No, not the Swan Boats!

As a former Swan Boat operator two factors are in operation here;

1. Nobody, well almost nobody, wants to ride a 1 MPH boat in the rain. The revenue isn't meeting payroll on a day like today.

2. Wind does have some effect on the boats' operation. On windy, non Ireneic days when the boats are in operation you may notice a second SB employee stadning next to the operator. This person will use an oar to push off on the bottom of the pond to give the boat a little more thrust. A good breeze will make the people on the boat into a sail, therefore impacting the 1 HP (Human Power) engine. We don't want litte JimEarl from Nashville smacking his head off of the bridge as the boat gets a Aeolian nudge and the driver tries to keep contol.

Safety first, and by this time of the summer, a day off was great. By late August we were all sick of tourists and suburbanites informing us about what a great job it was to bake in the sun all day for $7 and hour (late 80's - just above or less than what Burger King was paying at the time), asking us "What do we do with the pigeons in the winter?" or to "Talk some more of that Boston talk" Ask "Which way to Cheers?" and then coming back mad at us when we didn't tell them it didn't look anything like the tv show. People correcting me that it is called COPE-LY Square, not Cop-Ley Square and it being Quinsee Market, Not Quinzee market.

Also, the homeless people taking dumps in the bushes as we came to work in the morning, the seagulls crapping on our heads from time to time, watching the guy from the old Paramount pick his nose while he was serving lunch, messing up shots of Spenser after the PA's told us to be quiet while doing our jobs, throwing each other in the fetid pond for laughs, getting served at The Sevens even though we were just 18. It was great, but days off were great as well.