The lines had just reached parity on Super Tuesday, but he still actually won it (narrowly) in both states and delegates. And he hasn’t lost a contest since Super Tuesday — 5 and oh. Or, oh-oh, if you’re a Clintonian. Washington and Nebaska by 30+ points, Louisiana by 20, Maine by 15, and the Virgin Islands by 80%!!!
If you don’t know, they both did interviews for 60 Minutes tonight, and the newsmasters caught it. It was like an interview with the winner, and the loser, of the race. You could just see it in Hillary’s face, and hear it in her words.
Her clip about , “I’ve accepted and am at peace with whatever happens — it will be what’s supposed to be.” (or however she said it), and “I love being a Senator from New York.” etc. She knows. And Katie Couric, to her credit, one of the best in the business, got it out of her.
After the Louisianna/Washington/Nebraska/Maine weekend, 30 states have voted so far:
and Barack Obama is ahead by every measure —
19 Obama states won
10 Clinton states won
1 still too-close-to-call (New Mexico)
pledged (voter-elected) delegates:
1,009 Obama
944 Clinton
(ABC News puts it at 951 Obama, 904 Clinton)
total votes cast:
8,228,000 Obama
8,028,000 Clinton
oh, and over the same bunch of states voting, Dems turn-out is almost 50% higher than the Repubs so far.
19.2 million total Dems have showed up at the polls
vs. 12.9 Repubs (source for above #s: NBC News)
Obama has got to bury her NOW — so that by the time of Texas/Ohio in 3 weeks she’s just so Moed under. This could happen, and has to happen for the party, the nation, and ultimately the world.
Think of this last 24 hour cycle — she loses two states + the Virgin Islands by more than 2-to-1, loses by double-digits in New Orleans / LA the site of one of Bush’s biggest glaring blunders, THEN fires her campaign manager, then loses another all-white state with Maine by 15 points.
And then we have another Obama hat-trick coming Tuesday.
This is some kind of a voter & press wave that her campaign is going to have to fight against for 3 frickin weeks (before TX & OH). She’s gonna need to pull out whatever heavy weaponry (dirty tricks) they’ve got cuz I just don’t see how you reverse this tide.
Obama had a clean sweep tonight! He won Louisiana by more than 20%!! and by a more than 2-to-1 in both Washington and Nebraska! Plus pulled the upset in the Virgin Islands, the only place Hillary had been leading. and then he won another all-white state in Maine!
Obama laid down a long, detailed victory speech — although not one of his totally AAA transcendents a la S.C. and Iowa. And it was terrible that he was looking down for the first ¾ of it. never seen that before. maybe the audience/venue. and no teleprompters. The first part was his set speech – the last quarter was The Riff. It’s crucial that he addressed the whole idealistic hope thing. He’s got to counter the idea that he’s just pie-in-the-sky – and he’s doing that. The last 5 minutes was the juice – when he just went off. “Yes, of course I believe in hope. I have to. The odds of me being here weren’t very high.”
And I love that he worked the Virginia room – and that he called out Jim Webb – twice! – my hope for VP — until further notice 😉
Hillary’s booked herself into a Texas appearance on Tuesday night when the Potomac Primary happens – obviously not expecting a win in either state.
Tomorrow the Sunday newspapers (the most-read of the week) across America will be front page above-the-fold “Obama Sweeps” — especially in all the all-important upcoming primary states. Then there’s Maine on Sunday — stay tuned, but an upset there would be HUGE — and then the favorable big-3 on on the Chesepeke / Potomac Primary Tuesday. This in when — Now — that he can create the “inevitable” surge — and overcome undecideds’ hesitations.
Post Sunday update: him also winning Maine means he’s 4 or 5 in a row (if you count V.I. or not) — and hasn’t lost since Super Tuesday.
For both Dems & Repubs each state makes it’s own rules about how their delegates are divied up – so there’s about a 100 different methods. But the Dems are all proportional allocation.
On the Dem’s side, the first to amass 2,025 delegates wins nomination (this takes into account Michigan & Florida not participating).
Super-delegates are discounted here, because they can change their “endorsements” up until they’re actually “pledged” at the convention in late August (25th-28th in Denver). All they’re going to do is ratify whoever wins the actual primary delegates.
Romney 52% (18 d), Ron Paul 14% (4 d), McCain 13% (4 d), Huck 8%, Thompson 8%, Giulliani 4%
√ South CarolinaRepubs primary 24 winner-take-all delegates (only half their 47 delegates count because of moving up date)
McCain 33%, Huck 30%, Thompson 16%, Romney 15%, Ron Paul 4%, Rudy 2.1% ! ! — largest population of evangelicals in the country
√ South Carolina, Saturday, Jan 26th
Dems 45 proportional delegates; primary; Obama 55%, 25 delegates; Clinton 27%, 12 delegates; Edwards 18%, 8 delegates (Eddy born there, Senator from North Carolina)
Dem turn-out (Note: the next most recent “open” primary for Dems was ’92, so ’04 turn-out numbers are probably the highest on record):
Iowa: ‘04 = 122,000 ‘08 = 236,000 — up by 93%
New Hampshire: ‘04 = 220,000 ‘08 = 287,000 — up 30%
Nevada: ‘04 = 9,000 ‘08 = 116,000 — up over 1200%
South Carolina: ‘04 = 290,000 ‘08 = 530,000 — up 83%
Florida, Tuesday, Jan 29th
Dems delegates will not be counted due to moving up primary date
√ Repubs closed (Repub only) primary 114 [57] winner-take-all delegates McCain 36%, all 57 delegates; Romney 31%; Giuliani 15%; Huckabee 13%; Ron Paul 3%
(only half the Repub delegates [57] will be counted due to early primary)
Maine, Friday, Feb. 1st
Repubs caucus 21 delegates, 1 delegate for each precinct win
Romney 51%, McCain 21%, Huckebee 18%
Super Tuesday, February 5th Dems – 22 states;
1,688 delegates; 52% of voter-elected delegates; 42% of overall delegates.
Clinton: 48 (pledged/voted) + 202* super-delegates = 250 total
Edwards: 26 (pledged/voted) + 33* super-d = 59 total
* I’m discounting super-delegates for now, because they can change their “endorsements” up until they’re actually “pledged” at the convention in August.
