Tom reported today that he and Kate will be spending their first married 4th of July at the home of Kate's aunt Jeannie in Rancho Murrieta, a suburb of Sacramento. We wish all participants a fantastic Independence Day.
THE MURRIETA MYSTERY
On the subject of Rancho Murrieta, well Murrieta specifically, I'll pass an interesting tidbit of trivia on to Tom just in case Kate's family runs out of beer.
Although many places in Central California are named "Murrieta" in one way or another, apparently very few people actually know the origin of the name itself. Well, as this link explains in detail, Joaquin Murrieta, now a nearly forgotten local legend in the 1850s, is for whom all these places are named. To some, Murrieta was a bandito and blood-thirsty murderer in Calaveras County. To others, primarily the exploited Mexican and Chinese laborers, he was a Robin Hood-like figure.. stealing from the wealthy. Legends abound:
-He was a normal, law-abiding citizen until two white men raped his wife
-He buried all his treasure in a spot that still hasn't been discovered
-He was finally tracked down and killed, after which his head was cut off as a trophy
-His head is preserved in a jar, now in San Francisco, and was a popular freak-show attraction for many years
-He was the inspiration for Zorro
In addition to the previous link, I highly recommend a discussion of Murrieta's history by Richard Rodriguez in his book Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father. In one of the chapters, Rodriguez gives an interesting account of his own pursuit of Murrieta's preserved head. While you're at that link, check out his other fantastic book, Hunger of Memory.
I wouldn't call him a pundit, but he's one of my favorite commentators on cultural/Latino/Hispanic/California issues. This will take you to an archive of his video essays for the Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. If he had to be labelled, Rodriguez is a liberal, Catholic, Mexican-American writer with a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley who also happens to be gay. That's quite a combination. (If you think he's a walking enigma, check out Andrew Sullivan over on my links list.. conservative, English, Catholic, Ph.D. in politics from Harvard who not only also happens to be gay, but also HIV-positive.)
DAVE REID AVOIDING YARD WORK, TOO
Dad phoned to let me know that he definitely will not be able to meet Mom in Portland during her stay next week. That's a disappointment, but I suppose I shouldn't have posted so soon that there was a lot of dirt shoveling to be done. Sorry, Mom. Maybe we can get him to come up here later in the summer to visit Bend. Who knows?
He did say that since travelling here isn't going to be possible, he would like to try to meet up with his brother Steve, who I mentioned earlier in the week, and get down to see Grandpa Reid at Groundhog (Groundhog Reservoir, to the uninitiated, in southwest Colorado).
PHOTO CACHE APPROVED
Jerry, my employer, gladly gave a "greenlight" to the idea of a photo page on the company server for this blog. I'm now checking with our Rhode Island office about how much bandwidth we'll be using so as not to burden the server. I'll update as soon as I find out more.
GARDEN BENCH SHELVED
After coveting a handsome looking garden bench at Lowe's Home Improvement for the past year, Jill finally puchased one for the back yard today at a clearance price - in Jill's opinion, the only way to buy. After taking it home, she was disappointed to learn that upon closer inspection, the bench was very shabby. So, to save everyone else the trouble, avoid this bench at Lowe's:
When I get home, I have been bestowed the honor of returning it. That sure beats assembling it!
No comments:
Post a Comment