I’m back home after my travels to NorCal. First, I had a lot of fun; Turtle Bay Exploration Park is a cool place. They have some nice exhibits, and the park itself is quite lovely (even in cold rain). There is also the Sundial bridge, an extraordinary pedestrian bridge which goes over the Sacramento River. It was designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, who is renowned for his unusual use of materials and his sense of flow and motion. Here is one of many pictures I took of it:
The trip home was a whole lot easier then getting to Redding; no delays, no canceled flights, no midnight drives through towns with unmarked intersections. And then random coolness ensued. I got on my plane to go home, and as I was fidgeting in my seat getting my stuff organized, I look down the aisle to see President Jimmy Carter walking along, saying hi to everyone and shaking their hands! He was flanked by to Secret Service guys (one was wearing a tan sport jacket, not black, which surprised me) and being very cordial. I shook his hand when he came by, told him it was an honor, and he moved on.
That was cool.
The guy in the seat ahead of me was going nuts; he was reading a copy of Carter’s book on the plane! He sent it up to Carter to get him to sign it; after the flight the Secret Service guy came back with his pen; as we deplaned I told him I saw them wrestle it to the ground, and got a laugh.
Then, to top everything off, we got a lovely snow last night, and played with Canes Major and Minor as they romped around in it this morning. We drove downtown today (not easy, since it’s still snowing and traffic was sllloooowwww) and got our tree, too.
All in all, not a bad week. This whole not having a job thing has its advantages sometimes.
December 8th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Cool stuff indeed! Yeah Jimmy.
December 8th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Glad you had a good time. Been wondering, are
you going back to teaching soon? How often can
you write a book?
December 8th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Food for thought Phil,
A member of my family once spent some time as a Special Advisor to a British PM on IT issues, and often traveled with said PM.
I am informed that they were remarkably open to conversation that was presented to them in an unthreatening manner, and would often spend an entire flight talking to “commoners”.
Next time you have the ear of an Ex-Prez, speak your mind, They’ll listen.
Shaun
December 8th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Too bad you didn’t have time to describe the Venus corona halo phenomenon to President Carter as a plausible explanation of his 1969 UFO sighting.
http://www.clearskies.se/Venus%20halo%20&%20Earthshine.htm
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/hrc.ARCHIVE/2005/2005315.000000-2005315.240000/SpaceWeather/
December 8th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Too bad you didn’t get a chance to talk to Jimmy. You could have told him about Venus halos and how they are often mistaken for UFOs.
Oh well, next time…
Rich
December 9th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Yeah BA, you missed an opportunity to go Gordon Ramsay on his heinie over his UFO thing.
December 9th, 2007 at 3:01 am
Ever get that thing where a news story grabs your attention because just the very TITLE of it prompts such an obvious burning question that you HAVE to find out, then you go and read it and you are flabbergasted to find that the question is not answered? And then you think “How could they have missed out the ONE OBVIOUS ANSWER that everyone will want to know? What kind of journalism is that?”
Maybe it’s just me, but… DOES this bridge function as an actual sundial, or NOT? I’m going crazy now. A simple “by the way, it’s not a real sundial” would have sufficed, LOL!
December 9th, 2007 at 4:42 am
I visited this park about 2 years ago, while in Redding for a memorial service for a member of my family. The bridge does indeed function as a sundial. The hour markings — quite far from one another — are in a landscaped area at the north end of the bridge.
Based on Phil’s photo, he appears to have been there on an overcast day, when that aspect of the bridge would not have been evident. Another benefit of visiting Redding on a clear winter day (as I did) is that both Mt Shasta and Mr Ranier were visible from certain locations in the city (in their full snowcaped winter glory). My memory is a bit hazy. I’m not certain that either mountain (volcano) was visible from this park (although I believe one — Mt Lassen — was). Mt Shasta, seemed to be visible from fewer locations in the city than Mt Lassen.
One memory I have is meeting a man in the park who was pulling a wagon with a large dog in it (I believe the dog’s name was Sammy). The man said he and the dog used to walk in the park frequently, and the dog had really loved these outings. When dog had become too old to walk that far, he started bringing him in the wagon so the dog could still enjoy the “walks” in the park.
December 9th, 2007 at 8:01 am
That is such a cool story about Jimmy Carter. There’s an ex-president who has done great things with his post-presidential life.
Let me ask you — was he sitting in coach?
Re: the tan jacket — I think dress codes are slipping a bit for the USSS guys who don’t guard the high-value targets (HVTs) like the sitting prez and vp. I’ve known several who work in non-HVT areas, and some of them just don’t know how to dress. I feel like they aren’t representin’. I know that none of them (HVT or no) get clothing allowances, though, and their starting salaries are shockingly low, IMO, so maybe some of them just say screw it.
December 9th, 2007 at 8:03 am
I love Calatrava’s stuff. Here are some photos I took of the Allen Lamport Galleria he designed in Toronto: Daytime, Nighttime, Both together.
December 9th, 2007 at 8:19 am
I saw Jimmy Carter do the same thing (i.e. go through the plane shaking hands and saying hi to everyong) on a flight in ’88 or so (I believe Atlanta -> NYC). Being 14 and not from the US at the time, I didn’t recognize him at all and was involved in reading with my earphones on. I was sitting next to a girl/woman of about 16 and two suits, so I assumed he had something to do with them, business partners perhaps with the girl being their daughter/niece/friend/whatever. I got the earphones off as he was shaking the hand of the girl in time to hear him say hesistatinly “Shake hands?” so I did. It was a little surreal, I guess similar to what he experiences constantly – people don’t usually come up out of the blue and ask to shake hands with you. I guess he must be a fan of mine or something..
December 9th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
little off topic but….
About Calatrava…he also designed the “Estação do Oriente” or “East Station” in my home town, Lisbon, Portugal
Check it out !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FvBv3P6OWE
December 9th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Thanks Carl! That’s really cool that it works as a sundial
Also like the sweet story about the dog: very touching.
December 9th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
testing… can I post? please say I can…
December 9th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Love the dog names. I have cats right now, and I don’t think astronomical names lend themselves very well to cats.
But if I got a dog again, I would want to give it a star name. I’ve always thought “Mintaka” (middle star of Orion’s Belt) would be a cool name for a big dog (maybe “Taco” for short). As for a little dog, I would want to name it Gomeisa (the *other* star in Canis Minor).
Of course, if I get two at once, I’ll name them Courage and Triumph.
December 9th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
My favorite work of Calatrava is the City of Arts and Sciences, in his hometown of Valencia, Spain.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Carter had a tan limosine during his presidency… maybe the Secret Service guy is wearing tan for the same reason. (Or maybe not…)
Didn’t Calatrava design the art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well?
December 10th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Recent article in Science News about bridges, featuring cable-stayed designs. It includes a photo of a similar Calatrava bridge in Spain. Ready for the article’s title?
“Bad Vibrations”
Enjoy.
http://sciencenews.org/articles/20071124/bob10.asp
–James
December 10th, 2007 at 10:12 am
We once had a big cat with a prominent ruff named … what else? … Leo.
How about Chara and Asterion?
December 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am
BA-
When is the next time you will be visiting us in Nor*Cal???
December 10th, 2007 at 11:43 am
And you told me that you were past the part in your life where strange things always seemed to happen to you!