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	<title>to-karvuvu trumps to-kabinana &#187; wanderings</title>
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	<description>the story of donald\&#039;s life</description>
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		<title>San Francisco, March 1st and 2nd 2008</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=77</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=77#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:08:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=77</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not much happened on the 1st.  I woke up earlier than my friends did, Luc went home and Laura accompanied me to a breakfast diner around the corner.  I shopped around the upper Haight for a bit, found an excellent embroidered dress shirt, a really cool electronic/ambient double CD in an Asian imports [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Not much happened on the 1st.  I woke up earlier than my friends did, Luc went home and Laura accompanied me to a breakfast diner around the corner.  I shopped around the upper Haight for a bit, found an excellent embroidered dress shirt, a really cool electronic/ambient double CD in an Asian imports store containing some of the most beautiful and most expensive items I&#8217;ve seen for sale, and came back in less than two hours, cold, tired and with a sore throat.</p>
<p>Today I hit the ground running.   I checked in at work, grabbed some coffee, and hit the F line to head back up Market.  I hopped off to walk a few blocks over to a beautiful Catholic church, but it was fenced in and boarded up <img src='http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />   I got back on the F, switched to a cable car at Powell, and wandered around Union Square for a while.</p>
<p>I wound up at Grace Cathedral an hour early, and was greeted on the steps by Michael Gefty, the &#8220;indecent docent&#8221; of Grace Cathedral.  We talked music and travels and church for a while, and I headed in for Holy Eucharist.  Did you know that the small, easily passed door in the Narthex leads to a stairwell to the basement?  And that instead of having a crypt, Grace Cathedral has a gymnasium, conference center, coffee shop, gift shop, and much more beneath the footprint of the building?</p>
<p>Dean Jones gave an excellent sermon as usual, centering on themes of light and darkness, self worth and priorities.  All things I&#8217;ve wrestled with personally and recently.  I&#8217;ve always felt uncomfortable taking communion because all through my childhood people told me I&#8217;m a bad person and I took it to heart, so to receive the Host in such a phenomenal setting, from the woman who lead the prayers, brought me to tears during the service.</p>
<p>After the service I rejoined Michael for a fascinating tour of the Cathedral.  Paintings I had walked by many times were actually gilt.  The silver was platinum, the blue color lapis latchuli.  Each item on display in the cathedral had some significance making each a treasured work of art &#8211; and so easily passed by the casual visitor!  A carved eagle lecturn in the apse is the only carved wooden work by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum.  Somehow I missed the ikon of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  A relief portait of the Madonna and Child I had seen, but Michael related an anecdote:  they usually don&#8217;t let people touch the works, but a blind woman did so.  She remarked to her husband: &#8220;Dear, isn&#8217;t it something how the angel on the left is smiling much more broadly than the one on the right?&#8221;  I had to take a flash picture of the work and examine it on my camera to even SEE the angels in the background!</p>
<p>Now Michael revealed his having earned the name of indecent docent.  One of the murals featured Sir Francis Drake among indiginous natives.  Michael explained how the artist used Chinese and Hispanic models for the natives, then pointed out that his partner was Peruvian.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Chinese have a saying &#8211; that there are three sides to every story.  My side, your side, and the honorable side.  So with a Peruvian partner, understanding how the artist could feature this son of a bitch in a church is beyond me. We call them Conquistadors, but they destroyed entire civilizations and sent entire cultures down the drain.  They robbed, they raped, they sunk the Spanish navy, hell, that&#8217;s what the Queen paid him to do, and we reward the bastard for it by featuring him in a mural!&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s as close to verbatim as I can remember properly.  I had snuck away from the tour to watch Christoph Tietze practice for his 4pm organ recital, so I missed his rant on the Church&#8217;s misogeny but I&#8217;ve heard many of these rants before.  Where would we be without women.  Magdalane bankrolled Jesus and the disciples.  So why do we still commonly accept the bullshit notion that she was a prostitute?  I could listen to Michael go on all day <img src='http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>I attended Choral Evensong at 3, Christoph Tietze&#8217;s organ recital at 4, and was back in my Bed and Breakfast by 6.  I was planning on taking MUNI back up to Masonic and Fell to try out Hukilau, but frankly the menu didn&#8217;t look that interesting (I wanted poi and &#8216;ava &#8216;ava but they serve burgers and chicken sandwiches.  Coconut pudding isn&#8217;t enough to drag me up there) so when Dion offered to cook me dinner right in the Bed n Breakfast, I took him up on it.  We&#8217;re going food shopping in a bit, but he won&#8217;t let me help clean the kitchen to speed things along.  I may walk around the street a bit, but I&#8217;m definitely taking things easy tonight.  Tomorrow will be a long day of sitting on a plane doing nothing!  I have yet to understand why that takes it out of me so.</p>