√ California370 by-district + proportional delegates; modified open primary; (441 with super-delegates)
Clinton 52%, 207-delegates; Obama 42%, 163-delegates
CA Repubs 170 by-district delegates; closed; 173 with super-d;
√ New York 232 proportional delegates; closed (registered Dems only) primary; (281 with super-d); Clinton’s “home” state
Clinton 57%, 139-delegates; Obama 40%, 93-delegates
NY Repubs 101 winner-take-all delegates; Closed primary;
Illinois 153 proportional delegates; (185 with super-d); wide-open, anybody can vote primary; both Barack and Hillary’s home state
Obama 65%, 104-d; Clinton 33%, 49-d
IL Repubs 70 “loophole” delegates, no one’s sure how they’ll vote ?
√ New Jersey 107 prop. dels; modified open primary; (127 with super-d)
Clinton 54%, 59-d; Obama 44%, 48-d
NJ Repubs 52 winner-take-all delegates
√ Massachusetts 93 proportional delegates; (121 w/ super-d); modified open primary; Obama has Kennedy, Kerry & Governor endorsements
Clinton 56%, 55-d; Obama 41%, 38-d
MA Repubs: 40 proportional delegates; (43 w/ super-d); Romney’s home
Georgia 87 proportional delegates; (103 with super-d); open-to-all primary
Obama 66%, 61-d; Clinton 31%, 26-d
GA Repubs 72 winner-take-all delegates
√ Missouri 72 proportional delegates; (88 with super d); open-to-all primary; Sen. Clair McCaskill endorsed Obama; THE Bell-weather state – have voted for the winning candidate in 25 of the last 26 general elections.
Obama 49%, 36-d; Clinton 48%, 36-d
MO Repubs 58 winner-take-all delegates (no super-d)
√ Minnesota 72 proportional delegates; open caucus; (88 with super-d)
√ D.C. – 15 proportional delegates; primary; (38 with super-d)
Obama 75% / 12-d; Clinton 24% / 3-d Obama by 50%
Tuesday, Feb 19th
√ Wisconsin – 74 proportional delegates; OPEN primary, and same-day registration; (92 with super-d) — with no real contest on Repub side, all indi’s and Repubs will vote in the Dem.
Obama 58% / 42-d; Clinton 41% / 32-d Obama by 17%
√ Hawaii – 20 proportional delegates; caucus – (29 with super-d) Obama born and raised much of his life there; neither candidate ever went there. Obama embodies “the aloha spirit” of the natives – the ability to get along with everyone.
Obama 76%, 14-d; Clinton 24%, 5-d Obama by 52%
turn-out 37,000; in 2004 it was 4,000! up over 900%!!
Washington State – held a non-binding primary with no effect on delegates. They had a caucus right after Super Tuesday, which Obama won 68%-31%.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mini Tuesday
Tuesday, March 4th – March Forth!
poll closings: (all times Eastern)
7 PM Vermont 7:30 PM Ohio
8 PM – primaries end in most of Texas (no media reporting until 9PM)
8:15PM – caucuses start in most of Texas (1/3 of the Texas delegates)
9PM – primaries end in the El Paso western region of Texas (Texas numbers begin coming in)
9 PM – Rhode Island
Texas, Ohio & Vermont are all wide open primaries – Repubs, Independents, and any registered voter can vote. In Rhode Island, Dems & anyone but registered Repubs can vote.
Texas193 total — 126 proportional delegates by OPEN primary (228 w/ super-d);
“Democracy isn’t something you have, it’s something you do.” Granny D (political activist) 1910–2010
People ask me what news sources I trust, and how I use the media to my advantage.
I call it “controlling my sources”
Rules of thumb:
When an interviewer is interviewing 2 people, one a Democrat the other a Republican – hit mute or change channel. This is NEVER helpful or insightful. it’s just a debate club exercise and air-time filler.
If the 2 or more guests are non-partisan journalists, DO listen.
I really stress to myself (and therefore to you) to NOT listen to the bad stuff – the demagogs, the ranters, the one-siders, the nut-jobs. It just serves to turn you off of the process and your democratic duty.
6 – 9 AM – Morning Joe on MSNBC
5 – 6 PM – Hardball (Chris Matthews) on MSNBC
6:30 – 6:38 PM — evening news on NBC, ABC and CBS
7:00-8:00 – Hardball with Chris Matthews (MSNBC)
8:00 – 8:08 or 8:15 – Countdown with Keith Oberman, MSNBC
11:01 – 11:08 – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — only 4 days a week, Mon thru Thurs. – will watch the 2nd & 3rd segments if about politics.
11:36 – 11:40 – Tonight Show, Leno usually opens with the political material.
Sunday Mornings are key: (from 9AM thru 11AM)
Meet The Press (NBC) – Tim Russert – numero uno; 60 min.
This Week (ABC) – George Stephanopoulos – Bill Clinton’s campaign mgr.
Face The Nation – Bob Scheiffer – very civilized and polite (sadly retiring in January next year); 30 min.
Late Edition – from 11AM – 1PM on CNN
Fridays on PBS – 20 min into the PBS NewsHour with Mark Shields;
and their half-hour show Washington Week In Review (at different times in every city).
#1 Website: realclearpolitics.com.
honorable mention to: thehill.com, politico.com
#1 Magazines: The Economist, Newsweek
#1 Newspapers (online and paper): {tie} Washington Post, New York Times
WashingtonPost.com – near-top, just click on “politics”
from NYTimes.com, left-most column, click on “Politics”
#1 Network TV news dept.: (in order) NBC, ABC, CBS
#1 cable TV Network: C-SPAN (1, 2 and 3), followed by MSNBC, and CNN third.
#1 interviewer: Tim Russert (NBC, MSNBC) he asks the best researched questions, and Never interrupts the answers [take note Wolf Blitzer] this alone makes him the best. And I believe history will show, he was the person to coin the “red state / blue state” phraseology. (honorable mention to: Chris Matthews)
#1 Radio Station (networks): NPR! by a gazillion miles. CBS stations are the best of the rest.
#1 Columnist: Tom Friedman (#2 {but mostly for fun} Maureen Dowd)
#1 Foreign Reporter: John Burns, NY Times
#1 U.S. National Reporter: David Broder, Washington Post
#1 Time for Politics on TV: Sunday mornings (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN)
#1 Political Strategist: {tie} James Carville (Team Clinton) and Howard Dean (DNC)
#1 For Fun: “The Daily Show” 11PM most places, Mon-Thursday only. (Comedy Central) Stewart has been very ON this summer and fall.
