Great for a rainy weekend

I love BookTV, the weekend programming on C-Span 2.

Where else, in one weekend, can you hear lengthy talks, usually with Q&A sessions, with many well-known and diverse writers. Only this past weekend I heard Jessie Ventura, Ralph Reed, Stephen Pinker, Alice Schroder, David Horwitz, Lee&Roger Peterson (Peterson Field Guide to Birds), Christopher Buckley, T. Boone Pickens, Allan Greenspan and others give talks or long interviews and take unscreened questions.

It's usually informative, though sometimes I strongly disagree with the speaker. I find particularly interesting the unscripted comments made informally in the Q&A sessions. About half the talks/interviews I would enjoy, given the time to watch; the others I skip.

Many of the sessions are available as podcast, and can be downloaded for listening while walking or on longer drives. I prefer to watch the speakers however, and occasionally they have visual media with the formal talks.

Sometimes I have already read the books, sometimes I am motivated to buy and read them, and sometimes I'm convinced I don't need/want to read their book.

Granted, not every weekend has such a notable lineup, but often there is. If you have never sampled this programing, running continuously for 48 hours starting at 0800 most Saturday mornings, you may be pleasantly surprised if you give it a try.

Yum!

La ZIZ

For those of you living locally, I have a restaurant recommendation for you.

(click Picture to enlarge)

Barbara and I were for some reason thinking this was a Greek restaurant and decided to give it a try last Saturday. We found a couple of things to our surprise.

First, it is Lebanese, not Greek.

Second, we have eaten this food before, just at another location and a long time ago. It is owned/run by a Lebanese couple who used to have a restaurant down on 16th Street SW, at the back corner of a large furniture store. We ate there a few times, and then were very disappointed one day to arrive and find them permanently closed. . . that was many years ago. She has now reopened at this new site and has developed a good lunch crowd with no advertising whatever. They are open in the evenings as well; closed on Sunday.

I strongly recommend the falafel plate. The sandwiches are ~$4, and the plates are ~$7-9.

This unpretentious strip mall Lebanese restaurant is out on Center Point Road, just north of Boysen Road, and next to Roasters Coffee shop for those of you who have been by there. The menu is short but all the food is cooked to order. They have no web site I can provide, and I doubt they ever will. Give it a try.

ART (&) HISTORY

The Plan: For the second time in 3 weeks, Barbara and I looked a few days ahead and saw what is not all that common; a weekend with both of us uncommitted and with good weather. Yes, there was a pile of paperwork to be done. Yes, there was yard work needing to be finished before the snow falls. Yes, the laundry pile was overflowing. No, we were not about to be responsible and stay at home to do all those things; gas was $2.55 and falling and there were lots of cheap hotel rooms waiting in Des Moines. We took the old Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30) which we consider more picturesque than I-80. The harvest was underway and the greens and golds of the rolling hills were beautiful to watch go by on the 2-hour drive.

We had two main objectives in Des Moines; the Art Museum and Salisbury House.

Saturday afternoon: The Des Moines Art Center is a small collection in a uninspiring original building, with a new wing that makes up in design for its modest size. I will be honest. I have trouble with a 2' square canvas with white paint holding a place of honor (as an example of minimalism) in a civic collection of art. Not to mislead you, I did enjoy the time there, and there were a few notable works (if it is an Edward Hopper or a Georgia O'Keeffe it has to be notable I presume?) I wouldn't go to Des Moines just to visit it however.

Saturday evening: We tried a new restaurant, Sage, on University just west of 65th. You can check out the menu at the Sage web site. Barbara had a wonderful spinach-cashew-strawberry salad. My Cesar salid was pretty standard. For an entree, I had Duck breast and duck confit on risotto with a duck reduction sauce, and a pumpkin cake with soft goat cheese topping desert. Barbara had a good pasta dish, though it was a little spicy. They have a large selection of wines by the glass, and about 50 different 1/2 bottles on the extensive wine list. I was pleased with a glass of Four Vines Zin; Barbara said the water was excellent.

