Ballard Bear Update

The black arrow shows the location of my house.

From the Seattle Times: "Urban Phantom is the name given by state wildlife agents to a 2-year-old black bear who was first seen in Magnolia late Saturday, and so far has eluded capture as he has been sighted also in Ballard and Shoreline."

The 'bar was tromping around my neighborhood, after possibly swimming from Magnolia to the beach at Golden Gardens, and then climbing the heavily-treed hill. He was spotted near the graveyard up the hill, just a couple of blocks from my brother and sister-in-law, Dean and Mary's house near Blue Ridge. Later yesterday, he made good time, and ended up in a park in Shoreline. I know bears can run fast, but this bear made serious tracks. And so far, no one seems able to find him. At Twin Ponds Park, where he is possibly located now, he will run into a serious roadblock. Interstate 5 probably blocks his path (if he moving to the east, where forests and bear habitat exists).

From The Seattlest: Damn Bear Almost to Jack's House
The black bear we mentioned this morning seems to have somewhere pressing in mind. So far it's cruised from Magnolia, through Ballard, and "made a stop in Twin Ponds Park in Shoreline," says MyBallard, who have created a bear-tracker map. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has put its hunt on hold because there are too many people running around, but that doesn't bother Seattlest Jack: "I am gleeful over the fact that even in a major city, in the 21st century, one might still encounter a bear, or giant bear-like raccoons."

Also from The Seattlest: "Fish & Wildlife officials, meanwhile, have discontinued the search because they don’t believe the small bear is dangerous. The bear had quite a day, swimming across the Ship Canal from Magnolia into Ballard late Sunday night, criss-crossing its way through the neighborhood with police and wildlife officials in close pursuit with tranquilizer guns and tracking dogs. The bear disappeared for several morning hours — wildlife officials believe it was taking a nap — before heading sharply north into Shoreline. There, the media joined the chase, with TV crews on the ground and choppers swirling overhead. "
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The Policemen - a children's book. . .

--click to enlarge--

A wonderful, and creepy parody of a children's book. I don't know who wrote it. It seems to be selected pages of a children's book on cops, slightly re-written.




http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2008/06/childrens-books-policeman.html
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Soul Sacrifice by Santana at Woodstock

According to a video interview I saw with Carlos Santana (in an exhibit at the Music Experience Museum in Seattle), Carlos was on acid during his performance at Woodstock. He'd apparently mis-timed the LSD and ended up baked on stage. He said he felt snakes growing out of the guitar. But somehow he pulls it off--and makes some awesomely classic guitar faces while he's doing it.

Note that Michael Shrieve, the drummer, was only 19 years old at Woodstock...



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A bear in Ballard!

"Police officers and wildlife agents spent hours looking for a bear that wandered through the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle..." (In the Crown Hill section of Ballard--our neighborhood!). If we was in Magnolia/Discovery Park, that means he either walked right up 15th Avenue (and over the Ballard Bridge), over the Ballard Locks walkways, or he jumped in Puget Sound and swam to the beach in Ballard, just below our house...

The Associated Press story appears here: http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=168819
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All This Is That Reheated: Square Dance At Kent Elementary

Valley Elementary held two or three square dances a year and they were the coolest thing in town, but the Lettuce Festival, Puyallup Fair (for which we got half a day off school), Kris Kringle Days, and Hydroplane Races were all right up there.

A semi-pro called the steps over a record player or Wollensak tape recorder. Kent was a natural for square dancing; the town was still full of Okies, Clodhoppers, Tarheels, Hayseeds, Rednecks, Yokels, and Hillbillies: my people.

One of the vocals sounded like Tommy Duncan singing. I haven't heard the tune in 40 years. Its lyrics are seared into my brain:

Now you all join hands as you circle the ring
Stop where you are, give your partner a swing.

Now swing that girl behind you.
Swing your own, if you have time to.

Allemande left with the sweet corner maid.
Do-si-do your own.

They we'll all promenade with the sweet corner maid
Singing Oh Johnny Oh Johnny Oh.

Girls wore floofy dresses and boys wore button down shirts with cords or jeans. The adults wore bolo ties and gingham dresses. A couple bales of hay and some other countrified accoutrements were scattered around the gym, along with "refreshments" of soda pop, doughnuts and maple bars.

You got to dance with girls without the potential psychic trauma of actually asking one to dance. They arranged us in a group of partners that changed frequently. However, even those chaste touches and do si dos scrambled our brains with thoughts of girls! The fleeting moments allemanding left, whirling skirts, and whiffs of dime-store perfume all fueled our overheated pre- and mid-pubescent psyches.

I remember square dancing in 3rd and 4th grades, but not so much the 5th and 6th. I do remember seeing The Beatles that year on The Ed Sullivan Show show. I don't know if The Beatles killed square dancing, but after their arrival, square dancing was never quite the same.
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All This Is That Reheated: How I became Jack

How I became Jack Brummet

I was working for a magazine in Seattle called Construction Data. On my first day on the job, my boss, McGoo, walked up to me and said "I have your new business cards."

He handed me a box of the cards.

“Jack Brummet. Circulation marketing and feature article writer? Jack?," I asked.

