Monthly Archives: January 2011

Titanic Cliches

Titanic Cliches of the Day

1. Global Ship Lease uses container ships to move goods you likely purchased online or locally. In theory the company makes a lot of money through fixed leases to transport cargo. But as Motley Fool points out, the company is $600 million in debt and not able to guarantee paying its loan obligations. This fact allows Sean Williams to opine:

“Global Ship Lease (NYSE: GSL) has logged a greater-than-300% gain in the past year, but if its debtors ever get their way, GSL could sink faster than the Titanic.”

Ouch!

Motley Fool, Is This Shipper The Next Titanic?, 21 Jan 2011

2. Pakistan has serious problems and recently began reorganizing the federal cabinet. This provoked harsh criticism as evidenced by an editor in Dawn:

‘In the present climate, that may be akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.’

When a government reshuffling gets the Titanic deck chair treatment, you know it looks bad or a bad comedy sketch.

Sify, ‘Pakistan Cabinet Overhaul Like Rearranging Titanic Deck Chairs’, 24 Jan 2011

Titanic Cliches

Titanic Cliche of Day: Porn Like A Party On Titanic

Who mourns for porn? The porn industry is ailing as people have stopped buying and Internet piracy runs rampant. Peter Nowak wrote recently on Ask Men about the death of porn. The article is long and reports on the factors leading to its most serious decline in decades. Nowak then uses the Titanic to make a point:

With its first ever contraction, a decline that doesn’t seem to have an end, what sort of future does the porn business have? Will there even be porn stars to celebrate a few years from now? Or are these AVN Awards just one big party on the Titanic?

So porn is on a sinking ship with water slowly rising above the rails. At least there is no iceberg, no Captain Smith or Lord to blame. And once again Titanic makes an appearance in a way not thought possible in 1912.

Source: Askmen.com, The Death Of Porn, 13 Jan 2011

Titanic, Titanic Exhibitions

Premier Exhibitions: Titanic Makes Money but Bodies Now RIP

Premier Exhibitions, which owns RMS Titanic Inc., and the touring Titanic exhibition, reported its third quarter fiscal results. According to the press release Titanic and other exhibitions made a “gross profit margin of $1.9 million for the quarter and $10.2 million for the nine months ended November 30, 2010.” However the Bodies portion of the business experienced a loss of $2.3 million in the third quarter. The press release states:

“Having identified the main area of challenge within our business, we have decided to discontinue any further self-operated touring Bodies exhibitions, which will materially lessen our financial exposure. We will reduce our inventory of specimens and cut the fixed license costs by $4 million annually.”

Perhaps a main reason for the Bodies losing money is the ongoing controversy about how those “specimens” are acquired for public display. Some argue that the “specimens” coming from China are former prisoners, dissidents, and others who did not voluntarily will their remains for public display. Now that Premier is discontinuing the exhibition, what will happen to those specimens?

Source: The Street, Premier Exhibitions Reports Fiscal 2011 Third Quarter Results, 11 Jan 2011

Titanic Miscellaneous

Titanic Weekend At The Grand Hotel

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island will be having a special Titanic weekend in May. During May 13-15, those buying a special package will get not only breakfast and dinner daily, but a special 11 course Titanic dinner similar to what was served on Titanic. The cost is $749 for couples, $649 single. An Edwardian fashion show and screenings of Titanic (and other things) are part of the schedule. For full details go to www.grandhotel.com.

Titanic, Titanic Miscellaneous

Ice Competition At Pigeon Forge

If you like ice sculpting, then an upcoming event at Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge is for you. According to the press release, the competition will be on Saturday, Jan. 22 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The event has been sanctioned by the National Ice Carving Association and will have professional and amateur ice carvers participating.

Visitors will be invited to come to Titanic’s outdoor staging center and watch professional and amateur sculptors turn 250-pound blocks of ice into frozen works of art. Kids and parents can view sculptures in progress, talk to the artists and learn the secrets of championship ice carving from the most accomplished ice artists in the entire world.
The event is free but if you want to tour the museum a ticket is needed. For tickets and other information got to titanicpigeonforge.com .