#1 Edward R. Murrow Meets Lenny Bruce Newsman: Keith Oberman (MSNBC, 8PM most places)
#1 Wonderful Laugh and Smile of any Political Broadcaster: Norah O’Donnell (NBC/MSNBC)
Super-smart and unbiased brains / reporters / pollsters etc. I always pay attention to:
Zbigniew Brzezinski – National Security Advisor under Carter, (Polish-born) who I think actually is being retained by the Obama campaign as international affairs advisor.
Seymour Hersh – New Yorker
Fareed Zakaria
David Gergen – U.S. News & World Report
Jonathan Alter – Newsweek
Bill Schnieder – CNN’s brilliant senior pollster
Frank Rich – NY Times
Chuck Todd – NBC / MSNBC – senior political advisor, very smart
Amy Stoddard – The Hill magazine
Howard Fineman, Newsweek’s chief political writer; NBC/MSNBC analyst
John Harwood – NBC senior political analyst
Charlie Cook — The Cook Report
Chris Mathews – MSNBC
Jeff Greenfield – CNN
Stuart Rothenberg – Roll Call
the two political operatives geniuses of our time: James Carville and Howard Dean – I always listen to anything they have to say.
A girl so nice you had to C her twice!
It’s the Big Sea at Big Sur!
And finding the sacred rocks to reflect,
and seeing the glistening gems shine thru
the crashing waves of life
with you.
I saw the best minds of my generation get buzzed on wine coolers before breakfast!
The only ones for me are the mother ones, the ones who are heart to live, never mom to talk, but always winking saved, and desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn except when it’s really really really late, and who burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow van Gogh paintings exploding across the sky, and in the middle we see your face and everybody goes, “Awww!”
There she is!
Mother Earth!
Mother Mirth!
Who taught me courtesy
while pushing curiosity;
and how to laugh
while grounding me
in eternity;
and about my own Taurus mother,
and the joys of inter-generational adventure fun,
which I brought home and shared and we thrived and we laughed and I thank you.
Boy, do I miss those living rooms full of time,
and glasses full of wine,
and laughing so loud
we had to turn it down,
and driving and “oh goshing” all around
that San Francisco town
and even being Europe bound!
From the Algonquin’s table,
yet another round;
to loving glances
with clinking glasses
on police station steps
as we stay out of step
with the stomping classes,
dancing in the eternity
of the songs and the stories that echo forever.
Thanks for caring, and thanks for sharing
a life that’s rife with light at night;
You’ve held my hand across more than an ocean,
in a rainbow of color
that seemed to come from above.
But you said,
“It comes from within.”
And that’s why I love you!
I dunno what you think of a 20-something white chick doing the music industry’s tribute to The Godfather of fuckin music — but maybe the biz knew who could bring it.
Seriously check out the last note/phrase/word “nothing” (you can’t miss it), but then crucially (and to my point that she’s the greatest living singer) after the climactic “nothing” how she’s still got the breath and strength to deliver the final phrase brilliantly (and soulfully!) within the same breath. It’s superhuman. and she’s just RIDING it. And doing it in front of the most musically adept and powerful humans on the planet.
i don’t remember a Grammy performance like this — falling to her knees and delivering the climax from the ground!? Well, okay. But that was Madonna, and it was MTV, and it was lip synched. Even check the swaggering stroll out as it opens. (before it even happened, she knew.)
And right into the First line!! — how she just Throws the microphone aside after it!! just, paging heaven!
Transcendent.
And the way she gets the man’s growl in it — sounding positively male on some notes — it’s all about James Brown, and even the girlish scream as she drops to her knees is a tribute to his high-pitched squeals – you see the intention as she holds the mic tight but just to the side.
And seriously, she has the best mic control I have Ever seen/heard. I never saw Sam Cooke, and she’s equal to him and Aretha & Company.
(you can’t really tell how good mic control is unless you see how they use it. in the studio they fix it. live is the only truth.) And the way she’s just bouncing when she drops to her knees, just fucking Ripping it! Like, she can’t even do this standing up. and you can see how the knee-drop was not rehearsed because the cameraman doesn’t keep up with it and the director doesn’t have the move cued.
WHAT is she made of?
Like … how can that much sound come out of that body?
And that much soul out of whatever white Irish-Equadorian genes she’s got?
And this is just one of 10,000 amazing deliveries she’s made.
She Is Aretha . . . in her prime. and then at the end, so sharp, Jamie Fox (Oscar winner for channeling Ray Charles) with that look on his face! and mouthing, “dat’s da shit” 🙂
Also note, the moment the song’s over and they cut to the crowd, it’s already a standing ovation to the back of the house. it’s so NOT an “oh, i guess i better stand up,” but a true ovation!and you can actually hear (when u listen to it a hundred times) the audience screaming and cheering during the performance. i saw her live a few times at MTV events (Divas, VH1) and she just blew all the other famous singers away every time, not to mention the well-eared audiences. i suggest clicking “watch again” several times! And play it LOUD. (as they open The Last Waltz 🙂 )
p.s. — here’s the lyrics if ya missed anything
Artist: James Brown as interpreted by Christina Aguilera
Song: It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World
This is a man’s world,
It is a man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.
See, man made the cars, to take us over the road,
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads,
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark,
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark.
This is a man’s, mans, man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.
Man thinks about, a little baby girl, and baby boys,
Man makes then happy ’cause man makes them toys,
This is a man’s, mans, man’s world,
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.
He’s lost in the wilderness
He’s lost in the bitterness
This is a man’s man’s man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.
And if you liked this, check out her doing “Makes Me Wanna Get Down And Pray” 😉
One of the world’s great geological formations, or one of God’s masterpieces, depending on how you look at it, is just outside Toronto and hardly anybody goes there – the Niagara Escarpment.Maybe if it was called Secret Waterfall Ridge more people would be cruising its splashing magic hideaways.