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		<title>San Francisco, February 29th 2008</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=76</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=76#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:59:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=76</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I got up *very* early to be sure I&#8217;d be on time for the OpenLibrary meeting at the Presidio.  Not as early as the patrons at the Mix bar next to my Bed and Breakfast &#8211; which opens daily at 6:00 a.m.  The conference was wonderful as I expected, I was in over my head [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I got up *very* early to be sure I&#8217;d be on time for the OpenLibrary meeting at the Presidio.  Not as early as the patrons at the Mix bar next to my Bed and Breakfast &#8211; which opens daily at 6:00 a.m.  The conference was wonderful as I expected, I was in over my head and couldn&#8217;t have been happier.  I took 53KB worth of notes for my boss (all text!) and got some great group shots when the conference was over.</p>
<p>My friend Laura drove up for the evening, and craziness ensued.  She made new friends, I made new friends, and she actually wound up crashing on the couch in the parlor of my Bed and Breakfast.  whoops!</p>
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		<title>San Francisco, February 28th 2008</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=75</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=75#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:47:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=75</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thursday was a wonderful day to be in San Francisco!  The weather was warm and sunny, I got off to an early start, and I saw most of the areas of the city that I wanted to see before Choral Evensong at Grace Cathedral.  I actually went to Grace Cathedral first, then to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thursday was a wonderful day to be in San Francisco!  The weather was warm and sunny, I got off to an early start, and I saw most of the areas of the city that I wanted to see before Choral Evensong at Grace Cathedral.  I actually went to Grace Cathedral first, then to St. Mary&#8217;s to see the Ruffatti, and in following my nose towards a great dome that I thought would be a basilica (City Hall) I stumbled upon the San Francisco Asian Art Museum.</p>
<p>The Asian Art Museum was simply amazing.  Floor after floor and room after room of jade carvings, ornate weapons, embroidered robes, carved gods and goddesses, fine furniture, and more from China, Japan, Indonesia, Tibet, Thailand, and India.  My jaw dropped many times at the sheer beauty of the collections, and I filled my camera&#8217;s 1GB SD card by the time I left.</p>
<p>In the afternoon I headed down to Chinatown looking for street food, then on to Little Italy and North Beach.  Along the way I stopped in several churches and ran across L&#8217;Osteria del Forno, which advertised pumpkin ravioli, but only on Fridays and Saturdays.  I walked on to the Marina district and headed back up Van Ness, on track for 5:15 evensong at Grace Cathedral.</p>
<p>Evensong was amazing as always.  It&#8217;s webcast &#8211; listen for some poor gentleman&#8217;s hearing aid going crazy during the improvised prelude.  The sun went down during evensong and I nearly froze waiting for the bus afterwards.  Standing in a hoodie and shorts on top of Nob Hill in February!  Evensong lasted longer than I had anticipated, otherwise I would have been in fine shape.</p>
<p>I turned in early to get my rest for the OpenLibrary conference the next day.  After a day of traipsing all over the city, not even the noise from the bar next door could keep me from sleep.</p>
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		<title>San Francisco, February 27th 2008</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=74</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=74#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:15:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=74</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I flew to San Francisco yesterday to attend the Open Library meeting in my boss&#8217; stead, and saved enough money not flying on the weekend to pay for an extra two days in the Bed and Breakfast.  A 5-day trip for the price of 3 &#8211; yes!
