Posted on 06/16/2006 9:05:51 AM PDT by Valin
Ben Stein rules.
Heads up, Ben Stein ping!
California is one of the most beautiful states of the nation, and Southern California has arguably the best weather in America. There is a reason the real estate is so high, despite all the social ills of congestion.
WHaaaaaaaaaaT?
Are we reading the same article?
Ben don't tell the world about Northern Idaho...all those liberals will come here and ruin it!!!
What an absolutely heart warming article.
I'm on your side, but I don't think the article tarred the entire state.
I have to agree with you on that! I didn't read any complaint about CA in Mr. Steins article.
The news stories on the nightly news in America might just as well come from Al-Jazeera as from America
What a beautiful area! Hate to loose a fellow Texas, but wow, it is tempting to move up there.......
I had learned some good lessons about fathers and sons, too. Tommy stayed calm through the entire ordeal, treating it as an adventure. So did Peter’s son. I was the only one who was terrified. I learned if the main male leader in a group of fathers and sons stays calm, the kids stay calm.
That was the most important paragraph in the entire story. Dad's, it's our job to remain in control in uncontrollable situations. I teach my kids, and my Scouts my personal slogan: "It's not an adventure till something goes wrong."
Panicking in the face of danger is the first way to escalate the danger, real or perceived.
You missed the point. Stein's not bashing the state, he's drawing a contrast between two lifestyles and sayng one more easily facilitates something of inestimable value that the other does not.
I'm a California Native and a resident of 41 years. I KNOW this State pretty darn well. The plain truth is that there are 30 million of us, here already, and another 70 million who WISH they were. But I'm not going to sit here with blinders on and make inane claims that life isn't better anywhere else, nor am I so thin-skinned as to get my hackles up opver someone relating great experiences thay had out-of-state. California is what it is and had a tremendous amount to offer; there's no need to be defensive about it.
There are granite cathedrals in the Sierra of such hidden grandeur that to enter into them is to step onto Holy ground. The invigorating surf of the coasts, the towering sequoia to the northwest, the rugged desolation of the Modoc country; there is no lack of awe-inspiring vistas here. But there is a distinct lack, in many quarters, of the kind of close-to-the earth living that Stein describes in this piece. It's just plain tough to come by in the hustle and bustle of our humongous metro areas, and even escape to resorts like Tahoe and Mammoth won't cut it; the city-dwellers rush in on the weekends, and drag their hustle and bustle right along with them. You want the kind of life in California like Stein's describing in this article, you're in a place like Yreka, or Alturas, maybe Sonora. It's just not easy to get the same 'flavor' of life here.
That's not a bash; it's just reality.
(Don't worry, I'm not a lib)
Sorry, but I've flown many times into Burbank and know the roads within a ten mile radius. It sucks.
There are great parts of California. I visit relatives in Napa and Carlsbad. I've been up to mount Paramour and the desert.
LA sucks.
Wonderful piece.
Some friends of mine had a place (probably still do) on or just off Bottle Bay. Loved that place and the area.
BTW, the SMOKEHOUSE just south of the bridge into Sandpoint has the best jerky I've ever had . . . cuts his own wood. Hunts some of his own meat. Salmon, deer, moose, turkey, beef, deer--great stuff. Not cheap but well worth it.
BTW, the Nazi's in the Couer d'Lane sp? area are NOT myths. But there are not hoards of them.
This article was about a city slicker enjoying small town life and fatherhood. Not an attack on CA.
A BUMP for Ben Stein...
Peter sounds like my Daddy.
By the time me and my siblings could swim (three or four years old) Daddy had a Zebco 202 closed faced reel in our hands and had us on fish -- mostly bluegill, but as a kid I had the great fortune to live where I had the opportunity to tangle with a few trophy largemouth bass :)
Thanks to my Daddy.
Daddy also made sure we grew up close enough to a lake to walk to a fishing hole.
Daddy had five kids (and a few vices) and couldn't afford a boat, but he was one of the first in the country to fish in a float tube (when they were unheard of). Also, I have that old float tube now hanging in my fishing cabin.
He (years) later used a float tube to catch a national record freshwater drum (in the tube) and fish among alligators and in some heavy timber in Louisiana. I was there, the last Father's Day I spent with my Daddy his request was for all his kids to go fishing with him in Vinton, La.
One brother and myself showed up on the last Father's Day fishing trip, the two outlaws in the family. My sis sent a card, she never had time for Daddy.
I have photos of it, and memories that superceed any and all in my lifetime.
My Daddy taught me to fish, and enjoy simple things, like a bluegill (or bass, trout) sucking a fly or other topwater imitation off the surface of a lake/stream. He left me a few decades of memories of experiencing this --with him laughing and enjoying it more than I did.
And I can't imagine any better legacy, inheritance, than the lessons and love my Daddy gave to me.
I can't say "Happy Father's day to him, he passed away very young in the early 1980s.
If you are reading this, and your father is alive, take him fishing, or hug him or something.
BTW -- I am leaving Monday to take five kids (four of them city slickers and two modern day Davy Crockett's)fishing, along with two other woman.
I guess I'm like my Daddy, I have more fun watching a kid pull their first bluegill/bass out than the kids do.
And, I just invested in one Barbie rod and reel and two Zebco 202s (dang, I should be working for Zebco ;)
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