So far, I’ve found 32 different waterfalls less than an hour of the CN Tower.Every one of them is a flowing watercolor splashing through a mountainous sculpture and framed by a fairy tale forest.These places are other-worldly, yet so near — enchanted places to take the kids — romantic getaways without hardly leaving town — certainly sources of solitude in gorgeous gorges, tranquil churches to channel the spirit, day-trip spas to refresh the body, and amazing 3D nature films except you’re the cameraman and there’s no weird glasses.And in this time when everything’s costing more – they’re free!There are voluntary donation boxes at the larger sites asking for a couple of loonies, and on some weekends in the summer the biggest ones actually have someone there collecting about $3 a car, but for the most part, this is our earth — a smidgeon we haven’t mucked up yet — and it’s still free.
The falls are to spring what the foliage is to fall. It’s when they’re in all their raging peak glory.Waterfalls are nature’s payback for all that snow you shoveled!From the first melt-off in March through early June all the creeks and rivers runneth over, and luckily for us they run over hundred-foot cliffs stretching from granddaddy Niagara to where the escarpment dips back into its mother earth at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.Plus, if you get there before the insects and all the leafs on the trees, you get a much better view than mid-summer.
You can use your get-out-of-town-free card to dance at the falls all day, but there’s also rock outcropping caves, ruins of ancient mills, some scenic stretches of the Bruce Trail, thousand-year-old cedar trees growing from the crags, and hawks, falcons, turkey vultures and 300 other kinds of birds soaring and singing your praises.Not to mention the mystical gorges that meander through the magma.And near most of the falls — since their rivers and mills were the start of civilization round these parts — there are the preserved 1800s buildings from the original hamlets, many of which have been restored into novel Dickensian restaurants and bars to hit after your day’s adventuring.
Since most people who want to see a falls drive to Niagara and snap a picture, anybody who knows about these hidden spas and wants to catch a waterfalls’ ionic buzz has about thirty to choose from, so no one of them is ever crowded.
And speaking of an ion buzz, the white lab coat set tell us that rushing water produces negative ions, which, ironically (or is that ionically?), are good for you.Science has proven — this isn’t an urban myth — that negative ions stimulate the body’s immune system, help the respiratory tissues of your lungs, speed up oxygen passing through the bloodstream to your brain and elsewhere, and naturally accelerates serotonin delivery which explains the natural “high” you feel next to a waterfall.The breath you’re taking reading this sentence probably has about 2,000 negative ions per cubic centimeter.When you’re standing near a waterfall it’s more like 100,000.This improves your health, your mood and even increases your sex drive.
That’s okay . . . I can wait here till you re-focus.
But, liking this waterfalls idea at all?Another tingling charge is the pure adventure of finding them.Most are hidden away in some nook of a gorge until you step around a bend or come out from under a canopy of green and suddenly there’s this six-story wall of raging water.After an afternoon immersed in these transportive canyons you come back feeling like you were away in the Rockies for the week — but you were less than one good CD from the house!
And every falls has two totally different experiences — looking down from the top, and walking to it’s basin pool from the stream below.Up top is often the easiest to get to and there’s usually a parking lot, but walking in from below is where the magic is.The top rim is to look at a falls; following in along the stream is to experience the falls.
The entire Niagara Escarpment is a U.N.-designated World Biosphere Reserve for good reason.The 700 km-long cliff is unique, it’s precious, and it’s ours.The strata of rock layers in the cliff walls you walk beside were formed 450 million years ago.The western Great Lakes were actually one big sea back then, and the weight of it bent the earth’s crust until it totally cracked up, exposing the early drafts of the masterpiece we now live on.So, besides making you healthy and horny, you can time-travel back to early earth and see the depths of what we’re made of.
And did I mention they’re free?
Here’s some cool ones to get you started:
Devil’s drop with lingering ice boulder
Devil’s Punch Bowl
(Stoney Creek – 50 minutes*)
One of the greatest hundred-foot slices of the layer-cake of earth you’ll ever taste.This is a Grand Canyon that you can walk right into and have the entire perfectly-round natural punch bowl to yourself.On the towering walls that make IMAX look small, our 400 million year history is laid out and you can search for your ancestors.And this Big Dipper’s punch bowl isn’t just named for what it looks like – it’s also a geological term meaning a bowl punched out by a giant waterfall, which this obviously once was.Stoney Creek is now pretty tame except in spring or after a heavy rain, but this is one drama where the set is even more memorable than the action.
Secret Spot Tip:If you hike down from the Bruce Trail at the top or walk in from the basin you’ll come across a flat-roofed lower falls with a huge limestone overhang you can climb under and sit behind the falls.
The 1800s in the 21st Century Dept.:A pivotal battle that repelled the invading Yankees in the War of 1812 took place right at the base of this gorgeous gorge.The battlefield is preserved, as well as a couple of the houses that were there at the time, plus there’s a giant stone tower celebrating how we didn’t become Americans.Directions:QEW to Hwy 20/Centennial Parkway Exit #88 in Stoney Creek, south on Centennial, to top of escarpment, turn left onto Ridge Rd,or .3 km to Park on left side.For basin park at end of Mountain Ave. S. off King St. below.
Tiffany Falls still life
TiffanyFalls
(Ancaster – 45 minutes*)
One of the escarpment’s gift-wrapped gems.The trail in is not for the faint of walking – nothing major, but don’t wear high heels.Hike in for 5-10 minutes (about 2 city blocks), and the falls suddenly appears at the end of the gorge.Tiffany Creek drops off a wide glass-flat sheet of limestone, so the water fans out into a delicate-lace curtain as it falls.In winter, this is one of the most dramatic ice-sculptures on the whole escarpment as the gentle stream freezes layer over layer forming a giant multi-colored ice collage six stories high.Tiffany’s gorge is almost child-like in scale — not as imposingly high as many other escarpment gorges – and has a fairy tale quality, complete with enchanted rocky stream gurgling down the middle.
Secret Spot Tip:If you climb up the left side as you’re looking at the falls, there’s a hidden washboard waterfalls above.Plus check out the 1850s Hermitage mansion ruins around the corner on Sulphur Springs Rd.
The 1800s in the 21st Century Dept.:The Coach & Lantern, with it’s foundation from 1793 and building from 1832, the Rousseu House built in 1827, both back along Wilson St., and the 1863 Old Mill down on Old Dundas Rd., are all fabulous restaurants and bars within about two minutes of the falls.
