Day 10ish

Unfortunately, shortly after the return of the notebook by The Stranger (bearing the inscription, “I’m sorry I stole your book.”), it was restolen by a less communicative thief. This is particularly sad because at last inspection, it was on its very last page.

Then, on Saturday, a compelling and effective war protest comprised of thousands of plastic grave markers with US soldiers killed in Iraq took The Notebook’s normal spot. Passersby wrote the names of the people killed and placed them on the grave markers. The Society wrote, "Sgt. Angel de Jesus Lucio Ramirez, 22, Pacoima, CA. RIP." It was all run by nice, middle-aged women, who now seem to form the admirable backbone of most serious protests.

All that to say, the following represents only a few hours from Sunday, the 15^th. Tomorrow, we promise a big update featuring Cal Anderson Park. Gotta keep the customers happy.

An anonymous contributor put forth, “If you are feeling blue, go into nature with your honey and sit on a park bench.” While the standard interpretation is honey-as-woman, it is perhaps more entertaining to imagine a man with one of those beary-shapely honey jars hiking off into (Self?) Discovery Park for a little me-time. Sorry, ew.

One thing you might learn is, “Love and beauty are everywhere.” On the other hand, you could instead find out that you should, “Contemplate the miraculous ordinary.” Either way, an aphorism can come in handy, even if they do sometimes sound Dad-dancing uncool. We might remember that the greatest coach in the history of sports, John Wooden, used to have an entire bushel of Indiana shiny aphorisms, which he used to motivate interracial teams in Los Angeles in the 60s. Most of them were simple directives, mantras, “Be quick but don’t hurry” or “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” A few of them transcend any possible sports connection to enter a realm which we might call Mama Wisdom, “The worst thing you can do for people you love are the things they could and should do for themselves.” You might not use it as a pickup line at an Interpol show, but as a life praxis, it is hard to argue.

“Living next to Green Lake since 1969 I have spent tons of time on, in & around the lake. No time trumps the promise of a blue-sky day early in the spring.” Which really bears the question, “You swim in Green Lake?” We have heard it gives you something called “Swimmer’s Itch” which impersonates certain well-known STIs.

And last but not least, we find our main man Miles, who is excitable, “Hello! My name is Miles. This is a very nice place here in Green Lake, but I still don’t know why so many people walk here.” Probably to find the notebook, is our guess, but it could be the bikini rollerbladers or the steel drum player or that there is no substitute for proximity.