Strongly Worded Letter

The Finnish Line

Like most, many, some folks I have a wish list in my head of countries around the world I hope to visit one day. There's always the question of getting the time off from work, not being committed to other projects at that time, and having the money to travel to and enough days to properly see the places you want to experience.

Last September I was lucky enough to see Italy and Monaco for the first time. I still haven't made it to Australia and New Zealand though. I want to see Japan, Russia and more of Alaska than I already have. India is at the top of my list but I want to wait until I've got about a month to attempt that one.

I am particularly drawn to the Scandinavian nations and have spent part of both a summer and a winter in Norway, one of my favorite places on Earth. The most fun vacation I ever took alone was my week in Iceland and I wouldn't mind getting back there either.

Next up for me though is Finland. In fact, I almost can't believe I leave for there on Friday night. I have about ten days to spend in country and plan to spend the first couple of full days and nights in Helsinki, a modern European capital of more than 500,000 residents.

After that I plan to hit the road and drive northward into the Arctic Circle and beyond. I have a rough idea of a few things I want to see, like the Sami reindeer herders and of course, Korvatunturi, the birthplace of Joulupikki, the Finnish name for Santa Claus. I hope to get really lucky and see some early Northern Lights too.

But here's where I need your help, dear readers. I know collectively you guys have been everywhere so I need to hear about Finland. Where else do I need to go? What else do I need to do, besides the obvious sauna with their Olympic women's volleyball team?

Thanks in advance for your advice and suggestions.

It's funny .... here is one of photos I found while poking around on some Finland sites. It's Lake Saimma in the eastern part of the country. Apparently I'm traveling thousands of miles to go to a place that looks almost exactly like Washington State's own Puget Sound!

 

Attention All Deaf, Dumb And Blind Kids...

I make it to Las Vegas, the one in Nevada, a couple of times a year on business and while I am there I always enjoy seeing my Dad. Once in a while we will take in a local attraction but it's hard to keep up with all the tourist sites as infrequently as I am there. I still haven't been to the Liberace Museum, the Clown Factory, or the Neon Museum for instance.

Add another one to the list. I just found out about the Pinball Hall Of Fame at 3330 E. Tropicana, at the corner of Pecos.

Hundreds of pinball machines, from the 1950s to the 1990s are all available to play in the 4500 square feet museum. Here is something else fascinating about the place, from their website.

"The PHoF is run by Tim Arnold, a veteran arcade operator who made it big in the 1970s and 1980s during the Pacman era. In 1976 Tim and his brother opened Pinball Pete's in Lansing, Michigan, and it quickly became a gamer's mecca. At the height of their success, the Arnold brothers weren't counting coins, they were counting shovelfuls of coins.

When Arnold sold his part of the business and moved to Las Vegas in 1990, he picked up the phone and started talking to the Salvation Army. Midge Arthur, the administrative assistant of the Las Vegas branch of the Salvation Army says, 'I got a telephone call from Tim about 15 years ago, and he said, 'If I had money to give, what would you do with it?' We had a long discussion about our different rehabilitation programs. He was, I think, kind of skeptical of all organizations. He wanted to make sure the money was going to help people.' Not long after that conversation, Midge Arthur started receiving checks for thousands of dollars from the man she says is, 'one of my strangest, out-of-the-ordinary donors we have ever had....'"




Me now: How cool is that?

My interest in playing games ran out very soon after the pinball machine's popularity started to wane in the 1980s. The last video game I ever played was probably Ms. Pacman - no kidding. I've never played Wii or Playstation or Nintendo or anything else in the modern vein.   

Question though: As fondly as I think I recall playing the ol' silver ball back in the day I do not remember anything about the differences between the machines. Was the game strategy the same if you were playing the KISS machine versus, say, the Charlie's Angels one? Was there anything to make some pinball machines more challenging to play other than where the flippers and bumpers were positioned? I don't remember. Do you?

"V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N In The Summertime....."

Donna and I were blessed with many visitors over the long holiday weekend. We had friends and family in town from Nashville, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles along with dozens of folks who live here in western Washington that we hosted at several events.

Today's blog post is just a few photographs mostly for the benefit of those we invited over who couldn't make it due to work or other summer plans.

Left to right, me, my Dad, and my brother John. Taken on the ferry from West Seattle, pulling into the Island.

The Atomic dog sleeping in the guest room to be near my dad.

