They Would Be Giants

I have a few more stories of Edinburgh to catch up on, but a story came out of this weekend's visit to Missoula, Montana, to see my wee bairns.

Saturday was a cool, fresh day, with a touch of rain, reminding me of the wonderful walking weather in England. My daughter, Jennifer, lassie Isabella and I made our usual trip to the Missoula Farmer's Market, truly a "feast" for the eyes as well as later for the bellies.

Beautiful red onions...


White onions...


Cauliflowers and cabbages the size of basketballs...


And a "now thar's a beet" beet...



I had noted a large number of Hmong (pronounced Mong) farmers on the last trip to the market in June -- they had delicious truffles picked from the forest. This time I asked Jennie on the way back to the car about the Hmong in Missoula -- seemed to be an unusual place to relocate.

"It must have been because of the weather", Jennie said.

"I don't think so", I responded. Missoula has two seasons -- winter and July -- and people from tropical jungle wouldn't be particularly drawn to the weather. Must be something else, I said to myself.

Soon after arriving home today, I sat down at the Internet to check out my suspicions, and found the connection to, what else, Missoula's famous Smoke Jumpers, those guys who jump out of airplanes into a forest fire. Now, if I were going to locate a place in the country where you could find guys willing to do this kind of thing, it would be Montana.

About 200 Hmong live in Missoula, most making a living by farming as they did in Laos. The guy responsible was Jerry Daniels, a Missoula smokejumper who went on to spend nearly ten years in combat with the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese and the CIA's connection to the leader of the Hmong tribal army in Laos. A larger than life kind of guy.

An amazing story behind giant beets, cabbages and cauliflowers.

A Tail of Two Cities

Late in the afternoon on our first day in Edinburgh we trudged up Candlemaker Row in the drizzle looking for the statue of a famous little dog and the churchyard where he and his master are buried. His master - some say he was a local farmer, some a policeman - died in 1858, two years after he acquired Bobby, a Skye terrier. Bobby stayed on his master’s grave until he died 14 years later, leaving only to get lunch about one o’clock at a nearby pub, then called Traills Coffee House, now Greyfriar’s Bobby Inn.


Famous even in his time, he was buried in the Greyfriar’s churchyard and a Baroness erected a fountain and statue in front of the tavern a year after his death. His is the most photographed statue in Scotland.

Greyfriars Kirk, Bobby's grave just inside the entrance

What is it about Bobby’s story that makes visitors like Joan and Patty and myself endure the elements and jet lag to search out this little guy’s statue? Is this kind of faithfulness and loyalty missing from our lives today?

In 1886, soon after Bobby, San Diego had its own dog story. Bum, a St. Bernard - spaniel mix (that must have been some union!) stowed onto a steamer from San Francisco and got off in San Diego to become a fixture in the Gaslamp area of town for the next 12 years. He hung around downtown restaurants and bars where, unfortunately, patrons fed him alcohol and he had to go through detox. He hitched rides on streetcars and lost a front leg on a train track. Famous also in his time, he rode the fire engines, participated in town parades, and his picture was put on dog licenses.


Bum was a vagabond loyal to a town. Quite a contrast, but both dogs are immortalized with their statues in a little park at 4th and Island in the Gaslamp.


San Diego’s sister city, Edinburgh, brought over a statue of Bobby in 1998



and last month a delegation from San Diego traveled to Edinburgh to place a statue of Bum in Prince Street Gardens, just down the hill from Bobby.

Why all the fuss about these two? What is it about these two guys that makes them heroes?

Jorge Drexler: Dos Besos y Un Abrzo (Two Kisses and a Hug)

How often do we get to reach out and touch one of our heroes? Jorge Drexler, an Uruguayan (OK now, how many of you know where Uruguay is located in South America?) singer-musician-poetic songwriter played this week at an intimate venue in San Diego on his tour of Europe, the US, and South America, already receiving glowing reviews in the LA Times and NY Times among others. I counted myself lucky to be there to hear his unique and beautiful music. Even more lucky to meet and talk with him after the show where he greeted every woman with two kisses and bid goodbye with a hug.

Well known in Europe and Latin America, Jorge is just catching on in the United States after winning an Academy Award two years ago for the best original song, the first Oscar to go to a Spanish language song, Al Otro Lado del Rio (To the Other Side of the River) from Motorcycle Diaries. More on that story later.

His current tour coincides with the release of his most recent album, 12 Segundos de Oscuridad (12 Seconds of Darkness) - already a best seller in Europe - whose title song was inspired by a lighthouse in a small town on Uruguay’s Cape Polonio where he had retreated to escape the demands of post-Oscar success and the break-up of his marriage. 12 Seconds refers to the darkness between beams of light needed for sailors to navigate, and in our lives the need to have darkness between light, to have patience rather than attempt to escape uncertainty, doubt and restlessness as we look for our path.


For our evening, Jorge sang accompanied only by his guitar and yes, believe it or not, his laptop computer. Amazing what these techno-pop artists can do. He talked with the crowd between songs explaining, for example, the meaning behind Hermana Duda (Sister Doubt), that doubt can be better than self-confidence as it leaves the mind more open.

Midway through the evening he set down his guitar and explained his next song would be a capella, that one evening about two years ago and one and a half hours north of San Diego he sang this song a capella - no mention that this was the Oscars night - and, finding he liked the song better this way, he has sung it only a capella since.

The song was Al Otro Lado del Rio, the Academy Award winner, and we all knew the story behind the a capella. Although acclaimed in Europe and South America, Jorge Drexler was an unknown in the US when the song, composed and sung in the movie by Drexler, was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. With Drexler an unknown, Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana were asked to perform Al Otro Lado del Rio amid protest and petitions from the Latin music industry. Gael Garcia Bernal, who played young Che Guavara in the movie, stayed away from the ceremonies in protest. Jorge handled the snub with graciousness, but when his name was called as the Oscar winner he used his ninety seconds to sing verses of the song a capella. Continuing to sing this song, his most famous, a capella has been his protest.




With men such as Jorge Drexler in the world, I think I could change my Men Like War thought to Most Men Like War.













Videos of four songs from the most recent albums, Eco and 12 Segundos de Oscuridad, can be watched at his official web site