Connections

Amazing what the internet and social media has done.  It has proven what we always suspected, that tracing the web of a friend of a friend leads all over the world.  The 2nd hand acquaintances of the 18 people I currently have as friends on FB reach to Europe and Brisbane, Australia.  I didn't count the list of names of those that I could "friend", but it was quite long.

The other thing that it has demonstrated is that different branches of friends do occasionally intersect.  With my list it has not been a "round-the-world", improbable intersection however.  Two branches of my friends, both local, crossed each other in two persons.  I'm sure real FB afficionados have more amazing tales to tell.

The Mountains Stay the Same

I was looking at Shadow Mountain (Pusch Peak for purists) on the west end of the Santa Catalina mountains the other day from my mother's home in northwest Tucson, thinking about the fact that it hasn't changed a bit from my boyhood.  I grew up there.  We moved there in July, 1963.  My father was faculty at the University of Arizona.  I remember one of the times I accompanied him to work that summer as he was getting settled in.  It was a hot day.  On the way home, we had to stop at the stoplight at Grant and First Ave.  Looking north, one could see the road all the way up into the foothills.  We stopped at Frostop between Grant and Glenn, which had the big mug of root beer sign. 

Today I still come home from my job at the UA through that intersection.  Frostop is long gone, and several businesses have tried to make it a go in that same location.  The sign is different now, but still has a small vestige of the old days - a small mug, but painted like beer.  The Chevron station on the NE corner of Grant/First is gone, but a Shell mini-mart has replaced it.  I was at that intersection in the fall of 1987 when Tom Dillon, then the voice of the ASU Sun Devils, rather disgustedly stated that the UA-ASU football game was ending in a 24-24 tie.

On Oracle Rd., Mr. Quik did a hot business beside Amphi High School.  I was at Amphi one night in the late 60's when Ed Hochuli (now an NFL ref) and CDO went up against Kim Hornbeak and the Panthers in football.  I don't recall who won, which means that Amphi probably did. 

At Oracle and Ina roads was Sharp's Market, in Casas Adobes Plaza, the only grocery that far north.  It has changed hands many times, currently a Wild Oats market.  The other corners of that intersection were desert.  Tohono Chul park was then the Wilson residence.  Farther north, at Magee and Oracle, where the Rural/Metro fire station now sits, was a lone building and a tree, the La Chiquita Escuela kindergarten.  Northern Avenue on the west side of that parcel of land was but a dirt road, made only for Tucson Gas & Electric to service the power lines.  Hence, its informal name, Pole Line Road. 

For a time I rode my bike on that road, down to Magee, then to Paseo del Norte, south to Winifred Harelson school, the elementary school "...in the desert, air so clear..."  We sang the school song at the time to the accompaniment of Winifred herself. 

Our family lived on Hardy Rd.  I won't say which house because as I mentioned earlier, my mom still lives in our original house.  Oro Valley was a name for a region; the town wasn't dreamed of yet.  There is a Brian Keith movie, "Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?", where there is a scene that was filmed at Oracle Rd. and First Avenue long before there was a Fry's, Home Depot, and everything else that's there now.  Shadow Mountain (Pusch Peak for purists) is a nice background for it. 

Many things have changed; but the mountains stay the same.

Our Loss of Refinement

In the current climate of emotional and political strife, there have been a number of complaints about vitriol and the lack of civility in public dialogue.  I agree.  If more people paused and thought before they spoke, our discourse and ability to insult one another would be much more refined.  The degree of vulgarity in the content of speech is a reliable indicator of the depths to which we have linguistically sunk as a society.

