniversary, Reefer!

[Aloha Friday]

Funny, I have been doing the same...so far this year I've read Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, and Dr No. I much prefer the Fleming books to some of the movies...Moonraker was a good read, I'd like to see them redo some of the movies like Moonraker and keep it true to the book...set them in the 1950s and 60s too.

[Styles Bitchley]

Yep. I read Moonraker last year. Fantastic. So much better than the silly space plot they came up with. I just finished You Only Live Twice and am a good way into On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Great point about having them set in the time contemporaneous with the novels. It’s the only way you could do Moonraker anyway, given that the plot hinges on now antiquated middle technology.

[Reef monkey]

Yep, I read all the Fleming novels and several of the Gardner ones in my teens, and during Covid lockdown I revisted several of them. They still hold up.

Moonraker was the 2nd Bond book I read, back in 6th grade, and the first novel (the first book I read was For Your Eyes Only, which is a collection of short stories). I still think Moonraker was probably Fleming's best.

[Pahonu]

I read the Fleming novels starting in early high school, I think, though I may have started earlier. Years later I decided to reread them all in order. It’s been at least 15 years since the reread. I tried Gardner and wasn’t a big fan.

Thunderball was a great read and more “cinematic” if you will, because it was actually first a screenplay.