January 22, 2007

• MONDAY READING

  Prairyerth (a deep map)
  by Wlliam Least Heat-Moon

  I’ve
  been reading this amazing book (and will probably still be reading it
  weeks from now since it’s over 600 pages long and won’t regret a minute
  of it). It’s like an epic geographic geologic poem written by a bird
  with a very sharp eye for detail flying over one Kansas County – Chase
  County – and landing here and there to peck the earth and explore every
  tid and bit of detail – animal, vegetable, mineral or otherwise. I took
  a geology class in college once. It’s the only college paper I still
  have. It was one of those entertain myself courses that had nothing to
  do with my major. They assigned each of us a parcel of land in
  Washington state to describe – its people history, its landforms and
  geology, its climate, its water resources, its soil, and its natural
  vegetation. I got an A on that paper and I loved the class. Now I love
  this idea of taking one county apart quadrant by quadrant. The chapter
  I happen to be reading now is called Outside the Z Bar. The Z Bar was
  the ranch of a cattle baron of the 19th century who built his home out
  of native limestone. Also called Spring Hill Ranch, it was 7000 acres
  along a creek. Twelve years later, he sold the ranch and moved away and
  25 years after that he returned to Kansas to die. In 1997 it became a
  historic landmark. Here is a short description from the book:

  The
  ranch: old highway 13 passed thirty or forty feet closer to the lowest
  terrace than does the newer and straightened and renumbered route 177,
  but both highways split the small valley, really not much more than a
  long and broad hollow. The roads approach Spring Hill laterally, when
  the ranch layout calls for a long, frontal entrance, one that would let
  the place rise on its levels in the eye as does its wealth in the
  imagination. The terraces are long and narrow and parallel to Fox Creek
  running beyond the east line of trees; the wall of each terrace is of
  cut stone, and atop the lowest is a wrought-iron fence, only knee-high
  to mark out the estate but not block the traveler’s view, and on the
  highest terrace is a circular stone fountain once served by the spring
  but now filled with soil. The home, built by some of the men who worked
  on the courthouse, seems to be a descendant, with its Second Empire
  Parisian urbanity and its red, standing-seam mansard roof articulated
  by dormers.

  The description continues in fine detail but you can see a wonderful tour here
  to flesh it out for now. The author is of English-Irish-Osage
  background. His real name is William Trogdon but he created his pen
  name from a quote by his father: “I call myself heat moon, your elder
  brother is little heat moon. You, coming last, therefore you are
  least.” He lives in Columbia, Missouri and is basically a travel
  writer. One of our own xangan travel writers thenarrator recommended it to me, and I recommend it to you. Fabulous.

  ---

  Deep Thought:
  “Frank knew that no man had ever crossed the desert on foot and lived
  to tell about it. So, he decided to get back in his car and keep
  driving.”
  Today I am grateful for: Qigong
  Guess the Movie: “Take her far into the forest. Find some secluded glade where she can pick wildflowers.”  Answer:  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.  Winner:  thenarrator.
  Microwave zaps 99 percent of germs on sponges
  Scientists test speedy way to stop kitchen sponges from spreading disease
  WASHINGTON
  - Two minutes in a microwave oven can sterilize most household sponges,
  U.S. researchers reported on Monday. (Rest of article here.)

  • 9:06 pm
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