Swallowed the anchor means to stop the nautical life. What a great phrase. Thanks, wwh. I'll drop it a lot now. It sure is a bit more esoteric than belMarduk's slovenly unless it's just another instance of having missed something everybody else already knew.

I s'pose when I stop teaching I can say I'm swallowing the white board. And a cook could swallow the pot. And a doctor could swallow the stethoscope. And a farmer could swallow the plow--or the John Deere. And so on.

Terrific concept!