Directions:QEW to 403 to Lincoln Alexander Pkwy exit;right lane exit onto Rousseaux St., turn right heading West (formerly Mohawk Rd.)5 min. along Mohawk/Rousseuax to dead-end at Wilson St. East, turn right, about a km down on your right is a small parking lot for about 8 cars.
Beamer’s beam on
BeamerFalls Conservation Area
(Grimsby – 50 minutes*)
Forty Mile Creek tumbles twice off the escarpment, so there’s two different drops.The upper falls to the left is a nice 70-foot rippling washboard rush of whitewater, with flat lily pad rocks in its basin you can fairly easily hike down to.The wide and mysterious lower falls is hidden deep down the steep gorge to your right, only really appreciable if you hike up from below.To fully experience Beamer’s, drive one more km along the same road, turn right on Quarry Rd., then go one km to a little parking lot on your right. The trail to the right leads to stairs down to the creek and falls, or to the left there’s a rapturous gorge-side trail out to the Grimsby Point escarpment edge where you’ll be looking directly across the lake at Toronto.Also, watch for the birds soaring in the thermal updrafts near the cliffs.This major escarpment projection peak is a popular beacon for migrating birds, and you’ll probably see some combination of hawks, falcons and turkey vultures if you’re there in the spring.
Secret Spot Tip:At the upper falls, walk around on the road to the falls’ crest, then down through the bushes to the water, and to your right there’s a small hidden rock balcony directly above the falling water.
The 1800s in the 21st Century Dept.:The Gables restaurant is in a pretty 1873 gingerbread house, and next door is an ornate 1880s church which is now a classy billiard room and bar.Both are back down Mountain St. at the base of the escarpment.
Directions:QEW to Exit #71/Christie St.(Mountain St.)right/south on Christie for 3 min./2km (turns into Mountain St.), go up escarpment and turn Right on Ridge Rd. West / #79 [sign for Beamers]; go .8 of a km to bend in road to small falls parking lot on your right.
Tews’ ice cave
Webster’s Falls and Tews Falls at Spencer Gorge
(Flamborough – 45 minutes*)
This is a giant “Y”-shaped gorge with two different streams forming two falls.The wider Webster’s from the high-volume Spencer Creek drops 70 feet off the cliff in a gentle curving horseshoe like Niagara.There’s a big park surrounding the falls about a five minute hilly walk from the parking lot.Next to the falls are stairs leading down to the basin.Take them if you can — there’s another little creek and kids-size falls to your right, or go left and you can carefully walk right up to Webster’s itself.Tews is a high ribbon falls approaching Niagara heights, with a perfect overlook about two minutes from the parking lot.You can also take the 15-minute trail heading to the towering ramparts of Dundas Peak looking over Dundas Valley to Lake Ontario.
Secret Spot Tip:Enter the east side of Spencer Gorge from trail along railroad tracks or down from Dundas Peak and hike upstream about 20 min. to the totally unknown lower Tews falls and its behind-falls rock-spot.
The 1800s in the 21st Century Dept.:The nearby 1811 mill ruins are an interactive jungle-gym of history.Take Harvest Rd. one block to Brock Rd./504, then just continue across on Crook’s Hollow Rd. about a km to the ruins on right.
Directions:QEW to 403 to first exit 6 North to Dundas/Hwy 5, turn left, go 5 km to Ofield Rd., turn left, 1.5 km to Harvest Rd., turn right, Tews Falls parking lot is on your left.For Webster’s parking lot, continue 1 more km along Harvest, turn left on tiny Short Rd, go to end, it curves left, turns into Fallsview, 1 km to parking lot on right.
Brian is an undiscovered (or at least under-rated) genius, and I think I can say that with some authority — I’ve known a few.
Ask him to tell you the story someday about when the two of us climbed the “Hollywood Sign” in LA in the ’90s with his ubiquitous Heinekens in tow, hilarious! (I even have digital film of it — I should post it someday). Or the week we spent in Amsterdam with Carolyn! They were inducting my father Neal and his friend Jack Kerouac into their “Hall of Fame. (I’m told I had a good time, ha ha).
John Allen Cassady
Brian pretty much ruled Woodstock ’94. And wasn’t he the only guy in New York to sneak into ground zero?
We had an amazing New Hampshire primary escapade — seven candidates in 12 hours — four years ago. Ask him about the Al Franken tussle at the Howard Dean speech …
GO OBAMA!
-John Grady
[EDIT: Thanks for the reminder! I added the Franken Fracas to the politics section.]
Rock on! Hassett rules!! And yeah it’s about time the world figured this out…
I’m going to see Donovan tonight … Remember, Brian, getting us backstage at Carnegie Hall to meet him?
Walter Raubicheck
While we are reminiscing about our favorite Brian stories did I ever tell you guys the story about how I met this fine fellow? It was at the Toronto premiere of Festival Express and it became quickly apparent that Hassett was the guy to know when I saw him hanging with the star of the film, promoter Kenny Walker. When the film ended, we all headed for post film pints to the roof of The Pilot, where Walker launched into an amazing retrospective of the event, telling us all the inside stories that didn’t get told in the film and answering all of my hundreds of questions without batting an eye, like the one about how Robbie and Levon thought they were too big to actually travel on the train and decided to fly to the shows, while Danko made the right decision and got annihilated on the train….
That was a real memorable night indeed. Thanks for making the introduction Brian!!
When it comes to hockey, waterfalls and American politics, nobody is more passionate than Hassett!!!
Ben Marshall
I met Brian in 1980 at NYU. I was on the other side of the this big courtyard party listening to the music, when he put U.S. Blues on the speakers. The next day we went to the Dead movie and he snuck beers in for us. I, from the burbs, was taken aback, but, “Yes, I’ll have one of those.” Then, we spent the next four years on various fun adventures at NYU and road trips and things.
Someday soon, I’ll board a plane or train or something and get my butt to Toronto, it’s been a while.
So, mom & I are staying at this resort up on Georgian Bay. We fall asleep around 11 that night — more of a late nap for us — and both woke up aboot 3 in the morning just rarin’ to go.
As a dedicated Niagara Escarpment explorer and veteran waterfall collector, I knew there were a bunch of major flowing gold-mine sites around there.
“Check-out’s at noon, and the sun’s up around 6; If I left at 5, I could drive to the furthest falls an hour away, and work my way back between sunrise and noon.”
