[geodeticman.5]

Hey Ron - I've never heard people speak the word flotsam aloud - but I have read it, a lot. Since I realize you could and probably have looked up the definition of flotsam; I figured I'd just relay my connotation of it, from the context I've read it in many times.

To my recollection, every time I have read it where it was used literally, it was in a maritime context - like you referred to in "High and Dry". One of leaving behind floating flotsam from ..say.. a boat spilling a 5-gallon bucket of chud overboard, and they'd refer to it in the book almost always in this literal context together as the "flotsam and jetsam" (sp?) left roiling in the wake of the departed previous boat. From the context, flotsam seems to be typically debris of no value, floating, and left behind a departed boat.

If I were to guess, I'd say the origin of the terms was from literally "float" in flo(a)tsam, and "to jettison" the jet(tison)-sam. Jetsam by context reads usually as more intentional for functional reasons, like jettisoning empty containers, bilge water, or heavy articles no longer needed on-board of no value. I've also read 'orts' used in the same context seemingly as a synonym in metaphorical use, functionally, but I don't think I've seen it as a typically maritime term like flotsam and jetsam.

Then, in non-literal, but apparently metaphorical or analagous uses ( by context), I've seen the two words flotsam and jetsam used usually together as a figurative way of referring to, well, best way would be an example of the kind of thing I've read: ( I made the following up...)

'That night, after working on secure servers on classified data, he was left with nothing to do at the hotel but pad around in stocking feet; take a cigar out on the spacious 3 x 6 ft. patio. Then, scan-read the paper ( he eschewed TV, just another tube) or, increasingly for news- surf the web on his laptop for flotsam and jetsam from the banal,soon-to-be-yesterday's home-page pseudo-news and ubiquitous 'info-bites', orts of pop-culture with inevitable advertising-links;....'

(note: author-generated ad-hoc writing; no cite applicable)