Roly-poly in the Wild (PART 1 OF 3)
Subj:Summer is here
with us!
Enjoy the sunshine!
From: diane03760@vancouver.ca
To: barclay1720@aol.com
Date: Tue, Jul 26, 2011 4:35 pm.
Pacific Daylight Saving Time
Thanks my truly skinny Socrates, Kato.
■"Madame Riviera and Burger"
(July 26, 2011)
I've read the above article.
Your article is excellent as usual.
I did remember that you lived in Yellowknife some years ago.
Many years ago, I too lived for six months or so in the north, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
Actually, I worked for a mining company in a small town called Faro (Anvil Mines at the time) as secretary to the President.
I was given my own apartment (most of the staff had to live in bunk houses) and a huge salary compared with what I would receive in Vancouver.
So I was thrilled about that.
I didn't want to feel totally isolated, though, so I asked whether I could eat with the others in the cookhouse and they obliged.
Thank God.
It was fun and much easier than doing my own cooking and making do with the limited selection in the local store.
The cook took a special liking to me and every day he would give me extra rations of cookies and cakes.
Pretty soon I realized that if I took advantage of these favours I would end up being a roly-poly.
so I would take them and then give them away.
Lotsa fun.
I do remember a really cute Japanese gal who worked up there telling me she had already gained 25 lbs in one year, and it showed.
It was all the lesson I needed, thankfully.
Le Crueset cookware is definitely famous.
A friend of mine in Kerrisdale has some and he said they're very, very expensive but worth every penny.
He has one pot that he uses almost daily and has for years and it has proved to be the best pot he's every cooked with and worked with---sturdy, reliable, easy to work with.
So I guess it's worth the big bucks, true?!
Vancouver is pretty good, but not paradise I'd say.
The weather's too crummy half the time, or more than half the time actually, Which is why my brother left Canada for France.
He could no longer stand the cold weather.
Certainly, I do miss him.
As a matter of fact, I've found an interesting joke:
You see, Kato, we don't have many sunny days in Vancouver!
Anyway, I enjoyed reading your article.
Thanks again for all this.
Love, Diane ~
SOURCE: "Roly-poly in the North"
(July 30, 2011)
Kato, how come you've brought up my old mail?
A good question...I've read the book "Into the Wild" written by Jon Krakauer, then viewed the DVD in the library.
Into the Wild (Trailer)
<iframe width="500" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2LAuzT_x8Ek" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Chris McCandless
a.k.a Alexander Supertramp
<iframe width="500" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VDRy6fmcSzA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The above book is a non-fiction written based on the real story.
What kind of story?
Well...it's a story of adventure and self-search journey into the wilderness.
...sound quite interesting.
I thought you would say that.
What makes you think so?
...'cause you went up north to Faro in the wilderness.
Faro is a small town, but far from wilderness, I suppose. I went up there for my career.
I know, but if you hate wilderness and adventure, I don't think you went up north in the first place.
You're right on, Kato. Anyway, what impressed you so much.
The story is about Chris McCandless---a young man who threw away his real name and his background, then called himself Alexander Supertramp.
So he was a super tramp, wasn't he?
You're telling me, Diane. He graduated from college in 1990 and told his parents that he might as well go to Harvard Law School---simply to make his parents happy. Although he loved his parents, he sank into a trauma when he came to know that his mother gave birth to him while his father was married to another woman.
So, he was legally born as a bastard, wasn't he?
That's right.
Is this the reason he stepped into the wild as Alexander Supertramp?
I would say so. He threw away his identity, donated his all the money ($24,000) to a charity organization, then took up another identity as Alexander Supertramp, and stepped into a self-search adventure penniless.
Unfortunately, he was found dead in August, 1992.
What happened to him?
Nobody knows for sure, but the book suggested he ate some kind of poisonous plant. So did the movie.
I think I heard the news of his death in 1992.
So did I, and I thought that the yound man was a careless hitch-hiker, and forgot about the incident soon afterwards. Then I happened to read the book. As soon as I read the book, the incident came back to my mind. At the end of the bood written in 1996, the Japanese translator told that the movie was to be made and shown in 2006 or 2007. So I borrowed the DVD and viewed it.
Who directed the movie?
Sean Penn.
I thought he was an actor.
Yes, he was and still is. He is now a hyphnated director---actor-come-director.
He does look older, doesn't he?
Well...everybody is getting old day by day, you know.
You're telling me, Kato. How come you are so movivated to view the movie?
Well... first of all, his footsteps crossed yours and mine...sort of, when you and I were young, staying up north.
(To be followed)