March 6, 2010
Commentary, Geography, Outdoors, Travel
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Prediction here. Come April 2010, the weather in the northern hemisphere will warm in a ramped up way. The Gulf Stream will tie in with the Jet Stream. By May it will be in the 80’s in Greenland where recent earthquake activity has shifted the world magnetism under Greenland. A new low sits over Greenland–pounding it with twice daily “tropical” storms (due to long day lengths). All summer long the heat sucked off continental USA gets pumped up the Gulf Stream and fed into the endless low above Greenland. Lots of warm rain and brilliant sun turn the Greenland ice cap into mush. The ocean waters rise, but a portion of the ice cap remain. The global warming nayseyers get strangely silent—a dumb silence. Putting tonnes of auto exhaust daily into the air eventually reaches a saturation point. Putting lots of people within the sound of the surf leads to problems if the saturation point is pushed.
Winter returns in the north pole, but summers lengthen as the ice melts.
October 11, 2009
Geography, Lists, Travel
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Traveling overseas in spurts, I have seen some of the world’s sites. This list is my biased opinion on places that left some memories.
Blue Bunny Tiffin Stall
Chinna Waltair Andhra Padesh India
Food stalls in India are often called Tiffin Stalls. They vary from stick covered huts to tiled, a/ced place with electricity and running water. In Vizag, there was and may still be a place made of hammered shipping crates, siting a mere dozen where cooking was done over a fire and washing of steel plates was done by hand. It became the am hangout for University of Wisconsin students in 1986-1987. The owner wore a lungi that had dancing psychedelic blue bunnies on it (hence the name). It was also where the Muslim motorized rickshaw drivers got their tiffin (and a great view of downtown Chinna Waltair).
Great Wall of China
Beijing China
You can’t miss it or mistake it. It is superlative on so many levels. I only saw a small length of it and that was enough to get my approval. Well worth going to–where awesome engineering and boundless history cubby up.
Taj Mahal
Agra India
Another masterpiece of Asia, though more sublime and delicate than the Great Wall, Up close or at a distance, it is art and architecture in perfect harmony and perfection. Hell of a tombstone, a wonder of the world, and again worth going to see, feel, and be a part of.
Stonehenge
Salisbury Plain England
I was there shortly before it was closed off by fencing. You can still see it. But I was able to touch it and be up close. Druids or not, the place has appeal for the ones who sweated the boulders into place and built perhaps one of the earliest tourists traps in history.
Tianamen Square
Beijing China
Another score for China. They do things big, more like supersize. Although a “square” it is no rinky-dink Boston Common. It is the definition of the word HUGE. The Hall of the People’s Assembly is on one part of one side and that again is a case of size matters.
Forbidden City
Beijing China
Royalty can be very royal in this case. A near neighbor to Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City is a vast spectacle of columns, buildings, and gardens, a “housing perk” for the divine to live among the mortal. Tour groups from all over the country and world overrun the place. It is literally follow the flag as getting lost can be a major hassle.
Muslim Quarter
Xian China
Another place where getting lost is easy is the city of Xian. It was a booming metropolis when I visited it in 2000. I can’t imagine how big it is now (ditto for Beijing). The Muslim Quarter is the old part of town, and I don’t mean Chaing Kai-Chek. This was the “eastern terminus” for the Silk Road, the superhighway to the late B.C. era. Here was where history began and Xian was where faint echos of far away lands were heard. Trade has changed and yet remained the same. Lamb skewers cook on fiery grills like for thousands of years. Smoke and spice, heat and dust mingle in the air. This is the edge of Central Asia. Come see brave explorer, breathe the incense and the opiate wind, hear the bells and the hawkers cry, watch for the shadows, for those that watch you, do so with one eye.
