Wednesday, January 31, 2007

MOLLY IVINS, REST IN PEACE



"The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood."

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

MEXICAN ROCK, PART 1



Ricky went climbing in sunny Mexico a couple of weeks ago, so here's a tale from the trip to warm our spirits:

Although Ihad been vaguely planning on going there for years, my trip to Hidalgo, Mexico, happened on very short notice. The closest I had come was the big blowout that was to have been held for New Year's 2000. Many of my fellow itinerant climbing friends all said they were going to be there, so we planned a big reunion. But one by one they started to flake and that soon snowballed into a general decision not to go. In fact, the guy hosting the party wasn’t even there since he had just left the country after losing a land dispute in the local court. Ever since, I kept saying that I would go soon, but, well, it is a long way to drive down there, and I’ve not much liked flying in these days of institutionalized stupidity and hysteria.

At New Year's this year, T called me and said that she had just landed a cool new job so she had promptly quit her sucky old one. This gave her the only extended block of time off she was like to see for maybe the whole year, so she wanted to go climbing in Mexico. I certainly hadn’t planned to take my long postponed trip this year, but why not? The prospects for climbing inCalifornia in the middle of January are iffy. She had already been searching out the best deals on airfare which is something I don’t like to do. Even better, she was e-mailing the places that might have lodging. For one of the best reasons to say yes to this trip was that T could speak some Spanish. She said she wasn’t very good with it, but that is still infinitely better than I can do. If somebody says something to me in Spanish, I might, a minute or so later, think of something in French that might be relevant but certainly not be useful. Not having to arrange for my airfare, for my lodging, or even for my speaking, the deal was sold.

We were after the holiday rush, but we were still flying on short notice. If we had wanted to travel at civilized times of the day, we would have had to pay about $200 more each. So we didn’t and left Oakland about 10 p.m. The other dubious virtue of our relatively cheap tickets was that our plane went to Guadalajara, which is much farther south than we wanted to be and near the wrong coast. Our goal was up near Texas. After several hours in that airport, we got on a rather skinny plane and flew back north to Monterrey. T had arranged for us to stay at “Rancho Cerro Gordo,” run by a guy named Mel. Mel was very friendly, and as a result, had learned a bit of English. But the office side of his business was run by his wife, who was reserved and had no usable English. One of the services that Mel offers is pick-up and return to the airport. We had hoped to do this, but didn’t get a reply to our e-mail asking for it. Instead, we took a taxi. Hidalgo is about a 45-minute drive from the airport, so $40 for a cab seemed liked a good price. The problem was the queue at the taxi stand at the airport. I think we stood in line for an hour to get our ticket for that 45-minute ride. It was near noon when we finally got to the rancho. The first close-up view of the mountain with its towering limestone pinnacles is impressive, but we were bonking. After a quick look, we said that’s um, nice, let’s go to sleep.



When T told me she had set up our lodging, I was imagining that we were going tohave a bedroom in some sort of hostel-like set up. But instead, it turns out we got a house. The reason Mel didn’t pick us up at the airport was that he thought we were not coming until the next day. He also intended to put us in a one-room cabin, but it was still occupied. So he put us in a much larger house. A round house. A pink round house. It was kind of cute from the outside, but was in need of several kinds of repairs. Since the climate is warm, they use low-pressure butane instead of the high-pressure propane that we use.



When he let us into the house, Mel said that he had to take the tanks down to town to be refilled. This was a good break for us since we wanted to buy some groceries. Mel dropped us off at the store and picked us up on the way back. The stove worked as soon as the butane was attached, but the hot water heater was in an exposed spot behind the house where the wind kept blowing the pilot out. Finally Mel built a teetering wind shield out of the various plastic lawn furniture and some clay tiles. Soon the bathroom had hot water, which pleased T since she was itching for a shower. But the kitchen sink didn’t seem to have hot water no matter how long you let the tap run. I was about to go fetch Mel yet again when I had an off hand thought. I closed the hot tap and opened the cold tap. Sure enough, after a couple minutes the water was running nice and hot: nothing wrong but some switched pipes. The final plumbing problem was a slow leak from behind the toilet. The water would trickle out across the tile and go down a drain in the middle of the floor. Since a prior tenant had left a large bath towel, we used it as a floor mat to wipe our shoes so as to not track water all over the house.



