Pork on a Stick

Yum yum..pork on a stick… there’s nothing like it (thank goodness).

The Man Groomer

This is just such a horrible name for a product – The Mangroomer – I mean, really, who thinks this stuff up???
“Hey baby, want to touch my man groomer?”
I mean..just… ewww!

Intentionally Flooded and Buried Town in “The Sentimentalists” Based on True Story

The new award-winning book, The Sentimentalists, features the fictitious town of Casablanca, Ontario, Canada, which has been intentionally flooded, and submerged and, well, buried under water, as part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway project, back in 1958. While the town of Casablanca is not real, the fact that ten towns were actually intentionally flooded, submerged, and forever buried under water is all too real. Yes, the St. Lawrence Seaway project actually killed 10 towns. Known as “The Lost Villages”, the flooded and buried villages were Aultsville, Dickinson’s Landing, Farran’s Point, Maple Grove, Mille Roches, Moulinette, Santa Cruz, Sheek’s Island, Wales and Woodlands.

The background is that as the construction of the Moses Saunders Power Dam was being planned, negotiations to relocate the families who lived in the ten villages were underway. In the end, these families were compensated, and relocated, and their villages went to a watery grave.

The negotiations weren’t all smooth, however. Many felt that the value of real estate had been depressed by the upcoming construction of the dam and the Saint Lawrence Seaway, and the compensation awarded to those relocated was based on those deflated property values.

In any event, it is the history of the Lost Villages that gave birth to Skibsrud’s flooded Casablanca, as one of her main characters, a Vietnam vet, is relocated to the shore of the lake that is Casablanca’s final resting place, by his daughter.

The critical reviews of the book, which is a first novel, have been superlative (if often with the caveat “for a first novel”), while reader reviews have been mixed. Frankly, we think that the reason that Skibsrud’s novel one the coveted Giller Prize is because it treats the issue of the Lost Villages as an integral underlying theme, but that’s just our hunch.

You can get The Sentimentalists from Amazon, where you can buy The Sentimentalists in hard copy or a version of The Sentimentalists for Kindle

When Grownups Can’t Say “Hell”

I had a conversation today, with a grown woman.

And during this conversation she said to me, and I kid you not…

“It’s been the day from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks”

Omygawd – I haven’t heard that term since junior high – maybe longer ago.

I can’t believe that came out of a grown woman’s mouth, without a hint of irony or self-mockery.

Triple Rainbow

Not sure how well you can see it but this was a gorgeous triple rainbow.. Have I mentioned that we love Boulder?

Copper Theft Up in Silicon Valley?

Since moving to Boulder, I occasionally read (through a Topix feed) the police blotter for our old ‘hood in Sunnyvale. Mostly I read it to a) remind myself just how much nicer it is here in Boulder, and b) keep abreast of what’s going on back where the house we still own and rent out is located.

Today I noticed that there seems to be a rash of copper thefts in the area. Ok, it’s just two, today, but still, don’t you think that two incidents involving the ‘transfer’ or theft of copper, among the stolen bike helmet and other petty thefts, kind of stands out?

So, what’s up with the copper thefts in Silicon Valley?

You can read that police blotter here.

Nuclear Excavation – and Idea Whose Time Has Come – and Gone, Thank Goodness

Maybe I’m the only one – but I’ll bet that I’m not – did you know that there was once a plan to do something called “nuclear excavation” – or “nuclear earthmoving”, i.e. using nuclear explosions to move massive amounts of earth for excavation projects?

In fact, not only was it planned, but it was tested, under the auspices of a government project formed specifically to study nuclear excavation and nuclear earthmoving. The project was called “Operation Plowshare” (or sometimes “Project Plowshare”).

Holy irradiated earth, Mutantman!

Thank goodness it was eventually abandoned, but not before four test explosions were performed, mostly aimed at proving how effective nuclear excavation would be for the Panama Canal.

You can read more about it here. You can also download the Executive Summary of Operation Plowshare (in PDF format) or view it in HTML format here.