The Stranger In the Woods by Michael Finkel

Book review: The Stranger In the Woods by Michael Finkel This is the fascinating story of a man who lived in the woods in Maine alone for 27 years. The person lived off the grid, in a secluded area of Maine near vacation homes. Labeled a ‘hermit’ by local people, this allowed him to have a legendary quality about him, and he developed a strong following and also a strong hatred among people. It is an interesting aspect of many public lives, that when you don’t provide a lot of information about yourself, you are given an aura or personality that in some cases has no bases in reality. As a hermit, he ‘lived off the land’ for 27 years by raiding local businesses and vacation homes for food and clothing and anything else he needed. This lead to many people living in fear of him, not knowing when he would show up, if he was in there homes at night when they slept or when he would steal again. When finally caught he was charged with multiple burglary accounts, and left with probation and counseling as his punishment. What I find most fascinating about this story is when the author speculates on whether this person was autistic or some similar condition. This idea is pursued in relation to how someone could have almost zero contact with any other human being for 27 years, and basically like it that way. This brings up many aspects of what it is to be in society, what are the evolutionary traits that allow this to happen, and if this is a genetic trait, how this would not persist as there would not be conditions for people with this trait to reproduce, as that would involve interacting with other people.

The Outrun by Any Liptrot

Book review The Outrun by Any Liptrot This was a very enjoyable memoir written by a women who grew up in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland. It is the story of her growing up, not leading a very great life with troubled parents, not liking the rural life she was born into and then finding the means to escape by going to college and moving to London. In London she was adrift, getting into various kinds of trouble and ending up in rehab. After rehab she returned to the islands north of Scotland for a ‘visit’ and ended up staying. The island life, the starkness, the geology and the wildlife, which she had zero interest in as a person growing up there, turned out to fascinate her as a sober adult. She became an expert on the flora and fauna of the islands, working for conservations groups, becoming a part of the community that she never could as an unhappy child growing up there. Among her other ruminations, she speculates on the nature of addiction, family, heredity, connection to the land and other themes that are present in other books that are listed here. In particular she talks about the aspects of being alone and in silence, or at least in nature and what this means to people’s lives and well being.

One Summer by Bill Bryson

Book review. A good summer read, and not just because that's in the title. Bryson takes the summer of 1927 and puts forth all the happenings of that summer as a lens to the past and a preview to the future. Babe Ruth and the Yankees, Charles Lindbergh and the flight of the Atlantic, Sacco and Vanzetti and the anarchist movement, Al Capone and prohibition, Coolidge and Harding and American politics, and many social movements and the aspects of them are covered. For each of the subjects, which for the most part focus on an individual like Ruth or Lindbergh, they are used as a vehicle to both provide a history of their area, baseball and aviation, and as a precursor of what is to come. The author outlines how the birth of the modern celebrity kicked into high gear in 1927 with the explosion of interest, worldwide, in Charles Lindbergh. He outlines how before this their were sensational murder trials with people who were previously unknown, but they tended to be short lived sensationalized stories designed to sell newspapers. With Lindbergh, his celebrity was overnight and lasted the rest of his life. The way that celebrity came about hit a zenith in the year of 1927. Newspapers were of course widely established and the major way that people received information, but radio had become ubiquitous right at this time, and television was "invented" in 1927, according to the author. Of course, looking at all the events of 1927 knowing what is coming with the stock market crash in 1929 and the events that will lead eventually to WWII we have the luxury of hindsight. Entertaining and thought provoking, very worth the time to read this one.

Modern Streetcar the Game Changer

June 11, 2014 Tucson's Modern Streetcar, I call it the Trolley, goes into service July 25,2014. Its been an interesting process watching it evolve as a service, and watching it transform neighborhoods. When we first moved to Tucson, there barely was a downtown Tucson. There was the Hotel Congress and the Screening Room on Congress Street. And that was about it. Of course there were other bars and some places to eat, but they basically catered to a select group of people who lived and hung out in downtown. But slowly over the past 15 years things began to change. The biggest one to start things changing was the reopening of the Fox Theater in 2005. Then slowly things began happening. More events and shows took place at the Railto Theater, after that underwent some transformation. The train depot was refurbished as a drinks and eatery venue. One North Fifth was rehabbed as an urban apartment building. As residences came to be available so that people could live downtown, more services moved in. Coffee houses, upscale restaurants, more entertainment venues, the University created a presence downtown with a building on Stone Avenue. The final piece of the puzzle is the Modern Streetcar. The initial start of construction of the Streetcar was disruptive. Many streets were torn up for a long period of time, traffic was interfered with. However, once the tracks were laid and the first cars started to roll on them for testing, the excitement started growing. It will be very interesting to see how this all evolves, its so exciting to feel like we are at the beginning of a new era.

