The Flames.

At the same time, there was a fellow by the name of Wilf Carter who had already been established, probably a year or so ahead of me. Everybody said, “You sound like Montana Slim” (aka Wilf Carter). I said, “Who in the world is that?’ I hadn’t heard of him because we didn’t have a radio at that time. The neighbors had a radio and they told me about it. I found out when he was on -- in the morning around 9:00. After that, whatever I was doing, cutting wood for the family, or haying, or whatever, I would quit at that time and go listen to Montana Slim because everything he sang was exactly my idea of what the cowboy singer should be like. If there is such a thing as great, he was the greatest of all. He learned a lot about cowboy life and that’s where a lot of his songs were born, going on to write some of the finest of the cowboy songs.

He then worked on a farm, in a potash mine and as an apprentice stonemason before studying sculpture in Duesseldorf and West Berlin. He began writing poems and plays in the early 1950s, worked as a journalist, played in a jazz band and illustrated some of his own books.

Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that’s hard for a puritan to understand.
―From a New Statesman and Society interview, 1990

I never had sexual relations with that woman [la Catalina], she had sexual relations with me

“Accident, my eye! I have an enemy nearby. A woman. “La Catalina!” She pushed me during a moment of weakness and I fell.”
“Why did she do that?”
“She wanted to kill me, that’s why.”
“Was she here with you?”
“Yes!”
“Why did you let her in?”
“I didn’t. She flew in.”
“I beg your pardon!”
“She is a blackbird [chanate]. And so effective at that. I was caught by surprise. She has been trying to finish me off for a long while. This time she got real close.”
“Did you say she is a blackbird? I mean, is she a bird?”
“There you go again with your questions. She is a blackbird! The same way I’m a crow. Am I a man or a bird? I’m a man who knows how to become a bird. But going back to “la Catalina”, she is a fiendish witch! Her intent to kill me is so strong that I can hardly fight her off. The blackbird came all the way into my house and I couldn’t stop it.”
“Can you become a bird, don Juan?”
“Yes! But that’s something we’ll take up later.”
“Why does she want to kill you?”
“Oh, there’s an old problem between us. It got out of hand and now it looks as if I will have to finish her off before she finishes me.”
“Are you going to use witchcraft?” I asked with great expectations.
“Don’t be silly. No witchcraft would ever work on her. I have other plans! I’ll tell you about them some day.”
“Can your ally protect you from her?”
“No! The little smoke only tells me what to do. Then I must protect myself.”
“How about Mescalito? Can he protect you from her?”
“No! Mescalito is a teacher, not a power to be used for personal reasons.”
“How about the devil’s weed?”
“I’ve already said that I must protect myself, following the directions of my ally the smoke. And as far as I know, the smoke can do anything. If you want to know about any point in question, the smoke will tell you. And it will give you not only knowledge, but also the means to proceed. It’s the most marvellous ally a man could have.”

Most of the land was given to the town by Walter Hubbard, president of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company. In his donation, the land was given outright, with the stipulation that everything connected with the park was to remain free of charge for the people of Meriden, and that no concessions for profit were ever allowed within the park area.
Hubbard spent a great deal of time and energy creating the park. He personally spent between $400,000 and $500,000 to clear land, build roads, and construct Mirror Lake with the help of Frederick Law Olmsted, who is best known for designing New York’s Central Park.

Today, Hubbard Park is a popular outdoor recreation destination. The park is crossed by a number of hiking trails, most notably the 51-mile blue-blazed Metacomet Trail, which traverses East Peak and West peak the park. Trails are open to hiking, backcountry skiing; roads are open to bicycling and mountain biking. Swimming and rock climbing are prohibited.

Mouse Studios created many designs for the Grateful Dead. According to Wikipedia, Mouse Studios was created in 1959 by Mouse and his family as a mail order company. By the mid 60's its lead artists were Stanley "Mouse" Miller and Alton Kelly, whose creations were often credited to "Mouse & Kelly." According to Stanley Mouse, "Toon" was the nickname for Martin Gorak, an artist/magician from Detroit (a.k.a. "Martoon Master of the Mystic Poobah." "T" or "Tree" was Robert Tree. Mouse's recollection, is that during the creation of this particular cover, Kelly was in Boston."

Afterwards, we went to Chula Vista for tacos at Tacos el Gordo. There are only two Tacos el Gordo locations. One is in Chula Vista and one is in Tijuana. It’s supposed to be authentic Mexican style tacos. They were pretty good tacos. We tried tacos de cabeza (head meat), tacos de buche (stomach), and tacos de adobada (spiced beef and pork). Amy tried tacos de lengua (tongue). It was all quite yummy. Tacos de cabeza sounds weird but it tasted like the meat from the bones used for making pho soup. Tacos de buche was good and had a different texture but it was a bit too salty for me. All of us girls liked the tacos de adobada the best because it was was flavored with spices and had a slightly crispy texture. The tacos de adobada meat was cut from a rotisserie that looked like the ones they use for gyros. They had a half of a pineapple on the top of the rotisserie, maybe for flavor.