I got off to a rocky start.  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I flew to San Francisco yesterday to attend the Open Library meeting in my boss&#8217; stead, and saved enough money not flying on the weekend to pay for an extra two days in the Bed and Breakfast.  A 5-day trip for the price of 3 &#8211; yes!</p>
<p>I got off to a rocky start.  My flights were delayed, I spent the extra time in the waiting area on the phone with AT&amp;T trying to figure out why I couldn&#8217;t use my iPhone&#8217;s data plan, and I never would have thought that at age 31 sitting still in a seat for 5 hours without e-mail, phone, twitter or myspace would be so hard.  Instead I alternated between reading Bart Ehrman&#8217;s book on the Gospel of Judas and comparing dining recommendations with the lady in the seat to my right.  She grew up in LA and lives in NYC and loves SF restaurants.  She says I can&#8217;t pass up The Slanted Door, now at the Ferry Building, or the vegetarian Greens at Fort Mason.  Now I need a dinner partner!</p>
<p>Things started looking up once I touched down at SFO.  My bags didn&#8217;t get lost even with the scrunched-up layover in Charlotte, Hector of the Red Line picked me up in the hotel shuttle just as he did for the Open Content Alliance meeting back in October, and we pulled away from the airport before there was any noticeable reason for the bomb squad&#8217;s mobile unit to have been parked right outside the front door.</p>
<p>My Bed and Breakfast is beautiful, an old row house upgraded into a perfectly decorated place to sleep in the perfect spot in town.  Within walking distance of the Castro and Mission districts, and 1.5 blocks from the MUNI&#8217;s Castro Station, a hub of the city&#8217;s transportation lines.  I wasn&#8217;t able to reserve the room I originally wanted, but the room assigned to me has its own bathroom.  A smile from Providence which I hadn&#8217;t recognized at the time.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m directly across the street from Midnight Sun, Something Rainbow, Chaps, and hee hee, the Sit n Spin Laundromat.  I know where to go if I need to do a load of laundry and sip a mean martini at a sidewalk table while I wait.  I walked to the AT&amp;T store on Mission and met Jen, who not only fixed my plan but recommended some great Caribbean places in the Latin Mission district.  Her wife is a school teacher so she was really interested in hearing about ibiblio and the Open Library project and the Internet Archive.  I left with her mobile number in case I had any more trouble with my phone,  and in case I wanted to meet her friends out at several bars she recommended on Castro.</p>
<p>Back to the Bed n Breakfast for a shower and to decompress a bit.  When I got onto the Bed n Breakfast&#8217;s stoop, the sounds of nail guns combined with the smell of weed from the contractors working on the building next door.  Not a good combination.  Good thing the door opens easily and quickly &#8211; no fumbling with the keys!</p>
<p>Time to work on having fun.  I met the owner of the Up hair salon next door,  his friends sitting outside the Mix bar, and spent some time in the Castro shops, picking up a shirt, a MUNI visitor passport, and yum, a coconut latte!  I used my passport to hop on the historic F line streetcar, which stretches from the Castro down Market past Union Square, through the Financial District, past the Embarcadero and to Pier 39.  An excellent way to rest and people-watch on a chilly evening.</p>
<p>I checked out Midnight Sun for its American Idol viewing party and met some really nice people.  It was starting to get a little crowded, and the guy who came up to me made a point to tell me he earned 6 figures (right&#8230;), so after a drink or two I bounced over to Badlands, the Castro&#8217;s dance club.  I was having fun but my body was beginning to complain, having been awake from 4 a.m. EST to 2 a.m. EST the next day.  I came back and crashed.  Now it&#8217;s 6:10 PST and I&#8217;m waiting for the continental breakfast that Dion serves out of the armoire in the BnB&#8217;s parlor.  I may even be able to sleep for a bit longer!</p>
<p>I&#8217;m very much looking forward to wandering around the city today &#8211; Haight/Ashbury, Chinatown and Grace Cathedral&#8217;s Thursday Evensong service are on my itinerary.  Wish me luck!</p>
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		<title>the week ahead</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=71</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=71#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:43:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[disney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech stoof]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=71</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[tomorrow i&#8217;ll be giving a lunch talk, a report on the proceedings from the 2007 meeting of the Open Content Alliance.  on friday november 16th in manning 208 from noon until 1 p.m.  then, i am quite literally going to disneyworld!
i&#8217;ll be driving to florida as it takes almost as long and way [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>tomorrow i&#8217;ll be giving a lunch talk, a report on the proceedings from the 2007 meeting of the Open Content Alliance.  on friday november 16th in manning 208 from noon until 1 p.m.  then, i am quite literally going to disneyworld!</p>
<p>i&#8217;ll be driving to florida as it takes almost as long and way more money to fly, and then i wouldn&#8217;t have a car to go anywhere off property.  i&#8217;m very much looking forward to some forced relaxation &#8211; no internet, no work, no housework&#8230;  but i am bringing my running shoes <img src='http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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		<title>Open Content Alliance and the greater San Francisco area</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=70</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=70#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:28:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[tech stoof]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=70</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back in October I flew to San Francisco to take notes the Open Content Alliance and spend a few days exploring the city!  Ugh, I&#8217;ve been soooo negligent in updating my blog.  I&#8217;m giving a little report on the OCA meeting to the SILS faculty on next Friday, so I&#8217;ll post the presentation notes here.
