Snakeskin jaspers and meteorites

This is the week-end of the Tucson Gem exposition. There is only one such exposition ever anywhere in the entire world, I am told. That means that I just had to check it out. People travel from Germany and Hong Kong to view minerals and stones, so I can certainly travel the 10 miles or so from the desert to take a look.

What turned out to be, however, even more interesting than the convention center's big show (yes, of VERY expensive stones-- even though there are lots of free ones in the canyon -- see yesterday's post) was the off-off-off Broadway of gem shows -- the one in tents and warehouses at the edge of town. Now that was worth the hike! Australian opal mixed in with Pakistani onyx, Peruvian minerals, meteorites, Snakeskin jasper -- more names than even yesterday's litany of cacti species. And let me not forget the Indian (from India) patchwork quilts and Afghani carpets.

I bought a carpet woven in Afghanistan-- it seemed fitting to do so at Tucson's biggest-in-the-world gem show. The man was selling it from the back of his truck. His pal had some more in a tent not too far away, as you head toward the desert. The land around me and the weather seemed much like I imagine Afghanistan to be (I am quite uninformed and so I could be off by several zones, but I think it's a fair guess). The seller explained to me how the old man who had made the carpet was dead now, but his son had taken over and was making fine carpets -- maybe he'll bring some next year to Tucson. The other seller, the one in the tent, told me that he had a regular customer in Wisconsin: he asked me if I knew where Madison was. The skeptics may scoff at my naivete ('how do you know it's real'?), but I really have no doubt that it is quite authentic. And, even more importantly, it is very beautiful.

Back home tomorrow, carpet under my arm, rocks, cacti and mountain lions on my mind, and some good photos taken of all but the mountain lions -- couldn't get one to stand still long enough (or maybe it was only a pack rat?).

Thanks, Florida and Texas lawyer pals and Arizona desert friends, for taking in a northerner for a while.

regrets

I saw a newspaper lying around -- it was yesterday's paper, tossed to the side, about to be trashed forever. I couldn't help myself - I picked it up. It was innocent on my part: I'd never read a copy of the Arizona Star before. I wanted to see its tone, maybe find some interesting story about desert life (though I felt certain that there would not be desert news per se: the sun goes up, shines brilliantly, goes down. The end of another day).

The news was of the type you'd find anywhere: a Valentine Day's story of some improbable love, a heroic local rescue of someone's pet, an accident here, a robbery there.

I was about to toss the whole thing away when the words "Madison, Wisconsin" caught my attention. I read it, but wish I hadn't.

Is it true, then, that a reporter in Madison asked Kerry if he had had an extramarital affair? Were there rumors circulating to that effect? A day without news should have been a week withouth news if this is what the media is playing with now.

It is not surprising that Kerry would deny this (assuming, for argument's sake that it is a valid rumor). If a scream percipitated Dean's slide, what would an admission of this sort do to Kerry? But what is discouraging is the insatiable desire to pursue these types of questions. After all. do we fully understand at this point all that each candidate can offer? What policies they stand behind? What implementation tools and strategies they propose to use if elected? Have we weighed these against the three and a half grueling years of GWB? No? Well, shouldn't we get on with that project?

I read that subsequently, Kerry was asked: "is there anything that you want to tell us that's going to come up?" Do I understand this question to be asking -- is there anything incriminating that we can't quite lay our finger on now, but you'd like to share anyway, just in case we eventually learn about it? I'll let you imagine Kerry's brilliant reply [hint: it starts with the letter ""n"].