Thursday, July 06, 2006
Thursday Morning Charivari
Wunderlich Park and A Picnic Table * google Google * Bush's World
It was just a picnic table under an oak tree at Wunderlich County Park. Weather beaten and a little wobbly after years of being there. Not all hikers used the table. It was sort of hidden in a small clearing surrounded by brush---manzanita, chamise, chaparral pea, yerba santa, and scotch broom. The hike on the Bear Creek Gulch Trail to the meadow is approximately 2.4 miles from the parking lot. It is an uphill walk, elevation gain from apprx.475 ft at the parking lot to 1,000 ft. Not very demanding but enough to make you sweat. A good trail on hot summer days because large eycalyptus,redwood, madrone and oak trees provide shade most of the way. A group of us went up to the meadow on July 4th for a picnic. The day was sunny but not too warm. Temperature in the low 70's (Fahrenheit). When it is not smoggy, the meadow offers a good view of Fremont in east bay. JHL and I have spent many pleasant hours at the meadow and used the picnic table. Yesterday, there was an empty space where the table used to be. No clue whether it has been removed for good or there will be another to take its place. We had our picnic sitting on the ground; absence of the table did not stop us from enjoying ourselves. Still, I felt a sense of loss; I had gotten used to seeing it there.
Wunderlich Park
© San Mateo County Parks & Recreation Dept.
© John LazarGoogle In Websters Dictionary
The Associated Press reported that "It's one of about 100 new words added to the reference volume. Google, with a small "g," is a verb meaning to use the Google Internet search engine.
- "Go "google" yourself.
If you don't know what it means, you can now look up "google" in the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Topsy turvy, volatile---these are words that come to mind when looking at what is going on in our world. Many people believe that part of the volatility is due to actions and policies of the Bush Administration. Michael Abramowitz and Robin Wright of the Post describe the "World of crises" faced by the president. "From deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Somalia to mayhem in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and eroding relations with Russia, the White House suddenly sees crisis in every direction."
- "I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously," said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations. "The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it."
- "White House officials emphatically reject such pessimism, and yesterday leading figures in both parties saw some diplomatic opportunity for the United States out of the missile failure. But the events on the Korean Peninsula underscored how the administration has lost the initiative it once possessed on foreign policy in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, leaving at risk the central Bush aspiration of democracy-building around the world.
- "They also showed how the huge commitment of resources and time on Iraq -- and the attendant falloff in international support for the United States -- has limited the administration's flexibility in handling new world crises. "This is a distracted government that has to take care of too many things at the same time and has been consumed by the war on Iraq," said Moisés Naím, editor of Foreign Policy magazine."