I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Back in October I flew to San Francisco to take notes the <a href="http://www.opencontentalliance.org/">Open Content Alliance</a> and spend a few days exploring the city!  Ugh, I&#8217;ve been soooo negligent in updating my blog.  I&#8217;m giving a little report on the OCA meeting to the SILS faculty on next Friday, so I&#8217;ll post the presentation notes here.</p>
<p>I have tons of pictures from San Francisco and need to get them organized and uploaded to Flickr, at some point.  A few observations on the trip:</p>
<ul>
<li>MUNI passes are good things to have.  An $18, 3-day MUNI pass got us everywhere we want to go, and quickly!</li>
<li>Sweet Heat is gone from the Upper Haight <img src='http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />   There was one in the Marina district as well, which is now the excellent Chinese restaurant, Country Sky.  So, so good!</li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.gracecathedral.org/m3u/evensong.m3u">Thursday Evensong</a> service at <a href="http://www.gracecathedral.org/">Grace Cathedral</a> was the highlight of my trip, hands down.  Archie put up a fuss about going to a boring old church service, but once the service started he was <em>almost</em> as enchanted as I was.  The best part, for me, was that Grace allowed worshipers to sit up in the choir since the service was so small &#8211; and I got to sit behind the organ bench!  If I lived in San Francisco I would probably be at Grace for every service.</li>
<li>The NextBus placards are as inaccurate in San Francisco <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?m=200612">as they are in Chapel Hill</a>.  I wonder if San Francisco&#8217;s installation tracks bus routes on days the buses aren&#8217;t running just like Chapel Hill&#8217;s installation does.</li>
<li>We ate breakfast at the over-priced Boudin&#8217;s on the Wharf.  On the morning before, Buena Vista provided a better breakfast at a much better price.  With the cable-car turn-around right outside our window!</li>
</ul>
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		<title>travelling through southern virginia</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=63</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=63#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:58:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=63</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[i love travelling through southern virginia.  the bojangles in south hill that never has toilet paper, the ever-present traffic jams from a simple wreck off of the interstate, the exploding vans&#8230;
we pulled over north of south hill for gas, passing a ford econoline van that appeared to be on fire.  four mexican workers were trying [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>i love travelling through southern virginia.  the bojangles in south hill that never has toilet paper, the ever-present traffic jams from a simple wreck off of the interstate, the exploding vans&#8230;</p>
<p>we pulled over north of south hill for gas, passing a ford econoline van that appeared to be on fire.  four mexican workers were trying to put out the flames, and a few other people were standing around watching, talking into walkie-talkies and most decidedly not directing traffic.</p>
<p>i wondered out loud: &#8220;do you think we should call the fire department?&#8221;  arch, who wasn&#8217;t driving and saw more than i did as we drove by, set me straight:  &#8220;they <strong>are</strong> the fire department!&#8221;</p>
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		<title>back from broke gardens</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=61</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=61#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:30:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=61</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[spent a warm weekend in lightfoot, virginia, about 5 miles away from busch gardens williamsburg.  arch was excited about griffon, the new floorless coaster, but the water tank pumps were out of service, so they had to drain the tanks and refill it before the ride was again operational.  time for us to head over [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>spent a warm weekend in lightfoot, virginia, about 5 miles away from busch gardens williamsburg.  arch was excited about <a href="http://www.griffoncoaster.com/">griffon</a>, the new floorless coaster, but the water tank pumps were out of service, so they had to drain the tanks and refill it before the ride was again operational.  time for us to head over to ride the log flume with my dad (closed due to lightning), eat a short but pricey lunch at the festhaus, then drop my dad off in italy so he could take in the jazz shows.</p>
<p>a small monsoon came through, then more ride closures for more lightning.  we ate dinner at the smokehouse, and watched as busch gardens security came and kicked out some drunk guy whose wife (or perhaps not his wife?) had been rapping on the window while we waited in the line outside.  to top things off, my dad laid his wallet down at a coffee stand and walked off without remembering it.  the wallet was turned in to lost and found &#8211; without the $600 cash he was carrying.</p>
<p>an all-around bizarre trip to the most beautiful theme park in the country.</p>
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		<title>boston</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=58</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=58#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:30:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=58</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[my old roommate used to tell me how badly raleigh-durham sucked, and
how he wished he could be earning his PhD in a real city like boston.
