Friday, December 15, 2006

Lucky seven legged deer - killed by hunter

I used to worry about getting chronic wasting disease from deer and having my own body eat holes in my brain a la mad cow disease, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Spongiform encephalopathy, it's not just for cows anymore. Now I need to fear the combination of industrial chemicals, environmental disruption, biorhythm upset, or nanotechnology runaway that has produced the 7 legged hermaphroditic deer recently killed (and eaten!) in Wisconsin.

The "lucky" hunter appears to have eaten one to many of these things.

I for one would like to be the first to welcome our new septopedal hermaphroditic deer overlords.

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Cycle of the seasons

Travel to the southern hemisphere has left me with season lag - as they move from beautiful spring toward languid summer, I must return to the beginning of winter. That is why exploding aardvark's poem quotation has such resonance for me as I wait for Spring.
"Lilacs, forsythia, apple blossoms:
their pleasure consists less
in their being there than in our sense
of their seasonal recurrence,
There is no such reassurance
in the regularities of the planets,
even our own, but the first crocus
under a familiar tree, that's something
that gives the simplest soul
an identity worth having:"
- excerpted from "Homes, Prisons, and Hotels: The Geography of Private Life for Jose Padilla and his torturers" by Tom Disch

Disch's poem goes on to contrast this cycle with the probably unlawful imprisonment of Jose Padilla (even criminals, especially criminals, have habeas corpus rights). A prisoner is prohibited from the simple experience described at the beginning of the poem. Evil must be confronted in this life, and many are doing so in this case. At least give these people a trial.

Right now, I prefer to focus on the deep feeling of time and the random tossing of fate ( as expressed by not having reassurance in even the regularity of our own planets) that Disch expresses so well in these first lines of his work.

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Birth and death in the skies above.

I consider myself lucky that in 15,000 miles of plane flight crammed into a short time, I encountered none of the difficulties of the two trips below. The serendipity of these items begs their juxtaposition.

First class passengers on a British Airways flight had to share their cabin with a man who passed away during the flight. The grieving widow sat with the body, and it sound like the flight attendants tried to cover up the body to provide some decorum, but this would have really freaked me out.

But even as all things die there is new life. Another story reported the birth of a child on a flight from Mexico to the Chicago. Luckily there was an OB/GYN on the flight. The baby is doing fine.

Only one observation to make here -

Circle of life.

tags: , , airplane, travel

Bellas Artes alive and well in Santiago

As is usual when we travel to foreign capitals, we visited the Chilean National Art Museum in Santiago (this visit was on November 17th). The "Museo de Bellas Artes" wasn't as large as in some cities but it was very enjoyable and had a good and appropriate focus on some South American artists.


The statue out front says "Unidos en la gloria y en la muerte" - "United in glory and in death",







very dramatic.









Here I am appreciating art, just before we were told no flash photography. Lucky my trusty Treo, though crappy, is a lot less conspicuous and is perfect for secret, though crappy, museum photos.







I like a little irony in my art. For instance, the piece depicted above by Alexandro Reid entitled "Maquina Burocratica" is an engine of people carved in immovable wood. I believe this reflects what good bureaucracies, governments and congresses do. Usually the only thing worse than when they do nothing is when they do something.

These pieces were part of a modern art exhibit in the first large hall of the museum. A picture of the horse head sculpture is required as it ties into the trip theme with horse back riding part of the vacation on Easter Island.





This sculpture is just creepy yet interesting.












The large puffy horse sculpture behind the museum is simply called Caballo (by Fernando Botero). Unfortunately it is covered in graffiti. Perhaps we should think of it as public participatory art, or art on art. Caballo is one of many similar sculpture and paintings throughout the world.

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Even the southern hemisphere celebrates Christmas

While we were in Santiago (Nov 15th) , workers in the center of town were setting up their Christmas decorations. They were in the process of building what looked to be a huge Christmas tree. The customs are strange down there, though, they appear to hang teamsters from the tree to celebrate the season.





When I say the square in the middle of the town, I really mean the middle of the whole country. And they have a kilometer zero marker to define it. The country is measured from that mark.




Appropriately they also have a statue of Pedro de Valdivia, the founder of Santiago and first royal governor of Chile, in the same square. After a glorious career he was eventually captured during a battle with the indigenous peoples and they executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat to satisfy his thirst for treasures, eek!

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It's a long way to Easter Island from here.

On the way out to Easter Island from Philadelphia we had a number of stops.

Philadelphia to Miami - 1021 miles
Miami to Bogata, Colombia (we did NOT get off the plane there) - 1519 miles
Bogata to Santiago, Chile - 2637 miles
Santiago to Easter Island - 2337 miles

On the way home we went straight from Santiago to Miami - 4136 miles.

So we went 7514 miles out and 7495 miles in. Over 15,000 miles for our honeymoon trip.


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Sunday, December 03, 2006

Fences, gates and ingenuity on Easter Island

This one is for the Virtual Ranger. We found much ingenuity in the use of materials on Easter Island. Everything must be shipped in from the mainland (2000 miles away) with the consequent markup in cost, so they try to get all of the use they can.
I wonder if the Virtual Ranger can tell me if this gate is hung correctly (hinges on the right).

Note the use of inexpensive eucalyptus tree branches from the island, even as hinges.





Another part of the wall had a gate made of an old bed frame. You should clearly be able to see the rusty springs that give away the provenance of this piece.




Other folks use a lock to hold the toilet paper holder closed, on Easter Island a simple twist of wire will do.




Even the hotel we stayed in right before and after the horse back riding portion of the trip didn't waste money on fancy materials when simple particle board with varnish would do. You can even see the green dye that marks the edge.

Kudos to the Easter Islanders for their ingenuity and reuse of materials.


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Thursday, November 30, 2006

I am a voracious reader who defies classification...

... but I took this quiz anyway (thanks Exploding Aardvark)
Your Result: Dedicated Reader

You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
What Kind of Reader Are You?


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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Back from faraway lands

We are back from our travels. Can you guess where we went?

First comment who figures it out gets bragging rights.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Honeymoon Accomodations

Philadelphia flights were delayed on Monday night due to rain and wind direction. Surprise, surprise. Thus we missed our critical flight to Santiago.

Should we get a room for the night or wait in the Miami airport for 6 hours. You make the call.