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DurhamDawg · Sliver STAR Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 225

Smokey Stover · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 12:20 pm Post subject:

I will, I will. I've been making up tentative replies on my word processor, and promptly erasing them, since they seem so egotistical. I've also tried replying here on the board, but my cat jumps up onto the keyboard and destroys everything I've just written.

Okay, I'll comment on DDawg's post. Very nice answer--what's not to like about you? True, I'd like to hear more about your "extraordinary" deeds or events. What will it take to pry them out?

Quiscalus has seen enough of my posts to know that my autobiography tends to leak into my posts here and there, so a lot of things about me would be twice-told tales if told again.

I'll continue to try to say something about myself only moderately boring. Meanwhile, may I hold you off with two things that belong (for me) in the extraordinary category?

In my lifetime I've had one thought that I believed to be both original and significant. After having had philosophy in my sophomore year of college, I was left with a strong feeling that none of the philosophers that we studied had had any decent ideas about ethics. My Eureka moment actually came in the summer, when I was recuperating from eye surgery. I realized that "ethical behavior" is nothng other than social behavior. We humans are a social species, and have to behave somehow. What can the origin of our behavior, in general, be other than evolution. Or, put simply, evolution is the source of our ethics.

At that time and place this was a difficult idea to defend, although I was from the first completely sure of its truth. Nowadays that notion is voiced everywhere, it seems. Doesn't detract from the fact that I independently happened upon it.

One more "extraordinary" event just proves that I can be as reckless as anyone else, even without my testosterone pumping at high levels. One summer, while I was in college, I tried to effect a rapprochement with my little sister, who had for a long time been regarded as an incorrigible brat. As part of my campaign of friendship, I took her to visit Niagara Falls with me. The Falls were not too far from our home, so it was a convenient day trip. In those days the Falls had not yet become a State Park, with guard rails all over the place to protect the public from falling into the water and protect the State from lawsuits.

A few yards down the length of Goat Island from the forward end (the island separates the American Falls from the Canadian) and across from it, we found a rickety pier out into the Niagara River, with steps to the pier. Out on the end of the pier, which was rather crowded with people, I climbed down into the water, after taking off my shoes. (I was wearing shorts, fortunately.) I waded downstream to the edge of the Falls, bur rather off to the side, where the waterflow was less powerful. I was able to look over the edge by climbing onto a rather large rock. I must say, I got a rather large kick out of the oohs and aahs of the people on the pier (and elsehere on the bank), who thought I was crazy. My sister was one of them, of course. I stayed long enough to wow my public, especially when I slipped a few times on the algae on the riverbed, and got my pants wet.

No one believes I actually did that, especially now that the pier is gone and guard rails are everywhere. (But the Shadow knows.)

I'll tell you more sometime soon. Actually, you still have time to rescind your question, now that you know more about what I'm like.

FoOK = Smokey
_________________
According to Smokey,
Circumstances alter cases.

Qubilai · super star constellation Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 54

hey smokey,

I live in Niagara County now.

Smokey Stover · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:24 pm Post subject:

DurhamDawg · Sliver STAR Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 225

Smokey,

I'm not sure that the things I've done or experienced that I consider "extraordinary" would qualify as such in anybody else's book, but I've written a number of articles that have been published in nationally distributed publications, co-founded a successful magazine, and have played an active role in several successful animal protection and environmental efforts. I've rescued several homeless animals. I've traveled across the US by car 7 times (including once alone), and across Canada once. I've been sniffed over from head to toe by a wild bear, and have come close to drowning on a wild whitewater river. I've climbed one of the tallest mountains in the Eastern US. I've come a very long way from the time and place and environment in which I grew up, and have carved my own path in life. Does that answer your question a little better?

My Niagara story is that in the late 70s, on that cross-Canada trip, I planned to re-enter the US at Niagara Falls. I'd always wanted to see the falls and was expecting it to be a spectacular sight. I was traveling at night and planned to continue on to my destination in NY after seeing the falls. I got to the falls and parked and walked out to the observation deck, only to discover that all the lights on the falls were off on account of an energy-saving measure put in place by Pres. Carter as part of the federal effort to combat the energy crisis. So, I was able to hear the roar of the falls and feel the spray, but I could see nothing. And I've never had the opportunity to go back there since....

Smokey Stover · Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:54 pm Post subject:

Your reply was gold, DDawg. Everything you mention is worth a gasp or two. The causes most important to me include environmental and animal-welfare oriented causes, so you sound like an angel in your selfless work. And your exciting events, like getting sniffed over by a bear, or nearly drowning in a rapids, are ten times as exciting as the most exciting things that have happened to me.

You're still a little reserved about giving details--naturally--but mention of a tall Eastern mountain makes me think immediately of Mount Washington. And next of Mount Katahdin.

I regret your bad luck at Niagara Falls. I've only seen the Canadian Falls from the Canadian side once. It was a bright sunny day, the falls were magnificent, and conspicuous among the tourists were a large number of of them that looked Amish--sunhats, beards, galluses, the rest--about a busload I would say. I had never seen Amish people close up before, so it added to the experience.

