Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Weekend Assignment: A Visit to the Little Frog



The things I do for memes! In this case, for Weekend Assignment #312: Write A Culinary Review, I took extreme measures after being stalled all week. You see, back on my birthday (March 10th), my friend Kevin and I went to a Puerto Rican restaurant called El Coqui, which opened recently near my home. Sounds like a perfect topic for a food review, right? Except that I couldn't remember the names of the exotic items I'd ordered. So this afternoon I went there again.



This time, I started off taking notes, but then asked for and obtained a "to go" menu. Much better!



El Coqui is a little frog that is sort of a mascot of Puerto Rico. He turned up in the restaurant on their bread serving bowl, and as a cute, almost pictographic symbol on their menu.



Anyway. Here is what I had on my birthday. This is the "Especial de la Casa," Arroz con gandules, Pernil y Pastel. This translates as "Rice and pigeon peas, roasted pork and pastel." The roasted pork is easy to identify, and rather good it was, too. The other two items on the plate were almost a treasure hunt. The rice had chick peas as well as the "pigeon peas," and I think some kind of bean, and I think more pork. I liked it. The really weird item was the third thing, the pastel I guess. It was sort of the Purerto Rican equivalent of a tamale, but made from a plantain instead of corn, and stuffed with meat and chick peas and I'm not sure what else.

And plantains are kind of the point. Many years ago, my friend Robin took me to a Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles. I distinctly remember eating something that was like Mexican food, except that it was made with a banana. A banana! And I liked it! When I saw there was a Puerto Rican restaurant opening at 22nd and Craycroft, I kind of hoped that Puerto Rican cuisine also incorporated bananas in their cooking. Well, yes and no. They use plantains, which are larger and greener cousins of your standard yellow banana. Plantains, I learned belatedly, are not sweet, and not really meant to be eaten raw. El Coqui makes fritters of them, filled with beef, which is a slightly different thing from the plantain-based thingy on the especial. I shared an order of these fritters, called Alcupurria - relleno con carne, with Kevin. It was okay.




Vanilla flan, El Coqui style

In fact, it was all okay. It was well prepared and nicely presented, and Kevin liked all of it, a lot. But to be honest, I was lukewarm about most of it, except for the flan, which I loved. I also loved the restaurant for its decor and its friendly staff in the Panama hats, and the infectious music on the PA. But the food itself wasn't what I'm used to, and I'm just not very adventurous in my food tastes. Still, I think everybody should try it once. And if you like it, come back!

Oh, and today, when I did come back? I had a Cubano sandwich. This was a baguette stuffed with ham and their signature roasted pork, with Swiss cheese, pickles, mayo and mustard. The ham was medium-thick instead of the ultra-thin, tasteless stuff one usually gets, and added flavor to the pork without overwhelming it. The mustard and pickle really worked with this combination, and so did the "mild ketchup," really a ketchup mixed with mayo, that was served on the side. Good stuff!

You can find El Coqui at 5443 E. 22nd St., Tucson AZ 85711. The restaurant is on the northwest corner of 22nd and Craycroft, in the same shopping center as the Arizona DES (Department of Economic Security) office and the Animal Birth Control vet's office for cut rate pet neutering. Also a strip club. And Charlie's Comics, which I recommend. Long time Tucsonans may recognize the El Coqui location as the former site of Tom's BBQ.

The roundup of last week's Weekend Assignment entries, and the new WA, will be posted late tonight.

Karen

Sunday, March 28, 2010

EMPS: Arizona Does Its Spring Thing

It's always tricky when I try to cover a meme topic like Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #82: Goodbye Winter/ Hello Spring. The transition between winter and spring in Tucson, to the extent that those seasons exist at all, is subtle, erratic and seldom very visual. The coming of Spring in Tucson means more 83 degree days and fewer 78 degree ones, perhaps a little more sun and fewer clouds, and the end of the occasional chance of snow on the mountains. And if we're very lucky, and the winter has been unusually wet in our drought-ridden desert, we may get some wildflowers.

