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Originally Posted by arbarnhart
Oh, here's a chance to show some real seafaring expertise! According to English folklore (see fishing industry: Information from Answers.com) pigs are bad news for sailors:
One of the strongest taboos was the word ‘pig’, and fishermen and their families would go to extraordinary lengths to avoid saying the actual word. They would use synonyms such as ‘porker’, or spell it out, but no remotely satisfying suggestion for an origin for this has been advanced. Paradoxically, Gill points out that many families in fishing areas actually kept pigs. The word was taboo, no part of a pig should be taken on board, to see a pig on the way to sailing was unlucky, but the animal itself on shore was not forbidden or even feared.
Here is another interesting pig story...
http://www.nps.gov/safr/forkids/uplo...a_activ_pg.pdf |
and here all this time i thought bananas were the only taboo on a fishing boat..see, ya learn sumpthin new here every day 
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By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest,second is by imitation, which is easiest,third is by experience, which is the bitterest.
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