So, being a busy summer and all, I’m a bit behind on some of my television shows. Yesterday I caught up on a few of the recent episodes of ScyFy’s Warehouse 13. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s like The X-Files, but instead of aliens and conspiracies these government agents track down historic “artifacts” that have supernatural powers and lock them up in, well, Warehouse 13.
Some of the artifacts so far include: Lewis Carroll’s mirror, Ben Franklin’s lightning rod, Sylvia Plath’s typewriter, Edgar Allan Poe’s quill pen, Harriet Tubman’s thimble, Timothy Leary’s glasses and the Studio 54 disco ball. As you can imagine it’s a combination of the historic, the nerdy and the, well, goofy.
I’m not really selling it, am I?
It was created by Jane Espenson, who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and wrote episodes of Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica, and, oddly, the third ever episode of The O.C.
It’s good. Well, good for ScyFy.
Anyway, one of the episodes from about three weeks ago was called “Around the Bend”. In it the goofy guy agent (why is the guy agent always goofy and the female always by-the-book?) goes a little crazy and starts imagining conspiracies and betrayals among the Warehouse 13 crew.
The artifact that caused this?
The telegraph from Telegraph Island!
Pete playing with the telegraph from Telegraph Island
Pete gone crazy because of the telegraph from Telegraph Island
Pete almost shooting his coworkers because of the telegraph from Telegraph Island
You might remember Telegraph Island from our days in Dubai, twice we drove up to the Musandam peninsula to Khasab, Oman (see Khasab and Khasab 08).
The Musandam peninsula
Remember, we took the dhow boat cruises along the fjords and went snorkeling?
Closer on the peninsula. Note the fjords.
Well smack dab in the middle of the fjords is Jazirat al Maqlab -Telegraph Island. It’s a rock, really, about the size of a football field where in the 1860s the British built a submarine telegraph cable through the Persian Gulf to India. Apparently the construction crew found the locals hostile, so they built the station on an island for ease of defense.
Telegraph Island
Oddly, Telegraph Island doesn't even make the map on Google
I’m not really sure what happened next, either a mainland cable route opened, or some other alternative appeared, but the British abandoned Jazirat al Maqlab shortly thereafter. I think they were there all of five years.
Today all that’s left are stairs down to a dock and some squared off rocks.
Well, that, and a phrase.
Apparently the expression “around the bend” was coined because of the number of British troops who went crazy taking the cable around the bend in the Gulf, i.e. the Strait of Hormuz.
I’m amazed that Warehouse 13 referenced it. It’s quite the esoteric joke. Not even a half-percenter, I mean, how many people in the world have been to Telegraph Island?
I certainly, have been around that bend.
