Baghdad by the Bay

I've ridden subways (and trains and streetcars, depending) in DC and LA, Chicago and Boston, London, Paris, Berlin, Kyoto, and Tokyo.

BART sucks. Sure, the venerable "T" is more visibly (and audibly!) decrepit. Parts of those tunnels could have inspired H.P. Lovecraft. LA's system is indifferently labeled, Paris is confusing, Tokyo wins for crowds (I've been in Tokyo Station at 5:00 PM on a weekday. Epic.) And Berlin's splice of three or four different entities is simply baroque.

But BART is just poorly maintained, poorly managed, and serves most of the Bay Area poorly. It is a sad excuse of a star for the metro system of a major metropolis.

***

The new improved "one-pot jollof" recipe:

Basmati rice (rinsed)

Muir Glen petite diced tomatoes

Contadina tomato sauce

Olive oil

just a little bit of water

Los Roast New Mexico green chiles (hot)

Savory Choice beef broth concentrate

Beef bullion

ground black pepper, garlic salt, parsley, thyme

Combine in rice cooker, stir occasionally, add water only if necessary.

***

Had second thoughts on my itinerary and went back to change a flight date. I am not fond of how Expedia handles multi-part trips now. It keeps defaulting back to trying to put your hotels for the length of the stay at the first place you stop at, and also having you fly out of the same city you flew into. Took a bit of work, some time on chat, and two different browsers.

And as it turned out, it hadn't captured my second hotel reservation at all. So I got that all straightened out and it is going to be a busier, shorter, but alas slightly more expensive trip. I went for a half-decent hotel for Alamogordo. I don't really need to do research in order to capture the kind of scummy Motel 6 accommodations they put archaeological field techs up in. 

This is my first non-work-related flight in almost six years. I'm not going to make it just another kind of work. I'm going to take some me time.

***

Partial bibliography for The Early Fox:

The Mound Builder Myth, Jason Colavito. A book on the history of an old and very racist conspiracy theory and why it fit in so well with Manifest Destiny and was quoted by bloody bloody Andrew Jackson.

Tewa Worlds, Samuel Duwe. An archaeological history of some of the Pueblo peoples of the American southwest.

Restricted Data, Alex Wellerstein. The history of nuclear secrecy, from the birth during the days when an atomic bomb was first contemplated by leading physicists, to the present day.

The Garnsey Spring Campsite, William J. Parry and John D. Speth. A technical report of a late prehistoric site in southeastern New Mexico.

The First Americans, J.M. Adovasio with Jake Page. A paleontological and archaeological investigation with an emphasis on indigenous voices.

Indigenizing Archaeology, ed. Emily C. Van Alst and Carlton Shield Chief Gover. A collection of essays.

Nuclear Neuvo Mexico, Myrriah Gomez. A wonderfully angry book on nuclear colonialism by a native neuvomexicana. 

Range Wars, Ryan H. Edginton. Basically, a history of the fight over who controls the land of White Sands, with a focus on environmental impact.

Downwind, Sarah Alizabeth Fox. The impact of uranium mining, processing, and the storage of nuclear waste on the peoples of the southwest, with a focus on oral histories.

Defusing Armageddon, Jeffrey T. Richelson. A history of NEST, largely in the form of stories and anecdotes.

I haven't read all of them. I don't even intend to purchase all of them. But these are the books that made it at least as far as sample chapter downloads to my (sigh) Kindle.