bubble-head
n.— «For those who served on board the storied Maryland, the one that survived Pearl Harbor and distinguished itself at such legendary venues as the Tarawa atoll, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa, no submarine can take the place of their battleship.…“I’m not sure it means that much to me, but I guess we’re proud the name lives on—at least as proud as a Navy sailor can be of a bubble-head.”» —“Birth of new USS Maryland stirs hearts of those who served on ‘Fighting Mary’” by Peter Jensen Baltimore Sun (Maryland) Aug. 9, 1991. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...
Iranian-American poet Solmaz Sharif once observed that “The duty of the writer…is to remind us that we will die. And that we aren’t dead yet.” This is part of a complete episode.
Related