Prank Calls

Prank Calls File this under observation. My nephew found an old Prince Albert tobacco can in a junk store, bought for me. I brought it to work, and it got a pretty good laugh, from people of a certain age. So everyone who remembered the old joke that people would call up and ask "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" and when you said yes, "then you better let him out." A real knee slapper. So this brought me to the thought that prank calling is a thing of the past. With the proliferation of cell phones, and people getting rid of land lines, pranksters don't have access to phone numbers. So with prank phone calling gone, all we have left is email spam.

Suntran Chronicles

The Suntran, Tucson city bus system, is now my major form of transportation for going to work. It is inexpensive, easy and convenient since I happen to live in an area where there is frequent buses and several options. Going to work I take the number 5 bus that goes up Pima Street. Going home I take the number 9 bus that goes from the UofA Mall to Campbell and then to Grant Boulevard. One day as taking the bus home, it stopped at the corner of Grant and Swan. There is a Petsmart store on this corner, and a young boy, probably about twelve years old got on the bus with a small pet box, pet carrier. He was at the front of the bus and I was towards the back, so I could not see what was in the box that he opened and showed to the people around him, who looked in the carrier with interest. He got off the bus with the carrier at the Craycroft stop, which was my stop also. An hour or so later I went to the Seven-Eleven store and the corner of Pima and Craycroft to get a movie from the Red Box. When I got there I saw that there was no longer a Red Box at that location. However, I noticed outside the front door of the store that there was a small pet carrier just like the one I saw the boy with on the bus. I went in the store, the only person there was the person working, and I pointed out the box. We went outside and opened the box, inside was a black and white rat, looking perfectly healthy and curious. A women who was coming to the store looked in the box, ”Rats are the best pets. I’ve had lots of them and they are great.” The Seven-Eleven clerk looked at her, “Do you want it?” However she explained she didn’t have her cages any longer so couldn’t. The clerk and I talked about what to do, and I suggested he call the Humane Society and they would pick it up. He said he knew who the Society was and would do that. Walking home, it occurred to me that while I never had bought a pet at Petsmart, it made sense that they would keep records of who bought what animal there. To follow up with any issues and for marketing of course. At home I called the Petsmart and eventually got connected to Vicky, store manager. I told her the story and she understood exactly what I was talking about. She put me on hold and came back a few minutes later. She found the record for the rat, had the boys name but not his phone number. But she said “I will send one of my guys over to pick it up and bring it back to the store. Thanks for looking out for animals like this!” I told her I would call the Seven-Eleven and tell the guy not to call the Humane Society and that someone would be picking up the rat. I called and tried to explain the situation, the clerk then said to me “Come pick up your rat!” was all he could say. I stopped trying to explain about Petsmart. “Someone’s on the way” and hung up the phone. Thinking this was the end of this I started to make something to eat. Twenty minutes later the phone rang, it was Vicky from Petsmart. “My guy is at the CircleK on Pima and can’t locate the rat.” “No, not the CircleK, it’s at the Seven-Eleven on Pima and Craycroft.” “Oh, okay.” I hung up from that conversation and started to laugh. I was just imagining the Petsmart employee going into the CircleK and telling them he was there to pick up the rat. Of course they would have no idea what he was talking about. Thirty minutes went by and Vicky called again. “Garry I just wanted you to know that everything has worked out. We have the rat back here in the store. We found his phone number because he used a Petsmart members card when buying the rat. We called and talked to his grandma, she told us he already had a guinea pig, find another home for the rat.” So apparently his thought when he brought home the unwanted rat was to leave it at the Seven-Eleven so that someone would take it to a good home. And it did work out for the rat.

Lalanne and Child

Jack Lalanne and Julia Child changed the world. 4 Saguaros.