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zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 19, 2016 - 02:00pm PT
If you try to read this, better click to enlarge
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2016 - 02:15pm PT
This is "Hemi."

Tom Mann was from Chi-town and worked in North Face's old Telegraph Avenue shop with me in the early seventies. He later became one of the company's stalwarts in the design department, I think. After his involvement with TNF he went to work for Mark Ericson, who ran that department and began his own company later on.

I lost touch with the guy and just now found that he passed in April of 2010.

I just thought I'd mention him because he was such a cool guy. Especially, I'd like to recall his sparkling glove-work at first base on our softball team, his heavy batting average, and his love of the congas, which he played with flair. He was big on Baba Olatunji. He rode a red Moto Guzzi. His black hair was done in a large Afro.

He was no rock climber, but liked cross-country skiing. He climbed Mt. Shasta in August 1974 with myself and Tom Applegate and Brian Lord on a Saturday-Sunday trip up there from Berkeley. The two Toms made the actual summit, while the two Brians never made it beyond the summit plateau.

My best to you on your journey among the stars, Hemi!

Baba Olatunji & his Drums of Passion - Ajaja (at a 1968 Dead concert)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51O2ymTtsR8
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 19, 2016 - 02:48pm PT
Thick rims, I hear that, but what are you trying to say?

Photo credits (all) Gerry Mathers or S. Clay Wilson

mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2016 - 03:05pm PT
Could you type a little louder, please?I don't know, really, what I'm trying to say.

Just kinda goin' with the flow here.

http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/widex_hearing_aids_talked_about
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2016 - 03:20pm PT
Four of the sexiest men on the planet.

On a shopping spree at REI Fresno.

They had no down-filled hearing aids...all brands were still back-ordered.

But I think it was pretty obvious that they were lying about that.

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 19, 2016 - 03:28pm PT
** back , glad da good should grace these pages lest a type of flame I'm not be inferred
by lack of trim,

I'm only now a loud allowed to share and it was a hard one to get it here ( too )





Is it?
Chele, then?( that is an amazingly well Preseved Gram! )
C & zB make a very good looking couple! yeah it is sincere .

That is an awesome group shoot,


It put that frown upside down
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 19, 2016 - 07:23pm PT
The one above is worth clicking to enlarge. Why it doesn't work here is beyond me.

Anybody have a phone number for the NYC cop? I'm wondering if Neil ever does Hung Upside Down when he plays in New York.





[Click to View YouTube Video]

zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 19, 2016 - 07:39pm PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]
[Click to View YouTube Video]

I'm leaning toward an MC and trailer.



or perhaps a micro-gypsy wagon



Only problem I've ever had with these fully dressed out bikes is how to haul the crane you need to stand 'em back up if they tip over.
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 19, 2016 - 08:02pm PT
Greeves an suits

zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 19, 2016 - 08:46pm PT


[Click to View YouTube Video]
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2016 - 12:17am PT

Look what's happening to me,
I'm going blind, please help.
There I sat until three,
gettin' further behind myself.
By myself.

And I'm hung upside down. [x2]
Hung upside down, said I'm
hung upside down, c'mon, c'mon.
Hung upside down.

Someday it will be free,
and there'll be times, you just wait.
This will come to haunt me, see,
what I'll bring you when I'm distrait,
Oh it's too late.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2016 - 12:28am PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]


mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2016 - 01:03am PT
woebegone: adj. / sad or miserable in appearance.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2014/07/05/

[Click to View YouTube Video]
"We want to be talked to."

"Oh, Dwain, honey, you give up on things so fast."

"...and that's the news from Lake Wobegon."

http://www.worldslargestpile.org

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 20, 2016 - 01:08am PT
I really can't remember when it was 81 or 86 seems more likely the later with BIG Al and his girl Katie Wilkerson. ( I also flashed Silent Scream,----)
. I was tagging along in typical Gnome fashion. The locals had been having fun trying to see if I'd cheese grater or crater - Go cartwheeling off the end of the traverse.
I did neither, linked the last 2 pitches. Then went on & led Solid Gold the same day.

I was a floor resident at Gordos for two weeks? I can't be sure. But the locals will know.
Scott Cosgrove was there at Gordos. I think part of the time?
I remember meeting Scott and trying to get him to share a rope.
He declined day in and day out eventually soloing my objective
in front of me, -the Right Ski Track-


 Both , Figures . . . . & Solid Gold. . . Some real estate
A proud day to be sure.


My old Gnome memory....not that I was blessed with a good memory chip anyway, and buds
did not help the cause.....
The things I remember Most were that the locals still were not impressed or maybe they were. It was at a time when in the the Olympics were in LA? ( now I'm not sure of year again, '84?)
I fancied my self a barer of the vulgarian torch from the Gunks.
I wanted to name a climb The Ole' Limp Prick Rings.
At the time Big Al an' Gordo knew politics And Randy Vogel.
I don't think Randy smoked or liked off-color names, Todd told me that. So we had come up with a name - politically correct, and relevant to the news of the day.
It was when then Pres Ronny Ray Gunn, had started to call his line item veto power
 Pocket Veto - -https://www.mountainproject.com/v/pocket-veto/105859263
That is how the name was picked Gordo And Big Al and I named it.
but I led the FA of that Rigg - without the bolt, we had agreed,I think, Gordo went back & added it ?
I was glad the bolt was there the next time, (the next year? ) that I did it.
It was solid 5.10 & very R/X on the FA, without the bolt.

