May 1, 2010
Environment, Good Works, Internet, Outdoors, Photography, Travel
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Every now and then there are websites worthy of note. Such is NH Mountain Hiking (http://www.nhmountainhiking.com/) produced here in NH. The man behind this grand endeavor is one Fred Shirley who happens to be my old scoutmaster from the 1970’s.
Fred has lead an exemplary life, raising a great brood of fine children, giving of his time for community (getting the moniker Saint Fred), and working loyally (in our country’s defense) for Sanders for many decades.
Now retired Fred has combined passions of hiking, photography, and community service with his website.
I have had bad experiences with hiking in the past—but never under Fred’s tutelage. I look forward to joining a hike with Fred. He was calm, deliberate, and responsible back in the 1970’s. He can only have “improved” with age.
Please check out the website and enjoy!!!
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.
January 9, 2010
Food, Travel
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Back in the 1960’s I was growing up and found the flavors (and decor) of Chinese restaurants to be exotic and alluring. On April 10, 1983 I went on a “field trip” from UNH for a Japanese language class. We went to Midori in Amherst on a wet and rainy Saturday. Midori ,at the time, was the one and only Japanese restaurant in NH (Manchester had even banned raw fish!). From that point I was “hooked” into sushi–fresh, tasty, and at the time inexpensive. Since then I have had sushi and sashimi in the states, Costa Rica, Canada, Japan, and China.
Below and in the future, I will relate my sushi travels on the blog.
Midori: The first, the best, the classic. Run by Mr and Mrs Lee (He Chinese, She Japanese) from 1980 to 2000, the food was always fresh and ALWAYS open. The portions were grand and meals included (gratis):
Salad with ginger dressing
Soybean salad with sesame seeds and soy sauce
Octopus salad with raw octopus pieces, cucumbers and soy sauce
Miso Soup
Rice Crackers
Frpm 1997-2000 I was there almost every Sunday night. Ran into the Morses from Hillsborough there. The Lee’s helped me with a bi-lingual business card. The Lee’s retired in 2000 and moved to Florida. Mrs. Lee soon after died of cancer and Mr. Lee movied back here and set up a restaurant in Brookline. I once tried to find it—but to no avail.
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,