So what can I show you of this year's transition? As it happens, the last day of rain to date was this past Tuesday, but I didn't have my camera with me that afternoon and my cell phone didn't get a very good shot. The sky had been overcast for much of the previous week or so, as you can see below:



This is Acme Sand and Gravel - and believe me, they are aware of the association with the schemes of Wile E Coyote. I captured this on my cell phone back on March 19th, when John was pricing sand to go under a walkway in the back yard. You can see the clouds over the Catalinas that day. I've always been curious about this place, which is next to the Pantano River. I was less pleased to discover that the river is where they harvest their sand. But I suppose more of the stuff washes down from the mountains to replace it. They have a rather poetic quote on their web site:

“Stones are primordial matter. Sand is matter ground by the infinity of time. It makes one mindful of eternity. Sand is matter, which has been transformed and has almost become liquid and spiritual.” - Unknown Author



We have had an unusually wet winter, so there is a certain amount of bloomage going on. I noticed this flowering shrub on the median in the middle of Kolb Road as I made my way back from my Round Robin photo shoot on Friday.



John has been in gardening mode this year as winter turns into spring. He's been buying plants for the front and side yards, mostly, the one he planted in back having been immediately dug up by Pepper. The tall red one here, which repeatedly blew over in the March wind, is a bougainvillea. Or is it an oleander? John and I both keep forgetting which is which. He also tried to transplant a few wildflowers he found near where he works, but so far they haven't taken well to being uprooted.



And here, on Palm Sunday afternoon, the sun is brighter and the wind has died down. John's newest purchases are standing tall.

Be sure to check Carly's blog Ellipsis each week for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot. And don't forget the Weekend Assignment, which this week is asking for your Culinary Review!

Karen

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Round Robin: Across the Miles

Carly provided the topic for the Round Robin Photo Challenge this week, asking us to go up to five miles away from home and take pictures of what we found there. I initially intended to go five miles Southeast, but John's leaky water pump threatened to derail that plan.

1.5 miles West x NW:


John took my car to work, and I was left with his car and a book, waiting for the garage to open. Then I walked the mile and a half home. Several hours later, I walked a mile and a half back to pick up the car. The good news: I still had time to make a short drive for this shoot.

3 miles SW:


I must admit I chose my direction in the hope that I could find a nice bit of the Boneyard (Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Center) at the five mile mark. But John's car doesn't have a trip counter or show tenth miles, and I made a wrong turn and lost track of my distance. I got to the Irvington stretch of the Boneyard, but it turned out to be only three miles away.

5 miles SW:






Okay, so I bought gas because the light came on, touched base at home and tried again. This time I ended up on a desert stretch of Valencia Road - away from the airport, away from the remains of planes, away from everything. When the odometer clicked I was going 50 mph, with fast-moving traffic behind me and no turnoffs in sight. Then I found this little dirt road and pulled over. After taking some pictures I followed the dirt road for half a mile or so, but it only led to other pointless dirt roads that seemingly led nowhere.

And that's what's five miles away!

Now let's check out the other Robins' explorations:

Linking List
as of 1:10 AM MST

Karen (Southeast) - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Gattina (South) - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com

Linda (East)
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Peggy - Posted!
Holmespunfun Memes and Themes
http://holmespunfunmemesandthemes.blogspot.com

Wammy (East) - Posted!
The Ellis Family Cincinnati
http://theellisfamilycincinnati.blogspot.com


Jama
Sweet memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Sherrie (West)
Sherrie's Stuff
http://sherrie-plummer.blogspot.com/

Sandy (Southeast) - Posted!
From the Heart of Texas
http://sandyfromtheheartoftexas.com

carolynUSA (north)
Ford Family Photos
http://carolyn1209.blogspot.com

Manang Kim
My Photography in Focus
http://mgahulagwayko.blogspot.com


Duane (east)
Meanwhile...
http://fdtate.blogspot.com

Mary
Mary Tomaselli's Photos
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Ruth (East)
Scrabblequeen
http://www.scrabblequeen.wordpress.com

ellen b (East, North and South) - Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com

Freda (North and Northwest) - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Sandy - Posted!
From the Heart of Texas
http://sandyfromtheheartoftexas.com

Karen

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Weekend Assignment #311: Cheese It!

