Happy Holidays! I had a nice Christmas, and I hope you did as well.

Weather: It's been hoar-frost or sunshine since my last entry -- and a quarter-inch of snow has fallen in between.

Wildlife: The wayward Goose has died by the pond -- I'm debating whether to call fish & wildlife to remove it somehow -- if it was diseased, I don't want the Eagles or Magpies eating it.

Charity Alert: I visited the Hunger Site and their associated pages. It's EASY -- do it yourself!

Media Watch: Vegging out with reading and television. Here's a mini project:
I finished a Mentor paperback, copyright 1956 (30th printing) by Robert B. Downs called "16 Books That Changed the World."
He has his rules, but they boil down to "influence on the mid 20th Century." (my paraphrase)
They are all 'social' science or 'straight' science tracts:
Machiavelli's "The Prince," Paine's "Common Sense," Smith's "Wealth of Nations," Malthus' "Essay on...Population," Thoreau's "Civil Disobediance," Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Marx's "Kapital," Mahan's "Sea Power," MacKinder's "Pivot of History," Hitler's "Mein Kampf," Copernicus' "Orbium Coelestium," Harvey's "De Mortu Cordis," Newton's "Principia," Darwin's "Origin of Species," Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams," and Einstein's "Relativity..."
Down's quotes other lists from 1935, 1939, and 1945. These lists overlap his somewhat, but also include the Bible, Koran, St. Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, etc. He mentions other books that didn't make his own list -- like Parson Weem's "Life of Washington," and Marco Polo's "Travels." (Both of these works consisting of heavy doses of fantasy.)
Downs mentions Thoreau's influence on Gandhi, but Martin Luther King was completely under his radar. He also tells how "Mein Kampf" was almost unread outside of Germany -- because Hitler used international copyright law to PREVENT translations.

Well, it's close enough to a half-century later, and I wonder if another list would shed any light on our times. The gross cynicism of "The Prince" seems to be an ascendant philosophy at the moment, fortified by Malthus, and the worst aspects of Adam Smith. "New American Century" is definitely on this year's list for influence -- it's on the Internet, but "lies" there unchallenged.
My own view, as someone who wasn't even born at the time, was that Hitler's speeches, and their associated spectacles, seduced his audience more than that crappy book.
Today, Dr. King is mostly known for ONE segment from one televised speech -- but it's a beauty.
Whole new ways of communication have come into being the last hundred years, and have "sneaked by" the printed word into whatever passes for public consciousness. How do television, movies, radio, networked computers, and the like, compare with books for establishing ideas and provoking stasis or change in "our" undeniably "global" society?
I'll be making a list, and checking it twice, to see if I can add anything to what might just be a parlor game after all.

Weather: Freezing cold -- very few clouds overnight. Very slick roads this morning.

Wildlife: The goose is nesting in the reeds, and under the feeder. I hope it's eating!

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch: "Beetlegeuse" on the Sci-Fi Network -- Tim Burton was really good and original once!
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel showed that poor attempt at flight with the reconstructed Wright flyer on his late night show -- I noticed that the re-enactor was on a too-short track, at a too-steep pitch, in sodden weather, and didn't have two men holding up the wing tips, unlike the Wrights -- it was a recipe for mud-diving, which he did.

Down-loaded the "Spiderman" Template -- let's see where THAT leads!
No pictures, just links to the movie site -- Heck wit' yah, Spidey!
Changing back!

Wright Stuff: 100 Years of Flight! They didn't get that reconstructed flyer into the air today at Kill Devil Hill -- I'm sure the Wrights would have stayed inside in that weather.
The main thing about the Wright Brothers was that they were the ONLY aeronauts at the time who even saw the necessity of STEERING their motorized gliders and landing them safely.
Other investigators were losing their lives in crashes just after they became airbourne, and continued to launch themselves into the blue for short hops and constant crashes 'ala Evel Kenieval, until Wilbur Wright demonstrated the wisdom of he and his brother's approach near Paris.

Weather: Warmish -- about 4 mm of snow fell last night.

Wildlife: Momma Deer and her twins -- leave some for the goose!

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Media Watch: All-Saddam News TV dominates the cable -- looks like Baghdad Television in the 80's! "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" had a self-congratulatory holiday party -- the original participants got to sit-in on the cattiness too. One thing about the show -- lots of (video) shots of alcoholic beverages makes it look like a drunk-fest, which may or may not be true. There were also related appearences of the "Fab Five" on Oprah, and a puzzling "making the video" half-hour program -- WHAT video? Oh well, Jai, the "culture guy," came across as a more intelligent person than he often appears to be in the show.

Weather: A moment of sunlight, but it's getting darker -- snow joke!?

Wildlife: Momma Deer and her two fawns are sticking near the house since we've been feeding the goose. Don't get me in trouble with Fish & Wildlife, deerey!

Charity Alert: The Child Health Site : Help a Child in Need Lead a Healthy, Active Life

Media Watch: Cable news stations -- All Saddam, All the Time! World Wide Web -- Almost the same damn thang!
Monday Night Football -- Philadelphia and Miami "duked it out." Philly finally pushed ahead to stay in the last 3 minutes. That's nine wins in a row for the team led by Donovan McNabb, the athlete who "Big Fat Idiot" Limbaugh insisted "wasn't that good," and whose success he ascribed to "the media."
Well, EAT POOP Rush Limbaugh, and ESPN too -- for wasting air time with your hateful, racist sewage.

It's MONDAY -- that means I gotta fill-in what happened over the weekend!

Weather: A long, soft snow fell over Friday and Saturday. It let up by Sunday, but we're all still digging out today.
I had to shovel the walks and stairs at the Hockaday Museum of Art on Saturday,
Hockaday Museum of Art - Prime visual arts resource in Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana. but I wonder if it was worth it -- the de-icer will tell the tale tomorrow.

Wildlife: That snow covered up all the food I put out for the wayward goose -- I'm sure the deer are helping themselves to some of it too. I caught Momma Deer and her two fawns crunching away the other night. The suet feeder is drawing Flickers, Magpies, Woodpeckers, and the Pheasants are congregating below the feeders.
Yesterday, a Bald Eagle made it's rounds near the aereator pond -- the Ducks, and Goose got right in the water!

Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site : Fund Mammograms for Free

Media Watch: On the news programs, it's SADDAM 24/7 -- Michael Jackson must be jealous. Kid Rock's Christmas was a welcome, if vulgar, respite. Football -- speaking of vulgar, Bush's unnecessary prattle pre-empted Mad TV and Jillian Barbarie on Fox's pre-game show -- I really wanted something to laugh about instead. Later that afternoon, I saw a home team force a game into overtime, and then win against a tiring visiting defense.
My wife and I somehow found ourselves watching Miss America Pagents from 1958 and 1983 -- the comparisons were interesting, especially since the outlines of both events were so similar -- overly-decorated formal gowns, swim suits with almost unwalkable high heels, and talent competitions that made most of the contestants look pretty dorky. Both shows had former Miss America winners on parade too.
Let's see -- Mary Ann Mobley won the 1958 pagent with her quick wits, Anita Bryant was a runner up. Mobley made some movies later, and seemed to get along with fellow Mississippi native Elvis Presley. Bryant, whose subsequent fame was built on pitching Florida orange juice, was eventually used as a poster-child for some anti-gay bigotry, with her consent, in the years before the '83 pagent -- bad career move -- her B-minus voice couldn't carry her through that controversey.
Miss America 1984 (Uh oh, watch out for THAT year!) was the extraordinarily talented Vanessa Williams, later to become a movie and recording star, and perhaps a millionaire by now. A "scandal" ensued late in her "reign," when the sleazy Bob Guccione found, doctored, and published some nude photo sessions she'd done earlier as a student. The M.A. Pagent dropped Ms. Williams like a hot rock -- my friend George Clinton gave her a job singing in the P-Funk All-Stars almost immediately, and her talent took her above all the B.S. in a few years.
Miss America of the next year was a somewhat prissy Miss Utah. To the lady's credit, although she was neither the most talented nor the best looking contestant, she was NOT the first to be selected for political reasons.
Utah doesn't deserve any recognition as a beacon of morality -- the so-called "religious" patriarchs that run the place have much more in common with Bob Guccione than with Martin Luther.

Weather: It's trying to snow! We haven't seen the sun for a couple of days either.

