| Submitted by: Mark R. Leeper United States |
| Submission Date: 14 February 2005 |
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The other, which we saw, is the first steam-driven clock. Samuel Johnson said of women ministers that a woman preaching is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not that she does it well, it is just amazing that she does it at all. That is pretty much true of the clock that runs on steam. It was three minutes slow and the glass over the faces tended to steam up with condensation. There was a face on each side, the clock itself was on the street and was about eight feet high, by the way. Every 15 minutes it would 'chime.' This is a new use of the word 'chime' since it was more a simulation the chiming of Big Ben in steam whistles. (Of course these days we would realize what a sexist and politically incorrect comment that was that Johnson made and would recognize that the women he heard were preaching just as well as the men if not better, regardless of what his faculties told him. Political correctness is, of course, very often a triumph of fair thinking over believing your faculties.)
As a somewhat touristy area they have turned Gastown into a shopping area much like Monterey. The prices are not so high, but it is kind of touristy. The books talk about a strong Asian influence in Vancouver and even in Gastown. I don't see it. I see a big Asian presence-that is in people and restaurants-but I don't really see Asian culture. Even that we will see it in Chinatown, but not Gastown. The buildings do not look Asian and I generally am not seeing much Asian culture. We went to Gaoler's Mews where there used to be an old jail. The mews was well marked but the Gaol was not.
From there it was a short walk to Chinatown, the second largest in North America. San Francisco has the largest. The first attraction is the six foot wide Sam Kee Building. When the city decided not to widen the street, they gave Sam Kee back a piece of land they expected he would use for parking. He was angry not to get enough to build a new building so on a bet he turned a six foot wide strip into a building. The building made Ripley's Believe It or Not, its major claim to fame. The floor is only about 52 inches wide and it has been turned into an insurance office. There is a Chinese Cultural Center with a big Chinese gate. Behind it is a small park with a pond and duck and very large carp. Now a lot of people would just look at this and continue with their business. And they might be better off. But I am not a lot of people. I started trying to see the pond from the point of view of the carp.
It strikes me that to a fish, a duck is a weird sort of fish that hugs the top and has two big funny-shaped fins. Sometimes the weird fish will disappear entirely into the above-the-surface world. Sometime it will just materialize from no place. When you are a fish you no longer have a law of conservation of matter. You can be staring at the surface, which for you is the edge of you world and suddenly a creature will be there where there was none before. It is one thing being a large carp that no duck would attack, but for smaller fish this could be a pretty scary situation.
Of course some fish would know there is more to the world above the surface. For them the above-the-surface world is probably a source of wonder. There are some fish that realize there is something in the other world and funny creatures up there.
Most have no idea. They just look in wonder as some pieces of floating food actually pull fish into the strange world above the surface. Some of these fish disappear forever, some come back someplace else. And those fish that come back have a real fish story to tell if only they could figure out how. I guess we are getting into the realm of piscine theology. Flying fish must be mystics among fish. They routinely jump into the mystic world, take a quick look at it, and return to the real world.
Take a look at the movie JAWS again, but from the point of the shark. The shark knew there was a world above because he could stick his head out to see. But this shark, who we are told is one smart fish, is actually caught in a life and death struggle with creatures from that alien world above the surface. All the shark knows is it is eating food as it has to do-and it is pretty bad food, humans are a lot of bones and almost no meat-and suddenly it has a new friend. The friend from beyond the surface. I say friend because it is certainly dropping tasty food down, the surface aliens call it 'chum.' Suddenly the aliens attack the shark, trying to pull it into the other world. 'Barrels' are nothing more than surface huggers, or strange devices that try to hug the surface if you pull them down.
Look at it like the Whitey does. The aliens try to shoot sharp pieces of metal into you to tie you to these top-huggers. Now you know you are in a life and death struggle with these aliens who are invading your space. You can no longer escape. You have to kill the aliens. But what are they? And why are they attacking you? It makes no sense. You have to think how to fight back. Think. What you see of them is mostly this big hard shell of their attack ship with the spinning flesh-cutter at the back end. That's not where the enemy is, but it is where your enemy is attacking you from. Think. The aliens drop into your world in some sort of funny square bubble with a hard shell around them. You can tear up the bubble but the alien inside swims away. Your only hope is to destroy the alien craft. You jump on it with the full force of your weight. Just the tipping pulls one alien into your mouth. Serves him right. Go for the last invader! He's put something in your mouth. You can't close your mouth. He's wedged your jaws open. Can you bite through it? You try. Now he's aiming something at it. What the...
Anyway... Chinatown proved to be low-key and lacking in the energy that New York's Chinatown has, Evelyn points out. Of course we usually see New York's Chinatown on a weekend.