Stunningly, I actually do this – driving into the pre-dawn mountain blackness with only headlights and pavement,
and scooting opossums, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and other flashing pairs of unknown eyes on unmarked roads.
I zip zam zoodle thru the crazy mountain backroads thinking it’ll be daylight any second, but the crazy thing is . . . the sun never comes up!
I’ve been doin’ this a long time, and believe me, the sun almost always comes up.
But it was well past 6 and still pitch black. Is my watch running fast?Is there an eclipse? Have I slipped through the looking-glass again?
Finally, by Some Act of God, I happen to spot a stamp-size sign that says “Eugenia Falls,” and pull down this dark Alfred Hitchcock road with crumbling old Psycho houses on either side, and craggy finger-tree branches reaching down to the car that’s slowly, drunkenly lurching over a series of long lost humps and lumps – “Yeah, BIG falls you’re headin’ to, B!”
At the end of this Norman Bates backroad there’s a one-lane bridge to nowhere. Or, as it turns out, a dark gravel clearing that, “ahhh, must be the parking lot.”
If you cranked the wheel you could barely circle around once inside it. And as the car flashed its watchtower spotlights I could see the return headlights of herds of surprised animals eyeing me from the woods. “Great. It’s Wild freakin Kingdom!”
Stray cats are meowing, raccoons are scratching, and starving coyotes are salivating at the arriving fresh flesh . . .
I’m not scared of much, but there are some animals out here that could wreck some serious havoc if you bump into them in the dark.
I finally spot what appears to be a trailhead, and pull up beside it waiting for some form of light which is not at all forthcoming in this surreal never-ending night in the depths of the highest point on the Escarpment in these remote Canadian mountains.
I get out of the car and hear this sudden scurrying and squeaking and screeching and big-twig-snapping and I jump right back in the damn car! They were having some major northern forest party out there and I was not about to crash it.
So, I’m sitting in the front seat with my head bent over maps and Bruce Trail books, and at the first hint of light I look up through the windshield, then just as I turn my head to the left this freakin’ black bear leaps right at my window!!
I had it part-way down cuz I was listening to the forest — never heard him comin’ — and suddenly one of its paws comes right thru the window! and I see these long black claws right in front of my face!and I went “Whoa!” and jabbed at it with the mechanical pencil I was holding, and it kind of yelped, and pulled its huge paw out and ran off!
naw, that part didn’t really happen. but I was certainly imagining it!
very scary mountaintop in the dark.
but the moment I raised my head from reading and looked out the first-light window,
this cat meowed at me.
It was sitting by a tree at the edge of the clearing and watching me so closely it knew the second I raised my head from reading.
.
now, that is Not a crazy cat.
I got outta the car, and at this point had been thinking about the Eugenia Falls hike for days, so I say to the kitty, “Well, if you wanna come along, you’re totally welcome. Actually, it’ll be really fun. If you wanna hang, I’ll help ya out if you need something later. letter of reference. a little yard work, whatever.”
I poured her some granola before we set out, but she thought that was a crummy idea. (sorry)
so, we go for this massive hike and she’s trotting along behind me the whole way, and I’m digging on this being a Cat that’s behaving like a Dog!
have I found God?
If she wanders off, I’d just say, “Kitty!” and she’d come right back.
“Good little puppy kitty!”
We eventually get to a real steep ridge that requires some long-reaching four-legged climbing on my part, but she’s able to make it right up! And I’m thinkin, “This is one intrepid cat!”
So, we gorge ourselves on the gorge and hike back along the top ridge overlooking the deep ravine and finally reach the magnificent Eugenia Falls, which oh-my-God is such a super sacred secret spot! Hundred-foot falls; deep, rich and colorful canyon called Cuckoo Valley, of all things, named after the birds that populate it, and the One’s who Flew Over to it in the middle of the night. House-size caprock boulders have dropped down around the falls and dot the riverbank like cabins. The crashing thunder of the water and the splashing blooming life feels like you’ve walked right into the first page of Genesis! exploding nature in every color of the rainbow, and with a rainbow!
The falls was named after Empress Eugenia who was a ‘consort’ to Napoleon.
And there was actually a fool’s gold rush here in the 1850s.
Which is so Canadian. We don’t have gold rushes, we have fool’s gold rushes.
But the valley still blissfully blazes today – a lingering unhistorical masterpiece.
And speaking of precipice, I’m right on the edge of it of course, sticking my head over to feel the water and soak up the ions, and going, “No kitty, this isn’t for little-people.” I’m really concerned she’s gonna fall or jump in, but she’s just playing along the razor’s edge, and it was painfully evident right from the start that she was as crazy as I was.
.
I begin calling her Kimosabi Commando Kitty, because that was obviously her name.
I mean, most humans can’t keep up with me in the woods, and here’s this little 5-pound furry nuthin’ doin’ the whole hike and then the essential falls-side hang at the end of it!
And she’s not wanting to go home, or go to the bathroom, or getting tired or cold or hungry or whatever the heck somebody’s always getting . . . she’s just a cool cat hangin in the universe.
So I chat her up a bit, and she’s right into it! Likes where she is, but the food sucks and the neighbors are just animals. (sorry again) She’d been reading some Kerouac and was done with her Dharma Bums mountain phase and thinkin of going On The Road, but was still kinda on the fence. In fact she was happily dancing along the fence that separated where you can stand from the several-hundred-foot drop to the boulders below.
And I’m goin, “Yeah, this cat could do.
She Gets it.”
and that’s the whole deal.
So we walk back to the car, and once again I blow her mind that I know this short-cut thru the woods even though I just got there. And she raises her eyebrows and goes, “Excellent! Well done,” then trots up ahead singing, “Do-Wah Kitty, Kitty Kitty-kitty Do” . . .
We get back to the car at the end of our first date, and it’s that awkward moment of, “Well, do you wanna come home with me or not? I don’t do second dates.” And she’s all finicky and playin hard-to-get.
There’s a picnic table near the car, and she’s like, “Buy me a nice dinner first.”
So I break out everything in the car that’s edible, but she’s havin’ none of it.
Then some cowboy comes strutting along with his 2 dogs, and she suddenly starts makin’ eyes at him! But he’s already got one on a leash, and a second sniffing nearby, so he’s not interested in another pussy.