Sunday: The Salisbury House , unlike the Art Center, is worth a trip and an afternoon if you are in Iowa. Salisbury House is considered one of the "American Castles." Built by Carl Weeks, a pharmacist who made millions before the depression selling a cosmetic mix of powder and cold cream, it is more or less a copy of a 16-17th century English manor house near Salisbury Cathedral in England, built with a more or less unlimited budget and with 20th century conveniences, it does a credible job of transporting one back in time (we visited many of these old manors when we lived in England in the 70's.) It was in the hands of the teacher's institute for a number of years, but is now owned by a preservation organization that is doing a fine job of restoration. Some random pictures of Salisbury house follow:

Apples, Art and the Holy Ghost

About 15 years ago, Barbara and I did a day trip to the Apple Festival in Gays Mills, Wisconson. We had memories of the small-town fair with sampling tables of apples of all varities, applewood BBQ stands and locally made pies. The weather forecast was OK and I had the weekend off for a change, so off we went.

(left click on pictures to enlarge)

The Apples were largely ready for harvest. . .

The country side was beautiful with the crops approaching harvest . . .

Unfortunately, thousands of others had the same idea, and the small local stands and small warehouses had been replaced by much larger operations taking advantage of the tourist moving from orchard to orchard. Even in Gays Mills, the quaint, local fair had been replace by a . . . well . . . simply something a bit on the "tacky" side. We didn't even stop in the town. As I said, there was a high overcast, but this made the drive and views very plesant.

We did visit one more interesting place on this outing; the Holy Ghost park with the Dickeyville Grotto:

This is really the grounds of the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Dickeyville, Wisconson. Here I stand at the entrance to the church grounds, which include the church, the cemetery, the grotto, and a lot more.

The Dickeyville Grotto is a series of grottos and shrines, and currently has 40-60,000 vivistors yearly. The Dickeyville Grotto was built by Father Mathius Wernerus, the pastor of Dickeyville's Holy Ghost Parish, from 1920 to 1930, and was renovated between 1995 and 1997. This preist had a LOT of time on his hands, and it seemed to Barbara and I that he was a better than average artist. Nearly all of the site's concrete structures are covered in shells, stones, tiles, wood, glass, gems and geodes from the area donated by parishioners. He inlaid them into the concrete in a fascinating moasiac, creating animals, trees, slippers, flowers. It sounds like a lot of kitsch, but it comes off as real art when viewed closely and individually (see the pictures below).
While most of the site's components are religious in nature, the Patriotism Shrine includes depictions of the liberty bell, Columbus, Washington, and Lincoln.

At least part of the purpose of this shrine was to demonstrate the patriotism of Catholics; Protestant Americans of the time believed that Catholics' allegiance to the Pope conflicted with their allegiance to the United States. Dickeyville's grotto itself inspired many other grottos throughout Wisconsin.

The grotto itself stands adjacent to the church.

This 6ft piece of petrified wood is incorporated into a green tree.

These fish swim through a crystaline and aquamarine river.

For someone else's take on the Dickeyville Grotto: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2242

There are several more midwest grottos including these:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2083

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/latest

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/16989

Here is a general information link about the concept of grottos and some links to midwest grottos: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~niless/awsthome.htm

A little political reading for the season

The Supreme Court Justices

If you, as do I, believe the administration produced by this upcoming election could be most notable not for its economic policy, tax changes and foreign relations, but for its effect on the composition of the Supreme Court, then like me you might have been refreshing yourself on that institution.

Many years ago, I think it was in the late 70's, the public was given an inside look at the Supreme Court in Bob Woodward's The Brethren, a sort of "tell all" book he managed to put together from interviews with justices disgruntled with Chief Justice Burger.

A bit more diverse commentary is the recent The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin. It is well written, and provides a great deal of historical background on the modern Supreme Court.

However, for pure enjoyment, you need to read Christopher Buckley's Supreme Courtship, a wonderfully funny, but politically astute tongue in cheek satire on the vetting and the appointment process for the Supreme Court. It is fairly short for a novel, so it makes a good companion for an airline trip or a slow day/weekend. While pure satire, it is rooted in the political insight for which C. Buckley is known. He was recently interviewed on Book TV (Link to streaming replay of the interview here.)

(Link to the publisher)

(Link to the publisher)

Great City! Great Kids!

Early this month, Barbara and I had the chance to visit John and Rachael in Portland for the first time in a year. Interestingly, we were able to purchase 2 round trip tickets from Denver and 3 nights in the Portland Marriott for less than a single round trip ticket from Cedar Rapids.

