Adventures in Onionism

I finally ran Angeles Crest 100. It's close, and it's been around for a long time, so it's a bit unclear why I hadn't run it before. Maybe because I don't like Southern California very much? More likely because several years ago they moved the date from late September to early August to try and beat fire season (and instead guarantee that it will be uncomfortably hot). Also, the race director has some very poor policies that clearly seem like they're designed to maximize profit--the race signup takes place the day after the previous year's race, with no refunds, no waitlist, and almost no experience requirement for signing up. All these lead to a very high (something like a one-third) do not start ratio, and a very high do not finish ratio as well. Do not starts=free money! To make matters worse, this year the race was kicked out of the Pleasant View Ridge wilderness. Part of Angeles National Forest was turned into wilderness in 2009. Commercial events suc...

A post from a while ago I never finished: Using parts of the school library I've never been to before, I watched the 2001 Sundance Best Documentary Audience Award winner, Scout's Honor , about people trying to get the Boy Scouts to change their discriminatory policies. It's not the greatest documentary I've ever seen in my life in a technical sense, but I strongly support the cause and it's worth watching. Film website . Scouting for All , the organization featured in the film. I also looked at a 1945 copy of Clinton C Clarke's book Pacific Crest Trailway from the Bancroft library. It had 12 loose prints of famous mountains along the trail, and eight maps of the trail, all on delicate tracing paper, hence the book's location in the fancy-pants no-circulation no-pens-allowed we-have-Mark-Twain's-private-letters Bancroft library . It was interesting to compare the original idea with the finished version. I'd say the original is very close to toda...