Grape! Mango! Which?

Handel's Ice Cream started featuring grape ice cream as a seasonal flavor last week. That's a full rich Concord grape flavor that makes a fine milkshake.

Tonight, I went there looking forward to my grape ice cream fix, but found to my great suprise and consternation that Handel's was offering not only grape but mango.

For those of you who may know know, mango by Handel's is unique flavor and probably their very best. It even includes lots of mango pureé! The only better flavor I've had are the grapefruit gelatos in Italy and Hungary.

I had Mango.

Lions and Tigers, oh my!

Tigons and Ligers are real! But very diferent. What is interesting what a difference the mothers' species make.

My wife and I were speculating—or, rather I was bsing her—that tigers and lions probably have racist attitudes towards the halfbreeds, and probably need sensitivity training.

Haunting, Amazing, Evocative

When I was a kid, I loved the atmosphere of the inner "Charn" chapters in The Magician's Nephew. Well, Ukranian woman's motorcycle journeys through the exclusion zone around Chernobyl certainly remind me this.



The woman writes that This town might be an attractive place for tourists. Some tourists companies have been trying to arrange tours in this town, but the first group of tourists found the silence unnerving and downright SPOOKY. And it is. They charged 1200 hryvnas for a 2 hour excursion and after some 15 minutes, they wanted to flee to the outside world. The silence here is deafening.

Congratulations to Mr. Sarkozy!

The NR blog linked this pair of contrasting images. It will be interesting to what happens to the French left now. If only politics in this country were as . . . interesting.

Summer 2008 is a long ways off but if present trends continue, it strikes me that this sort of thing has some merit. If Bush persists in his policies through the summer of 2008, and if no strong Republican candidate emerges and is able to gain traction against that backdrop, then the real election may be taking place in the California primary and the choice will probably be between the two junior senators.

Here is an interesting slideshow of Hokkaido (click below to enter):

Ahmedinejad's letter to Bush is a fascinating apologetic document. He pretty much ignores the claims of Islam as such and tries to appeal to Bush on the basis of his professed Christianity. Many commentators have seen the letter as a simple propaganda piece, but I consider that it is really proof that Ahmedinejad lives or tries to live, much as I myself used to try, in a medieveal world where the ideas are real things and not merely traditions or conventions to which men are obliged to pay lip service. There is something of Charles Williams in this letter—I am thinking of The Place of the Lion—although seen from the other side.

Go Sarkozy!

Buena Vista!

Drove from Springs to Buena Vista today. I loved the progression from red-rock to rocky scrub over Ute Pass, and then to high arid grasslands after crossing over the next pass. I probably liked the "South Park" area around Hartsel the best--it has endless expanse of grasslands in a 60 mile-wide huge bowl rimed with snowcovered mountains. It reminded me of the MacKensie country in NZ.

Buena Vista itself exceeded my expectations, at least as far as sweeping good views is concerned. Coming from the east, a long valley opens before one, with a string of Fourteeners stretching north to south as far as the eye can follow. We tried to drive up to Cottenwood Pass, but it was closed a few miles before the actual pass.

July 9, 1984 was a long time ago now, but I passed Fairplay about 17 miles to the south today, and very nearly turned north to try to see Windy Ridge. I'm glad I didn't, though; Samuel said that the actual road was not all that passable without a 4x4. Given the time of year (late April), I'm sure I would have gotten nowhere near the timberline.

Colorado

Marsha, Ambrose, and I are in Colorado Springs for a friend's wedding. Today, I took the opportunity to drive most of the way up Pike's Peak (the last five miles were closed due to a large ice wall) and to wander around the Garden of the Godsies.

I took the opportunity to drive around Manitou Springs, and to drive by Summit Ministries. I nearly ran over David Noebel crossing the street in front of Summit. Although it was like 75°F outside, he looked a good fundamentalist in long-sleve white shirt and tie. :)

Colorado reminds me more of Italy than of NZ.

I am told that I need to post more! Well, I am SO excited! I just acquired (acquisitively) a complete and unabridged recording of Paradise Lost. "Every word he wote / every line he wrote / I'll be hearing it!" (Oh, wait, that sounds like an old Police song.)

My spouse made some pecan-encrusted Walleye this evening and it was wonderful. Certainly among one of her ten best!

Ambrose

In case any of you have not heard, my wife and I have been blessed with a son. His name is Ambrose Richard Wiley, after Ambrose of Milan and his maternal grandfather. The little guy was actually born some time ago--on May 10th. (He was actually due on his grandfather's birthday, but my dad had to take a rain check.) He seems long, and has an alert, curious disposition (but not sanguine). I think he looks like Marsha and other people think he looks like me. Survey says he is above average cute.

Ambrose likes to be outside or to go to large indoor spaces, like malls, or to spend time with Mommy, who is (for him) the Source of All the Milk in the Universe.

When he was actually being born, I thought two things. First, his head looked like a long carrot, with eyes and a mouth at one end. Second, catching him reminded me of catching kids back in the barn a long time ago. Ambrose was very slippery and I almost dropped him.

Email me at my earthlink address if you want to see a picture.

We are very happy.

Update on the Little Person

We are expecting a boy. He kicks quite a lot. If anyone asks about the name, we tell them "Absalom." (It's close to the start of the alphabet.)

Fantasia

I am sitting here drinking coffee and listening to the Stokowski orchestration of Bach's Toccatta, which is the opening selection. I think of a dark winter evening in 1982 when my late grandmother came and picked me up at Tree of Life and took me to see the re-released Fantasia. She thought it was important. It was.

The Big Annoucement

I am pleased to annouce that my wife and I are expecting, and have been for some time, our first child. Marsha getting into her new if temporary role as a "pregasaurus" (it's a long story) and I'm learning too! The due date is May 4th, which happens to be my father's birthday.

Don't get me these for Christmas!

I recently found a fine recent book, and the first I've seen stateside, of Pictures from New Zealand. Browsing it makes me long again, almost with wincing, for that far away country in the utter South where West becomes East.

Amarantine has some interesting tracks. It proves that Enya is more or less a constant, even after the events of the last few years. Tracks 1, 5, and 7 stand out especially. Still listening really. After her LoTR:FotR tracks, I was hoping for another "Caribbean Blue" or "Cursum Perficio." Ya know what I mean?

I just learned something new about my brother. When he was at Grove City, Mr. Richwine wrote a ballad about him, "The Ballad of Flatulent Dan."

Oh, my! Here's a lady in Denver who's offering to sell herself along with her house. Definitely some serious antifeminist rhetoric going on here.

Baby Wiley

Well, I'm now officially an uncle on the Wiley side--which makes my brother Samuel a bonafide "Uncle Sam." One of my siblings and his spouse had a baby born yesterday. His name is Caleb Moses. Congratulations!

Grandmother Wiley has already sent me a small pile of pictures, of which my favorite was of a very broadly grinning Grandmother holding the little guy.