Let's get right to it:
 

  Weekend Assignment #311: What is your favorite kind of cheese and why? Do you have it often, or just occasionally?
   Extra Credit: Is there a kind of cheese you hate?


John Cleese would find my answer a fairly obvious one:
MOUSEBENDER (Cleese): Venezuelan Beaver Cheese?.
WENSLEYDALE (Palin): Not today, sir, no.
(pause)
MOUSEBENDER: Ah, how about Cheddar?
WENSLEYDALE: Well, we don't get much call for it around here, sir.
MOUSEBENDER: Not much ca- It's the single most popular cheese in the world!
WENSLEYDALE: Not round here, sir.


Yes, for me it's cheddar. I like it sharp or medium or mild, cold or melted, sliced, shredded or in hunks. I even like the processed almost-cheese slices of the ersatz Cheddar variety. I have it by itself, or on pasta, in sandwiches and on salads. I seldom eat chili without cheddar on top or mixed in. There's a Mexico-based taco chain that I get annoyed with whenever I'm there, because cheese for their tacos costs extra. It adds flavor and sometimes texture and body to a food, and cuts the spiciness when something is marginally too hot for me. It's versatile. For me it just works, you know?

Also, cheddar doesn't have the problematic properties of the many types of cheese I avoid. I know it's foolish, but I can't stand the idea of moldy cheese, even cheese that's meant to be moldy, such as bleu cheese or Gorgonzola. (I also dislike the actual taste of bleu cheese.) I don't want stinky cheese or runny cheese. There are some semi-soft types I like just fine, and soft cheeses such as cream cheese and Neufchatel, which used to be sold in a juice glass. To be honest, I'm not even fond of Swiss or provolone. Parmesan, Romano, mozzarella, ricotta, those are all great. But cheddar, for me, tops the list.

How about you? Are you a cheese connoisseur, or do you stick with the popular stuff? What is your favorite? What is your unfavorite? Tell us in your blog or the comments below, and if you do a blog entry about it, please remember to link back to this entry. Your deadline is Wednesday, March 24th at 6 PM Pacific time, after which Carly and I will be back with a roundup of your responses. Something like this:

For Weekend Assignment #310: Create An Urban Legend!, Carly asked for, well, new urban legends. The response:

Karen wrote...

A little way past the Molino Basin campground on the left was a dirt road leading to a set of ruins, basically just the road and some stone foundations. Eventually I found out that the site was once a prison camp. Really, the name "Prison Camp Road" should have been a vital clue. I remember being out there once in 1986 or 1987, looking for birds and other critters, and listening to some odd, unidentifiable noise out there. Was it insects? Or something else? It sounded almost human, but I swear I was the only one in the area that day.

Jamie wrote...

All these years later, I've been wanting to check out that prison camp ruin again, and see whether it's as I remember it. Funny thing, though - there's no longer a sign for a Prison Camp Road. I was watching for it last April when I took the dogs into the mountains, and I was looking for it again this weekend. I thought I must have just been unobservant and missed it. Now I know better.

Adam wrote...

In 1958, the site became a youth rehabilitation camp. The young prisoners there, whose labor was considerably less strenuous than their adult predecessors, sometimes spoke of a young man who was sometimes seen in the area, shouting a warning when kids strayed too close to the ridge. The camp closed in 1973, and the buildings were razed. The last reported sighting of the Prison Camp Ghost was [in 1999]. The hiker who saw him said that he smiled and waved, and then faded into the desert scrub.


Barbara wrote...

Gordon Hirabayishi did not die in the Catalinas in a tragic accident, and there is no ghost. The "Catalina Federal Honor Camp" was established in 1939 in belated response to the suggestion of former Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock (who had died in 1935). It was meant to conveniently house the prisoners who provided labor to build the Catalina Highway, construction on which had begun in 1933.

And if you believe all that, you didn't read this entry very carefully!


