Only 40+ Shopping Days Until Halloween

Permit me a grump or two. See that skeleton above? He was already at the entrance to the CVS drug store on Sept. 11. Guys, Halloween isn't until Oct. 31 -- more than 6 weeks away.

But I guess that is how it goes. The night of ghosts and goblins has been turned into one more major commercial holiday -- predicted to bring in $4.96 billion this year, up from just $3.29 billion a year ago, says the National Retail Federation.


So we can expect to be Halloweened to death for the next several weeks, with all manner of goodies -- such as the Halloween tree I found in a Gurley Street window last week.


I walked over to Fry's today and was greeted by this scene, as well as big aisle displays of candies, Jack O'lanterns and even costumes. No doubt there is even more holiday merchandise over at the Wal-Mart, especially for decorating the yard.


Turns out that decorating for Halloween comes in second after the Christmas/Hannukah holidays for spending on everything from tombstones and ghosts to lights and up-to-date high-tech spiders that walk and talk.

"This is all being driven by consumers," said one marketing person. "It's all about turning outward, and making yourselves known to your neighbors. Not to mention that the trend has spurred some healthy rivalry in neighborhoods, where homeowners compete for the biggest and most outrageous displays."

So All Hallow's Eve has evolved from a down home celebration where the kids carved pumpkins, Mom made costumes, the school held a fun carnival and everybody had fun -- into one more prop supporting our consumer economy.

Arghhh!

Critter Report 2: An Injured Lion & Deer

I was lucky to get emails with pictures from local friends in the past couple of weeks.


First, a sad lion report from The Ranch:

"My neighbor said he had a mountain lion in his garage. He had been working outside last night and had his garage door up. He went in the garage and closed the door and then saw some movement a few feet away. He looked toward the movement and a mountain lion jumped up onto his workbench and climbed behind some boxes.

"They tried to get it to leave (from a distance), but it refused to do so. This morning he called the Fish & Game department and they came out. It was a real circus trying to get close enough to get a shot at the cat with a tranquilizer gun. It was a male, about 150 pounds.



"Unfortunately, the animal had to be put down. One of the several Fish & Game officers who came out to help extricate the cat called to report that the lion's injuries (obtained in the fight it had with another lion, which doubtless was the proximate cause for its fleeing into my neighbor's garage) included a fractured skull. Apparently, the prognosis for the animal was not good.

"By the way, I was quite impressed by the Fish & Game folks. Four of them stopped by at one time or another, and they all seemed extremely knowledgeable and seriously wanted to save the animal if that was at all possible."


Friends out in the Mountain Club area, who have (and encourage) many animal visits sent these pictures of a buck and his does that were browsing in the neighborhood. I'd always wondered what my hunter friends meant when they talked about antlers "in velvet". After seeing the picture below, I certainly understand now.

Mural at the Sal

"Have you photographed the mural at the Salvation Army?" Question from friend Patty. "What mural," I answer. This from a person who loves to stop by the Thrift Shop on Montezuma for a bargain shirt or classic kiddie video for the granddaughter...or at the new collectibles emporium run by the Sal next door.

So I took a couple of pictures, especially after finding the detail below, which I'm sure most passers-by miss. Take a look the next time you're over that way.

Grafitti Busters

Burglars vs. locksmiths...grafitti vs.??? Grafitti Busters, that's what these gents' shirts said. They were on the job early yesterday afternoon when I passed by, obliterating the grafitti from the previous day. In the long run, in a city like Prescott, the number of potential Grafitti Busters probably outnumbers the markers many times over, fortunately. A little (very little) bit of grafitti can spice things up; a lot is an attack on civilization itself.


While on my walk I also caught these new samples, including the work of a pacifist who needs to spend a little more time with his spelling lessons and less time marking up walls!

Markers Strike Again

The Gurley Street bridge was hit again by either grafitti "artists" or gang markers. Actually, it looks more like would-be artists, but then I'm not in the know about these matters. I just see the result, until it gets washed away or covered up.


The removal squad did a pretty good job on this face in the bridge sidewalk as you approach the Chase Bank -- but they could have done better -- I was able to bring up the image with a little PhotoShoppping.


The phone booth across the street in front of the Dinner
Bell is a favorite target -- including very polite anti-war taggers. Tain't often you see the word "please" in grafitti!


This quick cartoon around features of the meter box is kinda fun. It doesn't shout "Look at me. I am grafitti Boldly Defying The Man!" Instead, it's rather subtle and you might easily miss it in passing.


This entity's tag can be seen around and about town. Just the two words: "Xert! Xhort!" I guess one is supposed to exert! and exhort! simply for the sake of Doing Something, since there are no further instructions.


Bridges and bridge abutments are favorite canvases for the tagger -- even out in the countryside. The elephant (above) is on the Willow Creek bridge out Williamson Valley Rd. The camera caught the mess below earlier this summer out on the Old 89 crossing at Sullivan Lake. Note the swastikas.