“I like that, yeah. Jack. Face it. . .John is a pussy name. Jack’s the name of a man's man. These are constuction guys named Bill and Biff and Sven. Do you want to sell magazines, or be be some marketing fop named John?”

I became Jack. And I still am.
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All This Is That reheated:

Due to the exigencies of work (I'm slammed!), for the next few days, we'll be posting some of the best of All This Is That. Unless Pablo Fanque actually comes through with some new material to fill the breech. I suspect he will.

From All This Is That, December 4th, 2004:


Poem: The Absence of Footprints

1.
We're not trilliums or daffodils
That spring back up
After a nap in the dirt.

2.
You told me you wanted
To make the crossing
Over to Cold Island
And I could never believe you.

It wasn't the karmic stain
That bothered me,
But the unfathomable fact
You didn't want to be here;
That all this wasn't enough.

All this is that.
And it wasn't enough.

3.
You stare into the ditch
You spent years unloading.

You are afraid to climb in
And stop,

To take something
That isn't working,
and make it not work forever.

4.
It's
so
quiet
you
hear
dust
motes
six
feet
up
bump
in
shafts
of
sunlight.
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Video: I'm going home by Alvin Lee/Ten Years After @ Woodstock '69

I always liked Alvin Lee's over the top, showboat performance at Woodstock, although I have never actually purchased an album by him/them.



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I know it was you Fredo.

From The Godfather 2, in Havana. "I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart."


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What's up with Jeri Kehn Thompson?

click to enlarge Jeri and the cop


Interestingly, over 100 people came to All This Is That yesterday specifically looking for photos of Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn. I can't figure out why. At first I thought she might have died. She doesn't seem to be in the news. Neither has Fred Thompson, as far as I can tell. There're always a couple of people looking, but 100? That seems crazy--and I can't figure out what triggered all the Jeri Kehn searches.

Usually when tons of people come looking for something specific, it is because there was a link on a web site, or that person or thing hit the news. There are about 20 people and things where All This Is That is at or near the top of Google searches (things like the Enumclaw horse case; the Walribi tribe handshake; The cuckoo sign and the shocker; craig's list sex scandal; Alien lore; The Johnson Treatment, etc). Those things get hits all the time. . .but this Jeri Kehn one is baffling. Maybe she was in the news and I am missing it. It looks like we are one of the first Google hits in images, but still something has to drive people to look in the first place. I don't know. This is kind of strange...

In case you're one of those people looking, here are the links to the many Jeri Kehn pictures published here:

Where is Jeri Kehn Thompson? A dearth of photos plagues the internet. . .
Jeri Kehn Thompson On The Road/All This Is That's Comprehensive Jeri Kehn Coverage Continues With New Photos Even Jeri Kehn can't resuscitate her husband's wheezing, tubercular campaign (but it's fun to watch while she tries) This week's photographic update on Jeri Kehn Thompson
Photomontage: Jeri Kehn pressing the flesh (includes one photo of her husband) and links to Jeri Kehn photo motherlode
Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs
Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos
Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs
Jeri Kehn Thompson photo update No. 12--eleven new Jeri Kehn photographs
Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos
A Jeri Kehn Thompson cameo appearance in a Fred Thompson campaign video, four new Jeri Kehn photographs, and a Mrs. Fred Thompson photo roundup
Three additional photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson a/k/a Jeri Kehn
Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)
One More Jeri Kehn Thompson photo
Jeri Kehn Photos, Part 3: Three more photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson
More Jeri Kehn photos--> A follow-up to "Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)
Not Jeri Kehn: people who are not Mrs. Fred Thompson, yet who often turn up in search engine searches on "Jeri Kehn"
Three new Jeri Kehn photos; links to Jeri photos; and Fred Thompson describes the beauty of having a hot first lady;
New photographs of Jeri Kehn Thompson on the campaign trail (and a couple of her husband Fred too)
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Poem: [It comes and goes like a hit and run driver]

1
It comes and goes
Like a hit and run driver.

An errant bullet's ricochet,
A pickpocket works the crowd,

Your worst enemy gets the drop on you,
The rogue bacteria waits on a doorknob,

Or maybe the crosswalk you don't walk into
As a driver speeds through the light

While you stop to tie your shoe.
Luck and circumstance conspire to save you.

2
Every glorious second you spend here,
You engage in a game of dodge ball,

And bob and weave through a multitude
Of objective hazards, walls, and shoals

Over which you have no control―
Only a fraction of which you ever feel.

3
If we knew of every near-miss,
It could be tough to keep shuffling on,

And somehow, we learn just enough
To mostly keep us on our toes.
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Music video: Booker (bukka) White performs Aberdeen Mississippi Blues

Bukka White (11/12/1909 – 2/26/1977) was a delta blues guitarist and singer--one of the many greats from that fertile region. "Bukka" was a misspelling of White's name Booker, by his record label. When Bob Dylan, John Fahey, and others recorded some of his songs in the mid-60's, he became part of the blues/folk revival. Bukka became friends with Furry Lewis later and they recorded an album in Furry's house (Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends: Party! At Home). This is an incredible video of Bukka performing solo, playjng slide guitar and "hammering on."

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing this one out. Wow.


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