Accident!

Yesterday we had a little accident.  Normally, thanks heavens, we don't think too much about such things but when it happens then you're very aware and grateful for the professionals who take care of our mistakes.

We set out on a ride - five of us on Harleys - to the flatlands.  We left about 10 a.m. when it was still chilly up here in the mountains.  After a stop for gas after 10 miles we journeyed on in single file.  About five miles later on I was aware that we were missing the three headlights I was used to seeing in my rear view mirror.  I usually ride number two.

I caught up with the leader and waited for the others.  There was no sign of Larry.  I went back to find him.  Sadly, yes, there was a hold up with the traffic and I caught sight of him walking around on the other side of the road.

He had for some reason ridden off the road and ended up in a steep little gully having fallen off totally.  He had a big bruise and blood over his eyebrow and also his hand was bleeding.  We tried unsuccessfully to drive his bike out of the gully but it was too far in.  The CHP arrived in a few minutes and a few more later the ambulance arrived.

As we were on a sharp bend and the others had arrived the CHP asked us to move a distance away.  It turned out that none of us knew Larry as he had just joined the ride hearing we were going.  But I walked back to see how he was getting on.  He was in the ambulance and having all the work done on him.  He was OK, just a bit banged up and I was so impressed with the way that the EMT's dealt with it all.  It's wonderful that such a service is available.  Our speeds when we finally left were probably 15% slower than earlier.

Cigarettes

We were in the check out line of the local supermarket the other day.  A young man was ahead of us and wanted to buy just a packet of cigarettes.  Now these items have become so loaded up with laws that it means an ID check from the checker and then she has to go to some locked cabinet and find the brand required.

It's been close to 30 years since I bought a packet of "fags," and I was amazed to hear that the cost was $6.21.  He had the six dollars but needed to swipe his card for the other 21 cents.  It occurred to me that it was such a shame that he was so broke that he was actually spending his last dollars on cigarettes.  But what do I know of his circumstances.

When he'd gone I asked the checker if that was really the price for a packet and she confirmed it was.  It seemed extremely expensive and I'm glad I'm not buying a couple of packs a day, which I'm afraid to admit I did back in my youth.
Expensive though it is however, one thing is true: The diseases are free!  What's that I hear you say: There's nothing as righteous as a reformed whore!

Jesus

On my first business trip to Spain, the very first customer I met was called Jesus.  It was even printed on his card.  He was the Jefe de Cerebro Electronico, which is what the Spanish were calling computers in those days.  "Computer" was too much like the word for whore, which is puta, so they used this rather quaint alternative - Chief of the Electronic Brain - but I think it's changed now.

However the naming of boys after the Christian deity continues, and even though I'm not very involved in such religious matters I find the name always pulls me up quickly.  Even to my irreverent mind, it seems somewhat blasphemous.

The other day we had some water damage to the house and in order to dry the carpets we had to call on a fellow locally who specializes in such work.  He was called Jesus.  Although he pronounced it Hey-Souss, which made it rather easier to swallow.  I rang him up and he was there within the hour.  Now if the real Jesus could make it as fast as that I'm sure we'd find the churches a lot fuller than at the moment.  His rates were very reasonable, and did not entail a lifetime of devotion either.

Gambling

I've had a shot at most vices in my life and some of them have been a lot of fun.  But the gambling thing has never worked for me, and I have to say that I'm very grateful for that.  To begin with my mathematical skills are minimal and so working out odds and other calculations is way beyond my basic abilities - one look at the horse racing channels with their borders of moving numbers makes my head whirl.  I don't disapprove of the business, it's just outside my life experience.

Perhaps I was taught my lesson by a visit to a local racing track when I was about 16.  I didn't have a lot of money and I lost everything and had to borrow the bus fare home.  Sitting on the top deck that day I think I came to the conclusion that the amount of fun to be had by giving all my money to some loudly dressed fellow with a satchel was not equal to the effort of acquiring it.  Hence I have probably over my lifetime not expended more than $20 in bets, and that includes office sweepstakes, which are sort of mandatory.