The house had two doors diametrically opposed. The key to the back door was long lost. The key to the front door worked the deadbolt. Both doors were sheet metal welded into steel frames. They looked secure, but were also giant gongs that could not be opened or closed quietly. The lock unit was welded to the door. Besides the deadbolt, this also had a latch that looks like the kind you expect to be attached to a doorknob except there were no doorknobs anywhere on or in this house. Instead this latch was operated by a lever on the inside unit. A few days later we came home and discovered that this latch had engaged and was not operated by the key. The windows all had bars, so now what? We went looking for Mel. We found his son who quickly understood our problem. He grabbed a roll of tape and followed us up. When he arrived he took off the screen and reached through the bars and opened the window. I wasn’t sure what was up since you would need to be the size of a cat to crawl in and not his ample 170 or 180 pounds. But as soon as he had the window open, he went over and pulled out a long pole that probably once had a swimming pool net on the end of it. Since the wall of the house was round, there was just enough curvature that he was able to reach the latch with the pole and push it back open. He finished up by applying several layers of tape to the offending latch to prevent the problem from re-occurring.

On the window sill above the kitchen sink there was a rusty old screwdriver. I got to wondering what little tweak it was used for. I never found out, which, in an odd way, was a bit of a disappointment. These guys were clearly masters at jury rigging, but I find that to be kind of a dubious skill since they got so good because they did it all the time. If they had valued their own labor more highly, they would have replaced all this stuff so that they didn’t have to waste time stringing it along. Perhaps they just didn’t understand their clientel. We were paying only 30 dollars a night for a nearly one-thousand square foot house. They needed to realize that Americans would readily pay for the upgrades at the place.

In the United States, climbing has always had links to the environmental movement. In its early days, the Sierra Club would run summer climbing camps in the high country and also publish accounts of first ascents in its journal. The most prominent leader of the Club, David Brower, was a famous mountaineer in his youth. And while of course contemporary climbers vary a lot in their environmental sensitivities, in the U.S. the environment is usually taken seriously if for no other reason than preserving access often hinges on minimizing impact. Mexico turned out to be different. One of the first things I noticed when we arrived at our lodging was that all these rocks were painted bright colors.



Each of the various “ranchos” had their own color scheme just like the color branding of a big retail corporation. Rancho Cerro Gordo was yellow. Besides all the yellow rocks that marked the road into the rancho, our little house was surrounded by painted rock in all kinds of color schemes. The other ranchos had done likewise. When we got up to the climbing crags, we discovered that the Mexican climbers were also fond of painting rocks. American climbers will sometimes mark an approach by making small stacks of rocks called cairns. The Mexicans just take a big can of paint and a large brush and paint their way up to the climb. They never used spray paint though. Once at the crag, they identify each of the various climbs by painting its name right on the wall. This makes it much easier to figure out which climb is which, but if you were to start painting names on American rock, you would soon get beat up by a mob of angry climbers.


(This is T climbing)

The climbing itself was also different. Over the years I’ve climbed on a lot of different limestone cliffs, but they have rarely been much over a hundred feet high, and are sometimes much shorter. This is because limestone gets laid down in horizontial layers that are often not so thick. And when it is thick enough, it might not erode into a single big cliff but form a staircase or have bands of bad rock. The big cliffs at Hidalgo have a novel origin: the entire bed of limestone layers got rotated by geologic forces until it stood almost exactly on end. Limestone almost never has good vertical cracks, but can have horizontal cracks between layers that go on for miles. Since it is stood on end, this Mexican stone had those same cracks soaring up more than a thousand feet. And by rotating not quite ninety degrees, this rock yielded matching faces. On one side you could do climbs that were not quite vertical, or you could go around to the other side and do hard climbs that overhung just past vertical. In climbing in theU.S. and Canada, I’ve encountered a lot of trees growing on ledges or even right out of the face of the rock. Some of these have been oaks or the like, but most of them have been cedars and particularly pines. Climbing this rock in Mexico was the first time I have found palm trees growing out of the face. One particularly nice climb finished at a high point on a ridge with a palm growing right at the summit.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

I AGREED TO BABY SIT?



George, I'd like to see you sass this white lady!

She's not gentle and forgiving like me. And a mere "sorry" would just get you a nip on the nose — not like the playful nips I give you, either; there'd be blood.

My parents have had Molly (a Christmas present from me — O irony!) for only six weeks and she is now the unchallenged head of the household, wielding her authority mercilessly and indulging her whims immoderately. You'd think her ancestors were the emperors of Rome and not a line of humping bumpkins from the backwoods of Kansas. Wait. Scratch imperial Rome. Her behavior is closer to a more modern set of fascist dictators: Imelda Marcos (the foot fetish); Eva Peron (illusions of grandeur); Kim il-Jong (lunatic hair); Idi Amin (complete madness of the Dark Continent military variety).