 

My friend Dave with Sophie and Godzilla.

My friend Christine with Happy.

 

Donna's dad Howard and my dad on our friend Eric's boat taking an Independence Day cruise around the Island. Thanks, Eric! And have you ever seen two guys more excited to be boating?

Dave, stealing my wife. That's Dave's painting on the wall too. He is one of our favorite artists. Get him while he is cheap!

My brother at our July 3rd party. It rained quite a bit that morning  but cleared up nicely for the outdoor event that night. Whew.

I've mentioned the 1905 waterfront place we plan to restore. The boat ride was my first chance to get a picture of it from the backside. That's what she said.

 

My dad, cutting his birthday cakes on July 4th. When you get to be his age, one cake is not enough. Happy 70th though!!! You kicked Tim Russert's ass.

And finally, a few random fireworks shots from the Island's display. Taken from the yard of the new place. I hope everyone else had a safe and happy holiday weekend too!

America's Worst Roadside Attraction?

There were a couple of years, very early on in our marriage, when Donna would still go on road trips with me. Then came the trip to the Chief Crazy Horse Memorial.

We were in South Dakota for a long weekend and naturally took in Mount Rushmore, the state's best and best known attraction.  I say that being fully aware of the Outhouse Museum in Gregory, the National Presidential Wax Museum in Keystone, and the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

I conned convinced my wife to make the short seventeen mile drive through the beautiful winding roads of the Black Hills to stand in awe of the Chief Crazy Horse Memorial, which had been under construction since 1948 but surely must be nearly done.

My recollection is that the roads were poorly marked and our directions were somewhat sketchy and we got a little lost, maybe a lot lost. So we ended up driving for about two hours on roads that all looked the same and then we saw it.

A chalk outline on a hill.

Thinking this couldn't be all there was to the "world's largest mountain carving" we drove on and eventually came to a park entrance where we learned that for only fifteen dollars we could drive another half hour and get close enough to the mountain to see the fine detail of the historic artwork. So we did.

And we saw a chalk outline on a hill, only closer.

The Chief Crazy Horse Memorial was in the news last week as June 3rd marked the 60th anniversary of the start of its construction. Apparently the face of the Chief is now done and a welcome center and one Indian museum building is open "but the carving of the Lakota warrior's body, his horse, and a planned university and medical training center for American Indian students are still years away," says this Associated Press article on the occasion.

Here is the official website of the Memorial, with the history of Crazy Horse, and the construction webcam that I have never actually gotten to work.  Weak. 

Would You Like Some Desert With That?

Quick, what do the following celebrities have in common?

If you said, "Well, they are all dead white people," I can't argue with you but that is not I was looking for. Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Gene Autry, Bob Hope, Ginger Rogers and Gerald Ford all have streets named after them in Palm Springs, California. By the way, if you were able to identify both Dinah and Ginger, congratulations! You just came out.

Perhaps you should relocate to Palm Springs. Did you know it has the highest percentage of gay and lesbian residents in America? Suck on that, San Francisco!

I didn't know about all the streets either but I was in Palm Springs for less than day this week on business and saw each of those names on street signs on the way from my hotel back to the airport. I am willing to bet that other one time locals like Dean Martin, Liberace, Sonny Bono and Ronald Reagan must have received a similar honor there too but I did not see those with my own eyes this trip.

I'll tell you what I did see though. A decent sized city that people actually live in that some a-hole decided to build in the middle of the freakin' desert!!! It was already Africa hot there. Seriously, in the month of April does it need to be in the mid to upper 90s? And that's Celsius! Stop it.

Suggestion Box

You solved the mystery of missing Dairy Queen last Saturday (it burned down) and I come to you again, just a week later, for more help.

Where should I go on vacation?

Here's the deal. After work this Friday I am off for nine days. As of right now I have no plans and will most likely stay home like I usually do. But I am also itching to put this tough week behind me and have some fun somewhere. 

I love road trips. I love visiting museums and historical sites. I enjoy anything that is the World's Largest. I especially appreciate neat photo-taking opportunities. 

Now the problem.  Nearly all of the places that spring to mind when I think about the cities I most want to visit are Northern Hemisphere cold weather places where a visit in March is half the experience of a visit in summer or autumn.