Why post this patently "illegal" art? Because it's part of the scene. Because it's evanescent, here today and gone very soon ... a small slice of our daily life here in comfortable Prescott.

Wow! Macadamia Nuts For Breakfast...

And in chocolate, to boot! All the way from Hawaii. Just in time for my coffee, newspaper and to-do list this morning. Thank you, Kailani and the Carnival of Family Life, whose drawing I won a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks to Blogger's interminable delay in downloading that picture, it's almost time for lunch: GrannyJ's special trail mix of every kind of dried fruit I can lay my hands on plus sunflower seeds, pistachios and maybe some cut-up pieces of apple and celery.

And comes six or seven PM, pie, of course.

I'm Guilty! So Arrest Me

The crime, in case you aren't up on these matters, has to do with morning glories. More specifically, growing them.

If you collect seed catalogs and turn to the morning glory department, you might notice a warning note at the tag end of the descriptions: cannot ship to AZ. Or something something of the sort.


As an afficienado of these wonderful old-fashioned vines, I've often puzzled over this legality. Precisely, I ask myself, what crime did ipomoea commit that got the state legislature down on them? Especially since they seem so very much at home along fences and embankments once the monsoon rains have arrived. Just like they belong here.


Was it the fact that in the age of hippies and the drug scene, some clever kid discovered that morning glory seeds are a psychedelic? Couldn't have that since the same clever kids realized that commercial packaged seeds are treated with a poisonous anti-fungicide. Voila! Grow your own!


Maybe the common white/pink bindweed above (or other morning glories) tangled up the cotton plants, making mechanical harvesting difficult. Couldn't have that -- cotton was one of Arizona's 3 Cs (cotton, copper, citrus) supporting the economy before growing houses and shopping centers began turning a bigger buck.

Yet another explanation from a friend I consider reasonably well informed and trustworthy -- cattle ate the plants and were sickened. Makes sense if the seeds are as powerful as reputed.


In any event, the area where I live is home to one helluva lot of vines with blue-turning-to-purple and little bright red flowers. The blues (which I'm sure are the precursor to the big Heavenly Blues of the catalogs) are from Mexico/Central American, long since gone native, but the reds belong here from the get-go.


Curious: tho cattle may not be able to stomach ipomoea plants, grasshoppers and snails and leaf miners all have a feast as you can plainly see above. Even people -- The Google informed me that there's a Chinese morning glory often dished up as ong chow or water spinach. Furthermore, morning glories are first cousin to a yummy member of the convolvulaceae family -- the sweet potato.


The Asian connection reminds me that a zillion years ago, my then partner rented a garage workshop from an elderly Japanese couple. The husband was a fancier of Japanese morning glories -- beautiful, bushy plants; he got the seed illegally from his home country! In more fortunate states of the union, you can now buy seeds for these splendid ornamentals.


Here's more background on ipomoea from Wikipedia:

It was first known in China for its medicinal uses, due to the laxative properties of its seeds. It was introduced to the Japanese in the 9th century, and they were first to cultivate it as an ornament. During the Edo Period, it became a very popular ornamental flower. Aztec priests in Mexico were also known to use the plant's hallucinogenic properties to commune with their gods (see Rivea corymbosa).

Ancient Mesoamerican civilizations used it to coagulate rubber latex to produce bouncing rubber balls. The sulphur in the Morning Glory vine served to vulcanize the rubber; a process which pre-dates the Charles Goodyear discovery by over 1000 years.

Quite a history for a pretty flower!

What to Do While Waiting for Pictures?

Hi -- this is a place holder until Blogger lets me download last night's pictures!

Perhaps I'd best consider a picture-less post! A difficult task, since I'm a picture-and-words sort of author. There's a reason. Let me explain.

Yes, I'm a journalist -- worked at it about 30 years in a real Journalist's Town -- Chicago. However, most of that time was spent on magazines. Magazines for the trade, in this case, foodservice. That translates out as everything from restaurants and hotels to race tracks and grammar schools.

Our magazine -- originally called Institutions and, later, Restaurants & Institutions -- was an early, early user of color pictures (4-color in printing parlance.) For good reason: food people are visually oriented readers. They want to set a beautiful plate -- that's why all those otherwise useless little sprigs of parsley and purple cabbage and shredded carrots and cherry tomatoes and such. They put color into what would be a sea of basic brown and white (think meat and potatoes or fried rice or almost any entree.)

Another reason we were pioneers in the trade with 4-color -- it brought in big ad bucks from the big food companies. Worked, too. With an inevitable hang-up. There are/were those two problem advertisers for magazines -- Campbell Soup and Eastman Kodak. Campbell Soup's red is a very special red, just as EK's yellow is unique. If your printer doesn't match those colors exactly, it's not just "Ooops" but no payment and a free ride next edition for the advertiser. We needed special inks just for the Campbell Soup ad; no, we never had a page from EK -- not our audience.

