At approximately 5:03AM today, thetompostpile received visitor number 4,000. People from 53 countries have now come to the ‘pile. While this is but a small, small blip in the vastness of the intertubes, here’s a big “Thank you!”, to all who have come by for a visit.
The SSA. The Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. There are no steamships left among their “gleaming white ships”, but never mind…
Islanders relate in many ways to the Steamship Authority, whose ferries supply and populate this place. Sometimes we love the SSA, sometimes we hate it. The SSA sustains us and discombobulates us, comforts us and upsets us, maintains our security, but much of the time just plain baffles us.
Here is an area at the Woods Hole dock, seen from the ferry window.
In a previous post, we saw this graphic gem.
But wait! There’s more!

Some of you could come up with a better title than “Sink, with coffee mug and large spoon”. Please suggest a caption.
Remember the famous painting “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2”, by Marcel DuChamp?
Here is the Steamship Authority version.
Caption? “Slide into small wading pool that is inexplicably floating in the ocean.”
Wonder of wonders, away they think SSA means Social Security Administration. This might be the most reliable method to tell Us from Them.
A
well the second graphic is probably an emergency slide, but i like “random geometric shapes in a body of water” for a title. the third one reminds me of Frankenstein’s monster performing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” in “Young Frankenstein.”