Poking a Dung Pile

Please consider the difference between the following two statements: "Joe came up to me while I was downtown." and  "Joe found me while I was downtown." There's a clearly a difference between the two. The first one merely suggests an approach as in, "Joe approached me while I was downtown." "Joe came up to me while I was downtown" and  "Joe approached me downtown" are basically equivalent.  If I told you that "Joe came up to me while I was downtown" you'd infer the same thing as if I told you that, "Joe approached me while I was downtown."  Pedantry?  Yes.  But pedantry for the sake of clarification.  Here's some more. The second statement carries a different meaning, obviously.  If I told you that, "Joe found me while I was downtown" then you'd be probably infer that Joe was looking for me and then Joe found me.  And you'd probably think that Joe was looking for me for a reason.  You

César Chavez Park The old Berkeley dump and composting area was once located on what is now the site of César Chavez Park.  Rainbow Village was relocated from 5th Street between Cedar and Virginia to a maintenance lot at the dump.  If you go to Google Maps and you look the park from above, you'll see that it looks similar to a rhombus.  For a while I didn't have a clear idea of where the Village had once been, even though I tried to use grainy photos from old newspaper clippings and other images available on the Web to figure it out.  I had a pretty good idea where Von Wendel's Sea Space Station and his flotilla were moored, but I couldn't place the site of the Village.  Nor did I have any idea of where the gate to the dump once was. A few weeks ago I was searching through newspaper articles that might give me a glimpse of where the dump gate was when I came across two articles from '82 that spurred me to try to figure out its location.  One article from April repo

  Two 'Heads Outside the Carrier Dome October '84 I came across this photo for sale on Ebay a few weeks ago and did a screen shot of it.  On the reverse side someone has written "(2) Dan Adams & (1) Tom Rigby on grass [hmmm...] in front of Dome."  A stamp identifies the photographer as Dick Blume and there's another stamp (much like you'd have seen in a library book back in the day) that reads "Oct 20 1984." I'm not sure how to read the numbers next to the names, but I'll guess that the '1' indicates foreground and the '2' background.  Although they may also indicate left to right or right to left. Not sure if one of them is the Dan Adams who knew Greg Kniffin... Update:   I've finally obtained a copy of the picture of Dan Adams that appeared on page 2 of the August 19, 1985  San Francisco Chronicle.  The photo's captioned "19 year-old 'Deadhead' Dan Reynolds sunned himself next to one of the two bu

  In an early episode of Dead and Gone, the writer Dean Budnick claims that Deadheads "were widely disparaged in a way lost to history." I think that The Big Lebowski may have have captured just a little of this and given us insights into the ideologies behind it. "The Bums Will Always Lose!" Like Ebenezer Scrooge and Henry F. Potter, the character of The Big Lebowski personifies an ideology still prevalent among some, if not many, in the U.S. today. Those sympathizing with this ideology back in the 80's would probably have seen Deadheads the way Lebowski sees the Dude—as bums who hadn't yet realized that the revolution was over, and that it ended in failure.*  Many in the straight world would have thought Deadheads just needed to grow up and do what their parents did—get a job.  They needed to get out there and put their talents to work, and achieve, and make something of themselves.  Be responsible!  Lebowski yells at the Duder, "[E]very bum's lot