Zathras' Great Machine

I take it you had to do the "two hand, twenty bags" thing carrying stuff back from the grocery store.

I used to have to do that in Brat. It WAS SO FUCKIN' PAINFUL. I would get welts on my fingers after carrying all those bags for about a mile.

In 2 yrs, no one stopped to give me a ride except for my old friend Sam Sandes and my ex-poetry teach. Wyn Cooper - wonder whatever happened to 'em . . .

Yes, the grocery-hauling thing was exactly what I had to do. In Bratt, this wasn't too bad, since it was only a two-block walk from the Brattleboro Food Co-op to my apartment (with my office right between the two, yet). Here in Silver Spring, though, it's a serious hassle.

Wyn Cooper? He's probably still off somewhere shooting his mouth off about that damn Sheryl Crow song.

You were lucky - I had to take my groceries back to my apt. which was at least a mile away...ugh.

It's real torture, just hearing THAT SONG on the radio. Whether I'm in a gas station in Poughkipsee (sp.), or at a rest stop in Burlington, real torture . . .

Now, Wyn's a nice guy. It was just all that PR THAT SCHOOL did . . . when me and Anna were in poetry workshop class and had all these cameras and reporters. Real hell. I can kinda see why he never wrote any song again . . .

"after all, it's such a hot tourist spot *cough cough*"

You laugh because you just don't realize what's in this area! I live at the edge of a major tourist mecca (thankfully at the edge and not *in* it!)

http://www.nps.gov/yell/home.htm
http://www.yellowstonebearworld.com/
http://www.nps.gov/crmo/
http://www.lavahotsprings.com/
http://www.f45.com/html/2002/1.html

Of course if the glories of unspoiled nature and all that shite aren't appealing to you, then no, it's not a very impressive place. You know, if you don't like jagged snow-capped mountains, pine forests full of wild caribou, mule deer, mountain lions and bears, towering geysers, mysterious lava tubes so big you could drive a car through them (if the tires would take it, that is), natural hot springs, Shoshone full-garbed pow wows, giant herds of thundering buffalo ... well, if you don't like that kind of stuff then there's nothing here. Move along, nothing to see. Thank you, drive through.

There's always the more kitschy tourist side of things, too. The World Potato Expo (featuring the world's largest potato chip and the world's loargest concrete potato), the birthplace of television (boyhood home of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of television), atomic city (home of the world's first nuclear power plant, Experimental Breeder Reactor 1. There are picnic tables set out around the base of the big reactor tower thingie.) (Idaho has always been a high-tech place. The town I live in is a major mecca for engineers, physicists, programmers and so on. Lots of scientists and geekly entertainment. We also have one of the FBI centers so there're a lot of G-men around, adding their brand of ... um... interesting-ness to the local culture), the Shoshone ice caves (with their giant plastic dinosaurs and cavemen left over from the 1950s), Evel Kneivel's snake river jump spot (the ramp is still there), and, of course, one of the nation's Giant Fiberglass Women! (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/unigal.html)

So laugh all you want. :-) It's an inordinately strange and silly place, but to mock this area as a tourist spot is only to show one's ignorance of U.S. geography. (Where did you *think* Yellowstone was?)

Better Idaho than Baltimore . . .

I grew up in the same are Parrish now lives (balt-d.c. metro area). After awhile the place suffocates you...

"It's an inordinately strange and silly place, but to mock this area as a tourist spot is only to show one's ignorance of U.S. geography."

Well, keep in mind, Parrish mocks anywhere he doesn't live. One of the first things I remember from our friendship, and among the most persistent, is wide variety of ways he can find to sneer at California. In fact, his nickname for me from early on was "Friscrone" -- part to poke fun at "Frisco" (supposed to be a very insulting name for the city) and part because he used a French term that *to this day* comes up in translation engines as "crone" or "old woman."

Lighten up, you guys. *grin*

Sparrow, regardless of the history and geography of the area, you have to admit that Idaho is *not* a hot tourist spot. After all, when's the last time you heard a family say, "Hey, kids! It's time for our Summer vacation! Where do you want to go?! How about... Idaho!" I've never heard of it happening... maybe you do, since you live there...

Moggy, remember that when you and I first met, my main perseveration at the time was Second Amendment activism, so it's hardly surprising that I'd be scornful of California at the time. That state has some of the worst gun laws in the nation, after all.

Finally, it's not true that I sneer just at places I don't live. I was born and raised in Honolulu, for example, and I hold that place in *extremely* high contempt, as you know (much worse than California, btw). I'm also currently living in Maryland, and I have no special love for this place, either.

As to "ma vieille" coming up as "my crone" or "old woman" or whatever in the translators... well, I don't know. I wouldn't trust those things any further than I could spit a rat. *grin* All I know is, when I was starting to study French in seventh grade, "ma vieille" was presented in my textbook as a colloquialism that meant, roughly translated, "good buddy" or "old chum" or something like that (addressed only to a female... to a male, the equivalent was "mon vieux").

"Sparrow, regardless of the history and geography of the area, you have to admit that Idaho is *not* a hot tourist spot."

Gods don't I WISH! I live smack between Yellowstone and Salt Lake City and in the Summertime the population here would halve if we could get rid of the darned tourists.

"All I know is, when I was starting to study French in seventh grade, "ma vieille" was presented in my textbook as a colloquialism that meant, roughly translated, "good buddy" or "old chum" or something like that (addressed only to a female... to a male, the equivalent was "mon vieux")."

Yes and Yes. It *does* mean literally "old woman" but it's not insulting. It's kind of like Jay Gatsby calling everyone "old sport" in "The Great Gatsby." It's a turn of phrase that has a slightly different shade of meaning than it's literal translation, like calling someone "mon petit chou" (don't remember if I'm spelling that correctly) doesn't mean you *literally* think they're a cabbage - it's a turn of phrase that means they're dear to you.

"Old woman!"

"Man!"

"What?"

"Man!"

"Oh. Sorry. Who lives in that castle?"

"I'm thirty-seven."

"What?"

"I'm thirty-seven, I'm not 'old'..."

"Well, I can't just call you 'man'."

Zathras said:
"Lighten up, you guys. *grin*"

I'm sorry, no offense intended. :(

Zathras adds:
"to a male, the equivalent was "mon vieux""

Which, according to babelfish.altavista.com means "my old man." You're not old yet. *grin*

Sparrow commented:
"Gods don't I WISH! I live smack between Yellowstone and Salt Lake City and in the Summertime the population here would halve if we could get rid of the darned tourists."

I know what that's like! Petaluma is the only city here with a downtown that survived the great 1906 earthquake, so it attracts film crews and a lot of tourists that stop here for lunch & antique shopping while visiting wineries. We're also the last stop before some very popular surfing spots, so the surfers & beach-lovers all come through...

Was just bored and thought I would post