I advocate a return to civil insults.  If you’re not good at it, or have a limited vocabulary, take a few minutes each day to peruse a dictionary or a thesaurus (as I have here), and improve your skills.  For example, the Os are rich with high-level slander and allegations.  To wit:

• Oaf (n.) – A large, ungainly, and dull-witted person : gawk, hulk, lout, limp, ox.  Informal: lummox.  Slang: klutz, lug, meatball, meathead.
• Obduracy (n.) – The quality or state of being stubbornly inflexible: die-hardism, grimness, implacability, implacableness, incompliance, inexorability, intransigence, relentlessness, remorselessness, rigidity, stubbornness.
• Obfuscate (v.) – To make dim or indistinct : becloud, bedim, befog, blear, blur, cloud, dim, dull, eclipse, fog, gloom, mist, obscure, overcast, overshadow.
• Oblique (adj.) – 1. Angled at a slant : beveled, bias, biased, diagonal.  2.  Not taking a direct or straight line or course : anfractuous, circuitous, circular, devious, indirect, tortuous.
• Oblivious (adj.) – 1.  Unable to remember : amnesiac, forgetful.  2.  Not aware or informed : ignorant, innocent, unaware, unconscious, unenlightened.  Idiom: in the dark.
• Obloquy (n.) – 1. Harsh, often insulting language : abuse, billingsgate, contumely, invective, railing, revilement, scurrility, vituperation.  2. Loss of or damage to one’s reputation : bad name, bad odor, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, disrepute, ignominy, ill repute, odium, opprobrium.
• Obnoxious (adj.) – So objectionable as to elicit despisal or deserve condemnation : abhorrent, abominable, antipathetic, contemptible, despicable, despisable, detestable, disgusting, filthy, foul, infamous, loathsome, lousy, low, mean, nasty, nefarious, odious, repugnant, rotten, shabby, vile, wretched.

Isn’t this great?

• Obscene (adj.) – 1.  Offensive to accepted standards of decency : barnyard, bawdy, coarse, Fescennine, filthy, foul, gross, lewd, nasty, profane, ribald, scatologic, scurrilous, smutty, vulgar.  2. Beyond all reason : outrageous, preposterous, ridiculous, shocking, unconscionable, unreasonable.
• Obsequious (adj.) – Excessively eager to serve or obey : menial, servile, slavish, subservient.
• Obstinate (adj.) – 1.  Tenaciously unwilling to yield : bullheaded, dogged, hardheaded, headstrong, mulish, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, stiff-necked, tenacious.  2.  Difficult to alleviate or cure : persistent, pertinacious, stubborn.
• Obstreperous (adj.) – 1.  Not submitting to discipline or control : disorderly, fractious, indocile, intractable, lawless, obstinate, recalcitrant, refractory, uncontrollable, undisciplined, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly, untoward, wild.  Idiom: out of line.  2.  Offensively loud and insistent : blatant, boisterous, clamorous, strident, vociferous.  Informal: loudmouthed.
• Obtrude (v.) – To force or come in as an improper or unwanted element : cut in, horn in, intrude.
• Obtuse (adj.) – Lacking in intelligence : blockheaded, dense, doltish, dumb, hebetudinous, stupid, thickheaded, thick-witted.  Informal: thick.  Slang: dimwitted, dopey.
• Odious (adj.) – [identical to Obnoxious].
• Officious (adj.) – Given to intruding in other people’s affairs : interfering, intrusive, meddlesome, obtrusive.
• Offish (adj.) -  Not friendly, sociable, or warm in manner : aloof, chilly, cool, distant, reticent, standoffish, unapproachable, uncommunicative.
• Oily (adj.) – 1.  Having the qualities of fat : adipose, fat, greasy, oleaginous, unctuous.  2.  Affectedly and self-servingly earnest : fulsome, sleek, smarmy.
• Omnivorous (adj.) – Having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit : avid, edacious gluttonous, greedy, rapacious, ravenous, unappeasable, voracious.

I’ll stop there.  Impressive, is it not?  The English language is rife with fantastic words that get little airtime but could enliven the most insipid argument.  With a little study, even the most obtuse, oblivious, and odious oaf can become omnivorous in officious and obdurate use of oily, obnoxious, and oblique obloquy. 

It’s only a suggestion however, I don’t want to obtrude and obfuscate the issue for anyone.