In any event, we were big on pictures and 4-color, primarily food -- and, of course, a lot of big shiny high volume kitchen equipment. Want to hear about real torture? Try spending a long afternoon writing captions for absolutely, mouth-wateringly yummy pictures sent in by those high-powered west coast ad agencies that specialized in food and recipes. The kitchen equipment usually went with layouts for efficient food production.

Basically what I am trying to say, in the midst of all these words, is that I learned early on to do word-and- picture story-telling -- not strictly picture journalism as in Life and Look magazines nor straight copy, as in newspapers or Atlantic.

That's where I'm at right now -- stuck until my host, Blogger, gets its picture downloading into gear. I was going to talk about the problem with morning glories in Arizona.

The Festival of Books

If you recall the pictures of my front hallway, you might wonder that I dared to show up at Book Festival #5 over at the Sharlot Hall museum grounds this afternoon. But you wouldn't be at all surprised! It's a fatal attraction. And, yes, I did spend some money.


Individual authors took booths, as did the two local presses (Prescott College and Sharlot Hall.) Booksellers came from as far away as Tucson and as close as across the street from the museum.



Organizations of writers also took group tables -- here, a rep from Professional Writers of Prescott, with her latest. Also present: Arizona Sisters in Crime and the Arizona Authors Association.


New this year -- and in town: a craftsman book binder who moved from the academic library millieu into a more intimate relationship with books after retirement. Welcome to Prescott, Spires Bindery!

What was selling? Southwest, of course. A neighbor manning the Friends of the Library 2nd hand book booth said that most of their regional titles had sold by the end of morning. And there were booths promoting Arizona and Mexican foods (above)...


...books about pioneer women...

...this highly recommended tour guide to the Arizona tribes and their reservations...

...and more Arizona history.

So what did I buy? Well, the Western National Parks Association was there with a tempting assortment of guide books, many of which I already own. I bought Insects and Reptiles/Amphibians, plus Creepy Critters of the Southwest for my granddaughter.

And, because she is from China, Chinese Sojourners in Territorial Arizona from the Sharlot Hall Museum Press to read many years from now. Couldn't resist Growing Up in the 30s and 40s--Life Was Simpler Then by a local author the same age as me.

Big temptations, too. Sabino Books had replicas of 1880s topo maps of the Southwest. Oh, how I wisted -- among other things, for enough wall space to display such a wonderful treasure! And a former Chicagoan had a pair of self-published books -- on Chicago crime and Arizona history.

There you have it. A backpack provides a convenient limit to one's book purchases, fortunately.

Three Squares

After Sam and Linda took me to retrieve my walking stick at the bank, after we had ah-ed and eyed the awesome saurians out Iron Springs Road, it was time for -- you guessed it -- rhubarb pie. And so I was in PV for the first time in quite a while. With my new eye, which is trained for spotting the off-beat Whatever.

Thus it was that I discovered Berry's version of three square meals: breakfast ... lunch ... pies. I'll buy that approach to nutrition any day. Berry's is in a modern, shopping center type of location these days. I liked it better over on Grove Street in the old Victorian. Besides -- it was a helluva lot closer to home. But the pies haven't changed, thank goodness.


Some PV businesses just wouldn't fit into a modern shopping center like the city fathers are promoting these days. Where, for example, would Prescott Valley Archery put all those antlers? Where, by the way, did PV Archery get all those antlers in the first place?


Also ill-suited to the slick modern commercial environment, a business such as this. Tattoos plus a boutique and a Mystery Merchandise clothing exchange. Wonder if they have second hand leathers?

How About a Jurassic NeverNeverLand?

It's only been a couple of months since I was last out Iron Springs Road. In that short period, a window to Faerie or perhaps a time warp to the Jurassic has opened up. However you view it, there's a growing zoological wonderland in full sight at one of the big estates to the south of the highway near Willow Creek. Gossip says that the huge life-size (or bigger) scupts are created by the son of the house, who needs a place to store his output. It's a super gallery, too!


When I last photographed the scene, Old Triceratops was the lone dinosaur present. Now he's been joined by T. Rex #1 (top shot) and Brontosaurus (above with the Triceratops), not to mention T.Rex #2 below.



The bucking bronc was there previously -- but the dragon is a welcome new resident.


Also combining the imaginary menagerie with the real -- a bucking unicorn plus a mountain sheep.


Two life-size ostriches -- only one is visible here -- plus H.M. Cobra (Highly Magnified) complete my day's collection.


Honest, everybody -- this is simply an amazing sight to come across! There are other smaller animals I couldn't reach from the road with my current lens. I expect that the collection will grow in the months ahead; I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you want a dinosaur or two, how about something a little less imposing -- say, origami.

Further Note: my dinosaurs made it onto the Friday Ark (just barely)...go take a look, if you're into any kind of animal! Another link that might interest you: Angie included Walking Prescott in a neat list of Arizona links; she's a Prescott writer.