Crossing Canada. I've done it perhaps four times, although not the entire span of the country in any of those trips. I went from Ontario to Vancouver by train twice, once CNR, one CPR. By car, from Seattle to Vancouver to Manitoba, then through North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to Chicago. Once by car from Ontario along the St. Lawrence River to the Gaspé Peninsula, journey's end except for boat trips to some islands, and except for getting back home. That particular trip I encourage you to try some time.

The train rides took us across miles and miles of apparently almost uninhabited country. Occasionally the train would stop and some Cree Indians (or some other tribe) would get aboard. It was no use trying to talk to them, they spoke only Cree.

At the Pacific end I did manage to get to Victoria. Only later, and at home, did I learn that Victoria Island had once been home to the largest individual Sitka Spruce in Canada, perhaps in the world. But an individual who had been a lifelong tree lover, had some sort of crisis, and cut the tree down.

In only one of the categories you mention would I dare to believe I could compete with you. That's the category of socially shy. When it was time for me to go to college, my parents, who would pay for some of it (not very much, fortunately), decided that I shouldn't go to either COlumbia or Cornell, because they were too big for me, and unsuitable for someone so socially backward. They also discouraged me from accepting RPI's early acceptance, because of what they thought were slender scientific credentials on my part, and the likelihood that I would find my non-scientific interests withering.

I WAS backward, too. I had one date each of my last two years in high school, and dated in college at about the same rate. I graduated from college a virgin, but not from lack of trying. Rather, from lack of succeeding. It didn't seem unreasonable, and I didn't waste too much time thinking about it. So that's all the words I can afford right now. Thanks so much for your reply. Makes me think more than ever, what's not to like about her? SHe sounds perfect.
_________________
According to Smokey,
Circumstances alter cases.

DurhamDawg · Sliver STAR Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 225

Smokey, I've been up to the top of Mt. Washington, but that was by car. The peak that I actually climbed was Mt. LeConte in TN, in the Great Smokies. An awesome experience. Stayed at the remote and rustic LeConte Lodge overnight.

One other extraordinary experience that I'm reminded of this week, what with Barry Bonds' latest homer, is that I was at the Braves game in Atlanta in which Aaron broke Ruth's HR record.

Smokey Stover · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:28 am Post subject:

DDawg--

I never got to Tennessee. But I got to give the Blue Ridge Mountains a onceover while I was in Virginia. My better half and I descended into a hollow, at the bottom of which was a longish waterfall and a creek, making it a point of interest. Once down, I found I couldn't get back up. I got out of breath so quickly that I had to walk ten paces, stop and rest, then walk ten paces more. Since it was a long walk down into the hollow, getting out took us most of an afternoon. I only later found out that I had had a pulmonary embolism. After I got home it didn't occur to me to get checked out for my shortness of breath problem. I eventually got better by myself.

The reason I now know it was PE is that I've been hospitalized for it twice since. (I'm now on Coumadin, which makes it more difficult for me to have PE. Or fun.) Interesting illness. I asked my doctor one day as he was visiting me in the hospital how they could make a positive I.D. of PE as the cause of the symptoms. His response: the only definitive diagnosis is the one done at autopsy. Cheerful guy, he was.
_________________
According to Smokey,
Circumstances alter cases.

DurhamDawg · Sliver STAR Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 225

So, you'll find out for sure when you're dead, LOL.

quiscalus · Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:33 am Post subject: Been gone a long time

Wow, I must have been gone longer than I thought; how the time does fly! I mean, this is the first time I'm reading the dialogue between Smokey and DDawg, and that was from...last AUGUST? Yikes! Thought I'd only been out of circulation a few months. I remember pulling out of the Fruitstand, with an only slightly more dignified post than "bite me," when one of the regulars stated that a Hindu should not be allowed to say a prayer in Congress. Mind you, it was not a "separation of Church and State" argument said regular was posting -- that would not have gotten my back up -- but rather the "America is a Christian country" argument, which gets my back so far up that I look like a Ring-Tailed Lemur in a stinkfight.

Dawg, you sound a lot like me. Shy and no social butterfly. Place me in a sylvan setting, alone with a book, and I'm in nirvana. Take me to a party and I'll find an empty room with the host's cat, dog, or lizard and happily spend the evening hiding in there. I can make decent conversation one-on-one, and I can even give a pretty good extemporaneous speech to a crowd; just don't ask me to engage in "small talk."

Since my beloved Swee'Pea died last month we now have 5 cats, all rescued from the Mean Streets.

Smokey, I guess I needn't warn you to be very, very careful if you are on Cumadin.

Oh, and going back to even more ancient (and embarassing) history, my "song" wasn't a take-off on Whitman, other than the title. It was a parody of an old Sinatra song (hmmm...guess there's no such thing as a NEW Sintatra song) in which he sings about being 17, 21, 35, and, in the last stanza, "the autumn of the year." Ol' Blue Eyes was barely 50 when he recorded it -- maybe even younger -- so I had a few years on him when I wrote my (ahem) homage.

I got lost in Niagra one night, Uriel...er, Qubilai. Everything looked exactly the same after dark. Still, the same can probably be said about anyplace, even Manhattan.

Hello again, everybody.

Q

_________________
"I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing." -- Melville