Karen

EMPS: Shamrock Time

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #81: St Patrick's Day, I hereby present some decorations outside the classrooms at St. Michael's Parish Day School, followed by a few surprises:

From EMPS







Believe it or not, this one was at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.



And after a fair amount of recent rain, clover turned up in my front yard. Pretty amazing plant, I think, if it grows in Ireland, in Syracuse and in Tucson!

Karen

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Weekend Assignment #310: Legend of the Prison Camp

For Weekend Assignment #310: Create An Urban Legend!, we're supposed to, well, you can tell from the title, can't you? All right, I'll give it my best shot. Some of the following is true:

The Legend of the Prison Camp Ghost


Back in 1986 when we first moved to Tucson, I used to go up into the mountains all the time. I was heavily into birdwatching that year, and working on a book about Southern Arizona wildlife, to be called Critters: Animals of the Arizona Sonoran Desert. Or something. I never got too far in writing that book.

Anyway, along with other major birding areas such as Madera Canyon, Patagonia and Sabino Canyon, I frequently went up Mount Lemmon Highway, also called Catalina Highway or General Hitchcock Highway. A little way past the Molino Basin campground on the left was a dirt road leading to a set of ruins, basically just the road and some stone foundations. Eventually I found out that the site was once a prison camp. Really, the name "Prison Camp Road" should have been a vital clue.

I remember being out there once in 1986 or 1987, looking for birds and other critters, and listening to some odd, unidentifiable noise out there. Was it insects? Or something else? It sounded almost human, but I swear I was the only one in the area that day. I also thought I heard the sound of falling rocks, but there was nothing nearby that so much as wobbled, aside from the stones under my feet.

All these years later, I've been wanting to check out that prison camp ruin again, and see whether it's as I remember it. Funny thing, though - there's no longer a sign for a Prison Camp Road. I was watching for it last April when I took the dogs into the mountains, and I was looking for it again this weekend. I thought I must have just been unobservant and missed it. Now I know better.

You see, the prison camp in the Catalinas was never a standard prison. It was meant to provide prison labor to build the Catalina Highway. Originally the prisoners were tax dodgers and violators of immigration laws, but during During World War II many of the prisoners at the Honor Camp were draft resisters and conscientious objectors. One of these was Gordon Hirabayishi, a college student who challenged the constitutionality of internment camps for Japanese American citizens, but lost his case. He asked to serve his sentence at an outdoor prison camp, and actually hitchhiked to Tucson to be incarcerated. From what I read online tonight, he had to convince officials he was supposed to be imprisoned there. While he was waiting for the paperwork to be be straightened out, he rode back into town to see a movie.

Work on the Catalina Highway was difficult and dangerous, and took 17 years to complete. Originally the prisoners had only picks, shovels and wheelbarrows with which to build the twisty mountain road up to what is now Summerhaven. Eventually they got jackhammers and bulldozers, but it was too late for Gordon Hirabayishi. He was only supposed to serve a 90 day sentence, but he never got that far. A week before his scheduled release, he fell off a cliff when his overloaded wheelbarrow overturned near Molino Basin. He broke his neck and died instantly.

In 1958, the site became a youth rehabilitation camp. The young prisoners there, whose labor was considerably less strenuous than their adult predecessors, sometimes spoke of a young man who was sometimes seen in the area, shouting a warning when kids strayed too close to the ridge. The camp closed in 1973, and the buildings were razed.

In 1999, Prison Camp Road was renamed the Gordon Hirabayishi recreation area, with a trailhead similarly renamed for him. That's why I didn't find the turnoff - it has a different name now. The last reported sighting of the Prison Camp Ghost was also in 1999. The hiker who saw him, according to a blog I read tonight, said that he smiled and waved, and then faded into the desert scrub.

***

Okay, pop quiz: what was true in the story above, and what wasn't?

***

Molino Basin


Yes, I did spend a lot of time birdwatching in 1986, in hope of writing that book. And I did visit the site of the prison camp, and I did hear noises. There was nothing spooky about them, though. I just heard a few birds and a swarm of katydids.

