Swimming Like It's 1954...!

Tom Bartlett, 72 years of life, attempting TODAY to become the oldest man in the record books to have crossed Lake Ontario - by swim, yeah! Man - 72... that is, almost, Aquaman's true age right there! (Never mind the other guy... Y'know; born in Maine, fearful of lawsuits, misbegotten mutations galore? Never mind... But, hey - today's swimmer's name is Tom: just like Aquaman's dad, the lighthouse keeper, played by... well, the same actor who was Boba Fett's dad, Jango. Whatsisname again? He who once was a warrior - and wife beater. Ugh. Never mind!!!)
Tom (Bartlett now) swam into those waters starting with Niagara By The Lake early in the morning, and if all goes as planned, should have his name in the record books by the end of the day! If he succeeds, he becomes grander than make-believe aquaficionados, de facto; and automatically surpasses even my aqua hero in real life... Diana! Remember her?

Come on now! You must have heard of her! 

Diana Nyad!

We certainly made mention of her often enough... 

... here - on aqua musings! 

Truth be told...

 DC's NAIAD never came close to her greatness - 

(though she must certainly inspired her creation!) 

and that's a FACT... Jack! 

That isn't quite ''Naiad', though - this is DC's character: 

...in context, now; 

and my luminous version of that:

She was pretty darn close to achieving 

true blue Luminous Aquaficionada status, though - 

luminous truth be told! 

But then DC decided to dump her - 

in favor of a reworking of the fabled 

Lady Of The Lake...! 

(circa 2003) 

(... needless to say... that didn't last!)

And then there's homegrown talent such as... 

Dolphin. 

Hmm... is that Dolphin? Probably not - this is Dolphin:

And then it was back to the drawing board - 

and

Queen of the Seven Seas 

and true Aquaficionada Supreme 

- revamped and reworked for the Notties! 

But that is another story...!!! 

Back to TOM now! 

UNFORTUNATELY, we have to report that 

things did not go exactly as planned by or for 

Tom Bartlett and his swim across Lake Ontario... 

(And we do mean Tom Bartlett, swimmer of 72 years of age 

not Tom Bartlett guitars... 

or Tom Bartlett of American Tower...! 

(Google that - and you'll see!)

He gave it a good shot - tremendous shot, really: 

he was at it for over twenty (20) hours 

and had crossed forty-one (41) kilometers worth of it - 

at which point he had to put a stop to his attempt 

as the waters deemed ''warm and calm'' initially 

became rough and unpredictable around 

them Toronto Islands... 

CTV Kitchener reported it - 

video included. 

The most luminous bit of advice (consolation, really) 

given to Tom, afterwards - via the 98.1 CHFI page 

on good ol' FB, actually - was the following: 

penned by one Gordon Farrow: 

"How many 70+ year-olds have swum as much...? 

Tom, look at it in the light - and wish you all the best 

in the future." 

It was not Diana Nyad but really Marilyn Bell 

-another luminous aquaficionada- 

whose aquatic exploits had inspired Tom 

into attempting this; she had crossed that lake 

- successfully - back in 1954 indeed. 

Marilyn has several extra exploits to her credit, too: 

Aquaficionadas > aquaficionados - always! 

STILL... 

Tom will not be detracted: 

his daughter -Sherry- has confirmed it - 

he will try again! 

Maybe in three... or five years, Tom? 

After all, it wasn't until he was past 75 

(the ripe old age of 78, actually...) 

that AQUAMAN finally got his due...! 

*lol*