(no subject)

(from http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2700.html)

A few weeks ago a read an article in a newspaper travel section about the "10 Scariest Travel Experiences in the World". The list included such fun things as:

* Finding yourself in a bad neighbourhood of Bogota, Colombia.
* Travelling through war zones in various parts of central Africa.
* Taking a bus down the "Death Road" in the Bolivian Andes - a road so insanely narrow, precipitous, and dangerous that hundreds of travellers along it plummet to their deaths every year.

Number 3 on the list, the third scariest experience you can have when travelling anywhere in the world, was going through US Customs.

I don't know what it's like for US citizens returning home, but I can tell you from personal experience that for visiting foreigners, getting off a plane in Los Angeles and being confronted with those Customs officers is truly, deeply scary. Even if you're not doing anything wrong at all, it's still enough to scare the socks off most people.

O.o

As a US citizen returning home, it's no big deal. Not only do you get the short line they have for citizens and permanent residents, but I've never gotten more than "*looks at passport* Where were you? For how long? Anything to declare? OK, welcome home *stamps customs form*". (The fact that I am a white female who speaks perfect English with an obvious born-American accent may, sadly, have something to do with this.) But then there's also the grilling the guys at Port Huron gave poor enotsola back in 2006 when we were driving me back to California. They seemed to think I was illegally importing him (despite that he had a return plane ticket to Canada) and really gave him a hard time - or so he tells me, since I wasn't allowed to be in the room. FWIW I've never been terribly scared by the Canadian customs officials, just the usual level of nervousness you get from "this person has the power to totally ruin my day with a few words". Even the one time someone decided they didn't like my face and they wanted to send me off to the other room for further questions, I was more worried about missing my connecting flight than anything else.

(no subject)

But Grant, O Venus

Though love had dreamt of soft eternities
For never-flagging pulses still to mete,
Those minutes of our bliss were few and fleet.
Breast-pillowed in their aftermath of ease,
She said to me at midnight: "Memories
Are all we have in the end." Ah, bitter-sweet
The doom that tolling bells of thought repeat—
This verity of solemn verities
Wherein the sorrowful senses find despair
And the heart an iridescence on dark tears....
But grant, O Venus of the hidden hill,
That many a rose-lit eve remain to share,
And midnights in the unascended years,
And starry memories unbegotten still.

(Clark Ashton Smith, 1971)

Backyard Seed Vault & BASIL

http://agrariana.org/programs/backyard-seed-vault

"We're looking for approximately 100 Bay Area gardeners for the inaugural season who would like to work as a community to save heirloom vegetable seed. ... The Backyard Seed Vault is working in conjunction with the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (BASIL), a project of the Ecology Center, for their immense knowledge on properly saving, labeling, cataloging, and storing seeds. Seeds not redistributed to participants will be donated to BASIL, providing an opportunity for any community member to 'check out' seed to grow in their gardens."

http://www.ecologycenter.org/basil/

"Local gardeners and farmers can 'check out' seeds with the agreement that they attempt to grow them out and 'return' some seeds of the next generation at the end of the season. If we can create a local abundance of fertile and non-engineered seed, we can participate in the International Solidarity Seed Project by donating our surplus to communities around the world that have difficulty accessing viable, open-pollinated seed."

(no subject)

Anyone ever taken a close look at the Trivial Pursuit card in the video for Weird Al's "White and Nerdy"?