The prison camp has roughly the history I've given here, except that Gordon Hirabayishi did not die in the Catalinas in a tragic accident, and there is no ghost. The "Catalina Federal Honor Camp" was established in 1939 in belated response to the suggestion of former Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock (who had died in 1935). It was meant to conveniently house the prisoners who provided labor to build the Catalina Highway, construction on which had begun in 1933. The pre-war prisoners included tax dodgers and people who had run afoul of immigration laws, but during During World War II they were mostly draft resisters and conscientious objectors. Gordon Hirabayishi was a real prisoner during this period. Having refused to go into an internment camp like the one that already held his family, he turned himself into the FBI instead. Reportedly he really did hitchhike to Tucson when the government refused to pay his way there, and he supposedly did go to a movie while he waited for officials to get their paperwork in order. The U.S. government apologized to him in 1987, after his 1942 conviction was overturned and government malfeasance in the case came to light. Gordon Hirabayishi's Wikipedia entry lists him as a retired sociologist, still alive today. And yes, the site of the prison camp was renamed in his honor in 1999, which explains why I haven't found the turnoff in recent trips up the mountain.

I had a vague idea that there was some World War II connection to the prison camp, and that maybe it was for POWs. That would have been the simple version of my urban legend. Wikipedia says it was an internment camp at one point for Japanese Americans, but this seems to be a misread of Gordon's story. See, urban legend surrounds the place even without my help!

More on Gordon Hirabayishi and the Prison Camp can be found here:

Sky Island Parkway (Catalina Highway) by Leo W. Banks

Desert Lavender: Sabino Canyon to Prison Camp



Karen

Sunday, March 14, 2010

EMPS: My Favorite Animals - in the Snow!



You know that my entry for Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #80: Animals is going to be about my dogs, don't you? Short of paying admission to the zoo, I'd be hard pressed to see much other than dogs, birds, and maybe a cat of two this weekend. And besides, Cayenne and Pepper are quite my favorite non-human animals, and I haven't done a photo set on them in a while. Tonight: Cayenne and Pepper in the snow!



As I mentioned in my previous entry, I took the dogs up Mount Lemmon on Saturday, hoping to show them some snow. Well, I found it!



The dogs haven't encountered significant snow since we got them in 2008, so I was curious to see their reaction. Neither one was phased by it. They didn't play in the snow, or sniff at it (well, it only smells like water, right?), but they didn't particularly avoid it, either. Here they are in the lightly packed snow piled up by the wall at San Pedro Vista. I had more trouble with it than they did - I kept sinking in!



Pepper was too busy looking around to make her way back down the ridge of snow with Cayenne and me, back to the parting area.



Then she had to play mountain dog, and scramble down a fairly steep bank! But it suited her, the snow. If she really is part Finnish Lapphund, as we suspect, it's the kind of weather she was bred for.

Karen

More Ups and Downs - Mount Lemmon in the Snow

I felt a little guilty that I didn't have any downward-looking shots last night in my entry for the Round Robin Challenge: Look Up/Look Down. So on Saturday afternoon around 4 PM I set off with the dogs for Mount Lemmon and the Catalina Highway. After all, on a mountain road there's plenty so see, both looking up and looking down. Besides, it was another chance to try to get the dogs someplace there was snow, and tp see how they would react! (More on that in the next entry.)

From Mount Lemmon Highway

What I found is that you can look down (and more to the point, aim your camera downward) at almost any pullout or vista point, but the photo won't necessarily make it obvious that what it sees is below you. The guy in this first shot, for example, is probably about thirty feet below me as well as in front of me. Not easy to tell that, is it? This was taken at Molino Canyon Vista.



And here's the view down to Molino Creek.



By the time we reached the Bear Wallow/Bear Canyon area, there was a little snow at the side of the road, accompanied by signs warning of ice. Patches of highway were wet with runoff from melted snow. At Windy Point, there was a fair amount of snow, and a mini-pond of runoff at the edge of the parking lot. Here we are looking up at the distinctive rock formation that's one of my favorite Windy Point landmarks.