I should have known when I agreed to watch her for five days that, along with her rawhides and chew-toys and hot-pink accessories, she would bring a bloody reign of terror.

The signs were there. To quote my prescient self from the last time I wrote about this changeling: Probably next time I visit Molly will bark ferociously at me and try to run me off. And my parents will take her side and give her a treat. Remember that?

The most telling sign was a conversation I had with my mom just before I agreed to watch Molly. We were on the phone, which is where all of our significant conversations take place. She was telling me — with evident glee — how "ornery" Molly was becoming. She used the word "ornery" where anyone who gives a shit about precision in language would have said "maniacal" or "completely possessed by Lucifer." Then she went on to say that she had been reading in the dog-training manual I gave them that West Highland Terriers are extremely "stubborn." There was a definite note of pride in her voice when she continued:

"The book says you should never have a fight with a Westie."

"Why's that?" I ask on cue.

"BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS WIN," she says with awe, surrendering herself to the "teachings" of her dog book like a literal-minded evangelical to the grim, ancient words of the Old Testament. Don't worship false idols. Don't have premarital sex. Don't covet your neighbor's wife. Don't dance to the Devils' music. And whatever you do, don't get in a fight with a Westie.

So now my parents are tiptoeing around Molly, fearful of provoking her Jehovah-like wrath — which condition, of course, doesn't preclude, but only enhances, their utter and sincere worship of her.

They have been gone only since Friday, and already I have gotten two phone calls and an urgent e-mail proclaming how much they miss her and asking for every detail of her dog days. How many times did she bless my house with her cute little poops? Is she eating enough? Did I remember her treats? Isn't she the most darling thing that ever lived? Are Mabel and Rupert being sufficiently worshipful?

In answering this last question, I am a bit evasive. Well, actually, I totally lie. I say something like, "They're getting along fine. I think Mabel and Rupert really enjoy her." In truth, they are avoiding her like the plague — worse than the plague even (George, what is worse than the plague? Have you gotten to Medieval medical horrors yet in nursing school?). They are afraid, I believe, that if they associate with her they will be blamed for her bits of mischief (the torn-up plants, the chewed-up shoes, the failure to honor thy parents, the incessant toe biting and sock stealing). Mabel can say certain English words and phrases like "tomorrow" and "I love you" and the whole first verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner." This morning, after Molly nipped her several times on the face, I saw Mabel conspiring in a corner with Rupert, and I distinctly heard her say — with perfect Black Muslim intonation — "Kill Whitey!"

I swear.

So now the dogs are segregated. And the black separatists are talking armed rebellion while the white supremacist, brought up to believe the Establishment's in her corner, is plotting her next show of force.

Here's a sample of what I'm dealing with until Wednesday. Imagine a soundtrack of high-pitched, incessant barking and the sassy growling of an egomaniac who can't get enough of looking at herself in the mirror:











Friday, January 19, 2007

PAINLESSLY OBVIOUS



If you have a stuffed-up nose, try this: Eat a handful of Wasabi Coated Green Peas. Then another handful. You won't believe it.

Throw out all those yucky decongestants and get over to the Asian Mart or the hippy store and buy some magic peas. Now.

They not only work like Drano in your sinusways, but they have the related benefit of having such a strong flavor that you can taste them when your cold won't let you taste any other food. And because your sense of taste is still somewhat muted, you can enjoy a lot of them without any pain. Normally I can only eat five or six individual peas before my eyes well with tears and my body begs me to stop. But I'm on my fifth or sixth handful now and just have a very, very pleasant feeling of warmth, even though smoke is pouring from my nostrils and my singed nose hairs are setting off my fire alarms.

Why didn't I think of this before?

Maybe if I eat the whole bag now and another for dinner, my body will work up an immunity to the heat so that I will be able to enjoy these tiny savories all the time and not just when I'm under the weather.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

INSTANT STUPEFICATION



Kids these days.

I could just let this go. Only, where would it go? It would just circulate in my brain like a funnel cloud until it gathered enough velocity and debris to explode my head like a doublewide trailer.

So bear with me while I slowly release the pressure valve instead.