A little history of Vancouver. The Spanish sailed past the area but never actually came ashore and stayed into the 19th Century. Fur traders were probably the first Euros into this area. Then in 1858 the gold strike brought Euros in hordes. In fact the demand to get to the area was so great, there was a shortage of available hordes. Prospective prospectors started coming in wagons instead. Even after the gold strike was settled there were not enough available hordes to take the miners home. In fact by 1886 there were 2000 people and it was time to become a city. Two months later a fire reduced it back to being a minor town again and did $1,300,000 in damage. Luckily that was Canadian dollars, but even so that much money bought a lot of damage in those days. And most of the miners thought even so that the amount of damage done was a bargain at that price. By the end of the year the city was rebuilt and when they counted they had unaccountably grown to 2500 people. It may be that this had become a port city and they were coming in at night. Or it could have been the result of other illicit night activities. On May 23, 1887 the first passenger train arrived in Vancouver. Just how it got there has not been recorded. But the plucky little train convinced the town that they wanted track laid to the town. And the rest is history, which was never my strongest subject in school.
All facts in the previous paragraph have been authenticated-or at the very least inspired-by the American Automobile Association's Tour Book.
Our next activity was to take the SkyTrain to just get an overview of the city. The SkyTrain is an elevated train that gives a nice view of the city. Unfortunately this was getting near to dinnertime and the train was crowded. Not as crowded as the trains we had ridden in Japan, but certainly standing room only. To make matters worse there was an obnoxious drunk who thought he as a comedian. His idea of humor was to ask me, 'How are you doing, Isaac?' Or he would yell to someone getting off the train 'Hey, don't go. You're driving.' He asked on guy if he voted. When the guy said he hadn't the drunk yelled to the whole car, 'Hey, he didn't vote.' Eventually he got to his stop and as he was leaving he saw a friend of his. I could hardly believe that this guy had friends. But this was an older looking man with a white beard. They shook hands and exchanged words. Then the bearded one got on the train and we lost our drunk. About halfway to the next station the bearded one started yelling about Jesus. They have relay subway freak tag-teams here. Wotta country!
I keep being astounded by Vancouver. I think the two most beautiful cities I have ever seen are Hong Kong and San Francisco and Vancouver looks like some sort of cross-breeding of the two. I see the rocky hills across the water and the buildings clustered around the bottom and I think I am in Hong Kong. I see the architecture and the steep little hilly streets and it looks like San Francisco. So right now it looks very nice. I just wonder if it looks so nice in the winter with rain and worse the dark. We are not above the arctic circle so there is sun every day. It is never less that 8 hours and 12 minutes of sunshine here. Helsinki can have less than six.
Well it is interesting to look around the car and see what people are doing-I mean the ones who are mentally competent. A woman who sat next to me was studying medicine. Most were reading or talking or just looking at the scenery. There is a moving company called Two Small Men with Big Hearts Moving Company. Well the moving companies have funny names in New York also.
We got off the train near where my parents' motel was. It was a bit of a walk and when we got there, no motel. Evelyn wanted to search further. I said that there was not much point since my parents were not likely to be in any case. Instead I said we should go ahead to the SeaBus. This is a catamaran between North Vancouver and the City of Vancouver across English Bay. The view is much like from the Star Ferry in Hong Kong. We had to run to make the ferry. Unfortunately it was nearly full and we did not get very good seats. The boat does not allow passengers to stand up during the trip and we had seats that had our backs to the only real view.
We walked around the port area of North Vancouver, then waited for the return trip. Because we were waiting a long time for good seats we got some of the best on the boat and some good photos. The ride is about 25 minutes. You approach the main city at a dock next to Canada Place, a sort of dockside shopping mall.
Returning we had dinner at Ma Dang Kool, a Korean restaurant just a few doors down from the Vietnamese restaurant where we had lunch. I had Bulgalbi. Evelyn had Soon Doo Boo Ji Gae.
On the way back I stopped at a grocery and picked up a Coffee Crisp, a Canadian candy bar. I got a taste for them when I lived in Detroit across the river from Windsor, Ontario. It is sort of a wafer bar with coffee flavor frosting between the wafers and covered in chocolate. Quite tasty.
I call my parents motel and talk to my father. They are going to take a trolley and see the city tomorrow. I feel a little guilty not going with them but we have seen the city today and want to see the museum of Anthropology.
I went to bed about 11.
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07/25/97 The UBC Museum of Anthropology and the Shopping Trip
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I had gone to sleep about 10:30ish, if I remember and woke up about 5. This would not be unusual behavior for me at home either. Evelyn was asleep so I slunk off to the bathroom where I could turn on a light. Sunrise is at 5:35a this morning and sunset at 9:00p. (Can you tell I have been playing with my palmtop and the spreadsheet for predicting the sun's movements?) Anyway, with sunrise so early they had to make the curtains opaque.
It was early morning and we decided to take a walk along the sea wall promenade of English Bay. |
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