Benares
Uttar Pradesh India
Benares or Varanasi, it is a city of the living dead. Thousands of Hindu temples, plus innumerable other holy sites, including Buddhist Saranath on its outskirts. Built along the sacred Ganges River, Benares sweats, sticky, humid, rotting yet filled with bright flowers and clothes, chai with coriander and chapati and beggars. It appeared briefly in Octopussy (James Bond), but is best experienced first hand. The city makes the rest of India look modern. But what of a city that was 1000 years old when Jesus did his study abroad? Count Benares as one of the world’s holy cities.
Bahia
Uvita Costa Rica
I did my Peace Corps service here. It was a beach resort without the “resort”. No electricity, no running water, no paved roads or bridges. It was primitive, the jungle was not that distant in time or place. Yet it was peaceful and beautiful, a luxury of healthy living without the carcinogenic accouterments of today. Of course sharks, crocs, poisonous and dangerous plants and animals were a constant–but so were earthquakes and a long, long monsoon season. Today it is all high tech and modern. Such is progress,
September 6, 2009
Geography, Lists
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As a kid I got to travel a fair amount. As an adult I traveled too. Among the places I have seen I have compiled a list of Memorable Places USA
Greeley Park (Nashua, NH): It was mybackyard’s backyard, literally out my backdoor. A city park it stretched from Manchester to the railroad tracks. There were tennis courts, ball fields, pools, slides, and outdoor gym equipment including some very serious swings. The toilets were in a stone fortress (where many a wedding took place). There were fields and woodlands, ice cream trucks and special events. Few things were’nt done there (from the sublume to the foolish). From weed to adult mags, to used sterno and lost frisbees, one never knew what could be found there. God bless the Drunken Bugle Corps and all who wail on her.
St. Croix River (Maine/New Brunswick border): This goes back to summer of 80 or 81. My brother had taken a two week canoe trip with Maine Wilderness and had a great time. I naturally followed the next year. But instead of sun and fun I got cold, wet rain, day after dreary day. With the movie Deliverance on my mind I went deeper into the Maine wilderness. I did not get along with my fellow travelers. The blueberry pancake mix had artifical blueberries (in Maine!!!!!!!), and yeah I got dunked into the chilly Croix. The worst and most memorable was getting shot at from the Maine side by some nut jobs. Not only was I now a member of the Spent Cartridge Club, but I was convinced I would never see NH again.
Camp Coniston (Grantham, NH): God’s gift to the YMCA. A family icon since the late 60’s, Coniston was and is a playground and a garden of Eden for the pure, wholesome growth of kids to adults.
LAX (Los Angeles, California): Yeah an international airport. Take-off point for two trips to Asia and site for a most restless overnight, I appreciate it for what it was and why its there. Life was sure different pre-9/11. Spend a night camped out in the International Terminal. I don’t think so–but then again I have not checked “Airport Camping” since before 9/11.
Dinosaur World (Eureka Springs, Ark): Home also to a 200 foot Jesus, the cement jurassics were more to my liking. Back in thw 70’s my Dad and Grandma took me to this park where half a dozen life size and painted giants dotted the landscape. Cool, real cool. Prett tame by today’s snooty standards. School chums thought I must be have been working the sterno. But nope. No dope.
Farragut North (Washington, DC): Great a Metro stop. How profound. Well back in the summer of 83 it was where the day began and ended. I was a fresh faced, naive knitwit from NH “interning” on Capitol Hill. Despite a flawless character, I was more of a drag then an asset. I pined for lost love and to this Farragut North was the summer’s epicenter for the good, bad, and unforgettable of the Summer of 1983.
Union Building (Madison, Wisconsin): Summer of 1986. UNH was past tense. India lay ahead. And Madison lay between. Living (and learning) in the nation’s heartland I loved the Union Building for beer, brats, popcorn, and pop rock. I may not have quite mastered Telugu, but I got a good dose of CSN & Y and Bucky Badger yogurt.
