It is said that when the California and Oregon Trails intersected at Pacific Springs, the directions to California consisted of some gold colored rocks underneath an arrow; the directions to Oregon simply said, "To Oregon." The presumption was that migrants to Oregon could read.
I blog from Oregon, home to Powell's, Mecca of used bookstores. I visited Powell's City of Books on Friday, leaving the four-story book palace with five titles. Highlights from the purchase include a good-as-new It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States for $17 and A History of American Socialisms, which retails for $125 on Amazon, for $10. This last title was the work of John Humphrey Noyes, a practitioner of both economic and sexual communism. The man was the Wilt Chamberlain of his time, and not in a basketball sense. Vermont kicked him out and Yale University banned him from campus. But Noyes, who styled himself as the 19th-century Jesus Christ, and his followers, who trailed blindly, found a home in Oneida, New York and launched a commune. Portland itself is quite eclectic, though not as much as Noyes's Oneida. Home of the homeless, the city also enlists armies of women to sport tattoos, granny glasses, multiple piercings, and Betty-Page haircuts. I'm not sure if the look is truly compulsory, but its popularity makes it seem so. Unlike many Western cities, an automobile is not required. Independent businesses abound. In the distance is Mount Hood. Like Oregon, the city has its own style and I like it.
Today I visited the Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene, picking up four books, including the $4 The Social Psychology of Social Movements by Hans Toch. Unlike the sterile Powell's, which resembles a giant Borders that sells used books, the Smith Family Bookstore has a more traditional, disorganized, used-bookstore feel. The stacks overflow with titles that may or may not have been stocked on the appropriate shelves. Eugene's a college town, so its used bookstore's selection reflects the (bad) tastes of the professors who impose them on their students. If Portland attracts punks over hippies, Eugene attracts hippies over punks. At least neither is an identyless collection of TGI Fridays, Wal-Marts, and Burger Kings.
AHH yes. Complex marriage and ascending fellowship. Great ideas whose time has come.I'm not to big on male continence, as I just got out of the brig. But the other two ideas are spot on. I would be interested if any modern versions of Oneida still exist. The closest I can think of would be that Van Halen video for Pretty Women. That seemed like a pretty neat community, except no one has ever explained to me how the midgets got there or why they were horse whipping a transvestie. And why was Roth dressed up like Napolean?
Somewhat relevant article from last week:
http://hnn.us/articles/11777.html
Ahhhh Dan, it sounds a bit like what Rod Dryer calls "crunchy cons" - I agree completely with your last sentence.
