We didn't pay to go in The Trees Of Mystery, but stopped by to see my childhood hero Bunyan and his faithful friend, Babe The Blue Ox. Standing in front of the entrance to the Trees of Mystery, Paul chats up the tourists, often reminding them to "visit the gift shop!" Most of Paul's banter involves describing the clothes that people at his feet are wearing, so you know it is not a canned recording. "Hello, there...you're wearing a Yankees sweatshirt!" He also answers questions from the tourists about his size and composition.
In this photo by Del Brummet, I am inspecting Babe's left testicle.
He has to be the longest reigning king-president-premier of our time, outlasting even Ethiopian legend Emperor (and Rastafarian deity) Hailie Selassie in terms of sheer years in "office[1]." However, it doesn't seem quite right to call a dictator's situation an office per se [2].
Happy Birthday Fidel! I never believed you were the monster the conservatives said you were, or the hero the left said you were. But I'll hand it to you...you've held on these many many years....
[1] As Jacque Ewing once said angrily to Bobby Ewing: "You don't get power, Bobby. YOU TAKE IT!" [2] We tend to think of an office as an elected office. . .not an office seized. This is where I have to disagree with some of the left. How can we actually venerate someone who stole an office not his to take--no matter how corrupt the previous occupant was? In this case, the previous occupant, Batista, did indeed have his hands in the till.
This has got to have Steve Jobs pounding the walls. Apple Computer and Microsoft were both working on portable music players in 2001 and 2002. Apple released their first iPod in November 2001, but did not file a provisional patent claim until July 2002. In the meantime, Microsoft filed a patent in May 2002 that covered, among other things, the song menu software. In July, the Patent Office rejected Apple's claim, saying the ideas were similar to the earlier Microsoft patent! What does it all mean? Apple could end up owing Microsoft millions of dollars in royalties. Not millions of dollars...hundreds of millions. Apple is projected to sell their 35 millionth iPod this year. This should be an interesting story to follow in the next few months... ---o0o---
A man has died after playing an online computer game for 50 hours with very few breaks. The man, g28, collapsed in an internet cafe in South Korea. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died. Click here to read the full story.
Police said he had barely slept or eaten during his gaming session. He only paused to go to the toilet. Korea is notoriously completely crackers over games and such marathons are hardly unknown there.
This reminds me of a notorious exchange Groucho Marx had with a female contestant on You Bet Your Life:
Groucho: So, you got any kids? Female Contestant: Yes, Groucho, I have eleven children. Groucho: Eleven?! Did you say eleven kids? Female Contestant: Well, I love my husband. Groucho: Lady, I love my cigar but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.
/jack in Marin County now, in the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais. A less fragnentary, and perhaps more normal blog will begin Tuesday, on my return from vacation... ---o0o---
In June, an amateur photographer flying over the Himalayas, caught these two "dragons" in a picture. He called these two objects "the Tibet dragons." Indeed, these figures do appear to have scales, tapering tails, and that undulating roll we associate with dinosaurs and dragons. They seem to have caused the same uproar in China that Madonnas on pizzas, Jesus with stigmata on concrete, and the famous Jesus tortilla sold on eBay have caused here and elsewhere in the west. It also appears to have (re)opened the debate on whether dragons ever existed. ---o0o---
Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British war
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain't marchin' anymore
For I've killed my share of Indians
In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn
I heard many men lying I saw many more dying
But I ain't marchin' anymore
(chorus)
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
For I stole California from the Mexican land
Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even killed my brothers
And so many others But I ain't marchin' anymore
For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain't marchin' anymore
(chorus)
For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning I knew that I was learning
That I ain't marchin' anymore
Now the labor leader's screamin'
when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore,
Call it "Peace" or call it "Treason,"
Call it "Love" or call it "Reason,"
But I ain't marchin' any more,
No I ain't marchin' any more
So, browse through those archives. Jack is in Northern California, in Redwood country, in Laytonville (where I visited Wavy Gravy's Camp Winnarainbow, and had a brief chat with the legendary humanist clown ("always a clown; nobody's fool").
We also visited Bodega, the town where Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed. Del and Melanie got all 15 cousins to re-enact the schoolhouse scene--at the schoolhouse, and filmed it on their digital cameras for use in an upcoming production...
I haven't spent a lot of time in wine country and the Sonoma coast since we lived here while attending San Francisco State and law school in Berkeley. It's as great as I remembered it.
I will write in detail when I am not tethered to a dial up, or a flaky wi-fi connecytion. I also am remembering why I dislike laptops.
But it's time to unhook from this cyber harness and get to the business of swimming and hiking.
Senators Kerry, Frist, Clinton, Edwards, Bayh, Biden & McCain, The Reverend Al Sharpton, Governors Romney and Bush, Former Governor Racicot, Former Mayor Giuliani.