oh, how i love boston, so beautiful, so much to do and see, he&#8217;d say.
as i have not yet been to boston with someone who knows the town well,
i am [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>my old roommate used to tell me how badly raleigh-durham sucked, and<br />
how he wished he could be earning his PhD in a real city like boston.<br />
oh, how i love boston, so beautiful, so much to do and see, he&#8217;d say.</p>
<p>as i have not yet been to boston with someone who knows the town well,<br />
i am not yet prepared to say that i don&#8217;t care for the place.  don&#8217;t get<br />
me wrong, a few of the people were incredibly nice &#8211; but the city itself<br />
was less than inviting and could stand to be scrubbed thoroughly.</p>
<p>i&#8217;m assuming that the city of boston is actively discouraging<br />
automobile usage because there are NO ROAD SIGNS.  anywhere.  until you<br />
drive *through* an intersection or fork in the road, and then you may be<br />
able to spot a tiny road sign, preferably behind a pole or tree, to tell<br />
you whether you have guessed correctly.  at home, we have signs to tell<br />
us a traffic light is ahead, with an easily legible sign beneath each<br />
giving the name of the cross street.  in boston there *might* be a cross<br />
street sign, possibly with the remnants of a cloth cover from previous<br />
road construction still obsucuring it.</p>
<p>i had been warned repeatedly about the traffic in boston, but it<br />
honestly wasn&#8217;t that bad.  in fact, it was easier to drive in boston<br />
than in north carolina because there was no concept of right-of-way or<br />
turn-only lanes.  with the exception of a few one-way streets downtown,<br />
one can pretty much drive wherever one pleases unencumbered by turn<br />
signals or traffic lights.  if i hadn&#8217;t been driving in a van with my<br />
mom pressing both arms full-strength into the dashboard in fear, i could<br />
really get into driving here.  once i knew where i was going because<br />
each of the 4 maps we had were either a) missing streets or b) labelled<br />
incorrectly.  we kept seeing signs for what must have been a major street<br />
that wasn&#8217;t marked on any of our maps.</p>
<p>if anyone can provide me with a good reason to return to boston<br />
besides the friday organ recitals at trinity episcopal, i&#8217;m open to<br />
suggestions.  otherwise, i find southern cities warmer, cleaner, and<br />
friendlier, and i&#8217;m sitting in logan airport waiting on a flight back.</p>
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		<title>salem / lexington / concord</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=56</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=56#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:27:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[wanderings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/dls/blog/?p=56</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[my favorite part of the american leg of our trip, hands down.  despite
the non-existent directional signs (see rant below), we found our way to
the salem witch museum and watched a cheesy but very well-executed
mannequin re-enactment of the witch trials.  a second part of the tour
challenged american christian stereotypes of modern-day witches.  too
bad that anyone whose [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>my favorite part of the american leg of our trip, hands down.  despite<br />
the non-existent directional signs (see rant below), we found our way to<br />
the salem witch museum and watched a cheesy but very well-executed<br />
mannequin re-enactment of the witch trials.  a second part of the tour<br />
challenged american christian stereotypes of modern-day witches.  too<br />
bad that anyone whose ears would actually *hear* the message would<br />
already know what wicca is really about, and it sailed over everyone<br />
else&#8217;s head.</p>
<p>we stopped at the battle green in lexington, and followed the<br />
minuteman trail west towards concord.  in the process we saw the spot<br />
of paul revere&#8217;s capture, the wayside in (another wayside in, not *the*),<br />
the alcott house, and best of all the old north bridge.</p>
<p>a retired harvard professor gave a short lecture on the battles held<br />
on the bridge.  there were as many blunders and miscommunications during<br />
the revolutionary war as there were in richmond during the civil war.<br />
the whole ordeal could have ended more quickly and efficiently.  such is<br />
life.</p>
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