I find it interesting that we are not allowed to gamble in California unless it's on land that belongs to Indians - I mean the local types, of course, and not from the sub-continent.  Now what idiot politician came up with that one?  I had to do a piece on our local casino some time ago and found it was not only very swish but it had the biggest car park I think I'd ever seen.  They must be able to cater to the entire population of San Bernardino in there.

What I also found interesting, as I approached the institution along the moving walkway from the parking structure, was that I was greeted with the smell of cigarettes. It was really most unpleasant, and I had forgotten how nasty it was as California has been a sort of No Smoking area for over a decade.  But it seems that not only are you allowed to gamble on Indian land but you can smoke your head off too.  The experience did not encourage me to take up either vice.

Music Track - Eagles

This is one of the best Eagles' tracks I know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmU_K39axA8&feature=related  And the best line in it is "I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little ass!"  For the English out there that doesn't mean its donkey!

Sunday's Column - The Wende Museum

It's easy to let time slip away from the public consciousness.  How many years is it since we heard the words perestroika and glasnost, for instance?  Ten, fifteen or is it twenty years?  In fact, how long were we all dominated by the Cold War with all it's threats and saber rattling?  Today's freshman students have no first hand knowledge of the threat from the Soviet Empire; just stories told by old people.  But to those old people it's only yesterday.

A piece of the Berlin Wall at the Wende

In Culver City there is a museum devoted to the time of the Cold War, it's called the Wende Museum, which is a German word meaning turning point.  The collection there is the brainchild of a young man called Justinian Jampol.  As a self- confessed nerd, he decided to spend his inheritance on this place rather than fast cars.  The result is a building full of communist era artifacts that would have been consigned to the dustbin of history if he hadn't persuaded various governments to hand them over.  "They can be quite difficult opening up about their past," he told me.

Among the collection are scores of busts and statues of various dignitaries, as the Soviets did seem to like their images in front of everyone.  But it was the human stories that first really attracted Jampol to his work.  He traveled extensively throughout the Eastern Bloc when he was a student in England.

Today, trucks arrive all the time with more items for his staff of 15 to collate.  If you visit, and you can find all the information on the Web site at www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels then don't miss the exhibit on Checkpoint Charlie, but from the E. German side which was called Friedrich/Zimmerstrsse.  It's chilling!

Bottles

I'm not sure when it became fashionable to drink beer out of the bottle, but I have to say I don't like it.  On our first trip to Mexico apart from the fact that the waiter by the pool insisted on calling me "amigo," which I thought was very forward, he compounded the sin by bringing our beers in just the bottles.  I had to ask him quite firmly for "dos vasos."

Drinking straight out of the bottle I consider to be not only unpleasant but it gives me a sort of upper digestive gas problem.  And She Who Must Be Obeyed certainly would not drink out of a bottle, as I've told her that no lady would do it!  But the habit continues.

Now the same thing goes for drinking it out of a can - the same gas difficulty.  However there is some hope on the horizon, I think.  If the canners introduce that tear off lid that is beginning to appear on all types of canned goods, then maybe with a wider neck I could do it.  However until that  happens, "Un vaso, por favor!"

Layout

I'm sorry, but I've had to change the layout again.  The white writing on the colored background was difficult for some of you to read so I hope this change will be better.

Wigwams

We have about three wigwams in our area.  One is at the local museum and is the most  genuine, the other two are used as guest accommodations in a local B & B and also a private house.  They are not genuine to our area as the local Indians used to hollow out the earth for shelter.  Wigwams are the province of the Plains Indians who would move around a lot and take these tents with them.  They are quite cleverly constructed and some of them have poles on the outside to strengthen them.

Down in San Bernardino there is another more unlikely set of Wigwams, more correctly called tepees.  They are at the Wigwam Motel.  It was built in 1949 by Frank Redford and was number seven in a chain that stretched from Kentucky to California.  This strange place is on the old Route 66, which was the home of many such novelty places.