Ottawa. That was my big early brainstorm for this trip. I have visited much of Canada, from Victoria to Edmonton to Montreal but have not yet traveled to that great country's capital. I've read much about its beautiful architecture, the exquisite Rideau Canal, the maple syrup farms, the Canadian Currency Museum and on an on.

Oh, and it's 10 degrees there this morning (yes, Fahrenheit. I checked). And quite a bit further north than Seattle meaning even shorter days in which to sight see. And that's the same problem with the other places on my wish list from Nova Scotia to Helsinki.

Expand my world. What is the great vacation destination I don't know about and why? Where do you want me blogging from next weekend?

   

I Got Served (Two Terms)

Yeah, yesterday was Presidents' Day, which by-the-way is still officially known by the U.S. Government as Washington's Birthday, and I celebrated like I always do: writing another chapter in the book of haiku about Benjamin Harrison that is my life's work. 

As patriotic and appropriate as that was as a way to spend the holiday, I have to say that my beautiful bride Donna totally out-Presidented me yesterday.

She and her Pop were in Simi Valley, California visiting the Ronald  Reagan Presidential Library. They even got their photo taken on board Air Force One! She reports back that it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon and if there was any bad news it's that they recently took down the portrait mosaic made of jelly beans that hung in the library.

That news, unfortunately, makes the just released yesterday new book Oval Office Oddities already outdated. Author Bill Fawcett suggest these other fascinating places to visit too and I'm pretty sure they are still there.

In Washington D.C., the USS Sequoia, the 104 foot former Presidential yacht, now open for tours, where you can see the scratch in the table where Harry Truman damaged it with a cigar cutter after a particularly bad hand of cards.

In Palm Springs, California, the Seven Lakes Country Club, where former president Eisenhower shot his very first hole-in-one after decades of playing golf.

Back to D.C., the Willard Hotel, where the term "lobbyist" was born! President Grant hung out in the lobby there almost every night  for a drink and a cigar and people would wait there for him to get there so they could get his ear.

Springfield, Illinois, Abe Lincoln's tomb. Go to hear the story of the two guys who tried to steal the body in 1876. They would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for some meddling kids. P.S. There was no law against stealing a body in Illinois so they were only charged with breaking the lock on the tomb.

P.S.  I should have remembered this in time for yesterday's post but here it is now. "Same goes to you crazies who spell "wacko" as "whacko." What the hell are you thinking?"    

Rufus King For President!

So Romney won the Michigan state primary, McCain and Clinton took their respective party's crown in New Hampshire, and Huckabee and Obama were the #1s in Iowa. Perhaps one of these 2008 hopefuls will end up in the White House next year as President of the United States.

Or perhaps instead one of them will join Samuel Tilden, Horatio Seymour or Rufus King and have his portrait hung in the They Also Ran Museum. We never got to have a president names Rufus because he lost to James Monroe in 1816.

Yep, it's a museum dedicated to  the other party's nominee, the candidate who lost the presidential election, and you'll find it in the mezzanine of the First State Bank in Norton, Kansas.

Several candidates lost their first bid for the presidency, but were successful on their second attempts, among them Thomas Jefferson and Richard Nixon. Some won a first term but lost a second, such as Herbert Hoover and George H.W. Bush.

Native son Bob Dole is proudly displayed. He lost to Bill Clinton in 1996.

Henry Clay is the nation's most consistent loser - running as a presidential candidate three times for three different political parties, losing to John Quincy Adams in 1824 as a Democratic Republican, to Andrew Jackson in 1832 on the National Republican ticket, and finally to James Polk in 1844 when Clay ran as a Whig. Whew.

I am sick just now learning of this awesome attraction while enjoying the 2008 Farmer's Almanac and have quoted them liberally here. If it had been included in last year's Almanac I would have made sure to include the town of Norton in my vacation plans when I visited Kansas for a week last March. Remind me to post photos one day soon. 

    

In Case You Run Across A Lot Of Sugar?

Today is the 100th post of StronglyWordedLetter.com!

But look, if I had time to run a third blog it'd be dedicated to a daily posting and analysis of the World's Largest Things. I ache to bring you details of the World's Largest Roadrunner (Las Cruces, N.M.) and the World's Largest Shuttlecock (Kansas City, Mo.) but there is just no time.

Thank you to blog reader Brynne, however,  for this recap of her recent visit to the World's Largest Wooden Spoon in Miyajima, Japan.

"This past November I spent two weeks exploring Japan with three of my best friends.  Have you ever been there? If not, leave immediately. 