He says, “It’s been out here for two weeks and nobody’s been looking for it,” as she’s preening away on the picnic table. But this guy’s too scared to even make eye contact, let alone touch her. Thinks she has rabies or something. I’m thinkin, “Naaaa. that’s a sweet kitty, not a rabid kitty.” He points out how thin she looks, and he was right about that! Petting her was like rubbing a skeleton with a rancid towel draped over it. Her fur’s all matted and clumped like she’d been rolling in leafs for months.
Then after a long pause he matter-of-factly says, “Aaa, it’ll never last the winter,” as he stares at her like she’s just some blade of grass,
which I Whitmanly see her as.
Then he just walks away!
And it’s just me and kitty.
Crazy freakin kitty.
Standing on the picnic table pedestal.
And I’m seeing David in the stone.
So I open the car door, pick her up for the first time, and as we squeeze in behind the wheel she immediately jumps right back out.
So I open the back door, ah-ha, pick her up again, sit in the backseat, don’t let her go, close the door with my foot, and “HA! Gotcha in the car! . . .
. . . Now what?”
I’m hopin she doesn’t start scratchin the hangnail outta mom’s velvet New Yorker. She wanted a pet, but it wouldn’t be much of a present . . .
“Here’s this burr-covered stray cat! Uh, sorry about your car!”
But all along I’s thinkin’ a cat would work for mom cuz they’re so low maintenance.
Now here was the kitty finding me.
And I heard it say in a John Cleese voice, “I picked him out thousands. He wasn’t like the rest.”
So. . . “I’ve got this cat in the car . . . “
a little wiggy.
both of us.
very alike.
freaking out,
but going with it.
When I arrived at the falls I saw all these rabid raccoons and crazy coyotes and bleeding Brians starring in episodes of Animals Gone Wild, and now here I was driving out Alfred Hitchcock Lane with a wild creature in the car next to me! knowing how most women feel on dates.
“What Is this hairy thing, . . . and is it rabid?”
I’m driving and folding up maps and shooshing the cat and trying to figure out where the heck I am and what I’ve done now, when suddenly – like a mirage on the horizon . . . there’s a Norman Rockwellian Nowheresville corner-store, sitting right on a corner in the middle of nowhere!
But of course, I couldn’t get out of the car because the cat makes for the door when I even look at it. Mini-Einstein knows the driver’s door leads outside, and just crouches there staring at it — but ah-ha, when I climb over to the passenger door, I can come & go as I please. “That doesn’t lead outside, you’re not fooling me. This is the way out, I know it,” smirks the disheveled messy-haired little naturalist.
(the cat, I mean.)
So I walk into the Green Acres General Store in these demented Shining mountains, and sure-enough there’s old Sam Drucker in his pristine apron manning the Hooterville counter. He’s near-about never seen a woman with long hair, let alone some fella! And in walks this crazed biker hippie freak who looks like he could be, well, rabid. And old Mr. Drucker’s givin’ me the eye and slowly reaching for his rifle (or slingshot or whatever they have in Canada) as I’m pacing around like a sweating crack addict dyin’ for a fix in my haven’t-slept-in-days-and-just-found-a-cat mode, Frrreeakin out that there’s some strange burry critter with claws in my car . . . and that I seem to be going home with it. And how it’s so much like last Saturday night.
And finally ol’ Mr. Drucker splutters, “How ya doin’, stranger?” as he pretends like he’s not reaching down. But I just let him have it, both barrels — a Full-on stressed-out Cosmo Kramer — YELLing . . . “I’m FREEEEAKin’ out, Jerry!”
And I just let that hang there in the still morning country-store egg-n-bacon air for about an hour.
And just as his fingers are reaching the cold steel under the counter, I end the pause,
“I just found this stray cat out by the falls . . . anybody lost one?”
And he starts to stand up straight again.
Of course we become best friends — but ya just had to open with the old rabid-stranger-at-dawn routine.
So I buy some shmancy purple-label pop-top cat food, sneak back in the passenger door, and set up the little skeleton with a royal feast. Then realize I’ve still got 4 waterfalls to hit before noon! I’m gonna need a bigger car!
We pull outta Ziffel Corners looking for Hogg Falls, (I’m not kidding: the adventure’s not over, we are in Hooterville, and it is pronounced “hog”), which turns out to be down this even-more ridiculous dirt road that’s actually called East Back Lane! (I think I played a lot of ball-hockey on this road.) and of course the waterfall doesn’t have a sign, is not on maps, and nobody knows about it except some locals and kooky waterfall collectors who read maps like artists do paintings. I can detect the slightest 3-dimensional drop in any cartographer’s canvas: sometimes waterfalls are in brochures and have big signs and admission gates, and other times there’s not a single sign to follow except nature’s. You get real good at telling whether a dip in the road was caused by a former creek or not, and tracking cliffs from a distance, and eyeballing distances through forests, and following instinct, and spotting trailheads in deadwood, and Boom, the first slow patrol down East Back Lane I spot an old car path to nowhere – and know I’m home! Pack up a hike’s worth of supplies, head in, and sure enough the falls is five minutes downstream.
And I have this moment. What you search for. Steep narrow hidden ravine. Nobody in the world is there or comin’. I’ve got a cat in the car, a seat on the rocks, a falls to myself, a day on the road, and a mom on vacation. So I write a haiku …
Leafs falling, summer ending;
a waterfalls, cat-finding
day with mom
And it’s all so wonderful, I go back to the car blissfully, open the door foolishly, and watch the cat bolt furiously!
“Bummer.
Thought I had a cat,”
as I watch it disappear forever into the forest.
And I’ve just driven the poor thing about ten miles from its home.
And we’re not exactly on a first-name basis yet, so it’s sure gonna be hard to call her & collar her. But I’m goin’ with, “C’mere, Kitty.”
So off, I trudge,
back into the woods, with an open can of catfood, trying to lure this nature-loving free-spirit back to my large unnatural horseless-carriage. I don’t wanna mess with mother nature, but there’s gonna be a muther of a natural winter that’s gonna kill her, and she’d sure make my mother’s nature blossom.
So, I’m traipsing though the woods holding out this purple can of cat food, feeling quite gay, when I suddenly hear something and look to my left, and these big homophobic deer hunters jump me, but I go Haaa! and jab them with my mechanical pencil!