Portland is a great town. It has a wonderful light rail/trolley/streetcar/bus network that is easy to use and free in the downtown area. We departed the airport and walked no more than 150' from the baggage carrousel's to step on the light rail that took us to the Pioneer Square stop which was a block and a half from our hotel.

We had WONDERFUL weather for our stay. We took a short walk along the river to stretch our legs after flying tourist/sardine class. Most of the major bridges are historic (and old), but apparently in reasonably good shape.

Seven days a week, there is a farmer's market somewhere in the metropolitan area, and most of these are not far from the light rail system. There are a series of blocks with grass, fountains, and walks, but no buildings in the downtown area. These are known as North Park Blocks and South Park Blocks. The big Saturday Farmer's market is on one of these; and it is really large. There was excellent and affordable produce, honey, meat, cheese, bread, wine, pizza, etc. Below are Barbara and John discussing things, while Rachael buys some food for a later meal.

There is a lot of historic preservation in Portland (as the house at the corner of this market), a process in which John wants to become more involved.

Within a block of this market is the Oregon Historical Society, where Rachael works in Public Relations/Publicity (mainly fund-raising as I understand it). She treated us to an excellent tour of the exhibits. It's quite impressive if you get a chance to visit.

In front of the museum, and scattered around town are interesting four-headed fountains; "Benson Bubblers." Simon Benson (link) was a turn-of-the-century lumber baron, philanthropist and teetotaller. To provide fresh drinking water downtown - and discourage his workers from drinking alcohol in the middle of the day - Benson commissioned 20 elegant freshwater drinking fountains, now known as the Benson Bubblers. Beer consumption in the city reportedly decreased 25 percent after the fountains were installed, and the water fountains still bubble on Portland's downtown streets. (But there are still more breweries per capita in Portland than any other city in the country.)

That night we had dinner at the Park Kitchen restaurant (link). We did a bit of experimenting and sharing . . . it was a good choice. Everything was excellent, and we lingered at our table which was barely inside, giving us a little protection while still enjoying the outdoors.
On Sunday, after pulling in to the downtown Firestone dealer to get a tire leak fixed, we headed out to explore the northern part of the "Fruit Loop" (link), an area near the junction of the Hood and Columbia Rivers that is a patchwork of Orchards, Vineyards/wineries, and berry farms. The weather continued to hold. Along the treeline in the background you can just see one of the snow-covered mountains peeking above the ridge, maybe Mt St Hellens?

Pears and Apples were perfect! Fruit/berry stands dotted the area, sometimes within a hundred yards of each other.
We stopped at a "flower farm". Here Rachael, scissors in hand, selects cuttings at 15 cents/stem (regardless of the number of flowers). Beauty surrounded by beauty!

The flowers subsequently graced the table Rachael had set for dinner in their condo. Rachael and John have a really, really nice condo, close to everything in downtown Portland and The Pearl (link). Built in 1909, it is open, and has lots of windows for light.

For dinner, Rachael prepared a "fungi con risotto" (like me, she likes LOTS of mushrooms in her risotto). John/Matt did some greens, and Barbara and I contributed the wine. Great dinner.

In addition being where John and Rachael live, Portland is a great city just to visit. It has a mixture of old and new architecture, excellent museums, gardens, restaurants, brewpubs, and (sometimes) great weather.
Thanks for visiting. Enlarge pictures with a left click. Comments can be left by clicking below.

Thar's Bars in them thar Woods!

We have lots of black bears in the Rocky Mountain National Park, and one is occasionally spotted in town here in Estes Park. For the last two weekends in a row however, a black bear has ambled past our house. The pictures below were taken by our neighbor to the west, Walt Borneman (author of the recently published book on President Polk) from his deck, looking towards our back yard. (left click on picture to enlarge)

We also are having other guest visit the neighborhood for dinner:

Barbara in the past year has also seen a mountain lion, a bob cat, and numerous other species in our neighborhood. When you come for a visit, be careful if wandering around outside at night!

