There were the heapings of praise for the idea of America, for American ingenuity, and for the American military, shout-outs to Reagan and Roosevelt, a smattering of God - and the obligatory glowing reference to Senator Edward Kennedy.

We can easily imagine how Hunter would have described people like Mitt Romney (I'm guessing he would have reached for depraved scumsucking whore pretty early in his coverage) and Rick Santorum (screeching rectum-faced celibate?) and all you have to do is look at his write-up of the Eagleton affair to see how this writer would have responded to whatever manufactured noncontroversy of the Bill Ayers/Reverend Wright genus ends up rocking the 2012 election season.

If that double-bolted land, Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom the credit will be due; for already she is on the threshold.

True oyster lovers really prefer the large Lynnhavens and others on the deep shell.