Late afternoon shadows and the reflection of snow created problems with some of my photos, with the upper parts of them overexposed. But here is a view down to another part of the same road - whether ahead or behind I'[m not quite sure.



At San Pedro Vista the dogs and I had to climb a not-fully-compacted snow bank to get to the view downward.



There were lots of little cataracts on both sides of the road, created by runoff from melting snow. This one was at Marshall Gulch, the snowed-in picnic area just past Summerhaven at the top of Mount Lemmon.



Here's a view down to the creek that runs along the road at Marshall Gulch.



Another view downward, mostly, at Windy Point at sunset.



Looking down toward the city at dusk.

Karen

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Round Robin: Look! Up in the Sky!

I had big plans for Round Robin Challenge: Look Up/Look Down, as suggested by Steven of (sometimes)photoblog -- vague plans, but big ones nonetheless. I was going to go to the park with the dogs and stare up tree trunks. I was going to go back to 5151 E Broadway and photograph it from the base of the tower, and then ride the elevator to the top and look down from there. I was going to drive to Babad Do'ag Vista on Mount Lemmon and look down upon the city. And when all that fell through because I had to work, I was going to photograph my dogs from above and below. The dogs didn't like that idea much.

From Air Show

But then I remembered! Last weekend was the air show! Every March since I got here in 1986, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has hosted an air show. Calle Mumble is only a few miles from D-M, so we're on the flight path for many of the planes and jets as they soar and swoop and make their turns, setting up for whatever dramatic stuff they're doing over the base itself. And most years, I make some attempt to photograph the tiny, speedy, airplane-shaped dots as they cross the sky.



Most of the photos I'm posting tonight are not reduced in size at all, if you look at them directly on Picasaweb. (Click on any shot to see these full size versions). Compared to the overall size of each unedited photo, the planes are barely more than a speck of darkness against the blue. So what I've done is crop each photo really severely. You lose a bit of the perspective, the essential up-ness, but really, where else will you find a jet in motion, except by looking up?




I have to say that by and large, I was pleased with what my camera managed to capture. With the possible exception of a single Blue Angels shot from a few years ago, I think this is the first time I've seen the cockpit of a moving jet in one of my photos.



Finding the jets as I looked up into the sky was generally a real challenge. The engine roar echoed off the buildings long before anything was visible, and it was often hard to tell in what direction to look. Then when they did appear, they were generally fast and far away. Can you even see the plane in this picture?



Plus the sun was in my eyes, every time, so I could not frame a shot by looking at the viewscreen. I just had to point and hope! Generally I ended up with the jets in the lower right corner of the image. But here's one that was closer than most of the flybys that afternoon. I just managed to get part of it in the frame before it was gone.



Don't ask me to identify any of them, but these planes came in several shapes and sizes, sometimes more than one kind in the same grouping.



At some point I fiddled with the settings on the camera, after which I found it almost impossible to photograph the jets at all. The camera wanted to take its time focusing - which meant that it refused to take a photo until that fast, blurry thing was out of the frame. I got a lot of pictures of empty sky after that. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what the settings were before I experimented with them. This was one of the last shots I got that actually had planes in them.

Now let's go see whether other Robins have been looking up, or down, or both!

Linking List (As of 11:46 AM MST)

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com

ellen b. - Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com

Linda - Posted!
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Quiltworks - Posted! 02/28/10
World Through The Eyes of a Fiber Artist
http://quilt-works.blogspot.com/2010/02/american-coot-bird-photo-by-quiltworks.html

Sherrie
Sherrie's Stuff
http://sherrie-plummer.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Suzanne R - Posted!
SuzyQ421's Photo Blog
http://suzyq421sphotoblog.blogspot.com

Monica - Posted!
Shutterly Happy
http://monica-frameofmind.blogspot.com

CarolynUSA - Posted!
Ford Family Photos
http://carolyn1209.blogspot.com

Sandy - Posted!
From The Heart Of Texas
http://sandyfromtheheartoftexas.com

Cathy
LadyHightower's Meme Castle
http://ladyhightowerscastle.blogspot.com

maryt/theteach - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photos
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Ruth - Posted!
Scrabble Queen
http://scrabblequeen.wordpress.com

Rita - Posted!
Cashjocky and The Old Salt
http://cashjocky.blogspot.com

Duane - Posted!
Meanwhile...
http://fdtate.blogspot.com

And don't forget our other memes:


This week: Weekend Assignment #310: Create An Urban Legend!

and



This week: Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #80: Animals (a new one will be posted on Monday!)