"Japan is the most beautiful, clean, fascinating country I have ever been to.  We had the most amazing time; fumbling our way around the cities, talking with locals, and snapping over 3,000 pictures combined.  We're ready to go back :) "

When I asked why the World's Largest Wooden Spoon was in Miyajima here's what she had to say, "Something about a monk that lived on that particular island, making a wooden rice-serving spoon that doesn't damage the taste of the rice.  Right.  And of course, you can buy your own version of this gi-normous spoon in any of the souvenir shops nearby."

Thanks, Brynne!

Ore - Gone!

Last day of vacation pictures from last week's getaway to the Beaver State. (I think I rented that once) (Click on any photo for larger version)




A few from the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon.



Elk, I think. I always get them confused with moose.



Paging Don Johnson. Don Johnson, courtesy phone please...





"Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world....."




We are so moving to this street.....Happy New Year again. Come back tomorrow for something completely different.

Oregon 3: Oregoner

Nothing is more boring than someone else's vacation pictures, right? I'm here to prove it too. (Click on any photo for larger version)


Happy Holidays ... from Jimmy Buffet maybe?



One day I'd like to have a set up like this for my cows.....



Squawk, squawk, squawk...It's always something with you.



Purty, right?


One more set tomorrow.....Oh, and Happy New Year!

South Of The Border

Oregon's official state flag was adopted in 1925. It is the only US state flag that still has a design on both sides. It's true: you can source me!

A few more snapshots now from my drive down the Oregon coast over the weekend. (Click on any photo for larger version)

Water, water everywhere...

Rocks too!

And lighthouses.....

And rain....

And  me.

And no caption needed.

More tomorrow.

Go Beavers!!!

I squeezed in a short road trip down to Oregon last week and here are a few photos and a short description of same. (Click on any photo for larger version)

Creepy trees, leading to certain death, I'm sure.

Christmas lights on a fire station, I believe in Toledo, Oregon, celebrating the birth of the baby George Washington, I guess.....

Decorations inside the State Capitol in Salem. I'm standing in front of the Senate chamber, looking across the rotunda to the House. The wreath in the center is around the State Seal on the floor.

They must not get many visitors here.

Excellent advice from the Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse And Sushi Bar (correct)  in Corvallis, Oregon!

More tomorrow!

World's Largest...Wait For it.....Moose!!!!!

Long time readers know of my affection for any World's Largest attraction and I am always excited to hear of a new one. So you can imagine my pleasure at opening the following letter from the mailbag*




Dear Bean,

You may already know about this future wonder of architecture, but located in the north of Sweden, there is a giant moose being constructed, set to be finished in late 2009.  It will be about 45 meters tall, which is much larger than a regular moose!  This should prove to be very exciting for people that like the idea being inside of a moose, which I think describes you to a T.  In any case, here's the Giant Moose website where you can watch the virtual video tour

David Marks

P.S. Do you think the Trojans will fall for it again?




*You see, kids, before "email" and "computers" a man in a blue uniform who worked for the government used to come around to your house every day and deliver letters that were "handwritten" or typed on "paper."  Many of these "mail carriers" transported the day's deliveries in something called a "mailbag."

Japanese Are Weird

Thanks to my friend Paul for sending me the following:


"On a narrow Tokyo street, near a beef bowl restaurant and a pachinko parlor, Aya Tsukioka demonstrated new clothing designs that she hopes will ease Japan’s growing fears of crime.

Deftly, Ms. Tsukioka, a 29-year-old experimental fashion designer, lifted a flap on her skirt to reveal a large sheet of cloth printed in bright red with a soft drink logo partly visible. By holding the sheet open and stepping to the side of the road, she showed how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers — by disguising herself as a vending machine.

The wearer hides behind the sheet, printed with an actual-size photo of a vending machine. Ms. Tsukioka’s clothing is still in development, but she already has several versions, including one that unfolds from a kimono and a deluxe model with four sides for more complete camouflaging.




Ysukioka says her inspiration has been Japanese ninja assassins, who cloak themselves in black blankets so that they cannot be seen in the night.

She says the invention fits in with Japanese sensibility. "It is just easier for Japanese to hide. Making a scene would be too embarrassing."

The designer's other inventions include a manhole bag which unfolds to look like a sewer cover and a backpack which can transform into a fire hydrant to hide a child.