Wildlife: Partridges running with me when I left the driveway this morning. I have to reload the suet feeders this evening too.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media Watch: Bill Cosby on CNN two nights ago -- He was talking about diet mostly, but Larry King mentioned his son's death and Cosby told how a certain response from the public was the LAST thing he ever wanted to see; "... these people saw me in their car and their faces turned sad and pitiful. I was used to the opposite -- faces lighting up, and people telling me how much I made them laugh!"
I'm almost finished with Richard Elliott Friedman's Who Wrote The Bible? It makes you wish, for a brief moment, that you could read Hebrew well enough to join the game. The plausibility of his scenario makes for a challenging read -- Let's see, E is from Assyrian-conquered Israel, J is from Judah, P is from the Aaronic priests, D is from Jeremiah or his circle, before and after the fall of the first temple, and R the redactor, or editor might be just be Ezra, agent of the Persian king, with the Torah of Moses in his posession.
There was a TV show on the History Channel recently with that same title -- it included the writing/gathering of the Greek and Latin bibles, plus some New Testament history.

At the College: A lot of people catching the flu -- the slackers are loving it for the excuses they get to use!

Weather: Still and cold -- cloudy, but the roads are dry.

Wildlife: Squirrels on campus -- bold as brass!

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch: 2001: A Space Odyssey on TCM, letterboxed and complete. It's kinda four movies in one--
1) Primitive humans -- pretty cool, with Desmond Morris as consultant. This idea was improved ten years later in Quest for Fire.
2) A near-future world -- I'm not sure if this is part is satire or not. Everything is trival, including regular travel to the moon, and everybody's lying about something. The set design is striking -- quite a bit like Clockwork Orange two years later.
3) HAL 9000 -- I guess there had to be some derring-do and conflict somewhere. Almost nothing happens, and very little reason is even implied for the sketchy situation that ensues. Something resonated in the mid-sixties public about an all-powerful computer turning against humans, though. Arthur C. Clark implied in his novel 2010 that HAL's fatal malfunction was caused by being programmed to decieve. I doubt that anyone's afraid of their PDA/GPS Picture phone today. (Maybe they should be.)
4) Planet Jupiter and the Monolith -- Pure cinematic beauty, and hints of a deeper vision. Whatever gossamer thread story there is be damned, I think this sequence redeems the whole movie!

An Essay:
Baseball Fever and the U.S. Elections
By Michael Evans (Yeah, that's me!)

Democrats:
Well, there's nine of them, so that must make a team -- correct? Here's a scouting report:
Carol Moseley-Braun -- Pitches softballs good-naturedly. Defensive to a personal degree, but unable to cover home, or aid the infield.
John Kerry -- War hero and senator, made it to first base in a hurry, and just stayed there, at the position with the least movement. He is known to have known Bill Buckner.
John Edwards -- Another John from the Senate. At second base, he plays the center of the field, but favors the right.
Wesley Clark -- Late replacement at shortstop for Bob Graham. Is very surprised to find himself playing on the left side of the field with Dean and Kucinich, and sometimes forgets which uniform he's supposed to wear.
Howard Dean -- Known as "Doctor D," he roams the whole left side of the diamond from third base, and bats both right and left. He's currently the clean-up hitter, but has been known to foul-out in critical situations.
Dennis Kucinich -- Is ethically unable to play anything but far-left field.
Richard Gephardt -- Along with the Johns from the Senate, there's this Dick from the House of Representatives. He dominates center field, guards his territory jealously, and sometimes makes his team mates wonder if he's playing the same game they are playing.
Joe Lieberman -- He OWNS right field, and plays it in a way that makes him look like he's coached by the other team, but denies it. (Don't tell 'Loserman' jokes in earshot.)
Al Sharpton -- "Catching flak and throwing it back!" This free agent, or free radical, doesn't work cheap, but if federal campaign funds are good enough for Carol, John, Wesley, Dennis, Dick, and Joe, then they're good enough for Al.
Republicans:
Unlimited money allows this organization to field the Texas Rangers, named after MLB's second-division tax write-off team. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, Halliburton, Rupert Murdoch, and Bin Laden Construction Company of Saudi Arabia, it is co-managed by Karl Rove, James Baker, and player/manager/CEO Dick Cheney. The Rangers field nationally-known pitchman George W. Bush, plus Colin Powell as Jackie Robinson, Michael Powell as Al Capone, ex-senator 'John' Ashcroft as J. Edgar Hoover, Don Rumsfeld, and his bench, consisting of Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others from the New American Century syndicate. An international coup features Tony Blair, Prime Minister of England, bringing a cricket bat to the plate for Texas.

The Republican team won their last game on a disputed call from the umpires. For the next time, their strategy will be the purchase, or confiscation, of all equipment, seats, and venues related to the contest. Diebold, a manufacturer of electronic scoreboards, has promised to "deliver" on the Rangers' behalf.

The Democratic team may not even show up. There are several players whose power seems to flow from threats to hand a forfeit to the Republicans ala' Ralph Nader. If they play by current rules, there's even odds they can win, but the rules will certainly change if they cave-in before the fight begins.

Weather: I have to get some studded snow tires this year. The roads are unusually icy.

Wildlife: The Redtailed Hawk is still scouring our neighborhood for mice and small birds.

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Media Watch: Monday Night Football was a one-sided blowout . I've almost finished a history of mass media in England -- TV, radio, movies, and the newspapers -- It's titled "Get Me A Murder A Day." I'm almost through the 'Thatcher Era,' and I'm curious to see if the author mentions the multi-media frenzy about Princess Diana before the end.

At the College: A student art show yesterday, with some excellent ceramics and jewelry for sale.
I helped faculty member Jim Soular with the cover of his book about his experiences in Viet Nam The Thousand Yard Stare, soon to be republished.

Weather: After a couple of rain/freeze/dry/freeze days we are getting a light snow -- that's what the forecast says, and it's true!

Wildlife: Two small fawns lingered around the house yesterday morning -- I spilled some extra sunflower seeds for a goose who's hanging around, but the honker doesn't leave the reeds at the side of Middle Foy's Lake, except to walk or fly out to the "pond." A bald eagle is perching in a dead tree between Foy's Lake and Middle Foy's.

Charity Alert: The Child Health Site : Help a Child in Need Lead a Healthy, Active Life

Media Watch: Football -- I saw one game where the home team was starting to come back strong in the last few minutes & seconds, but then they fumbled the ball -- arghhh! Pregame Silliness -- MadTV did a hilarious parody of Dr. Phil, supposedly ragging on the coaches of Tampa Bay and Oakland. Jillian looked fine in her skirt & blouse costume. Now that I'm aware of the foreshortening effect of the camera, I can tune in to her comedy better. She was outclassed by MadTV and Howie Long, the former linebacker, though. Long did an outrageous take-off on Terry Bradshaw that made everyone crack up -- including Bradshaw.
46664 Concert -- Did anyone see 46664 yet? I saw a few live clips last week on CNNfm. Since Monday, there's been a 90 minute edited thang bouncing around cable TV. Beyonce Knowles was onstage in South Africa, but she was too diffident for my taste. Anne Lennox has been funky sometimes, but she was overly-serious in her performance with Dave Stewart. U2 is something of a self-parody, despite all their sincerity and quality.
Queen's surviving trio were wonderfully bombastic -- they've always done dymamics well, but I kinda wish they would have let 85 year-old Nelson Mandela leave the stage before Brian May's first power chord sounded.
You'd hope that something funky might happen in Africa, but I didn't see it. The African choir was good. Baba Maal and Youssou N'Dour did their thangs respectibly. (Mr. N'Dour gave Annie an onstage cuddle that should have loosened her up a touch -- she's much better when she's sensual and funny.)
Joseph Shambalala started to make a little noise with that lovely lead-singing Corrs sister, alongside his own group.
A pretty dark lady with the stupid name of Ms. Dynamite did an unusual acapella, but I can't remember seeing anybody but white folks in the audience. (Apartheid is a socio-economic condition, as well as a discredited political policy.)
I was impressed with the finale -- a young, blond European singer named 'Anastasia' came out and just took over the whole show -- good manners and sad faces be damned! She was long, lean, sexy, moved well, and had a distinctive, occasionally grating (Hey, nobody's perfect) voice which rose above everyone else's timid, shoe-gazing musical efforts. I was reminded of Patti Labelle taking over Live Aid in Philadelphia almost 20 years ago.
FUNK SIGHTING! Jan from Columbus, Ohio told me that Gary (Mudbone) Cooper of Bootsy's Rubber Band and Parliament/Funkadelic was in the finale! He's worked with Dave Stewart before, so I'm confident there was some funky music that didn't make the edited version of the concert.

