The Weirdest Story I Read Today

So, just to prove that terrorists are people too, comes the story that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are collecting spare rations to send to victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/gitmo-haiti-donations-pil_n_521006.html

Amazing. Simply amazing as a tribute to the human spirit.

And if you consider that a fair number, probably the majority, of these are people were arrested or kidnapped, then held and tortured for the better part of a decade, for things they didn't do, it's even more impressive.

--JDR

Humboldt County Pot Grower Tax Deadbeats

So, this will probably be the last of the posts inspired by our vacation down to see the Redwoods, but a news story I saw in a local paper down there was too good to pass up.

It seems that now, after decades of fighting to legalize marijuana, the people who grow it have now suddenly realized that once it's legal the cost will go down and they'll have to pay taxes on it. You know, just like alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition. And while they're happy to make a living growing dope, the idea of paying taxes to The Man dismays them. Here's the link*

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/outlaw_pot_growers_in_californ.html

Another reason we either need to bring back Prohibition or end the 'War on Drugs'; our current patchwork system of trying both at the same time is simply not working.

--JDR

*although in the local newspaper version I saw its title was "Illegal Growers Fear Legalized Pot"

NSGW

So, when we visited Ferndale Cemetery -- a v. interesting place, by the way -- among other things we were struck by the number of masonic tombstones and generational family plots, some clearly still in use. It was interesting, and a little unsettling, for example to see the mausoleum where the people whose house we'd stayed in the previous night were buried. There were also quite a few burials with a little marker bearing the initials G.A.R. or N.S.G.W.

'GAR', or Grand Army of the Republic, I know about, this being a Civil War veteran on the Yankee side, the equivalent of the Confederate cross marking a smattering of graves in old cemeteries back home (like my great-great-grandfather's nr Hope, Arkansas). But 'NSGW' was a new one to me. At first I thought it might relate to World War I (something something Great War), but the dates didn't work out for that; most of the people involved wd have been fiftyish at the time Woodrow Wilson's war started. And the Spanish-American war seemed unlikely, while the dates were a bit too late for what used to be called the Indian Wars.*

We were without an internet connection in Ferndale, but once we were back in Crescent City I googled the term and discovered its meaning: the person so designated was a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, a fraternal order for native-born Californians that dates back to 1875, or about a generation after the Gold Rush. Their website (http://www.calnative.org/) talks a bit about their good works and desire to preserve California history.

It was not until I went to The Source of All Knowledge (wikipedia), seeking a second opinion, that their history as the west coast's equivalent to the KKK emerged. Turns out a major part of their purpose was to exclude non-whites from California as much as possible, esp. the Chinese. As late as World War II, they were enthusiastically urging the mistreatment of Japanese Americans. Here's the brief wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSGW . Apparently those Bad Old Days of whipping up Yellow Peril hysteria are long past now; good to know.

Or, to adapt one of my favorite sayings: "half a century does not pass in vain".

--JDR

..........................................

*or, as my friend Fan Shen called it, "the most successful genocide campaign in modern history".

Hobbiton USA Is No More

So, one of the stops I wanted to make so long as we were in the area was HOBBITON USA,* a tacky Tolkien-themed tourist trap just south of Phillipsville (pop. 250) near the Avenue of the Giants (the wonderful drive through the southernmost of the four Redwoods state & nat'l parks in the area).

Turns out I was a few years too late. The site is now derelict, with a 'no trespassing' sign by the entrance where you pull off the highway. Had there simply been the closed sign, I wd have been tempted to poke around a bit to see the trail (after all, when was I going to have another chance?), but accompanied as I was by my conscience, I refrained. Still, you can see enough to get a sense of what it's like without entering the site.

From what I assume to have been the parking lot you can see Gandalf standing by the door of Bag End (half the door is missing), two other hobbit-hole's round doors, and the three trolls -- at least one of them v. obviously based on the Rankin-Bass cartoon. Checking google, I see that several folks have posted pictures of the displays we didn't get to see (out of sight up the hill, I assume): Bilbo, a warg trying to climb a tree, spiders and cocooned dwarves, Gollum in his cave, an Eagle, Smaug, Bard and the thrush -- several among them obviously taken from the Rankin-Bass-- and, rather puzzlingly, what looks like Bakshi's Aragorn. In person, it looks more like a miniature golf course than anything, except without as much dignity. No one will really miss it now it's gone, but still I'm sorry not to have seen it in all its awfulness. Let's hope no one ever builds another.

--John R.

current reading: THE PTEROSAURS.

current writing: "Inside Literature" (Kalamazoo paper)

*thanks, David, for letting me know beforehand that it was in the area

UPDATE (4/2-10)

Thanks to all those lucky visitors (David, Monte, Ed) who posted in the comments memories of visiting the spot before it closed. David also published a post about it on his own blog, which is well worth checking out if you haven't already (http://calimac.livejournal.com/437865.html).