20 hand sewn vending machine skirts have already been sold, costing about $800 each."

As Paul wisely pointed out to me, "But what if the rapist stops to buy a Coke?"

 

Honest! A Giraffe Ate My Homework

I read about it in last month's Vanity Fair magazine and can't stop thinking about it. It is Giraffe Manor.



It is a 120 acre estate just outside Nairobi, Kenya and the owners have converted the former hunting lodge into a six-bedroom hotel.

British born Jack Leslie-Melville and his American wife Betty adopted Daisy, one of the  "highly endangered Rosthschild giraffes - which can be as tall as 20 feet, making them the tallest of the species" back in 1974. Since then, three more generations of her family have called the lodge their home.

Over the years, guests including Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, Mick Jagger and Stephen Sondheim have visited the manor and had the thrill of seeing giraffes poke their heads in the window looking for a butler to feed him some nuts.

The hotel "doesn't pretend to be swanky. It can be a delicious introduction to Africa, or a rest after a full-on safari.  'It's a home, and you are our houseguests. No spa. No television. Here you walk in the forest, you talk, you read, you sleep, and you read.' There are views of Mount Kilimanjaro and the Nyong Hills....."

Sounds  like one of those once-in-a-lifetime expensive-but- worth-it travel destinations. Here is the site for Giraffe Manor.

And even if your weekend is sadly giraffe-free, please enjoy it!    

   

   

No Photography Allowed

Before she was her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco, she was Grace Kelly, Oscar winning actress from Philadelphia, Pa., USA.

I've been a fan of hers for many years, particularly her Hitchcock movies, To Catch A Thief, Dial M For Murder, and Rear Window.

It was my good fortune that our trip to Italy last month coincided with the first ever Grace Kelly artifact museum exhibit in nearby Monaco, in observance of the 25th anniversary of her untimely death.

We really enjoyed the breadth of the items on display, from personal letters and telegrams to an extensive wardrobe collection to movie memorabilia. 

    

The thing I was most excited about seeing was Miss Kelly's Academy Award statue she won for 1954's The Country Girl. When a break in the crowd opened up in front of the display case, I whipped out my little camera and framed the shot. Seemingly out of nowhere a security guard appeared and reminded me that no photography was allowed in the exhibit hall.  :(

But you can't stop good old fashioned American stick-to-itiveness! Once I had figured out the guard's rotation around the room I reached into my other pocket and pulled out my far less conspicuous iPhone. I then snapped this picture of the Oscar and ran! 

Not exactly the memento I was hoping for but if you look really closely and squint and already know what it is you are looking at, you can kind of see it's a bona fide specimen of Hollywood history.

P.S. For further information on the tribute exhibition, a wonderful hardback companion book is available for sale here.

These Are My Kind Of Nuns!

My wife and I went on the vacation of a lifetime last month to Italy. We saw these nuns in front of the stunning Duomo Cathedral on a beautiful sunshiny afternoon in Milan. I thought of the sisters this week when i saw this story in the news:

Feuding nuns force convent demise

By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Rome

"A convent in Italy is being shut down after a fight between its last three remaining nuns. So badly did relations deteriorate between the sisters of Santa Clara in Bari that the Mother Superior ended up in hospital with scratches to her face. Now the local archbishop has intervened and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent. Sister Liliana is on her own there now and says she has no intention of leaving her home of the past 44 years.

The Clarissa nuns are regarded as the most austere order of the Roman Catholic Church, devoted to a life of prayer, penance and quiet contemplation. But at the Santa Clara convent in Bari, the vow of silence was shattered by an unholy row.

Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista say they were driven to distraction by the nasty habits of their Mother Superior, Sister Liliana. They became so angry that during the summer they turned on her, scratching her face and throwing her to the ground.  The two nuns have now moved into a nearby convent, leaving Sister Liliana barricaded inside.

Despite the efforts of the Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri to reconcile the three sisters he has been forced to call on the Vatican for help. He wrote to the Holy See telling them the sisters had "clearly lost their religious vocation" and with only one nun remaining has asked for permission to close the convent down.

But Sister Liliana is not going without a fight. She has been at the nunnery for 44 years and she is not going to be pushed about now. She has written to the Pope telling him she will only leave when God decides it is time to go. And since she is devoted to her vow of silence it is not that easy to reason with her."

Good luck and Godspeed, penguins.