Friday!?!? Where have I been all week? One word -- working.

Weather: During the early part of the week we had rain-snow-melt-hail-rain-snow-melt for about forty hours -- the roads were deadly, but finally dried off. It's been sub-freezing cold, and mostly sunny since then, but this morning is pretty darn gray -- something may be rolling in.

Wildlife: Hunting season ended this last weekend -- our herds of deer in the neighborhood didn't seem affected one way or the other by this month-long human endeavor. The aereation pond in the middle of our frozen lake seems to be pretty stable. Even though the big flocks aren't landing anymore, we're seeing a few birds. I think the plan for heading-off a large fish-kill due to over-icing may be working after all!

Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site : Fund Mammograms for Free

Media Watch: "Lord of the Rings" was the subject of ABC Primetime last night. I'm glad that Prof. Tolkien's Middle Earth has enchanted a new worldwide audience. That book impressed me at age sixteen, and I've read it many times since.
I like the casting and artistic design of Jackson's movie version, but little else besides. His best moments come from Tolkien, and it's a long wait between them. I find Jackson's variations of the plot weak and uninteresting -- he may occasionally condense a scene or character, but also he throws up hours of footage that don't advance the plot.

Weather; Gray and cold -- trying to make up it's mind if it wants to snow. My car heater wouldn't warm up this morning -- gotta call the mechanic.

Wildlife: The geese are stopping over in "bubbling pond" to a small extent -- they mostly just fly over now that the lakes have frozen. Pheasants, magpies, and flickers are haunting the feeders, but the chickadees and finches are doing well too.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media Watch: I read about Emperor Hadrian over the weekend, and started a book about walking between London and Canterbury for Chaucer's sake. I gave up on that stupid "Flying Saucers On The Attack," from 1954 -- after a few howlers like descriptions of "unseen, unheard visitors that caused the cushions to sink," it got boring -- one unsubstantiated anecdote after another.
Football: Wipeouts all the way, at least what was on my set. I was working on other things, but the only scores I saw were lop-sided. Pre-game silliness -- The Mad TV guy's Robin Williams impression was fair, but he's been funnier. I realized why Jillian Barberie looks somewhat strange in those longer, or wrap-around dresses -- the lens on the camera foreshortens her figure, especially the legs, since it shoots her from hair to heels as she does the weather. Jillian hosted an MTV special on Sunday night. She was her rambunctious, funny self, and looked neither frumpy nor lumpy in black.

At the College: Lotsa video editing this week -- there may be finals coming up in some classes.

Weather: Thanksgiving weekend -- so far snow, then clear, then snow, then clear. Some days it melts off, other times it freezes HARD! My deck is cleared off now, so I'm ready for more -- gotta check my rain gutters too -- I think there's a leak in one area, and it makes things wet underneath.

Wildlife: The lake has been white with snow (except for the aereator-hole in the ice). This morning it was all gray from temperatures in the high 30's turning it all into slush. The geese are flying over by the hundreds still, but they rarely land. There was a small, spotless fawn sharing fallen sunflower seeds with two pheasant roosters. Peanuts are luring the magpies to the deck, and the flickers follow along. The woodpeckers stay in the trees.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch: Thanksgiving NFL was alright. The games were contested enough, for the most part, and the teams I preferred to win did so. Pregame silliness -- Jillian's outfits have looked better in the past, but she was funny.
C-SPAN had something of a Lewis & Clark marathon, but I was interested enough to peek in, and stay awake. I even checked out some more books on this subject from the library!
I saw a documentary about Lenny Bruce "Swearing to Tell the Truth," narrated by Robert DeNiro -- great footage from another time, and clips from routines that wouldn't cause a blink nowadays.
I loved his comedy-as-jazz approach to performing. I was seriously impressed at a young age by Paul Krassner's compilation "The Essential Lenny Bruce." I laughed for many hours reading that book.
My impression of his life at my age now (54) hasn't changed too much. I am even more impressed with his artistry, but I am still appalled by the excesses of his lifestyle, and the injustice of his persecution by our legal system. I'd say that he was caught between the wheels of drug addiction, and faith in a system that was undeserving of his trust. Yeah, Heroin probably would have killed him one day, but the unjust loss of his livelihood killed him sooner. I feel a little comfort in contending that his "example" had the opposite effect of it's intention to "shut down" an emerging change in society.
Hey, look at this on CNN International -- fragments of a rock concert in South Africa, trying to raise consciousness (and money) to fight back against the AIDS epidemic. Nelson Mandela is there, as are U2, Baba Maal, Peter Gabriel, and others. Too bad popular music doesn't have the same power as it did a generation ago, but this is a fight that must go on somehow!
1) We are all here because of Sex.
2) Sex is a drive, and an instinct, besides being a pleasure, for all of Humanity.
3) HIV/AIDS is a debilitating or fatal disease that is spread by Sex.
4) HIV/AIDS is problem for all Humanity.

No college -- we're closed. I'm working around the house this weekend!

Weather: Light snow, and then warming -- reasonably clear roads, but I drove in SLOWLY. Blue skies at the time of this writing.

Wildlife: Two small fawns, who'd just lost their spots, were grazing at dusk. I put up more sunflower seeds for the birds -- the deer are welcome to any spillover. I also put up more suet alongside the big red feeder in the chokecherry tree.

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Media Watch: Dawg-assed show on the SciFi Channel -- "Sasquatch" with Lance Hendricksen. It consisted of a lot of bleeped-out swearing and stupid white folks. We turned the TV over to "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy," and saw a bald guy burn his toupee. That show must be doing well -- they spent a lotta money for that episode -- some stingy attorney wouldn't buy furniture for his house, so they did it for him. Thom, the decorator, put the ugliest damn mirror on his client's wall as a result -- serves the cheapskate right!

At the College: The students are slackin' off for Thanksgiving! Our president is trying to finance some much-needed building, but it's been a political mess. We are trying to go forward, but a lawsuit instigated by a local hate-radio host might screw us up again, like a previous debacle organized by that same potty-mouth.
EXPIRED LINK ALERT: That newspaper photo of Prof. Gerda Reeb's "Native American Thanksgiving" is no longer online.

Weather: Cloudy and threatening -- my boss is driving right up to the actual border, in Eureka, and taking all sorts of precautions for blizzardy conditions -- water, food, cel phone, and local phone numbers. It's also getting colder by the minute. The local paper showed a picture of MY neighborhood to illustrate how slick the roads could get.

Wildlife: Those geese looked hilarious, gathered by the dozens, in the clear spot left by the aereator system in Middle Foy's Lake, otherwise the whole thing is frozen over now. Mama deer and baby deer grazing bushes by the roadside at dusk as we drove home from dinner.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media watch: Nothing special, I mostly slept yesterday afternoon, after giving blood, and waking up too early the previous morning. I had a nightmare about Medicare being gutted by the Fascists in power, but it wasn't a dream.

At the College: The Native American Thanksgiving was a BIG success! Prof. Reeb told me that she'd written down what and what not to do after last year. The event was shown on the local TV, and written up in the newspaper.
There's a nice photo of fancy-dancer Ashley Matt by Robin Loznak on their website for today at least: The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Take a peek at Robin's exhibit at my Museum:
Current Exhibits at the Hockaday Museum
It's actually being held at TWO places, including The Museum at Central School, ot "The M," which is a block north of us.

Weather: (Sunday and Monday) Still snowing steadily -- building up all over the valley, not just in my neighborhood. I have to re-stock the suet cages for the birds, and figure out a way of re-hanging the large seed-feeder. The pole it was hanging from fell down in the wind last week.

Wildlife: The areator system that Dale Crosby-Newman installed last summer seems to be keeping a large area in the middle of the lake ice-free, at least while it's above 10 degrees F.
Sunday we had pheasants, magpies, flickers, and doves grazing around the yard. On Monday morning a large Mule Deer shared the road with me outside my driveway. There were no antlers to be seen, but this is the time of year that the males shed them.

