# 95 - January 30th, 2008

Greetings one and all…”Well, we needed it” – no prizes for guessing what is being referred to in this oft-repeated phrase around these parts over the past week. The rains are certainly needed but when they all come at once and you live on a dirt road (now mud) on which even a four-wheel drive truck gets stuck then it gets a bit old. Surely we’ve had enough for now and we need to dry out for a few days. “Everything in moderation” is my long-held belief – well almost everything…
But now it’s time to stop complaining and to introduce this week’s Turkey Vulture Quiz…
1. At the 35 mile-marker on Hwy 128 (between Yorkville and Boonville) there has been a ‘Rough Road’ sign for what must be approaching two decades now. Locals have even given the spot a name. What is that name?
2. She has lived her all her life; there is a road in Philo with her family name; she is a regular contributor to the A.V.A. Who am I referring to – first and last name please?
3. For what film did Valley resident and Film Festival Award Presenter, Carroll Pratt, win an Oscar for Sound?
a) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers b) Carousel c) Oklahoma
Up next it’s the Quote of the Week…”If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead” – this came from the King of Late Night television, Johnnie Carson…
With all this wet weather I have been up here at The Nest more often than usual and with a little extra time on my hands I actually decided to watch some television programs on the regular television network channels that I would not normally see. Those TITs (Television Is Trash believers) amongst you should feel somewhat vindicated. What a load of crap! And the commercials are even more diabolical. I stand by my previous comments that there is some excellent stuff available on television for the discerning viewer but it’s almost exclusively on the premium pay-channels, such as H.B.O., whilst the regular channels seem determined to blatantly “insult” the viewer’s intelligence in his or her own living room…
Last weekend witnessed a very special and unique scene in The Valley in the form of the what was certainly a very entertaining, interesting, and informative 2nd Annual Film Festival…Apart from the eclectic collection of excellent films on view there was also the surprise appearance, and two-song performance, of harmonica wizard and guitar maestro, the blues great, Charlie Musselwhite… We talked and I can now claim to have shaken the hand of a man who shook the hand of Elvis…Oh, and another highlight for me was the scene in the locally made “Los Hilos de La Vida” (about the Quilt-making class for Mexican women in The Valley) that showed footage from the show at which the art work was displayed in public. Of particular interest to me was that whilst most people walked around admiring the beautiful and poignant quilts, one local “Hungry Horace” could be seen devouring the food on offer with both hands - a man after my own heart! Could this have been the originator of the phrase, “I don’t know art but I know what I like”?...
Coming up this week it’s another ‘Big Weekend in The Valley’ with the Crab Feed on Saturday night followed by the Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon. I’m sure The Feed will sell out (if it hasn’t already) and the event will get underway with the social hour at 5.30pm or so – the proceeds for this will benefit the St Elizabeth Seton Church. Many, many local people from all walks of life in The Valley will be in attendance at this “Mother of all Feeds”, choosing to go to this event rather than the 20th Anniversary Party for the Anderson Valley Brewery. I wonder why?
The Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon will no doubt be one of the biggest watched events of the year in this country and I have a feeling it might be much closer than the odds-makers think. The New England Patriots are favored by 12 points over the N.Y. Giants. A few weeks ago, the teams met in the regular season and the Patriots narrowly won 38-35 in what was probably the season’s most entertaining game. So the Giants almost beat the Patriots once this season and I’m saying they can almost beat the Patriots again. Ha! Ha! Ha!... Patriots 33 Giants 27…
That’s all for now…See you at The Crab Feed – I’ll be the one making a really awful mess…Oh, and just to get a third Elvis reference into this week’s column, may I offer you my personal favorite quote by the man from his army days, “After a hard day of basic training, you could eat a rattlesnake”…Tell me about it, Elvis!...
Be careful out there, stay out of the ditches, think good thoughts, and may your god go with you…Let us prey…Humbly yours, Turkey Vulture…
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Quiz Answers…
1. Numerous locals call that section of the road, “Smoot’s Sink”, after the Caltran employee who worked on it for so many years, Wes Smoot…
2. Charmian Blattner – a true doyen of the Valley’s old families if ever there was one…
3. Carroll won his Oscar, shared with others, for the sound work done on the classic musical, “Oklahoma!” (1955)…