"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors."

-Jonas Salk

Monday, May 28, 2007

Don't it Always Seem to Go

Irene and I spent Saturday driving on the nearly deserted and stunningly beautiful back roads of the Texas Panhandle, on the way to Asleep at the Wheel's tribute to Bob Wills (yeee-haw!) slackjawed in amazement at the wild profligate unspoiled profusion of nature.

The few locals that are there think of it as a buncha danged weeds.

We stopped, on the way, for a soda and some peanuts. (The Prius did not need any gas.) The pasty and sad looking girl at the checkout asked us where we were from. When we said Austin, she nearly melted with longing and jealousy, for to a rural Texan adolescent, Austin is heaven. She saw Irene's SLR and asked if we had stopped to take pitchers of Spur. (Indeed, we were in Spur, Texas, not far by West Texas standards from Bob Wills' hometown of Turkey Texas.)

I said that, no, we were taking pictures of the countryside, and I expressed my deep appreciation for its beauty. (I'm not poet enough to express my feelings in text very well. I might have gotten choked up a bit as I expressed my admiration for the countryside.)

The young woman regarded me as if I were mad, to leave Austin to dally among the weeds of the Texas Panhandle.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They've paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

3 comments:

Gareth said...

A quick Google News Search gives me four hits: one from MSNBC, one from France 24 and the others from Poland & Greece. The MSNBC story is from FT.com (Financial Times, London), and two of the others use the same feed.
I would suggest that the announcement will get a great deal more play when the G8 meeting is in progress.

Michael Tobis said...

This is posted to the wrong topic.

Thanks for trying, but of the hits you found, only the France24 one refers to the document in question, i.e., the joint statement of the academies of science, talking clear sense.

I personally have not heard of France24, so I remain in a peculiar state of mostly believing and definitely wanting to believe, but not actually having enough confidence to quote the document in a formal setting.

Gareth said...

This is posted to the wrong topic.

Whoops!