Charity Alert: The Child Health Site : Help a Child in Need Lead a Healthy, Active Life

Media Watch: The Senate pre-empted Book Notes on C-SPAN. Unless the Democrats hold firmly, we're in for some ruinous new laws that will further blight our economy.
Football -- the team that won last Monday got slapped around on Sunday. Good thing I like parity in the NFL. Pre-game silliness -- Jillian Barberie's outfit was neither as funny, nor as flattering, as others she's worn. Keeshawn Johnson was much better than I expected as a commentator.
PBS -- Nova presented "Chaco Canyon Mysteries." The Solastice Project surveyed the astronomical alignments in this arid region of New Mexico. Many generations of observation and hard work went into building those Anastazi cities, which were abandoned after about 250 years.

At the College: I'm waiting for my library science lesson, but I think the weather may have an effect on that! Later I'm helping Professor Gerda Reeb set up the annual "Native American Thanksgiving" at the county fairgrounds. Steven Small Salmon and his crew of Kootenay fancy-dancers are coming up from the reservation. Let's all hope the road gangs get some of that ice off the highways!

Weather: More snow -- about 6 more inches at Foy's Lake. 5 degrees F! (Fahrenheit) Gotta drive to school tonight to video the play "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown."

Wildlife: One BIG bald eagle flew right past my deck about five feet off the ground. He or she landed on the lake (almost all frozen now) to dine on a previously-dead duck. A couple of magpies showed up, but didn't get much until the eagle was done. I also shot a photo or two.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media watch: Strange version of "From Earth To The Moon" on TMC this morning. Joseph Cotton and George Sanders from 1958. Kind of like a B-movie with good actors, but lacking a sense of humor (and much else). "Seven Thieves" with Rod Steiger and Joan Collins from 1960 -- a big-budget black and white B-picture, if that makes sense -- Eli Wallach, Edward G. Robinson, and Sebastian Cabot on the French Riviera -- in Cinemascope!

At the College: Much of the Flathead Valley has been spared the heavy snow, so the theater is full -- the energy is good, it's an easy production, and a delight to do. (I hope I get home alright!)

Weather: A real winter snow. About a foot at my house, and 4 to 8 inches on my SLOW drive in to work.

Wildlife: I was greeted by a whitetail fawn as I got to my driveway yesterday. The little creature was grazing, and didn't seem to mind me opening the garage and parking the car.

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Media Watch: Peter Jennings did a long program on ABC last night about the Kennedy assassination. I believe -- no I am sure, that the truth was buried with the president. By that I mean that a lot of evidence about the real events and circumstances, whatever they were, "got lost," or were destroyed in the aftermath of the crime -- by incompetents, or people who "didn't want to look bad."
One thing that Jennings did that was laudable was refute the most preposterous depiction/fictions in Oliver Stone's movie JFK. That thing was functionally as much a fantasy as Stone's much-earlier movie The Hand.

Forty Years Ago: Yes, I remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated -- 8th grade at Jackson Junior High School in Salt Lake City. The rest of my memories of the aftermath are shared by tens, hundreds, thousands, and millions of others.
Here's a Kennedy memory that I doubt anyone has read:
President Kennedy visited Salt Lake City one morning in October 1963. His motorcade took the main route into Salt Lake from the airport about two blocks from Jackson Junior High. About sixty students, including me, were lucky enough to have teachers who indulged our curiosity and walked with us to a spot where we could see him driving by.
This "spot" happened to be a freeway underpass -- there were plenty of places to stand and watch.
Kennedy's open car slowed down, he stood up and waved to all of us, with that famous grin on his face.
He was a very handsome man -- the black & white pictures from the time never did him justice -- they were often shot from below and made him look pudgier than he was. I can testify to the magic of his gaze and presence -- even at ten miles an hour.
We walked back to the school and heard the broadcast of his inconsequential speech from the Mormon Tabernacle over the P.A. By 1 PM of that day the president was back on his plane and flying elsewhere.
Other memories of the time: The military bugler goofed up "Taps" at the president's funeral. No one's ever mentioned it that I can remember. Paul Harvey was smugly dismissing Kennedy's tenure on his radio show within a week -- free speech, for sure, but I'd never liked him before, and I respected him even less after that -- Oliver Stone is not the first to fantasize history and politics under the guise of entertainment.

Weather: The two-day windstorm is over! There was a light dusting of snow, but the roads weren't too bad on the way to work this morning.

Wildlife Report: White seagulls are perching on the light poles around our campus, instead of the big, black ravens.
Watch out where you park!
I think the wind might have blown them down from the dump. (5 miles north of here.)

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media Watch: Still reading -- finished Data Smog from 1998, and picked up another "computer & people" book from 1972. This one was written by someone who'd operated IBM equipment at Los Alamos in 1946 (B.C. = Before they made Computers) and pioneered a time-sharing mainframe system at Dartmouth College in the 60's. His perspective on computer history, and his extrapolations from three decades back are interesting.

At the College: A full day of training students to use the Kron video editing system. Now they can make their OWN TV shows! I think I'll look at ways of putting yesterday's project onto DVD -- Prof. Hegland's instructional video might work well when it's multi-tasked with the actual software.

Weather: %$#@! wind blew all night. I hope all my shingles are still on the roof. Something nasty is moving in from the west because it's getting darker & darker. The air is a miserable mix of spotty rain and wind-bourne grit. Tumbleweeds are still bouncing everywhere today.

Wildlife: A half-dozen whitetail deer cruised our yard at sunset yesterday. A huge red-tailed hawk was hunting in the fields by Little Foy's Lake as I drove to work this morning. The persistant wind broke up any remaining ice on Middle Foy's Lake. The geese didn't seem to mind, but they were huddled against the trees and hills in the southwest corner.

Charity Alert! The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch:
Doesn't this guy ever READ?!
Sure -- I just finished reading Vol. 3 of Parisian Review Interviews, edited by the late George Plimpton.
I also finished My Life In Search of Africa by John Henrick Clarke
Right now I'm in the middle of Data Smog -- I'm reading the book too! HA HA HA HA! (by David Schenk)

At the college: Prof. Hegland is in my office, editing a how-to video about her digital jewel-making equipment.
View that article again: The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Weather: Winter is advancing slowly. Temperatures in the low 40's make for a nice November morning. Middle Foy's Lake lost even more ice -- the geese are happy! That white shelf of frozen stuff at the shaded west end will last for awhile, though. The mountains are sugar-coated. Everything above 1000 meters got snow last night, but the valley escaped with light, unfrozen rain.

Wildlife: Ice is an issue. Beside the open water attacting migrating birds, an early ice-over can kill all the fish in the lake before the spring thaw. A few years ago, the lake was a disgusting mess for that reason. One ironic joy was the plethora of eagles feeding off the watery carrion.

Don't skip the charity site:
The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch:
Monday Night Football had an hour of lead-ins by Britney Spears, then Jennifer Garner, and finally Britney-clips mixed with Hank Williams Jr. introducing the show.
Like him or not, Williams has a booming, resonant singing voice, and his honky-tonk "Rowdy" song has been an appropriate opening call for this TV cash-cow.
Ms. Spears doesn't have much of a voice anyway, and she came off looking like an afterthought. I didn't mind her doing an on-field performance at the start of the season, but I think the audience, and the entertainers, deserve better than what I saw last night. Oh yeah -- the game was kind of a dog, unless you enjoy seeing a defense die right before your eyes, as Pittsburgh's did in the second half.

I mainly watched "Coyote Waits" on PBS' "Mystery." OK scenery, OK acting, OK seeing Native Americans portrayed in their own communities -- but the distortions of Tony Hillerman's plots and characters bothered me. Also when a mystery is hard to solve simply because it's preposterous, I'm kinda disgusted.
Back to the game -- Whoops! 17 points in about seven minutes?!? Somebody's defense has DIED! (see above)

Noon Update: RAINBOWS -- the low clouds to the north have rainbows under them -- a color storm!

Afternoon Update: Damn wind started roaring outta the west -- tumbleweeds started gathering up and tangling in people's clothes and legs.

Weekend Weather; Foggy-bottomed Saturday, snow in the night, and an alright wintery day on Sunday -- snow melting and an unobstructed view all around. The ice on Middle Foy's Lake grew a little, then shrank a bit. The shaded far-west end is a snow-covered shelf where the Canadian Honkers perch, while others swim and feed in the water.