Gloosh, gloosh, glooshing I glop through the waterlogged underbrush that this stupid cat has run off into, as she’s sprinting up ahead and stopping to look back like actors always do in the movies before they start running again.
And I’m like, “Oh No! What next!? It’s got No Idea where it’s going,” as it gallops thru the forest to nowhere. “Ouu, fun! Let’s play Chase The Cat Thru The Mountains! This’ll be greaaat!”
After about a two-hour mini-series of brier adventures, I finally go, “Okay Kitty, if you want food, here it is, otherwise I’m goin’ home.” And of course then she immediately trots right up to the gay purple food-trough and starts slurping it up like a regular rube. All they do is bitch and play hard-to-get until you’re ready to leave, and then they wanna come with you. Animals are such people!
Then, in my best Sean-Connery-to-the-rescue, I swoop the damsel up with one arm, while dangling the food with the other so she can keep nibbling as I carry her, having to dole it out slowly so it lasts all the way back to the car . . .
It’s sorta puttin a damper on the old jump-out-of-the-car-and-check-out-a-waterfalls routine.
Plus, it kinda starts raining.
So we’re driving back, and since I’ve been calling her “kitty” all day, I have to get a name that sounds like that, even though I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl. but I have my suspicions. And just then “Casey Jones” comes on the dashboard jukebox, the good ol’ Grateful Dead singing in the Festival Express movie about their train trip to Winnipeg with some other very wild stray cats. Plus, my mom’s dad was a railroad engineer. And Casey would work for a boy or a girl. Then of course later I find out it’s an ancient Celtic name meaning brave and watchful!! and that’s certainly been her.
I begin to realize this is a very Big Cat, not the small kitty she appeared physically at the moment.
I’ve known a few cats in my day, but never met one who could go for hikes
and keep up with the likes
of me.
and so she became Casey Kimosabi Commando Kitty.
(or – thanks to Mr. Dressup — Casey-Finnegan, for short)
Believe it or not, we hit one more site before we went back – with me pullin out this “emergency” free plastic rain poncho made of way weaker material than toilet paper, and kitty’s going, “This guy’s crazier than I am!” as it watches from the car window while I voluntarily go flapping off into the forest in a rainy gale storm looking for some unmarked pile of rocks. And Kitty’s like, “I’m takin’ a nap. Freakin’ idiot.”
About ten minutes to noon we wheel into the hotel parking lot to mom happily waving on the balcony. I actually get momentarily choked up that this kitty came into our lives just when we needed it, and how it happened, and how it never hissed or scratched out at any point during the massive transition from forest to automobile. And how mom is gonna just love it, how she’ll have this sweet little furry lap pet after she so took to the mourning doves on the windowsill in the summer, and how a kitty is so self-sufficient and the purrfect pet for someone who doesn’t want to walk them or pick up after them or stare at them in a bowl of water.
So I pull a graceful John Belushi tumble out the passenger door, get mom, tell her I have a surprise, ask her to sit in the back seat, and she’s all excited, like, “What’s the surprise!?” as I sit beside her in the back waiting for it to naturally happen . . . the kitty to suddenly jump up from the front seat . . . like she’s been doing all day . . . any second now . . . I check my Basil Fawlty watch . . . any second . . . the kitty will . . . c’mere ga’dangit! and I finally pull up this Charlie Brown Christmas-tree-thin scraggly burr-covered rag-doll with no stuffing inside – and I shook it at her, and said, “This cat’s for you!”
“Gee, thanks for the . . . uh, present. Hope you didn’t spend too much,” as she dove out the window. but I caught her with my mechanical pencil and pulled her back in!
and we all lived happily ever after.
.
oh!
and there’s a bone fide epilogue!
so this scraggly, little, ugly-duckling, ball-of-burrs
u n f u r l s . . .
into this blazing 10-color-sunburst pure-bred best-in-show Norwegian Forest Cat!!
Turns out it’s a “she”, and is not only the most amazing adventure-cat I’ve ever met, but when I went to all these cat show websites where they have the qualities for judging prime Norwegian Forest Cats, and she’s got every single one of their unusual characteristics to a freakin “T” (not that we’re planning to show her) but she’s obviously a very pure strain: a distinctive double coat of fur — a thick wooly undercoat that comes & goes with the winter, plus a silky and water-repellent (!) overcoat. “It should appear elegant and majestic” – with a symmetrical coat, pronounced ruff at the chest and ‘lion’s-mane’ neck ruffle, green-gold eyes, strong chin, a long and muscular body, larger hind legs, matching knickerbockers, long tuffs of fur between the toes, a bushy tail that can reach to the back of the head, a thick drape of inner-ear hair to keep the snow out, and lynx-like antenna tuffs on top of the ears (in fact, these cats came from the Persian longhairs who arrived in Scandinavia via the Byzantine trading routes a thousand years ago, and then evolved in the same mountains as the Scandinavian lynx – so you tell me what happened).
“Hey, we were just trying to keep warm.”
Plus they have these amazing accordion bodies that scrunch up to less than a foot (to conserve body heat during winter), or can suddenly stretch up to two feet (for pouncing on prey . . . or hiking up gorgeous gorges).
From the gathered evidence, we’re guessing she was bought for an older family member, who then used something like a yardstick or cane to hit her, and she ran away.
Unfortunately for mom’s lap, she’s a bit more of an independent outdoor adventure-cat, than a come-hither-&-cuddle lap-cat, so I gotta go looking for a docile doggie at the next falls, which I fully expect little Casey Commando & I to be doing a lot of.
she’ll write more later.
she’s still a little shy,
but like any good writer or warrior . . .
.
she’s watching and learning.
and is strong like bull.
and then it turns out, Norwegian Forests may have been the first small felines in North America! coming over on the Viking ships, and then living here in the wild ever since. (outlasting those girly Viking pansies!) in fact, they’re pretty-much the St. Bernards of cats. Instead of the Alps, they evolved in the saber-toothed mountains of Norway, a splendid little frozen country, not unlike my own. Happy hockey homies. Tiny towns of half-crazed puckheads, with big furry cats to take care of things. The Norwegian Forests worked the farms, hunted down food, brought it back to the farm house, cooked it, and served it with aprons on to fat yodeling hockey players.
