Thursday, April 30, 2009

Couple'a Guys're Walkin' Their Dogs....

So a bunch of us were out at Picnic Point last month, celebrating the Vernal Equinox with a potluck dinner around the campfire, when I asked if anyone knew any good jokes. I love a well-told joke, and among the lot of us, there were a handful that met with a chorus of laughter. Here's one of 'em, courtesy of it's teller, Leon, to brighten this rainy day....

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Beignets at Liliana's


Yum!

Good morning,
David

Monday, April 27, 2009

No Shirt, No Pants, No Hiking

The Associated Press is reporting that citizens of Switzerland's Appenzell canton have voted to impose a fine of 200 Swiss Francs on Alpine hikers clad in nothing more than hiking boots, socks and their base layer of skin. Yep. Apparently, the extreme sport of nude Alpine hiking has become a sufficient problem to merit nipping the practice in the bud.

AP reports that transgressors have numbered in the dozens, and have been mostly German. As someone whose mongrel mix of European heritage includes about one-fourth Kraut extraction myself, I can understand how this might cause alarm. Germans do tend to appreciate fine beer, and an overabundance of Gemutlichkeit can yield a prosperous abundance of pale fleshiness -- especially around the abdominal region (in the case of men), but in more fetching parts of the anatomy among German fraus and frauleins.

Still. given the global economy and the tourism potential, Appenzell may be missing an opportunity to get out ahead of the market and tap into this revenue stream before other, less conservative cantons (or the French, or the Italians) start to designate clothing-optional hiking trails.

Leaving aside esthetic judgements regarding whether nude hiking contributes to or detracts from the Alpine scenery, a story last month in the New York Times suggested some measure of amusement and ambivalence among the Appenzellers.

As someone who hiked quite a lot in the Swiss Alps a quarter century ago (always clothed in at least one layer more than sunscreen and the base birthday layer), I can attest to the fact that hikers -- clothed or unclothed -- are rendered insignificant by the Alps that tower all around. As someone who has the pale skin tone (if not the abundant fleshiness) of one-quarter German extraction, I can also attest first-hand to the sunburn risk of hiking in the Swiss Alps: The higher you go, the less atmosphere there is to filter the sun's radiation. I can remember at least two occasions when my face and forearms were so badly fried that the exposed skin peeled for days after I came back down to the valleys.

But if you're determined to go hike nude in the Alps, it's your skin. Happy yodeling.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Salzburg, early 1994


This would be January or February of 1984. I believe this is the Salzach River. My Eurail Pass had expired by this time, and I was using a ticket from Vienna to Paris that allowed unlimited stops in the space of a month, so long as they were stops along the line from my point of origin to my ultimate destination. I think Salzburg might have been my first stop. I was enchanted. I think my next stop might have been Interlaken, Switzerland, where I found myself so enchanted by the Alps of the Berner Oberland that I stayed, and never used the rail ticket all the way through to Paris.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Kayaking Madison's Skyline


Kayaks afford a perspective shared by waterfowl and muskrats.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Literacy 24/7 Reading List

For four years now, I've enjoyed the great pleasure and privilege to be among the readers participating in Literacy 24/7, the annual benefit for the Madison-based Literacy Network. In the last two years, I've asked people in the audience to jot down the title of the last book they read that they would recommend to friends and neighbors -- and, if they wish, to explain why they'd recommend it. Forthwith, the resulting 2009 reading list.

Oyster, a novel by Janette Turner Hospital, "...an edge-of-destruction millennialist settlement in remote Australia and its psychological & material collapse."

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time, by Greg Mortensen & David Oliver Relin. (Two people recommended this.)

"I read trashy sci-fi novels. The last good one was Iain Banks' Matter."

Into Africa, by Martin Dugard. "Excellent story of Stanley and Livingstone and the events leading up to, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume.'"

Brand Hijack, by Alex Wipperfurth. "It seems like an industry book, but I loved getting a look behind the curtain of how things are sold to us, especially when it's obvious something is being sold."

"I know everyone else in the world has read this, but I read it for the first time just a few months ago: A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole."

In Search of Klingsor, by Jorge Volpi. "Terrific literary thriller/quantum physics/WWII mystery."

Dreams from My Father

Nickled and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich. "Author works 3 jobs (waitress, maid in a motel, work in retail, maybe a Wal-Mart."

Happy Reading,
David

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Geese off Picnic Point

Among the many waterfowl encountered yesterday while kayaking around Picnic Point to Second Point, these two geese were the most vocal. This is not the most inept video clip I've ever captured, but neither is it the most ept.



Happiness,
David

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Kayaking up the Yahara

After an extended stretch of uncooperative weather, my patience reached its limits a few days ago and I finally got the kayak out for its inaugural voyage of the season. Putting in at Olbrich Park, I paddled west along Lake Monona's north shore past Hudson and Yahara Place parks to the middle Yahara, and pointed my bow upstream. The water dynamics appeared vigorous as the river entered the lake, and it took about twice as long as usual to get up to the Tenney lock and dam. The current felt pushier than usual, so I was curious to know what might be going on at the locks. Were they letting more than the average volume of water vent downstream? Arriving at Tenney Park, I found a visual answer: What appeared to be quite a robust volume of water indeed was being released out of Lake Mendota, creating some of the liveliest swirls and eddies I've ever seen below the locks.



In an effort to quantify what I was seeing, I checked the US Geological Survey's data for its East Main Street water gauge. Sure enough, it was showing flows well above average for this time of year. The gauge height is reaing more than six feet -- two above its mean average for this time of year, and one above its median. At more than 430 cubic feet per second, the discharge rate has been at or near the 15-year records set last year, and almost triple the median average for the 15-year period of record. The stream's velocity, too, is running swift at about 1.5 to 1.6 feet per second. Match that with the volume and it's no wonder paddling upstream felt like slow going.

The ride back downsteam was a breeze, and took little effort -- more like sightseeing than kayaking....


The succession of railroad, automobile, bike and pedestrian bridges spanning the middle Yahara make this one of my favoirte places to paddle.


The distinctive way each bridge frames the next never fails to catch my eye...

But kayaking the middle Yahara also affords a waterborne perspective on its banks, and on the neighborhoods that flank it.....

Happiness,
David

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Brugge, Belgium, 1983


This is sometime in late October or early November 1983, along one of the canals in Brugge (also known by its French spelling, Bruges). Quite a captivating city, laced with canals, rich in architecture. Like so many European cities, it is old enough to have been built on a pedestrian scale, and remains a fine city to explore on foot.