Wildlife Report: A Great Blue Heron glided right past my deck yesterday morning. The ducks drove off a marauding eagle by staying in a watchful group, and making noise at the sight of the predator, instead of feeding alone.

Here's a composite website that I'm visiting every day -- free clicks for charity.
It's nice to know that "eyeballs" are still worth something!
Animal Rescue Site (and the Hunger Site etc.)

Media Watch: CSpan1's Book Notes had Michael Moore as a guest on Sunday. Host Brian Lamb had some pointed questions for him, and Moore wasn't able to "do a performance." It was good to see Moore actually think first, then speak. He came off well, making his points about the book "Dude, Where's My Country?" I always thought that shallow stand-up comedy never served him well anyhow.
Hey! Look at this: Michael Moore is in the U.K. at the same time as Bush. Stay tooned for some PR nightmares:
Michael Moore: 'You need to show that the people of Britain don't support Bush'

The Hockaday Art Museum website was updated over the weekend. I took down my own image for Members Only on the EXHIBIT page, but that's alright, it is still included on the home page. One funny thing is that we are showing medieval manuscripts in a Power Point presentation in our Discovery Gallery
The upcoming holidays at the museum will be a flurry of snow, ice, and activity, but I'll deal with them in good time.
See for yourself! Hockaday Museum of Art

One of my on-campus friends, Gayle Hegland, has her jewelry class mentioned in the local paper:
The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana
The "Native American Thanksgiving" is happening soon, with our most energetic Prof. Gerda Reeb taking on the responsibilities again this year. A group of Kootenay fancy-dancers, led by Stephen Small Salmon, were here a year ago, and it was a good ol' time. About 300 plus school kids had a great feed and a unique experience.

Weather: Steel-gray fog ALL DAMN DAY! I did get a good shot of our library building for their Catalog page.
(I may "Photoshop" the sky to blue.)

Wildlife Report: A sad one today -- there was a dead doe right in the middle of the road in my neighborhood. Poor creature -- someone had a collision last night.

Weather: Rare kind of day -- actual autumn conditions. Just a bite of cold in the air, warming midday -- a bit hazy from these stupid dorks burning their slash etc. I know it's legal and cutomary, but it's been shown to be destructive and unwise since the 1930's.

Something I've shoulda done earlier -- WILDLIFE REPORT!
Almost every day there's something worthy of mention.
Yesterday, I was crossing the street by the local NBC station. A cameraman was shooting some clown in a bear costume. What neither of them noticed was a bald eagle soaring about 50 feet above the street. I wouldn't have seen it in my car, but I was on foot, waiting for the "walk" sign, and had a moment to look up.
My house is next to Middle Foy's Lake and the ice is melted with the nice weather. The Canadian Geese are congregating in various flocks there as they migrate. They perch on the edges of the gathering ice, and swim where there's water.
Sometimes there are hundreds of them honking away and feeding. They'll fly off and then more hundreds will gather again.
Two days ago a bald eagle swept down and took a duck from Middle Foy's Lake. I'll tell you, the waterfowl sure fled the place while that was going on! The place was full by sunset, though.
We have a herd of deer in the neighborhood too. Since no one can fire a gun around the houses, they are safe from hunters. I usually see does and fawns every morning on my way to work in the gray morning light.
After dark, I've learned to watch for the critters, because they'll cross the road without a look.
More people are killed every year in deer/auto collisions then were killed in the last 50 years by sharks worldwide.

Weather: Not too bad, clear roads, occasional sun -- about 40 to 50 degrees (F) SNOW in all the mountains, and late fall colors. The larch trees turn golden-yellow and lose their needles at this time of year, so the slopes are BEAUTIFUL!

Following up on the bad news for our local National Guard on Veteran's Day, there may be a ray of hope (fragment from NY Times):
After two days of urgent talks in Washington with the Bush administration's foreign policy team, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq said today he plans to return to Baghdad to consult with the U.S.-appointed Governing Council there about how best to accelerate the hand-over of power to a new Iraqi government.
After discussing various proposals on ways to save Iraq's troubled political transition, Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator L. Paul Bremer said he would return to Iraq to continue "intense" discussions with the council's 24 members on President Bush's ideas for breaking a logjam on arrangements for selecting a panel to write a new Iraqi constitution before a U.N.-imposed Dec. 15 deadline. Bremer declined to give details on Bush's proposals, saying he had to brief the Governing Council first.

Weather: Slick icy roads on the way to work -- very dangerous. Melted off by 9 or 10.

Veteran's Day 11/11/03
There were some observances yesterday, the "official" holiday, but TODAY's the day that people talked about about the issues this day commemorates.
1st thing: Our local National Guard is being sent to Iraq. These men and women are in a transportation unit, and will do their duty with bulls-eyes on their backs -- for an undetermined time -- for an undetermined goal (a country is not free if it's occupied by foriegn troops, so it can't be truly "Operation Iraqi Freedom"). I'm praying for their safe return. The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Bush said something about "extremists" seeking to rule Iraq -- he's right for a change -- some of their names are Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and Bremer!

The local FM had a folk music show that featured songs about WWI -- mostly by and about British soldiers. "Over There" was NOT played -- if someone didn't like those grim stories -- well, they "can't handle the truth," can they?

I printed up a half-dozen images of Jasper Johns' "Orange Flag" from 1967 and posted them around my little campus. If you stare at the stars on the red, white, and blue flag, then look at the orange field below, you'll see a "ghost flag." What does it mean? I dunno -- maybe staring at the flag might resurrect thoughts about what it's supposed to represent.

Back from vacation: The weather sux here in the Northwest -- cold cold cold.

