Stuck between two countries in a fire

[sovay]

Today I have discovered the existence of the following things:

1. A moving mud pot in southern California which has been heading toward the Salton Sea at a leisurely rate since 1953 and a much less leisurely one since 2016. So far it has proven a pain in the ass to the Union Pacific Railroad, California State Route 111, the Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline, Verizon, and AT&T. I had no idea that mud pots moved, much less that they behaved like radioactive megafauna in 1950's B-movies. I feel I should have had this situation explained to me by Hans Conried.

2. Asphalt volcanoes! Does exactly what it says on the tin, only underwater. I have loved hydrothermal vents all my life and had no idea these had been discovered in 2003.

3. Peter Falk's Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life (2006). "[A]nd, uh . . . finally let me say that in the history of the CIA you're the first and only applicant that has a past that includes helping Marshall Tito build a railroad. So, uh . . . in all candor, Peter, you not only cannot work for the CIA, you cannot work anywhere in Washington." spatch and I are resolved to acquire a copy. We were also slightly reminded of the diaries of Aaron Burr.

4. Florence Crannell Means' The Moved-Outers (1945): a children's novel about the relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans written and published while the camps were still in operation. I feel as though I should have read it in elementary school, but none of the characters' names ring even corroded bells; I think what I read was the later novel cited in the article, Yoshiko Uchida's Journey to Topaz (1971).

5. Barbara Smith's "Lucifer Takes a Break." I am indifferent to the analysis, but I like the photo chosen to accompany the poem.

It was too hot to think about eating for almost all of the day, yet I am incapable of shifting this small sleeping furnace of a cat off my lap. May it count in my favor in the next life, after I have melted in this one.

Comments

[gwynnega]

I did not know about that Peter Falk book! If that quote is any indication, it must be wonderful.

[sovay]

I did not know about that Peter Falk book! If that quote is any indication, it must be wonderful.

All excerpts in that Twitter thread are gold. "With nowhere to turn, I was hired as an efficiency expert by the Budget Bureau of the State of Connecticut."

[moon_custafer]

We were also slightly reminded of the diaries of Aaron Burr.

I can’t *quite* see Falk attempting to light a candle with ammo, if only due to an abundance of caution for his remaining eye.

[sovay]

I can’t *quite* see Falk attempting to light a candle with ammo, if only due to an abundance of caution for his remaining eye.

Counterpoint:

"Recently I went to a party Dabney Coleman was throwing for his daughter, who had just got married. Well, a guy there took out a Cuban cigar and handed it to me. I thanked him and eagerly lit it up. I was so eager I didn't even bother to get out my cigarette lighter. I just grabbed the candle on the table where my wife and I were sitting and used that. Well, the first couple of puffs were heaven. And then suddenly the whole 25-buck cigar went up in flames that got bigger and bigger. I said, 'What is this—Halloween?' I thought it was a trick someone was playing on me. I nearly burnt the joint down before I could put it out. At that point I couldn't see what was so great about a Cuban cigar. And then it dawned on me what had happened. I'd gotten wax from the candle all over the cigar when I was lighting it. That's what turned it into an incendiary missile from Havana."

—Arthur Marx, "Talk with Falk" (1997)

[moon_custafer]

o_o

I stand corrected.

[isis]

I'm fascinated by this weird geology!

[sovay]

I'm fascinated by this weird geology!

It makes me so happy! I feel better about the world knowing there are tar pits at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

[asakiyume]

Wow, mud pots and asphalt volcanoes! These are great--well, the mud pot is a little alarming for infrastructure and transportation of goods, but still, one likes a natural phenomenon that won't be bossed around. And the asphalt volcanoes! I had no idea asphalt could occur naturally--I thought it was a man-made invention. I mean next you'll be telling me there are nylon volcanoes.

[sovay]

Wow, mud pots and asphalt volcanoes! These are great--well, the mud pot is a little alarming for infrastructure and transportation of goods, but still, one likes a natural phenomenon that won't be bossed around.

It knows where it's going!

And the asphalt volcanoes! I had no idea asphalt could occur naturally--I thought it was a man-made invention. I mean next you'll be telling me there are nylon volcanoes.

