Things I saw:

Driving from Telluride to Albuquerque, traveling down through northwestern New Mexico (perhaps the most beautiful place I've ever been), I saw Shiprock. We didn't climb it.

"Until October of 1939, its ragged and sheer sides had never been climbed. Climbers from the Sierra Club of California made the first ascent. Navajo beliefs resent such invasion of their sacred peak causing it to now to be illegal to climb. The following Navajo legend illustrates the reason why the Navajo (Diné) resent the climbing of their Tsé Bit' A'í:

A long time ago the Diné were hard pressed by their enemies. One night their medicine men prayed for their deliverance, having their prayers heard by the Gods. They caused the ground to rise, lifting the Diné, and moved the ground like a great wave into the east away from their enemies. It settled where Shiprock Peak now stands. These Navajos then lived on the top of this new mountain, only coming down to plant their fields and to get water.

For some time all went well. Then one day during a storm, and while the men were working in the fields, the trail up the rock was split off by lightning and only a sheer cliff was left. The women, children, and old men on the top slowly starved to death, leaving their bodies to settle there.

Therefore, because of this legend, the Navajos do not want any one to climb Shiprock Peak for fear of stirring up the ch’iidii, or rob their corpses."

Near Taos, New Mexico, I got to see my very first Earthships. Who'd've thought that I'd get into the idea of half-buried homes constructed from old tires and tin cans? They're really kind of cool...

Earth-Ship n. 1. a passive solar home made out of natural and recycled materials. 2. a home combining passive solar architecture with thermal mass construction. 3. renewable energy and integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with no utility bills.

Take a tour of an earthship.

Mike Gunderloy's the man! He responded to last December's whines about there being no photographs of the World Trade Center under construction with a link to the World Trade Center Association's "pictorial history ... building the World Trade Center New York." Thank you, Mike!

Happy birthday, Neal Cassady (1926 - 1968)!

It's been like this since version 4.0? Wow.

A dear friend of mine is faced this weekend with the task of finding a bridesmaid's gown. She appreciated Dave Heaton's "And the Bride Wore..." site. It's a collection of nuptial atrocities, ranging from Strange Headgear to "Dear Wedding Lady -- My butt isn't bit enough... to the ultimate What Were They Thinking?.

MP3LiT.com's got free spoken word recordings from Kerouac to Joyce. And a lot in between. This is pretty cool.

Excerpts from the trial transcript, from Doug Linder's Chicago Seven pages, part of his awesome Famous Trials site.

An accidental find: The Techno-Impressionist Museum. I could spend all day here. Loving: Long ago and far away.

And in keeping with a macabre Monday theme, the Epitaph Browser.

Jesse James
Kearney, Missouri

Died April 3, 1882
Aged 34 years, 6 months, 28 days
Murdered by a traitor and a coward
whose name is not worthy
to appear here.

Belle Starr
Porum, Oklahoma

Shed not for her the bitter tear
Nor give the heart to vain regret
Tis but the casket that lies here
The gem that filled it sparkles yet

Dred Scott
Wesleyan Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri

(front)
Freed from slavery by his friend Taylor Blow

(back)
Subject of the Decision of the Supreme Court of
the United States in 1857 Which Denied
Citizenship to the Negro. Voided the Missouri
Compromise Act. Became One of the Events that
Resulted in the Civil War.