The things I can rember was that Cossgroves spelling was weak on his 3X5 cards, where we recorded FA's for Todd to pass to Randy . I can't remember if I met Vogel?
If we met it was when he came over to the Gordo Ranch to pick up the 3x5 cards with the harvest of new routes on them, is this ringing any bells?


seemz it says that the the year was 1988,,,,?

But that was most likely the RETRO-BOLTING date.... !?


3:51am
I've just added my real name or the way to find it to this taco stand, seeing that shot from the (76? 'Latesest 1980?)of one them ...of the blond Cali Boyz -them flamez -, and that it is Kev, the Warbler
I'm going to Wade Icey into this again.
I'm not sure of the year, but the story goes, . . . I was trying to climb the Free blast, it must have been May, June would have been to hot for it. I had a sweet enough Betty, she was solid on the belay . Something I was known to go without back in the day. From Colorado to Oregon and all over California , the favorite phase - You're Gonna Die- was said to my face.
So I'm up on the route, leading pitch 4 or 5 and the wench is in full view on a good ledge. Some Golden Boys, them Adonisis, saw The T&A and made a bee line for the ledge. When they got there they turned that girls head.
She went all "wow it is you guys so rad", when they asked about who was on the sharp
end, she said "some guy from back east , a small guy but a beast" or whatever she said.
Whoever it was they schmoozed and used the starry eyed lass's awestruck hornyness to use up my weed water and TP. As I got the pitch finished it was late. I returned to the ledge to hear that story - I wish that the names had meant more to me .... I was just pissed off at the dirty pool to have drunk all the water and left stinky poo. No toilet paper was left more than half the sack 'moked, ....
She had the look like she had seen ( at least )famous blond one eyed Johnsons..... We went to the ground ...
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 20, 2016 - 02:48am PT

quote | flag Owen David,

Now that I have read all of this thread ...

Up thread you said:
Shame the FA is too afraid to touch this...pretty much says it all.

I would never hide from someone such as yourself.

You should have contacted me privately and asked me to join in here, as was suggested by Rob T, very early in this discussion.
It's silly to assume I have any idea whatsoever what you guys talk about here on Mountain Project.

I am permanently injured and all of my written communication must happen through voice activated software. I don't even frequent Super Topo very much anymore.

You ran down at least two people who posted up thread, for being me.
I don't sneak around and I don't troll.

Before I continue, I feel it's only fair I point these things out. Roy Mc
From Nederland, CO
Joined Dec 26, 2010
1 points
Roy Mc
5 hours ago
quote | flag WALL OF TEXT ALERT!!!
Popcorn or maybe a long nap highly recommended.

It should now be well established that Negro Girls never existed as a route name for the route to the right of Walk on the Wild Side, as far as the route's author is concerned. The author of the route, Kurt Smith, doesn't know anything about that name. The route is called "Us and Them". A Pink Floyd reference.


In response to Mr. David's follow-up questions:


For starters, none of my FA's are in the purple 1986 Randy Vogel Joshua Tree guide and it's the only one I own. I have never investigated subsequent guides to see how my JT FA's are listed. Randy Vogel has assured me he has all of my routes, but I have never done any follow-up. Most of my first ascents are obscure grain piles, so it's of marginal interest to me. (A Movable Feast on Hemingway Buttress is good, do that one. So is Automatic Tiger, a route I did with Walt Shipley).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


LIMP WRISTED FAGGOT

I am the Limp Wristed Faggot. As Mr. Lawry intuited, the chosen name was an expression of self-deprecation. Granted, that's not very enlightened, as it is essentially still homophobic in its derivation. Teenage boys in the 70s routinely bantered this way. We were all homophobes, even if we didn't actually judge homosexuals themselves. At age 24, when I did the route, I was just beginning to come out of this. It's just how we talked and acted. We were silly, ridiculous, and yes, often hurtful. Counterculture angst and all of that fun stuff.

In spring of 1984 when I did the route, I was coming off of a frostbite injury to my fingers and it was a route I thought I should have been able to flash, on-sight. I couldn't, I wound up top roping it. I was very angry that I had let myself get injured so fundamentally as a climber and so early in life, pursuing what was to be, and would become, my life's work. Corny, but true.

I completed the original top rope of LWF with Michael Paul. He said, "Whoa, Limp Wristed Faggot ... That's an edgy route name. There's a double entendre to it though, Roy. The Britts call cigarettes fags. You were so pumped (limp wristed) you couldn't even hold a cigarette (faggot)." For the record, it was the weight of a joint which bent my wrist back, not a cigarette. I know children might be reading this, too bad.

