Dogwalk Audio: Woodpecker on Streetlight
A minute of your time, please (literally). The other morning the dog and I heard a rapping, as of some bird roughly whacking, whacking his beak against… oh, well, the Edgar Allen Poe reference breaks down at this point. There was also a very opinionated crowd nearby.
See you in June
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That’s probably the next time you’ll see a post hereabouts. In the meantime, we’re packing like mad in anticipation of pulling up stakes and heading for Seattle. Thanks for everything Chicago, but it’s time to make westing.
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Photo above via laflaneuse who merits watching.
Berkeley Streetcar 1906
>A trip east on Hearst, from Oxford to Euclid. A trip I took many times myself when I lived up in the Berkeley Hills. The scuffle at about the 2:00 mark is particularly choice.
Adventures in Dogwalking
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The length of unshoveled sidewalk between us had been tromped into single-file trench. The other guy and his dog stood at the other end waving for Gordy and me to come on through. Back at my end of the trough, I was thinking about crossing the street, but Kenmore was looking pretty slushy and full of melty chemicals that are unfriendly to dog feet. So I took the other guy’s offer.
Gordy is in most respects an upstanding animal, but he does tend to lose his cool around other dogs, complete with the apeshit yapping and even the occasional throat lunge. We used to have a big dog, three times Gordy’s size, who thought this was a blast. Most people and dogs you meet out on the street are not so understanding.
So halfway through the trench, I scooped Gordy up and prepared my usual explanation: “This one’s a troublemaker,” or words to that effect. As we passed, the other guy’s dog rose up tentatively on its hind legs for a polite sniff, and I said something like, “Well, aren’t you a cutie,” because it was indeed a cute dog, a tawny mid-sized whippet-pinscher mix. I was about to turn and say thanks to the other guy when he erupted.
“You’re not even gonna say thank you? What an ASSHOLE!”
With that, he stomped off down the little snow ditch, yanking the whippet-pinscher mix behind him. The next words from me were the thanks he was apparently so in need of, but his reply was to yell, “Fuck you, man!”
Like the first thing he said, this came out sounding so wounded and plaintive and out of proportion that I was trying not to laugh when I called out another thanks and added a wish for a good evening. Still clomping away, the other guy hollered back another F bomb, adding his hope that Gordy would someday get hit by a car. I called back another wish for a good evening and closed with a “God bless!” that I’ll admit strayed into Jerry Lewis territory.
As Gordy and I went on up the street, I tried but failed to maintain any sense of offense as the whole business quickly transmuted into satire. Sure, my mind churned out the usual sarcastic things that tend to come to you after such an encounter, but it was also turning every “fuck” the other guy said into “flurg,” making it even more difficult not to laugh, because to me, “Flurg you, man!” is pretty fucking funny.
Of course, I still feel sorry for the other guy’s dog.
State Capitols: 20, 21, and 22
Checking Iowa off my list.
The day after my hope for America came off life support, C and I jumped in the car and drove more than a thousand miles through five states. This took several days and passed through two state capitals (Indianapolis, IN and Frankfort, KY). If we’d had a little more time and stamina, we could have made it to Columbia, SC, but oh well. A couple weeks later we hopped in the same car and drove to my dad’s house in South Dakota for an early Thanksgiving. We plotted the trip so as to pass through two more state capitals (Madison, WI and Des Moines, IA). In all four capitals, we stopped to have a look at each state’s capitol building. The slide show above is for your viewing pleasure, should you really care.
I mention this as a way of letting you know that I have a nerdy and indefensible goal of seeing all 50 state capitol buildings. This flurry of activity in November allowed me to check of numbers 20, 21 and 22 (I’d already visited Frankfort in 1998, but C had never been there and the building is limestone fabulous).
Here are the simple rules of this geeky quest:
- Driving through a state’s capital city doesn’t count. Physical proximity to the building itself is required. If it’s closed for any reason (after hours, holiday, fumigation, etc.), I still get credit.
- You can’t make a special trip just to see the capitol building.
I have a corollary goal of visiting all 50 states (current total 34), but I figure focusing on the capital buildings will take care of that.
>Subway ride 1905
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Beneath the streets of New York, going from 14th Street to 42nd. You’ll feel like you’re in a century-old tunnel for a while, but the payoff arrives just past 5:05.
>Can I get an amen?
>Overheard in Chicago: A man on his cell phone in a cafe.
“So you think that your praying got me fired? Well… that’s a god I want no part of.”
>The Annual Leaf Movie
Captured last week in Kentucky and North Carolina.
>Going the extra mile, radio style
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In my radio days, I’ve managed to keep my on-air composure while other people were making faces, mooning me, talking about lingerie and a host of other distractions. But my hat is off to the Greek dude in the video above. Still waiting for a translation of the parting remarks.