One thing I overlooked until reminded of it by some links within links is that the place is featured in RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, the Dominic Monaghan-narrated documentary about Tolkien fandom. If you have this dvd from 2005, check out scene 10, which devotes two and a half minutes to touring the place and briefly giving a little of its history (apparently it opened in 1981; from other indications it went into decline after the woman who created it died in 1996). Described as "a living diorama of THE HOBBIT", which seems fair enough, it includes shots of Bilbo and Gandalf at the doorstep of Bag End, someone (a dwarf I assume) treed by a warg, wrapped-up dwarves hanging above Bilbo as he battles a Spider, an Eagle rescue, a castle (?? is this supposed to be Rivendell?), Lake Town*, Gollum's Cave, and the Shire Map. We also get to hear a little of the recorded push-the-button dialogue, which doesn't sound nearly as bad as I'd been expecting (one reviewer said it was obviously recorded by someone who played D&D a lot, as if this were a bad thing).

--JDR

*"it's only a model!" (by far the cheesiest of all the displays shown -- and yet another internet link featured the company that built the little 'lake' describing how it was done to show the versatility of their product)

somewhere in the world . . .

Somewhere in the world, they're still playing The Archies on the radio.

And as of this weekend, I know where that is: a little Italian restaurant/pizza joint off Hemlock Street*. The radio was set to an oldies station that so far as I cd tell didn't venture past 1968 or before 1963 or so (the earliest song I heard was "From Me to You", the latest "Sugar Sugar"). This was all the more amusing because I think you cd add the combined ages of any two employees working there and not equal the age of the newest song playing on their sound system.

As it so happens, I actually have the album THE ARCHIES GREATEST HITS -- one of my v. oldest surviving albums, along with THE BEATLES AGAIN (the only Beatles album I have that we bought when it was new), TARKUS (which I bought from my cousin Sam when he decided to buy a new copy), and perhaps one or two others. I hadn't listened to it in ages, but I got it out last night after we returned home and gave it a listen. A few of the songs I had almost entirely forgotten, though a single re-listening brought them back; others I remembered v. well. Of them all I think "Sunshine" is the only one that still holds up as a nice light little pop song (I remember I put it on a tape I took with me when I moved to Milwaukee); pity it never made it into classics status or its own spot on the oldies stations. But the album's still a fun listen, and v. much a period piece; somewhere between the Monkees and the Partridge Family.

--JDR

*apparently named after the tree, not the poison. Though what we cd observe of Cannon Bay's street naming (a presidential series, not entirely sequential), who knows?

Whale Watching

So, yesterday Janice and I got to whale-watch, sort of, off Point Depoe, through the new binoculars she bought. Here's the little poem I made out of the experience:

I saw a whale

exhale

No flukes, no breech,

no sleek black back

Just a puff of breath

Twelve feet high

Three miles away.

They said at the whale-watching center that it'd been a good day: fifty-eight sightings. But there's not much to be seen from shore when the whales swim by three to five miles off. We'll have to try the whale-watching-from-a-boat thing in Gray's Harbor again if we can this spring

--JDR

just finished: A LION CALLED CHRISTIAN by Anthony Burke & Jn Rendall [1971 & 2009]

just began: THE PTEROSAURS FROM DEEP TIME by David M. Unwin (no relation) [2006]

UPDATE (Sunday March 28th):

After we got back and I had a chance to go online and check out the local news, I found out why we didn't see much at Depoe Bay -- the whales had come up to Elliott Bay instead!

At least one of them had. A good-sized grey whale rounded West Seattle on Saturday, spending several hours in fairly shallow off Alki Beach (to the delight of locals enjoying a day outside) before moving on to near the mouth of the Duwamish -- which further upstream is the same Green River that flows near (say half a mile from) our place. It was last seen last night near Salty's, where we go on special occasions for Seattle's best brunch with Wolf & Shelly and/or Jeff & Kate.

I imagine this is a young whale taking a break on its migration north. Finding a nice quiet bay, it slipped in and poked around a bit hoping to find some nom. There are some shrimp in the Sound, but not a lot I think, so I doubt he'll stay long. Still, an exciting event for all whale-lovers in the area, esp. those fortunate enough to see it for themselves.

Here's a link to the news story and a photo or two of the whale himself:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/199782.asp

--JDR

Petting the Shark

So, today Janice and I petted a shark (two sharks, actually. they were adorable*). We also got to see some bat mantas (beautiful creatures, and apparently v. gregarious).

That same afternoon, we got to hold and pet a baby leopard (appropriately enough, since they'd been leopard sharks that morning). And also pet a skunk (which took a fascination with my watchband and chewed on it a while. We also got chuffed at, repeatedly, by a v. friendly tiger, and I got smelled or nibbled at by two donkeys, a llama, an emu, a wallaby, and almost an ostrich (Janice pulled me back, worried about a repeat of The Parrot Incident). Plus, we got mobbed by a mixed herd of small deer, goats, rams, and peacocks when we entered, feed-the-animal cups in hands (the place we were visiting uses ice cream cones as cup, so the animals eat the container as well as the pet feed).

Here's hoping we have luck with the whale watching tomorrow . . .

--JDR

*and apparently more easy-going than housecats. the guide told us that they originally put six fish in the shark tank to be eaten. But when the sharks realized they got fed even without catching the live fish, they started leaving the live fish they shared the tank with alone. Try that trick with well-fed housecats and a room full of little birds, and the outcome wd be less pleasant (for the birds).