Stuck between two countries in a fire
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."![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
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.
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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."
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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.
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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)
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I stand corrected.