Arrival in California 10/28/03 -- from One Nation (Under A Groove) Boardroom
References for the uninitiated -- George = George Clinton; Gig = Eric McFadden and RonKat Spearman are also members of Clinton's "P-Funk All-Stars," which played in New Orleans on Halloween, 2003; Gina Hall is a publicist for George's band and others; Atomic Dawg = Gina's dog, named after one of George's most enduring hits; "Mommy What's A Funkadelic?" is a song from Funkadelic's first album in 1970 -- featuring the vocal group "Parliament," and the combined groups' producer, 2nd Tenor George Clinton -- thus P-Funk = Parliament/Funkadelic, also known as "The Funk Mob" for it's many talented members over the years -- or "Da Mob," in street vernacular..
Ohh what a night!
After beatin' feet from Portland, Oregon, and crossing the mountains into Sonoma County, where our friends live, I barely got our newly-purchased car parked, and our vacation stuff unpacked when I called Gina Hall.
She was home, luckily, and we agreed to meet at Eric McFadden's gig at Cafe DuNord in downtown San Francisco -- the rest of the week before the New Orleans gig was going to be too crazy for visiting.
My wife was loathe to trust her virgin vehicle to the tender mercies of Market Street, so I rented a car, just at closing time, and made my way down Highway 101 for an hour or more to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Gina's directions across town were perfect, but I still got somewhat lost on the side streets while getting to my parking spot -- right across the street from the club, at a gas station -- it was worth all seven dollars!
Cafe DuNord is a downstairs joint, kind of narrow, with the bar at the bottom of the stairs and the stage set deep in the bowels of the block.
Eric was busy setting up when I arrived, and he remembered me from P-Funk's Missoula show, over two years back! I got aquainted with his fans and friends in the place, especially Couray, the lady who ran the merchandise table.
The audience were mostly couples in their early thirties. One exceptional guy was not only older than I, but he'd driven in from Sacramento -- 2 and a half hours away -- to see this band live!
The Eric McFadden Trio is James Whiton on acoustic bass, Jeff Anthony on drums, and Eric McFadden on acoustic guitar. Eric started the show with a flashy, flamenco-like arpeggio, then the band kicked in with it's HEAVY bone-crushing power trio sound for an hour and a half ("...thanks to a lovely assortment of pedals and amplifiers..." sez the "Diamonds to Coal" CD)
Eric sings well, in several registers, high to low. His voice suits these anxious songs, and manages to surf over the crashing waves of music.
"Mommy What's A Funkadelic?" was never played, nor was "Voodoo Child," but Eric's sonic train screamed over the same rails, and occasionally a percussionist and cello player rode along too.
Early in the set, Eric introduced Robin Coomer, a lovely woman who'd been dancing in the first row. She stepped up to the microphone, acknowledged the cellist, and electrified the already-enthusiastic crowd by singing a number called "Baby Doll."
I was wondering how she was going to fare, but she skied on top of the musical avalanche very well, with a high steady voice, and kick-ass delivery that cut through the roaring background.
As she stepped off the stage, they mentioned that there was yet another verse on the CD, so I made my way over to Couray's station and bought it right then.
I was drinking water and cofee, and needed 'em both badly, so when I noticed Robin a little later at the bar, she was the first to autograph my copy of "Diamonds to Coal."
Soon afterwards, George's wife Andrea (I don't know their last name, sorry) alerted me that Gina had shown up. (Which one's George Clinton?)
I went back to Couray's spot, and recognized Gina Hall by those bright, smiling eyes of hers -- after almost five years of correspondence, we finally met!
I'd warned her on the phone that I resembled a cross between Capt. Picard and Uncle Fester. She said "Look at you!" We chatted a moment about computers and silly shyt, and then we both turned our attention back to the show -- and it was good -- really GOOD!
Afterward I had a chance to talk with James Whiton a bit, I was also gabbing with a fan named Chris, and the lovely ladies at the bar who'd kept me alert and hydrated all evening. Eric signed autographs for all and sundry, and talked to everyone who wanted to talk.
I noticed the exalted Atomic Dawg at the top of the stairs, and ran up to spend a fabulous forty minutes on Market Street, in perfect weather, watching the patrons leave the club -- with Atomic Dawg's many fans greeting him by name as they came outside.
Robin Coomer, for one, made him dance by clapping her hands in rhythm. Some of us guys chimed along with fragments of the song "Atomic Dog." Enthusiasm, rather than skill held forth, but everyone, young and old, white and black, seemed to know the line "Why must I chase the cat?"
I saw Eric again, and wished him well in New Orleans -- I gave his sharpie pen back to Couray too! I bid Gina and A.D. good night, and thanked her for the Ronkat CD's she'd given me.
BTW they are fun and FUNKY -- "Little Monsters," with George and da' Mob.
I started for home at about two -- it was Tuesday night, and I only saw four other cars sharing the streets with me all the way back across the Golden Gate. When I came back to San Francisco on Halloween, it was SNOWING -- but that's a whole other story.
Y'know it was well worth driving a long way to see Eric McFadden play in his own group. His versatility still amazes me! And Gina --- Gina Hall is one heck of a fine lady and an ace cyber-pal. It was fabulous to see her operating, and having fun, on her home turf, in my favorite city on Earth!
GINA'S REPLY: it was a pleasure meeting you last week. AtomicDawg and I had a great time too.
Come back soon. gina
AFTERWORD: Look at the "Little Monsters" cover -- Gina Hall's P-Funk website is: http://www.atomicdawg.com/funk.html
Check out the rest of the site too -- the pages about RonKat Spearman and Shi' Tzu dogs are wonderful!
Eric has a website, describing his various musical projects at:
http://www.ericmcfadden.com

OLD NEWS -- what went on that same day:
This wraps up my perspective on "The Laramie Project," and I'm glad that decency prevailed on Casper's city council.

Wyoming town votes to move Ten Commandments monument
The Associated Press Wednesday, October 29, 2003

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - City leaders voted to move a Ten Commandments monument out of a public park after an anti-gay preacher proposed his own monument saying slain college student Matthew Shepard is in hell.
The Rev. Fred Phelps said displaying the Ten Commandments monument would force the city to allow other public displays as well, including his own.
Phelps' proposal was unanimously rejected Tuesday by the City Council, which then voted 5-4 to move the Ten Commandments monument into a plaza that will honor a variety of historic documents.
But the move may not fend off Phelps' plan, or satisfy a separate complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which had threatened to sue if the Ten Commandments monument was not removed from City Park, where it has been for nearly 40 years.
Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., said he chose Casper as the site for the 6-foot-tall granite display because it is where the University of Wyoming student learned it is "OK to be gay."
Shepard's 1998 murder sparked a national outcry for hate-crimes legislation. Phelps picketed the funeral.
Casper Mayor Barb Peryam said she believes the city can win any battle in court.
"If you think that we are going to put our monument someplace in cold storage, I've got another thought for you," she said to the "outsiders" involved. "We are going to put it where it will be more noticed, more taken advantage of and used for learning purposes by all families."
However, neither Dan Barker, of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, nor Shirley Phelps-Roper, of the Westboro Baptist Church, shared Peryam's assessment of the city's chances in court.
"It looks like a ruse; it looks like a trick for them to keep it," Barker said. "It would probably be unconstitutional because the intention of the city is to maintain a religious document. The reason they are doing that is to keep the Ten Commandments."
In a decision last year, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that any city displaying a Ten Commandments monument on city property must also allow monuments of other religious or political groups.
Phelps, 73, is using the decision to back his argument.
His $15,000 display would bear a bronze placard with Shepard's portrait and an inscription reading: "Matthew Shepard entered hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God's warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."
Phelps-Roper said her church will examine its options, including litigation.
Barker was unable to say what his organization's next move will be.
Sarah McMullen, a spokeswoman for Shepard's mother, Judy, declined comment other than to say "The Shepards and the entire community of Casper have chosen to confront Mr. Phelps' reprehensible behavior with silence."
City Manager Tom Forslund said the Ten Commandments monument will probably be removed from City Park and placed in temporary storage next month. The new plaza will include monuments honoring the Declaration of Independence, the preamble of the Constitution and other documents vital to the development of American law, Forslund said.

Casper Local News: Ten Commandments issue divides Casper City Council
By BRENDAN BURKE Star-Tribune staff writer

A debate of biblical proportions brewed Tuesday at a work session of the Casper City Council as council members parted like the Red Sea over whether to keep a Ten Commandments monument in City Park.
After about 45 minutes of sometimes fiery conversation between the council members, it was decided that the city will look into the possibility of selling the small portion of the park on which the monument sits to some private party.
The legality of keeping the stone monument, which was donated to the city by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in 1965, was challenged last month by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group that advocates the separation of church and state.
In a letter to the city, the group requested that the monument be moved from the city-owned property at the southwest corner of Center and Seventh streets. Having such a monument in a public park is a violation to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the letter contended.
Before the council discussed the matter, City Attorney Bill Luben and City Manager Tom Forslund explained the legal options the city had regarding the monument staying in the park.
According to the ruling, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals -- which has jurisdiction in Wyoming -- made in the case of Summan v. Ogden, a city that wishes to have a Ten Commandments monument on public property must also allow other monuments that espouse differing religious or political views, Luben said. These views may include hate speech or other unpopular rhetoric, he added.
Based on this legal precedent, the city has basically two options, Forslund said. The council could vote to keep the Decalogue and risk monuments of hatred and intolerance being placed in the park, or the Ten Commandments could be removed and given to a private party to display in a public manner, the city manager said.
"I hate this situation because it has been there for a long time and no one has complained" to the city about it, Councilwoman Mildred Lamb said. However, she added that she was unwilling to keep the monument and risk hate speech being written in stone in a Casper park.
Councilwoman Renee Burgess agreed with Lamb.
"It galls me to no end to vote to remove it," Burgess said. "And I would challenge anyone who has been hurt by it to come forward publicly" and say so. But like Lamb, Burgess was unwilling to risk hate speech in the park in the name of keeping the 38-year-old monument.
Council members Lynne Whalen, Paul Bertoglio and Jacquie Anderson, however, said they are sick of bowing to groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation and that they were willing to take a stand and keep the monument in the park.
"I am very upset that just the threat that someone might put up hate speech" will make us take down the Ten Commandments, Whalen said. "If they want to sue us, then come let them sue us," she added.
"I won't support moving it," Bertoglio said. "I think at some point we have to stand up to these people. Take a stand and let them come," he added.
"Our nation's motto is 'In God We Trust,'" Anderson said. She asked if Americans are going to have to take that off of every coin eventually.
Conversely, council members Guy Padgett, Barb Watters and Mayor Barb Peryam all expressed their desire to remove the monument.
"I am not offended by this monument, but I am not willing to risk hate speech" like that of Rev. Fred Phelps, who preaches and protests against homosexuals, to be put on a monument in City Park, Padgett said.
"Given the fact that Rev. Phelps comes here it seems every year" we may be taking that risk, Peryam added.
When asked if it were possible to sell the small chunk of City Park to a private party so that the monument could stay where it is, Forslund said that option would be difficult to accomplish.
The land on which City Park sits was donated to the city by former Wyoming governor Joseph Carey in the early part of the 20th century, Forslund said. "And there is (a) restriction placed on the property and if we were to sell off a portion of it then we would open ourselves up to losing the whole City Park complex. That has been litigated in the state Supreme Court twice in years past. The Carey estate, which I think is located in New Jersey, takes it very seriously," he added.
Whalen suggested that the city try to contact the Carey estate and see if they would allow this small portion of the park to be sold. "We do not know how this family would feel about this issue," Whalen said.
Anderson, Bertoglio, Lamb, Burgess and Councilman Ed Opella agreed with Whalen that the city should contact the Carey estate.
Watters, Padgett and Peryam, however, thought the monument should be removed regardless, they said.
Luben said his office would look into the legality of selling a piece of public property so a monument like the one in City Park can remain there, he said.
Forslund, however, warned that it may be some time before the city hears back from the Carey estate as correspondence in the past with it has always been written and has always been slow.

