Legendary laker

Somewhere in all of us, we wish we were plying the Great Lakes on a freighter (OK, maybe just me). Imagine a lot of days on frigid open waters, evenings in rough-and-tumble port towns. Romantic moments along rocky coastlines and rugged landings along rusty breakwalls. Distant lighthouses the only sign of society whilst navigating November storms.

This brings me to the Gordon Lightfoot classic "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Where has this song been hiding all these years? Yesterday, the 6-minute epic came on a classic rock station here in town. There are so many great lyrics in the song, but here are some favorites:

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered.

I didn't know that the Dandy Warhols, a brilliant American rock band, covered the Lightfoot epic.

Additionally, the Chicago Tribune featured an editorial on the importance of the lakes today.