U Wisconsin Madison Library (Madison, Wisconsin): Site of the most serendipidous event yet recorded. I only went there once, but obce was enough. I ran into one Ramesh Polisetty. He had just graduated from UWM and was starting a job soon in Nashua, NH, my hometown. I had just been graduated and after Madsion I was headed to Vizakhapatnam his “hometown” (his dad was in the railroad business so he moved often). Once we got over the mutual incredolouslessness, we decided to plan on meeting each other’s family. So it was and so it became. And to this day we are still friends.
Coca-Cola Museum (Atlanta, GA): If ever there was a temple to commerce this place gets my vote. Not only is the process and history laid out, but there is a tandem room for sampling the elixir. Cripes did I drink myself silly. My host Cody can attest to my “altered state”. If the South ever wants a rematch om the Civil War, I know who will win in the soda refreshments category. Not that I am a pimp for corporate America, but CC puts on a good show.
Andover Inn (Andover, MA): Mein Got! What a spread. Went there for a wedding (David/Carolynn) and left with a whole new attitude. This locale has a claim to fame that puts other to shame. Andover Inn is the only place in New England that serves rijstafel. Rijstafel is an Indo-Dutch buffet that defies the senses. Course after course comes coursing thru. Beer and rice are the pillars between which they run. Hot, spicy, sweet, cool, tender, hard, tart, tangy. That is rijstafel and only (I mean ONLY) at the Andover Inn. Rijstafel may not be for the meat and potato crowd.
POW Museum (Sumter, GA): Pretty sober place. I visited it soon after opening. Hometown targeted history museum where we see how our boys and girls suffered under the care of our enemies. Most powerful peice was the stockade for Andersonville. Life was tough as a rule back then. But add cruel imprisonment and uckkk!
Memorial Field (Hanover, NH): Where Dartmouth football plys its trade. Since I was a little one, the family ventured there to see Dad’s college team go at it. Back in the day we’d tailgate. And there was the post game party. We’d take our seats in the “balcony” section where fall in the Upper Valley was to be marveled at. To this day, we of the Johnson Horton clan make the journey.
Golden Dragon/Kahala (Nashua, NH): The Dragon was the original “Chinese” restaurant in my eyes. It was the only place downtown I could get a PuPu Platter. It was also were I saw my first bar fight and got propositioned by a whore. The Dragon is timeless.
The Kahala was the standard “family” Chinese restaurant in 1970’s/80’s Nashua. Mai Tai, Moo Shoo, and Dragon Lady crept into the vocabulary because of the Kahala.
Spring Street Junior High (Nashua, NH): Yes there was Mt. Prison (Mount Pleasant) Elementary School. But Spring Street (aka was truly the melting pot of Nashua youth. We were tough, sophisticated, and squeezed between a funeral home and a post office (and fronting a Catholic Church). We were cool and hip and ate our lunchs in a basement bomb shelter. We had a tunnel to link the two buildings (Quincy and Spring Street or Main). Our teachers went by the names of Crawford, Dube, Sinkavich, Axton, and Minichiello. We were right downtown with Super Sub, Crosby’s Bakery, and The Library within easy reach. It was a big jump to cross the Nashua river from the wealthy North End. They tore the place down, every stinkin brick.
Every stinkin brick.
Honorable Mentions:
Alex Shoes, Wingate Pharmacy, King Ridge Ski Area, Indian Head Ski Area, Blanchard Hill Ski Area, Portland Harbor, Martha’s Vinyard, James Hall, Camp Sargent, Nashua Country Club, Nashua Mall, Royal Ridge Mall,
September 1, 2009
Commentary, Environment, Geography, Outdoors
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September 1st. 2009. The morning air is clear and cool. Not quite frosty, but gone is the steamy mornings of August. Ahh “fall”, before the winter storms, before ice and snow and cold, cold, cold. Spring came late. Summer was a wash. Let’s hope that fall gradually reaches into winter. Wish you (Fall) go nice on us in the and on the frost belt. At least make the leaves pretty.
