Christopher Buckley recalls his year working on a Norwegian freighter ship:

At sea in those latitudes, temperatures on the ship’s steel decks could reach 115 degrees. During lunch breaks, I’d climb down the long ladder to the reefer (refrigerated) deck at the bottom of Number Two Hold. There were mounds, hillocks, tons—oh, I mean tons—of Red Delicious apples from Oregon. I would sit on top in the lovely dark chill, munching away, a chipmunk in paradise. One day I counted eating eight. I emerged belching and blinking into the heat, picked up my hydraulic jackhammer, and went back to chipping away at several decades of rust and paint.

(Photo: Jeff T Green/Getty.)