I did a piece on it some years back and met the owner, who is a Mr. Patel from India, and who has owned it for close to 35 years.  It struck me as quite funny that here I was an Englishman, who's ancestors were obsessed with finding a route to Mr. Patel's land to acquire spices, and here today we had a real Indian on historic Route 66, owning a business build by European Americans in the style of the Native Americans of so long ago which the explorers thought were real Indians; a true example of the giant melting pot in action.  Also the confusion of conquerors.

Obituary

It's sad that Elizabeth Taylor has just died.  I fell for her at age 13 when I saw her in Ivanhoe with Robert Taylor.  She was an exceptionally beautiful woman, who considering her fame and fortune did not always have such a happy life.

Married eight times - twice to Richard Burton - she ended up being a rather odd character devoted to the cure for AIDS and to a friendship with Michael Jackson, which most of us couldn't quite understand.  And what was that marriage to Larry Fortenski all about?

We saw her in a live performance of Private Lives with Richard Burton in Los Angeles.  She was married at the time to Senator John Warner of Virginia.  She and Burton were pretty good in the play but I think the parts were rather like their own lives, not easy!  It's hard to say which of the 50 film roles is her best but Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer have got to be pretty high on the list.

Most Influential - Answer

Last week I posed the question: What is the most influential change that has happened to society in your lifetime?  I said I would post my answer this week and here it is.  The Pill!

With the invention of the pill, women at last were able to control their pregnancy situation.  Until then they were always at risk and therefore unable to compete with men with the stability that was needed in the workplace.  Within a decade they could be recruited to fill positions that beforehand they were barred from, due to the chance they could get married and pregnant and leave.

Within two decades, which is a very short time in the history of mankind, they were able to add their abilities to the development of society - a 50% increase in productivity.   Life has never been the same.

Open Up!

I'm rather proud to say that we don't own an electric can opener.  I really think that having one is the ultimate in slavery to modernity.  There is nothing wrong with the hand held type although I think it's OK to have moved on from the really old ones that my grandparents used to use.  They left a very nasty jagged edge on the lid that was removed.  But going electric just adds to my "luditeness."

Many years ago I had a friend who's wife was into home management in a big way - used to give classes on it.  Her bete noire was the state of most people's can openers.  She said that the amount of bacteria that built up on the circular blades of openers was often very high and quite dangerous.  It was particularly prevalent in the electric type.  However, I've noticed that tin cans are now coming with those natty little tear off lids, so maybe the old fashioned opener is going the way of the fire bellows or the buggy whip.  In years to come archaeologists will find one and ponder as to what it could possible be for!

Sunday's Column - Sweeney Art Museum

Sunday's column is about an art museum in downtown Riverside.  This is a nice city and it seems to circulate around the Mission Inn which is something of an institution.  So much in fact that I went there for lunch.  Now I would recommend it, but shall we say the service is more European than American. In other words don't go there if you're in a hurry.  The food was excellent even though it made me late for my pm appointment.  Those of you who know me know how much I hate to be late.

The Culver Arts Building in Riverside

The Sweeney Art Museum is an institution devoted to the most contemporary art.  It is part of the University of California Riverside, which is a couple of miles up the road.  On the occasion of my visit there was an exhibit of art devoted to the plight of "illegal immigrants," who were of course referred to as "undocumented workers."  No matter your stance on the political situation regarding these people, you have to admit that they have a hard life made even harder by their situation.  Like me they came to this country seeking a better life, except I had the wherewithal to do it legally.
The exhibit is a powerful one and I would recommend seeing it before it closes on April 1st.

Music Track - Hudson

This week's music track is not really my type of music; but I do like the artist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Iqk3t6lT0  I've never watched American Idol but I believe that Jennifer Hudson didn't actually win it, which gives the program a slightly strange reputation I would have thought.  I did see Dream Girls and saw Ms. Hudson in it.  It was a pretty impressive performance. Quite a voice!  Sorry about the advert in Spanish for Cheese at the beginning!