Check 'em out!

Karen

Sunday, March 07, 2010

EMPS: Let's Look at the Numbers

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #79: Numbers, Carly wants to see "the numbers in our lives." This week I will have a few shots that take this literally, but some of the others might be a bit on the symbolic side. Still, numbers are symbols, so a symbolic representation of a symbolic representation is...well, conceptually interesting, anyway.



Let's start with her "Extra Credit," to find shapes of numerals in nature. I found a crude 8, at least one tilted 7 and a tilted 9 in these trees at Agua Caliente Park. Can you spot them?



When driving to California, as I did a week ago Thursday to Friday, I often stop at the Wheel Inn restaurant in Cabezon, CA, adjacent to the dinosaurs. Since I usually drive overnight and sleep in the car, the fact that it's "Open 24 Hours" is quite helpful. Too bad the "Robotic Dinosaur Exhibit" they recently opened behind the restaurant isn't so accommodating!



This Cabezon dinosaur seems quite happy about the "$75,000 CASH GIVEAWAY" advertised on a nearby billboard.

From Gallifrey One: Blackjack 21
Last weekend, of course, was my drive to California for the Gallifrey One: Blackjack 21 convention. The convention logo with its neon style 21 was in evidence in the main programming room. Here, former Doctor Who companion Deborah Watling (who played Victoria Waterfield in the 1960s) describes screaming for charity as her co-star Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) looks on.



Here's where we start to get less literal. From November 1963 to present, eleven actors have played the Doctor in Doctor Who on tv, each with his own unique costume. The semi-official name for each "regeneration" of the character is the ordinal number, e.g. "the Fourth Doctor," "the Tenth Doctor" and so on. Recently, however, there's been a tendency to call them "Ten" or "Eleven" (the new guy) etc. for short. Fans love to dress up as all of them at the conventions, but especially the most recent ones. Here we see a Seven, a Ten, an Eleven, a female interpretation of Ten, and another Ten. What does that add up to? Sorry about the blurring of Eleven's face. I was too low on batteries to use flash, and he moved!



Finally, back here in Tucson, I deal with numbers at St. Michael's all week long. A photo of a spreadsheet would be pretty boring, so let's have a look at this. This is the "Book of Pipes," a fundraising project of the church and a way to honor or remember someone by "buying" a pipe in that person's name. The church's  Æolian-Skinner Pipe Organ, built in 1959, has several thousand pipes. Each is defined by a section (Great, Swell, etc.), a type, a numerical length (are the 16' Contra Violone pipes, all 61 of them, really sixteen feet high, or does the apostrophe mean something else when discussing organs?) and so on. A person honored with a pipe gets a certificate stating exactly which pipe will forever be played in the person's name. This info is also recorded in the Book of Pipes, the large, handwritten book in the glass case seen here.

So a lot of numbers are written in that book, but that's just the beginning. The idea behind the Book of Pipes is to raise money to pay off the loans the church took out to buy the organ. The Book of Pipes donations are administered through the "Peace Fund" - as in peace of mind, not peace on Earth, although we're in favor of that, too. Accounting for the breakdown of money coming into the Peace Fund from the Graveyard Fund (to honor the deceased with a pipe), and from the Peace Fund and General Fund to pay for principal and interest on the Antiphonal organ loan is the trickiest, most time consuming thing I do as St. Michael's bookkeeeper-accountant. So you may not see any giant numerals in this photo (it actually says Opus 1352, or maybe Opus 135Z, on the second line below the SOLI DEO GLORIA bit; but that's hard to see here), but trust me, it's all about the numbers for me!

Karen