Sabado 8 Março 2008 The wedding was scheduled for 7:30 p.m., so we had the day free to rest and relax, or so we thought. Sergio’s father, Antonio, insisted (the former commander of the security force to protect the embassy sector can be quite persuasive) on taking us to the same sights as the dayContinue reading “Brasil Day 4 – Day of the Wedding”
Author Archives: Norm Benson
Brasil Day 3 – Brasilia
Quinta-Feira 7 Março 2008 Mary and I had the apartamento to ourselves for the first night and awoke feeling pretty darned good. We showered and went off in search of café de manha (breakfast) and a banco or a reliable ATM. We took the elevator down from the 12th floor and immediately became disoriented inContinue reading “Brasil Day 3 – Brasilia”
Brazil (part um) SFO to Brasilia
WWSWAD (What would Southwest Airlines do?) Wednesday March 4, 2008 I have grown used to how Southwest Airlines runs its operation. Conditioned like a gerbil to their needs. Needless to say, when I fly with someone else I compare the experience to SWA. I could not fly on SWA to Brazil. They don’t go there,Continue reading “Brazil (part um) SFO to Brasilia”
Two Second Drill
This last Sunday, one statement on a segment of CBS Sunday Morning titled, The Name Game caught me up short. Mostly Charles Osgood looked “at famous book titles, including the stories behind “Catch-22” with legendary editor Robert Gottlieb and “Winnie The Pooh” with British columnist Gary Dexter.” He talked about the naming of famous booksContinue reading “Two Second Drill”
The Chance of a Lifetime
It was the chance of a lifetime: going into the backcountry to search for section corners and quarter-section corners set by surveyors one-hundred and one years before. The fly-in-the-ointment was that the surveyors probably had done their work while perched on a barstool in 1882. Someone knew how to nurse a beer. In cadastral surveyingContinue reading “The Chance of a Lifetime”
Sections, Townships, and Range
A long time ago (call it 1983) in a place far, far, away (call it Mountain Home State Forest), a small band of courageous neophyte surveyors began a project that many in the California Department of Forestry hierarchy felt to be impossible. We started work on finding, and then marking, the precise boundaries of MountainContinue reading “Sections, Townships, and Range”
My Old Day Job
I worked as the assistant forest manager at Mountain Home State Forest from 1979-1986. The old joke asks, “Where do forest rangers go to ‘get away from it all?’” As if working in the forest was not, well, work. I remember days when I’d been stung by wasps, hiked cross-country through thorny buckbrush in theContinue reading “My Old Day Job”
Frank Morgan
In November, I asked Michael Connelly, on his Ask Michael Connelly portion of his message board, about a piece of music at the beginning of the video Blue Neon Night (Frank Morgan can be heard playing “Lullaby” at the end of the linked YouTube snippet). He answered in early February that if it had pianoContinue reading “Frank Morgan”
Writing’s Aphorisms
Over the past couple weeks I have passed along a list that my instructors mentioned in class. It is a list of some mistakes that beginning storytellers (like me) make. Top Ten Mistakes Newbie Writers Make 10. Flat writing with weak verbs 9. Setting and description delivered in large chunks 8. Telling instead of showingContinue reading “Writing’s Aphorisms”
Writing's Aphorisms
Over the past couple weeks I have passed along a list that my instructors mentioned in class. It is a list of some mistakes that beginning storytellers (like me) make. Top Ten Mistakes Newbie Writers Make 10. Flat writing with weak verbs 9. Setting and description delivered in large chunks 8. Telling instead of showingContinue reading “Writing's Aphorisms”
Nullius in Verba 