Hamlin Moments

  Is Yard Art a reflexion of your hopes and dreams, your subconscious desire to create, your innate hoarding personality, your desire to be cool or a form of unrestricted self-expression? Rust is de rigueur with vintage cars and farm tools making the top of the list.  Metal artists make and sell giant flowering Ocotillo cacti, mama Javelina with babies following (high cuteness factor) and of course the stagecoach pulled by horses. So, ponder this: in several years when the gas combustion engine is no longer manufactured, will we see old car and truck engines become yard art? Each of the pictures below has a story. All are in within a block of my new location in Wickenburg. 

The Roadrunner is not uncommon here in the high desert, but an Audi is rare. It is illegal to kill Roadrunners according to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 but I am told people have tried to eat them. The homage to the Roadrunner now lives on a 2007 Audi A4 with about 87,000 miles on the odometer. Why this 14 year old Audi has only 87,000 miles might be attributed to my general distaste for driving, although I have made numerous trips to the SF Bay area and to Wickenburg from various locations in California.  But,why this 14 year old Audi sports the Roadrunner hommage is happiness. Roadrunners make me smile. They used to visit us in Palm Springs and would walk right into the house when the steel French doors were open. Heaven.  While the vehicle of choice in the high desert is the Jeep, the Audi feel sufficiently juxtaposed to the local culture that it could be considered a freak. The four-door Jeep Wrangler with desert trolling wheels is the local status ride and the op...

Gorgeous day....quiet...sun...the quiet is overwhelming, ....  quail running around on the hill ... bunny rabbits in the yard looking for food...no javelina.... Three days sifting rock from the sandy soil in this area at the entry of the house yielded a lovely place to plant. I carried each bucket of sifted rock to various places on the perimeter of the yard for later use in reconstruction when the fence posts are removed.  (Long story)   The new plant is a Sego palm in whose container a small fan palm took root. The two are conjoined at the root ball, so it was necessary to plant them together. The Sego, since it is a cycad, cannot endure much sun. Hopefully this area facing north may work, I will add several red yucca plants to complete the arrangement.  Ideally the conjoined palm is a dwarf so it doesn't get 30 feet tall although it might be a statement for a future generation.... Next for the watering!  Sego plants do not like m...

This bridge with its metal fence and view of the horse pasture, the dry riverbed and the mountains is one of our favorite spots for the daily walks. Dollie loves the horses. She does not understand them. Dollie is a shelter dog. I took these shots today March 11, 2021. Sky blue with clouds tempting us with rain. Cool. Very cool actually. Not sure if this is normal. The detailing on the metal fence is used consistently throughout the city. The City of Wickenburg has design guidelines for the streetscape, landscaping and signage which reinforce its historic western image.The city is  impeccably  maintained.  I have not looked at the finances so I cannot understand how a city this small manages so well. The sales tax is only 2%.  It is a miracle which I cannot explain.  I assume the bridge was a combined project with ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) and The Nature Company (TNC) and the city  because TNC owns a big chunk of land at the Hassayamp...

  Many students of history are familiar with White's historical accounts of General Stilwell in China, but his personal account of history as he experienced it may be new to some.  Theodore White's "In Search of History" starts with his family's poverty in the United States. As immigrants, they worked long hours and studied to make progress up the financial ladder.  His recollections of post-World War II Europe and in particular the Marshall Plan and the rebuilding of Europe are essential reading.  Some important statements: "Neither Clay nor MacArthur nor Hoffman nor Harriman nor George Marshall nor Dean Acheson nor Milton Katz could have envisioned that what they tried to do in the reconstruction of Europe and Asia would result in the rise of Germany and Japan--and that thirty years later, our two former enemies would threaten, like giant pincer claws, America's industrial supremecacy in the new trading world we had tried to open to all: ."  page 3...

" The equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt at the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History is another target of our national Cultural Revolution. The monument features Roosevelt on horseback, with a Native American on one side and an African on the other, both on foot. According to  James Earle Fraser , the sculptor, the two figures at Roosevelt’s side “are guides symbolizing the continents of Africa and America, and … stand for Roosevelt’s friendliness to all races.” According to  John Russell Pope , the Museum architect, the three figures together comprise “a heroic group.”... Read more of the history of TR which is extremely well documented due his prolific writing. https://toputitbluntly.com/2020/07/06/assessing-teddy-roosevelt/#more-1145 Not only did TR invite Booker T. Washington as a guest of honor to the Whitehouse, he advocated for women's suffrage.  The great-grandson is misguided...the statue is not paternalistic. The statue honors TR as inclusive....

In Curt Gentry's spellbinding biography of J.E. Hoover, the name of Senator McCarthy appears numerous times. One in particular stands out: "McCarthy knew next to nothing about communism, foreign or domestic. Earlier, seeking an issue for his 1952 reelection campaign, the senator had consulted several advisers: one had suggested increased pensions for the elderly, another championed the St. Lawrence Seaway; while the third, Father Edmund Walsh, a Georgetown Univiersity dean, had recommended the issue McCarthy finally picked, Communist infiltration of the government."    p 378, J.Edgar Hoover, The Man and The Secrets Hence the name McCarthyism entered the colloquial lexicon for those of a certain age who studied history. Now a new McCarthyism has emerged and the "National Association of Scholars" is tracking university professors who dare speak out against the politically safe topics. A database has been compiled of such cases. Read about that here and se...