MONDAY -- and I'm so outta date with this weblog.
I'm going on vacation Thursday, so I'm gonna get "behinder."
O Patient Reader -- if ya' even exist -- stay tuned for my vacation plans (later).

YESTERDAY -- Videotaped our production of "The Laramie Project" at FVCC. I'll be titling today, and getting a VHS master made for the cast by Wednesday. My impression of the play is that it owes a lot to Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," subconsciously or not. It has the virtue of being able to be done by anybody who can read or remember lines. If your talent is greater than that, more power to you!
The actual incident of Matthew Shepard's murder continues to make news (quoted articles below):
Our school will host a panel discussion on Oct. 28 -- the day that Shepard's home town, Casper, Wyoming tries to figure it's way out of a legal conundrum that's been inflicted on the place by a very hateful preacher in Topeka, Kansas.

Patrick Letellier, PlanetOut.com Network Tuesday, October 7, 2003
Anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, whose supporters picketed Shepard's funeral with their inflammatory "God Hates Fags" signs, recently announced plans to construct an "absolutely beautiful" monument to the young man in Shepard's hometown of Casper, Wyo., the Denver Post reported.
Standing 6 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide, the monument would display a plaque reading: "Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God's solemn warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22," the report said.
Phelps plans to erect his monument in a one-acre, public city park, and a court ruling last year may make it impossible for city officials to stop him. In 2002, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals stipulated that since the park has displayed a monument of the Ten Commandments since 1965, monuments promoting other messages must also be allowed.

By TARA WESTREICHER Star-Tribune staff writer Monday, October 20, 2003
Casper (Wyoming) churchman dislikes basis of Phelps message
A local pastor said Sunday that the anti-homosexuality demonstrations by the Westboro Baptist Church are wrongly based in hate, not love.
Members of the Topeka, Kan., church returned to Casper on Sunday to demonstrate outside local churches that surround City Park.
Father Royce Brown, of St. Mark's Episcopal church, was reluctant to comment on the Phelps' demonstration but expressed some distaste for the group's message.
"Anytime you protest out of hate you've got the wrong basis," he said. "If you protest, you should protest out of love."
Margie Phelps, daughter of church leader Rev. Fred Phelps, said her church is pressuring city officials to let it place a monument, which would claim Shepard is in hell, on city property.
Several anti-hate protesters gathered outside of St. Mark's at 9:30 a.m. holding "Honk for Matt" and "Casper, no home for hate" signs. They stood across the street from Phelps' group.
Chief of Police Tom Pagel, who arrived at the park with several of his officers, said the demonstrations in Casper had been "mostly uneventful." Phelps asked that police be present during the demonstrations here. Their request will cost the city's taxpayers roughly $1,500, officials have said. He did not attend Sunday's demonstrations.

Fate of Ten Commandments to be decided Oct. 28
By BRENDAN BURKE Star-Tribune staff writer

The Casper City Council plans to decide the fate of the Ten Commandments monument that currently resides in City Park once and for all at a special meeting slated for Oct. 28.
At the meeting, the council will chose from three options -- two of the options have been debated in council meetings before, but the third option is a new one and might allow the monument to stay on public property without violating the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state, City Manager Tom Forslund said.
The controversy surrounding the monument, which was given to the city by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in 1965, began last month when the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to the city requesting the removal of the Decalogue on the southwest corner of Seventh and Center streets.
Having a religious monument, like a stone Ten Commandments marker, on public property is a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the letter said.
A ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 states that any city that displays a Ten Commandments monument on city property must also allow monuments espousing the views of other religious or political groups. The matter was further complicated when the Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., informed the city of plans to erect a monument in City Park declaring that slain University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is in hell because of his sexual preference. Both the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Westboro Baptist Church have threatened the city with litigation if it does not grant their requests.
The two options to be discussed at the special meeting that the council has discussed in the past are to either give the monument back to the Eagles and refuse Phelps his request, or to keep the monument in the park and refuse Phelps his request, Forslund said.
The first of these two options is unpopular with a large segment of the population and the second would almost certainly lead to litigation.
Under the new option the council will be discussing on Oct. 28, the city would "remove the Ten Commandments from City Park and put it into a new plaza that would include a number of historical documents," Forslund said. "Things like the Declaration of Independence, Preamble to the Constitution, Mayflower Compact. In other words, documents that were instrumental in the development of our law and our country." This new plaza would be on city owned property, he said.
This approach to solving a Ten Commandments dilemma was tried by the city of Grand Junction, Colo., Forslund said. When that Colorado city was legally challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union to remove the monument, Grand Junction won the case because the court determined the Decalogue was displayed in a secular manner, he added. If the council decides to follow Grand Junction's example, then most likely "the Ten Commandments would be removed from City Park and put into storage until such time as they were ready to be installed into the new plaza," Forslund said. All the legal monuments would probably be placed into the plaza at the same time, the city manager added. "And then the question would be as whether there would be groups within the community willing to donate those (other monuments) or pay for the erection of them," he added.
One area already being discussed for such a legal monument plaza is the city owned area on the southeast corner of Second and Beech streets, Forslund said.
Under this new option, Phelps' monument would not be allowed to be erected in either City Park or in the new plaza, Forslund said.
The City Council will not be taking any public comment at the special Oct. 28 meeting, the city manager said.
"They have held the public hearing already and now it is time for them to make a decision," he said.
However, persons wishing to make their opinions known on the matter can do so by contacting the city or individual council members.

What happened yesterday? Welllll -- let me tell you.
The weather started changing and we had delightfully scattered rain showers all over the mountains and valley by Tuesday morning. The local paper had a front-page shot of McDonald Lake, in nearby Glacier National Park, hazy with wildfire smoke, so they must have gone to press before the precipitation started.
Here's a link to their site (BTW, the photo isn't there, but I thought it was about time to introduce the local cagebottom.)
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/

I had a delightfully restful evening after work, for a change.
I watched Laurence Olivier's "Henry V" on television -- the various sets and locations impressed me.
There was a sequence in the Globe Theatre where the rain fell during the performance -- EX-cellent!
There were some outdoor horse-riding sequences with stuntmen in jousting armor.
Sir Larry did his "Once more into the breach..." speech mounted on a horse in a soundstage, on a fake beach with obviously painted backgrounds behind the big fake rocks that made up the wings. Those forced-perpective sets were really something in that film. I'll be damned if they weren't done to mimic mideavel manuscript paintings.
There was a too-serious air to much of the movie that made it seem tedious to me.
Why I kept watching was ROBERT NEWTON -- he played a put-upon fool named "Pistol," and he was worth watching every second! His speeches had those same mugs and twitches that made Long John Silver so interesting.
In case yahr' missed it, matey, here's a link to more about this fabulous actor:
www.mooncove.com/newton

Today (Tuesday) at the college is one of those days when faculty makes last-minute requests.
I'll write about work after I get some of it done!

