Re: mw's first annual essay of the year project

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:24:43 -0700, boots <no@xxxxx> wrote:

Josh Hill <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:28:52 GMT, gekko
<gekko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So it isn't a triple-dark-fudge brownie with a scoop of vanilla bean
icecream on top, but Josh Hill <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> did write
something interesting in
news:iv09k31u6re3bgiifaqvum78tgvcha748h@xxxxxxx:


On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:17:54 GMT, gekko
<gekko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So it isn't a triple-dark-fudge brownie with a scoop of vanilla
bean icecream on top, but Josh Hill <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> did
write something interesting in
news:0cr8k3hv62eup8earkdema4b2a86o4ppuo@xxxxxxx:


On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:01:05 -0500, Donna
<adl123@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Stan (the Man) wrote:


But, they also showed the Airstreams, the first trailer
company and still regarded by many as the bees knees of
trailers. Several of the older ones were on display by some
very proud owners. Very small, but very well crafted.

Check out http://vintageairstream.com/floyd/floyd_home.html

Is this not eaten up with cool, in a 1950's Jetsons kinda way.

It's one of the most truly awful things I've ever seen. A
travesty of the human spirit.


Where "human spirit" is equated with excess and a need to show
off, yes?

Quite the opposite. Such vehicles are themselves morbidly wasteful
and excessive. But beyond that, they're the very epitome of
ugliness, of man in the bowels of the machine. Sardine cans that
put laminar airflow and corrosion resistance before the human need
for beauty.

Maybe beauty is found in efficiency, and compactness. Maybe the
ability to jump into one of those and have it be exactly right -- if
not pleasing to Josh's eye -- and head out to immerse yourself in
natural beauty on a moment's notice is beautiful.

But it's neither here nor there. My father, for example, finds the
squared off boxy automobile beautiful, while I prefer round, curved,
more aerodynamically inclined to be more beautiful.

I see nothing spirit-squashing in the bubble-shaped Airstreams of
yesteryear. To me, they represent the notion of freedom, which is
very much in line with human spirit.

Perhaps you're looking at them from the inside out, and I'm looking at
them from the outside in: ugly, tethered, wasteful, defacing and
dishonoring the very beauty and wilderness they're supposed to take
you to. "That night, Whiteman camped in one of our great national
forests." A parking lot full of "motor homes" . . .

You know, in spite of that fact that you've had an asshat on lately, I
have to lean toward agreement here. There's all this beautiful
country, filled with silence and peace, yet people who claim they want
to enjoy it all clump up in a half-acre shithole full of noisy kids
and beerdrunk shitheads trying to outstory each other around the
campfire. I mean, it seems people go to these park campsites to hang
out with other people, not to commune with nature. As Mrs Boots
notices, you go to the beach to enjoy the sun and the sound of the
surf, and there's miles of beach with nobody in sight, but ten minutes
later some asswad has set up within 15 feet of you and is playing
boom-boom music on his portable radio.

That's why there's a "No Traipseassing" sign hanging from the chain
across our driveway. I'd way rather watch the squirrels that belong
in trees than the ones that belong in suburbia.

Yep.

--
Josh

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals.
We know now that it is bad economics." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
.