Asphalt is naturally occurring when it's the same stuff as bitumen as opposed to the same stuff as tarmac (asphalt concrete). I also think of asphalt first in terms of roadways rather than the La Brea Tar Pits, so I'm not sure where the double usage comes from. [edit] According to Wikipedia, it looks like a highly confusing British/American English thing. I had no idea. All my vocabulary associations with bitumen were fixed early by reading about mummies.

(I love the idea of the nylon volcano. My brain thinks that when it goes off, it looks like an industrial accident in a Silly String factory.)

[asakiyume]

Holy cow, that is one amazing usage note. Same English language, wildly varying applications.

[a_reasonable_man]

There's a video on the moving mud pot from one of my favorite YouTubers, Physics Girl: https://youtu.be/Ek1buV2HA68

[sovay]

There's a video on the moving mud pot from one of my favorite YouTubers, Physics Girl

Is this the same person you linked me to who did the fluid mechanics of the molasses flood?

[a_reasonable_man]

Different science communicators! That was Nicole Sharp, a specialist in fluid dynamics and founder of the website FYFD, whom I met through the Igs. This video is by Dianna Cowern, who was a physics major at MIT, and founder of the Physics Girl YouTube channel.

[a_reasonable_man]

Different science communicators! That was Nicole Sharp, a specialist in fluid dynamics and founder of the website FYFD, whom I met through the Igs. This video is by Dianna Cowern, who was a physics major at MIT, and founder of the Physics Girl YouTube channel.

[muccamukk]

Nenya: Helping build a railroad in Yugoslavia was probably a better use of his time than working for the CIA anyway.

[sovay]

Nenya: Helping build a railroad in Yugoslavia was probably a better use of his time than working for the CIA anyway.

No argument. Although knowing that Falk applied for a job with the CIA and was hilariously rejected makes all his scenes in The In-Laws (1979) meta-funnier.

[anna_wing]

I agree, I need a copy of Falk's memoirs.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/indonesia-sidoarjo-mud-flow-15-years-methane-odour-volcanoes-14895936

[sovay]

I agree, I need a copy of Falk's memoirs.

I am delighted to spread the word.

The Sidoarjo mud flow is horrifying.

[asakiyume]

Wow: fascinating/sobering--and that news source is great, I went on to look at another article--thank you!

[sasha_feather]

The moving mud pot is fascinating, thank you for linking that!

[sovay]

The moving mud pot is fascinating, thank you for linking that!

You're welcome!

[thanate]

After realizing the mudpot article was two years out of date, I went on a brief wiki jaunt, and discovered that it has passed the railroad, the highway is busy mitigating, and it has somehow acquired the rather inaccurate name of Niland Geyser Fascinating!

[sovay]

and discovered that it has passed the railroad, the highway is busy mitigating, and it has somehow acquired the rather inaccurate name of Niland Geyser Fascinating!

I actually discovered it first under the name of the Niland Geyser, whereupon my immediate reaction was "They have geysers in California?" and then I found out the rest of the story.

[nnozomi]

Florence Crannell Means' The Moved-Outers (1945): a children's novel about the relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans written and published while the camps were still in operation.
Based on the character names, I remember skimming through this in a bookstore at some point. I'm pretty sure I remember it as carefully researched (presumably meaning, at that point, reading newspaper articles, actually talking to people etc.) and a little didactic in that solemn way of the time, but it apparently did not grip me enough to take it home and reread it. Yoshiko Uchida's Journey to Topaz and Journey Home stuck with me more, as you say (the difference between "writing a story about an awful thing that happened" and "writing a story about people who, among other experiences, went through awful things"?).
(Also I don't know if you know me, I hope you won't mind the random comment.)

[sovay]

Yoshiko Uchida's Journey to Topaz and Journey Home stuck with me more, as you say (the difference between "writing a story about an awful thing that happened" and "writing a story about people who, among other experiences, went through awful things"?).

That's a good distinction. I imagine the telling from the inside helps with the latter, too. I was just fascinated that there was a children's book addressing the subject at all while it was going on. I would have expected historical novels about a generation later, not fiction from the headlines at the time.

(Also I don't know if you know me, I hope you won't mind the random comment.)

(I don't mind at all! I believe we have interacted slightly before or at least existed in adjacent comment threads.)