miscellanea
Sep. 20th, 2014 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac1. So on my trip up the coast, I had the time to do a little exploring, and went out through the redwood groves and over the mountains to the Mattole Valley, a deeply isolated little farming region. It opens out at the other end to the coast, where the road runs along the deserted beach for a few miles. There's no sand on the beach, just very very small gray rocks. Then the road heads up some precipitately steep, wind-swept, grass-covered cliffs and runs inland towards civilization.
2. Earlier on, I stopped at a used book store in the town of Willits that was quite worth the visit, and which instead of a store cat has a store dog: a beagle, I think, that likes to hover near the door but doesn't try to go outside. Dog lovers please note.
2a. My most immediately readable purchase was Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere by Christopher Hitchens, which I thought would be general essays on the role of writers in society, but which turned out instead to be largely a collection of Hitchens' book reviews, and which gets away with its title because the books Hitchens reviewed generally have some social or political import. Like many pundits, he's better at killer reviews than at praise, his best effort being a demolition of some hapless Washington novel that I'd never even heard of.
3. On the way out through the redwoods, I took the opportunity to check out the site of the derelict Hobbiton U.S.A. for the first time since before it closed up shop a decade or so ago. John Rateliff had reported it closed several years back, and here's my comments thereon. The remains of Bag End and Hobbiton, the first stop on this diorama stroll, are still visible from the roadside, but the pathways themselves have "Keep Out" signs which I did not care to violate. If you're curious, it's at the very south end of the Avenue of the Giants, south of Phillipsville, at the parking lot of the Chimney Tree Grill.
4. Further north, in the Yurok Indian Reservation, I stopped at a roadside stand and bought a package of genuine Yurok salmon jerky. As I later read in a book on native California that I'd got at the Redwood National Park visitor center, "genuine Indian jerky can usually be found only around Klamath, where the Yurok people and other locals produce a small amount for sale." It's rather moist, actually, less smoky than lox, and with tangy berry seasonings on top.
Stuff not from my trip
5. Here's the details on the voting for the Scottish Referendum by council districts. The peripheral parts of Scotland - the northern isles and the lands along the English border - were the most strongly against, while poorer areas in central Scotland were most strongly in favor. I expect they'd have been disappointed if they had got what they voted for.
6. The NFL. "It's America’s top forum for discussing issues of domestic violence. And I understand the employees also get together and play football on the weekends" - Stephen Colbert. Here's some statistics on its record of misbehavior. Turns out that San Francisco isn't even one of the 15 worst teams.
7. Didn't have the chance to mention this earlier, but I wrote a concert review. And also a preview of the season for the mid-peninsula.
8. And in the folk music department: It doesn't exactly achieve William Shatner levels of badness, although it tries; but William Shatner isn't considering running for President.
2. Earlier on, I stopped at a used book store in the town of Willits that was quite worth the visit, and which instead of a store cat has a store dog: a beagle, I think, that likes to hover near the door but doesn't try to go outside. Dog lovers please note.
2a. My most immediately readable purchase was Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere by Christopher Hitchens, which I thought would be general essays on the role of writers in society, but which turned out instead to be largely a collection of Hitchens' book reviews, and which gets away with its title because the books Hitchens reviewed generally have some social or political import. Like many pundits, he's better at killer reviews than at praise, his best effort being a demolition of some hapless Washington novel that I'd never even heard of.
3. On the way out through the redwoods, I took the opportunity to check out the site of the derelict Hobbiton U.S.A. for the first time since before it closed up shop a decade or so ago. John Rateliff had reported it closed several years back, and here's my comments thereon. The remains of Bag End and Hobbiton, the first stop on this diorama stroll, are still visible from the roadside, but the pathways themselves have "Keep Out" signs which I did not care to violate. If you're curious, it's at the very south end of the Avenue of the Giants, south of Phillipsville, at the parking lot of the Chimney Tree Grill.
4. Further north, in the Yurok Indian Reservation, I stopped at a roadside stand and bought a package of genuine Yurok salmon jerky. As I later read in a book on native California that I'd got at the Redwood National Park visitor center, "genuine Indian jerky can usually be found only around Klamath, where the Yurok people and other locals produce a small amount for sale." It's rather moist, actually, less smoky than lox, and with tangy berry seasonings on top.
Stuff not from my trip
5. Here's the details on the voting for the Scottish Referendum by council districts. The peripheral parts of Scotland - the northern isles and the lands along the English border - were the most strongly against, while poorer areas in central Scotland were most strongly in favor. I expect they'd have been disappointed if they had got what they voted for.
6. The NFL. "It's America’s top forum for discussing issues of domestic violence. And I understand the employees also get together and play football on the weekends" - Stephen Colbert. Here's some statistics on its record of misbehavior. Turns out that San Francisco isn't even one of the 15 worst teams.
7. Didn't have the chance to mention this earlier, but I wrote a concert review. And also a preview of the season for the mid-peninsula.
8. And in the folk music department: It doesn't exactly achieve William Shatner levels of badness, although it tries; but William Shatner isn't considering running for President.
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Date: 2014-09-20 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-20 07:33 pm (UTC)