The Side Effects of Endorphins

I am a big fan of Canadian storytelling. Gordon Lightfoot is one of those icons. The story here was written by my friend‘s wife. It is a sweet touching story of a tragedy that happened 50 years ago.

Ultimately, said author John U. Bacon, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald helped change safety standards. There has not been a single major commercial shipwreck on the Great Lakes, he says, for the past 50 years.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5518215/edmund-fitzgerald-shipwreck

Writing is a Slippery Slope which comes with responsibility

No one was more surprised than Gordon Lightfoot when his ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” became one of the biggest hits of 1976, less than a year after the disaster it commemorates. The Canadian musician had agonized over writing the song in the first place.

“He feared being inaccurate, corny or worse, appearing to exploit a tragedy for profit,” writes John U. Bacon in his new bestseller, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. “But more than that, as a fellow sailor and a child of the Great Lakes … this song — whatever it was — was deeply personal.”

Yes, 50 years ago, on November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a large freighter often called a “rock star” ship, sank in Lake Superior. The sinking resulted in the loss of all 29 crew members, and its mystery and legacy have been immortalized in songs and stories. 

• The Sinking: The ship was lost during a severe storm on Lake Superior, which had hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35-60 feet high. The exact cause of the sinking remains a mystery, though theories involve the cargo shifting or damage from rogue waves.
• “Rock Star” Status: The Edmund Fitzgerald earned its “rock star” reputation because it was the largest ship on the Great Lakes at the time of its launch in 1958, breaking records and carrying large loads of iron ore.

On Repeat

In a musty old hall in Detroit, they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake, they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early