Hey! It's Monday, so I 'll start by writing about Friday.
(????????)
I didn't take my camera to the Hockaday Museum, after all, but I had a good time listening to Dave Walburn's music Friday night. He autographed my copy of his CD, and attracted about 40 people to the place. Anita Ho, a new science professor from my college was there and I'm glad she showed up! She recently moved here from another community college in LeGrand, Oregon -- a even smaller place, I'm told. "You don't have things like this in LeGrand!" she said, referring to our Art Museum and the CD party.
(It takes a lot of community support to do it HERE. We depend completely on contributions and grants to make these things happen.)
More about Saturday -- I guess I should talk about garage sales, since I promised to do so.
The Hockaday Museum coincidentally had one on Friday and Saturday. My wife and I didn't go, but I checked out the stuff just before the CD party. Yes, there was a lot of drek that we were better off without, but there was one cluster of items I found remarkable: Large 2 1/2 X 4 foot posters on foam-core board, laminated, with B&W images of James Stewart, Tom Mix, Bill Cody, and one other movie star I don't remember, advertising Stetson hats. No, we don't need that clutter, but I figure they belong someplace. BTW -- those two events are no longer shown on the Hockaday website, I've updated it.
Garage sale itinerary:
From Birch Grove Community Hall, in the center of Flathead Valley, to the west shore of Flathead Lake, with a few stops on the rather ramshakle west side of Kalispell, the elegant east side of Kalispell, and odd pockets of converted agricultural areas that have been surrounded by urban sprawl -- outbuildings turned into apartments, small tract developments next to trailer courts, and a fire hall in an agricultural district that is losing acreage to houses on a daily basis.
Birch Grove is not a lie -- there's a white wooden building in the middle of massive birches turning color with the Autumn, halfway between the meandering, still-rural Whitefish River and "Costco," the massive warehouse store on dangerously busy Highway 2. We bought nothing there, but watched Marion and her husband sell out the contents of their booth to an antique dealer. Further up the road, toawrd the Whitefish River, I picked up some Science-Fiction paperbacks by Joanna Russ, with the most lurid, misrepresentative covers I've seen in a long time. Earlier in the day, I'd bought 3 books in west Kalispell -- A 1909 Sears Catalog reprint, "Flying Saucers On Attack" from the mid-50's, and "Years to Remember; America 1945-1955" by John Gunther, illustrated mostly with photos from Life Magazine.
I was born in 1949, and I was either too young to know about these events, or wasn't even born when they happened.
I only recognised two images from my early youth -- Hopalong Cassidy and Howdy Doody. I can't remember hearing the name Eisenhower until first grade, when the 1956 elections were held, in retrospect.
Science Fiction gets one catty sentence, plus a goofy shot from the Captain Video set, a show I only know through reading, with a reputation for embarassing cheapness.
The rumor of "Flying Saucers" gets most of another page, plus a big, obviously-doctored photo. I don't know when I'll get around to reading the "Saucers" book. I'd seen and read enough on that subject by the time I was in 5th grade to cross "alien contact" off my list of possibilities. Ironically, reading well-written Science Fiction in those days helped develop my young ability to weigh evidence, without losing my imagination, and to expect more than "little green men' or "bug-eyed monsters" from extraplanetary life.
So there's a couple of reasons why I go "Garage-sailing:" It's a way of learning your own community better, simply by finding the dam' addresses. You'll also find out which neighborhoods are more or less prosperous by what they're selling!
My second reason is culture -- I really like to see where we've been, and even when I don't buy anything, I take note of furniture, lamps, books, records, pictures, and other artifacts from different times.

SUNDAY -- wha'did I do yesterday?
NFL Football ( no ESPN, of course) while I did some household chores -- gotta get ready for winter!
The afternoon was so nice, my wife and I ran off to nearby Lone Pine State Park and hiked around. I took some smokey pictures of Flathead Lake & Valley, but we mostly explored -- it was awfully dry and dusty under the trees. When we got home we got in the canoe and paddled around Middle Foy's Lake a few times, followed by a barbeque on the deck. As I cooked, I saw Chicago squeak by Oakland, and Donovan McNabb hold off Washington. (Take THAT! ESPN)
After sunset I updated the Hockaday site, and made a little spare change.

I had too much fun on Saturday to write ANYTHING!
The weather was fabulous again, but the valley is filling up with smoke from cars and "open burning."
The fires in the mountains are barely kept in check by the cold nights.
After a morning of garage sales (more about that later), I relaxed a bit by watching a borrowed copy of "Long John Silver" AKA "Return to Treasure Island."
Robert Newton always makes me laugh, even though this movie is largely dreary and predictable. Here's the link to a website honoring his memory:
www.mooncove.com/newton
I found it a few weeks ago while I was wondering what "Talk Like A Pirate Day" was all about.

I blew off Thursday COMPLETELY!
If anyone noticed, I'll be sur--prised.
Late Wednesday I sent off an email to ESPN, telling them that, for the first time in 15 years, I'm going to give up watching them throughout the MLB and NFL seasons. The "Big, Fat Idiot" was simply too much to bear. What was worse was ESPN's stupid lies about "no racism" in Limbaugh's obviously racist comments.
I noticed that Rush "resigned" Thursday morning -- unless I hear some apologies from the pimps at ESPN who put him on their show in the first place, just to pander his hate speech for ratings -- I'm still not tuning in.
In reviewing the C-Span tape from Thursday, I can't see the "School Bus" at all!
I'm seeing plenty on Limbaugh (ughh). I've said my piece about him, and I'm unconcerned about anything else in his life.

I wonder if today's School Bus segment from Missoula will be on the recording made this morning?
As the tape unfolds in fast-forward mode, I see the Washington Journal's host going over news stories, then interviews, then phone calls, then .... there's the Bresnan Bros. who own the local cable company, doing a self-promo about it in the last 5 minutes.
Hmmm -- our scheduling info was wrong! There's the test pattern -- that's all there is -- one day LIVE from Montana on C-Span's School Bus.

Speaking of radio talk-show hosts, that's the bulk of AM broadcasting here. We have local long-timers and short-timers ranting & raving from their glass rooms. The syndicated stuff abounds as well. I'm not saying any names, because they're all over the country.
Montana, though, actually elects this sub-species to the U.S. Senate. Conrad Burns got in there promising that he'd serve two terms and leave. He's on his third term, and said he was going to Iraq when he was on C-Span two days ago.
The last time I saw him personally, he had just been in Beijing, China at the start of the SARS outbreak -- he hadn't bothered to tell us until he shook our hands and introduced himself face-to-face. I'm glad that the hotels were as empty as he said, and that he didn't visit any hospitals there!

So much for the Media -- what's going on here? A long, mild Autumn, which is scary because of the recent fires. More drought is NOT what we need, but the Winter is so long here that these sunny days are a guilty pleasure.
I'm pouring wine tonight for David Walburn's CD release party at the Hockaday Art Museum.
Check it out again:
The Hockaday Museum of Art
I proposed a fund-raising idea to the local Northwest Historical Society last night. It might lead to my doing another Web site, but those guys have even less money than the Hockaday! (Which is why I proposed that scheme.)
I've finished my day showing a student how to archive his photos on CD, and dealt with CD transfer problems computer-to-computer. An instructor is creating teaching materials as I leave. I made a master tape of Larry Len Peterson talking about his book "Laton A. Huffman -- Montana's Frontier Photographer. I'm taking my camera tonight, so overall there's going to be a little more art in the world.

I started this morning reviewing a C-Span segment shot in Bozeman, Montana at MSU.
(Montana State University) The C-Span School Bus will be in Montana for three more days, and my department will tape each cablecast. I work at Flathead Valley Community College here in Kalispell, Montana, and a certain percentatge of our students finish their degrees there in Bozeman, so I was interested in what they had to say.
Besides C-Span's moderator, Montana's two U.S. senators were taking questions: Conrad Burns(R) and Max Baccus(D).
One student chilled my blood when he stated that "There's no differece between Republicans and Democrats." he tried to make a point about "working together," but that boy was deficient in observation and memory skills, if he truly holds that belief in a political climate that getting more polarized every day.
The issue of Race was discussed -- Montana is overwhelmingly "White," outside of the Native American Reservations, but the students seemed to expect diversity on any college campus -- including their own.
My observation was that they expected conformity as well. I wonder if they'd recognize an actual condition of diversity if they were exposed to one?

This is simply a point-of-view blog.
I'm going to write about what I see and hear in this particular (peculiar) corner of the USA.
To aid me, I'm going to investigate XML and whatever tools are used in this cyber-verse.
Check out "my" website for one aspect of the local scene:
The Hockaday Museum of Art