The Mountain Meadows Massacre - My Family Remembered

Links are shaded type

Overlooking the Mountain Meadows Massacre site

Before the tragedies of Oklahoma City in 1995, and September 11, 2001, the Mountain Meadows Massacre was the largest civilian massacre in our Country's history. It was the worst atrocity in the annals of the West. Yet the massacre of more than 120 innocent men, women, and children of the Fancher-Baker Train by Mormons in Mountain Meadows, Utah has been largely unrecognized, and rarely recorded in history books...

On our way to John and Rachael's wedding in July, Barbara and I made a slight detour to visit an historical site of significance to my family, the Mountain Meadows Massacre site west of Cedar City in southwest Utah.

"The Mountain Meadows Massacre involved a mass slaughter of the Fancher-Baker emigrant wagon train at Mountain Meadows in the Utah Territory by the local Mormon militia in September 1857. It began as an attack, quickly turned into a siege, and eventually culminated on September 11, 1857, in the execution of the unarmed emigrants after their surrender." (Wikipedia introduction to the "Mountain Meadows Massacre).

17 members of family on my mother's side were in that wagon train. . . 14 of them either killed in the surprise attack as they prepared breakfast on a September dawn or murdered in cold blood 4 days later after accepting an offer from the Mormons to provide them safe passage in return for their surrender. The three survivors were children under the age of 6 who were thought unable to provide testimony against the perpetrators.

There was initially an attempted cover-up, but that quickly failed. At this point in time, both sides agree that the attack was a combination of Paiute Indians and white Mormons, and the subsequent deception and murder of the unarmed settlers was planned and carried out by Mormons. A major disagreement however is if Birgham Young was complicit in the attack and murders, or if it was solely instigated and directed by the head of one of the local Mormon Militias, John Lee.

Barbara should be writing this blog; she knows far, far more detail and history of this event than do I. Much has been written, but condensed information is available in several websites:

This is a good non-denominational facts site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre
This is a good, private site with LOTS of information:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wallner/mmm11.htm
This is a website primarily from descendants of the victims of the massacre:
http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/
This is a Mormon website:
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Mountain_Meadows_massacre
This is the best site with the most information; it works the old fashion way:

http://www.barbara-floyd-ask-me.info/

Reasonably historically accurate movie: September Dawn

As it turned out, we arrived at the exact same time as a mother and her son from Salt Lake City. She was pleased to be a tour guide insofar as she had been reading about the event in preparation for their visit. On top of that, her great/great grandfather had been involved in legal proceedings and economic development of the town in that area in the years after the massacre. Barbara, to her credit, has read, both in volume and in variety, more on this event than anyone I know, and was more than ready to rebut any historically revisionist view of the event. Below, you see Barbara (standing in front of the memorial very recently erected by the Mountain Meadows Association) explaining the facts, as her antagonist stands with her arms crossed in front as her son looks on. This went on for about a half hour until I had to step in with a "break" command. (Left click on a picture to enlarge it)

If you enlarge this picture of the memorial,you can read names of our original Arkansas family members who were killed: Tackitts, Prewits, and Jones

Standing at the monument and looking southwest you can see the site of the encampment where the morning attack took place. The train had many Arkansas mountain men who were hunters and well armed and, to the surprise of the Indians and Mormons, quickly responded and repelled the initial and subsequent attacks.

Looking to the northwest, you can see the massacre field. The men, women, and children were lead to this area, and then on a command "Men do your duty", the escorting Mormons turned and shot the unarmed settlers.


This is a rebuilt version of the original monument at the encampment site. It makes note of the "19" that were killed, just the number who lost their lives during the initial attacks, not mentioning the other 100+ killed 4 days later.

A laminated memento to a survivor had been placed at the memorial.

This is the current state of the Old Spanish Trail, which the wagon train was following. The encampment is to the right of the picture. A child was shot during the seige while trying to get a bucket of water from the stream (road with culverts is crossing the original forde.)

This link will take you to a Google map of the area if you want to see the satellite images. The road along the bottom of the map leads to a parking lot with the encampment on the other side of the creek from the parking lot at the end of the road. Just above the top left edge of the map is the massacre field. The tiny fish-hook road on the lower right is the trail to the monument with the inscribed names that overlooks the valley.

Just a note; if you visit the site, there is only a very small sign that says "Mountain Meadows 1" a mile before the turn off of Hwy 18. It's easy to miss, even if you are looking for it.