I mentioned yesterday that we have the greatest intern in the world: smart as a whip, hard-working, eager to learn, polite as hell. God, is she polite. When she has a question, for example, she doesn't stand up in her cubicle and shout across the room, which is what I generally do; she gets up, walks to your desk, quietly waits until you look up, and says, "Excuse me, I have a question." Often she'll say, "Sorry, I have a question." Sorry. Can you believe that? And it's not timidity; it's civility. And it's catching. People act better around her. She raises the bar. I don't know how many times I've heard co-workers lament that they accidentally said the F-word in front of S or they sullied her ears with some piece of workplace cynicism or negativity. And the laments are not in the spirit of her innocence needing protection but of their attitudes needing correction.

Contrast what I observed yesterday with some other novices around the office — all student interns or recent grads. First up, at an office meeting a recent male grad is talking to a female intern. This male worker usually prefers to wire himself up to his iPod and not talk to anyone, but this female intern is very blonde and slender with an assortment of feminine charms. (It's been quite amusing to watch male staff members who are normally quite oblivious to etiquette line up to pay court with predictable blandishments like "I'd be happy to show you around" and "Don't hesitate if you need anything...") So this male worker and the female intern are discussing some mutual professional acquaintance, and the female says, "I learned so much from her." And the male, in an apparent attempt to display his virility, says, "Yeah, she's hot." The female laughs politely but with a hint of discomfort that the male, even if he lived a thousand years, would never pick up on. He thinks he has advanced in her estimation, while every woman in the room sees that he has been silently and permanently checked off her list.

That exchange is all wrong on many levels, but most of all it's unprofessional. Here's a tip for the gentlemen, young and old: Women are uncomfortable when you physically assess them or other women in the workplace. It makes them feel like your primary response to a woman is her fuckability. Is she hot or is she not? And when you excuse this behavior as something that all men do, it makes women feel even worse, because then there is a sense that all the men in the workplace are comparing notes, like during their downtime they are all participating in some Fantasy Female Harem League. Everyone feels attractions to various people; that's hardly new and hardly exclusive to men. Do us a favor and keep a lid on it at work.

One thing I like about S, the great intern, is that her curiosity and interest in our workplace doesn't come off as "networking." She's polite to me because she's a polite person, not because she thinks it'll get her somewhere. Compare the student intern who has the fake smile complete with an on-off switch, whose habitual standard is "good-enough," not "my best," whose "thank-yous" and "pleases," when proffered at all, ooze with self-serving insincerity, who has such an excess of cockiness from being the Big Man on Campus that he struts around the newsroom like a banty rooster, talking loudly and confidently and "expertly," a complete stranger to humility and quiet proof. Yesterday he was joined in his folly by an intern from the same school who brashly announced that she hoped to "get into a big market someday, but, hey, you gotta start at the bottom" — the bottom referring to the workplace of the seasoned professionals who were gracious enough to hire her.

Later in the evening I had to ask these two and another of their kind to turn down the volume on their childish conversation so that people doing work could work. They seemed genuinely surprised that there was even anyone else in the room — and then somewhat astonished that their riveting discussion was not well-received.

And then even later, when the banty rooster failed to perform an essential duty, I was forced to call his cell phone and was greeted by some ridiculously saccharin voice-mail message. As I expressed my annoyance at not being able to reach him, the recent male grad, who is a friend of his, said, "I'll send him an instant message for you. He'll respond to that."

Of course. An instant message. Why didn't I instantly think of that?

I said "Kids these days," but that's a cliche. S is a kid and she's supremely gracious. So, if not youth, what is at the root of all this brashness and "me-ness"? Are some people just like that? Will they smooth out with age? How deep does this shallowness go?

Friday, January 05, 2007

ANOTHER DOPPELGANGER



We have an intern at work who looks like Marcie from "The Peanuts."

The Marcie resemblance was gleefully pointed out last night by a co-worker who spotted an image of Peppermint Patty hanging in my cubicle. "Oh my God," she screamed, "Marcie looks just like S!"

"Oh my God!" I screamed back. "She does!"

Then we danced around like Snoopy and Woodstock, tickled speechless by this discovery. It had been under our nose the whole time.

I know I have pointed out how other co-workers resemble famous people and how it makes work more fun and glamorous, but this Marcie-S doppelganger is really sublime, partly because we all worship S. She is the greatest intern ever. She started college at 15 or something and her IQ is bigger than all of ours combined. We know this because she humbly demonstrates it every day at work, plus she plays tango music on the accordion and studies Shakespeare. When she graduates from college we're hoping she'll be hired on as our boss.

The other reason the Marcie-S doppelganger is sublime is that S sort of acts like Marcie — the politeness, the loyalty, the modesty, the brains, the being bad at sports. Now if only I could get her to call me "Sir."