So Mike Paul liked the name, because he knew people who are prone to making hasty judgments might jump to conclusions about some homophobic derivation, (which it was initially), but that if they were a bit more worldly, they might understand the connection to British cigarette slang. To Mike, the name was a trap for presumptuous types. We were all about being well-traveled, so that was his approach to it.

Did I really think that would hold water? No.

Mike Lechlinski actually got the first lead. He didn't care about the route name and didn't think it should be reconsidered. You would have been appalled to listen to the gnarly tone and tenor of our average chiding with one another BITD. Seriously, we were total brats. Irreverence was part of what we were all about. There was no Internet. Climbing was nothing like it is now. It was not even close to becoming mainstream. Yes, context is everything.

In fact, and here's the good part, Randy Vogel, at the time of the FA, 1984, told me he thought I would regret the name LWF. He actually changed the name to Thin Line. Thin Line! How boring is that we all thought? Whatever. I figured Vogel was probably doing me a favor so I just let Thin Line stand. It wasn't until very recently that Randy told me he regretted censoring me, and that he had restored the route name to its original state.

In the modern context, I knew this might be trouble, but I didn't think about it until this dustup about Negro Girls got brought to my attention (yesterday). I knew Limp Wristed Faggot would become the caboose on this train.

How's all of that for irony?

Not long after I named that route, a young woman whom I respected very much, said to me "You should be careful how you talk about homosexuals, Roy. You never know who might be one." Being that I actually never had any problem with homosexuality, and that I strive to be sincere in all my dealings with people, I really got what she was saying, and I grew up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


COLORED GIRLS

As for Colored Girls, I just don't see that as bad, in any context. I grew up in the 1970s. Few from my generation would see that as lacking context, specifically I'm talking about Lou Reed's song.

I did do a first ascent of a route named Colored Girls, in the Real Hidden Valley, with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Saturday, March 11, 1989. I have no idea whether or not it made it into a guidebook, or that we stayed with that name. A quick search on this website brought nothing for Colored Girls. My notes only list the route name, partner, and date. Details come from memory.

"And the color girls go..." was a prominent phrase in the cultural/musical lexicon of the times. It was playful and it's still sweet when you hear it. My partner, a guided client, suggested the name Colored Girls. Of course we knew the reference to Lou Reed but even that wasn't so important. The name selection was predicated upon whimsy, and nothing else.

To my mind, Kurt Smith's route, "Us and Them" vs. "Colored Girls" is uninspiring. It was never named Negro Girls, as far as Kurt Smith and I know. That just sounds clunky and coarse. We can only guess that was Woody Stark, and who knows where he got it from. To my mind, a hypothetical route adjacent to Walk on the Wild Side absolutely ought to be named "Colored Girls". Totally apropos. But as far as I know, I already have a route named Colored Girls.

Again, I don't even know if I can find the actual Colored Girls route. I thought it was on The Wart, in the Real Hidden Valley. I looked at pictures of that formation and I'm not so sure anymore.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Initially, a route name is nothing more than a bauble you roll around in your palm for consideration. It's not even the climb. It's a cultural artifact. Where that name selection eventually settles can be something almost completely arbitrary.

We 1970s/1980s climbers were an irreverent bunch, sorry about that. Thanks for your concern!

But, Thin Line? Personally, I find that so bland as to be offensive. Ha ha.

Now, with this thread, we have a whole new context from which to glean a more socially acceptable moniker for Limp Wristed Faggot.

How about we call it: The Inquisition?



Happy Sailing All,
Roy McClenahan
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 20, 2016 - 07:17am PT
The technical name is V Bar. You too can do it by removing the spaces.

V & # 772;



How about zB Bar - sure why not.

z̄B̄

mfm Bar?

m̄f̄m̄
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 20, 2016 - 07:43am PT
Thick rims, pffffft, sure we got 'em - no Apache would be caught dead (though many were) with a set.

Apaches (RIP

[Click to View YouTube Video]

Take two (used to be that the first one is free, now the world is upside dwon)

[Click to View YouTube Video]

World Gone Wrong

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 20, 2016 - 08:28am PT
Blinders on .... Jeb be out....By day light I may remove this wanton political drivel

........by dy bush family ...


After Grand pappy -
then the evil one - who continues to draw breath
(Remember how Cheeny was going to find a running mate,
Rum$ellout )

?

what the 70s didn't teach us that the point of the spear of the military industrial complex was named Bush ?

Approved shipments of ca$h, stolen en- mass, then the puppets were told to ante-up
Tried to set it up again !Spent how much?
Over saw the looting of the world,
As far as the whole Bin laden affair, a friend of the family - could find him !

Flew the bin'lying family out while the towers were still burning?

September 11 ? We just got lucky it was not
Nu clear...

Shamelessly putting " Ground Zero, into the common lexicon , shameless
Not blameless ...


must have had at least a hand shake deal with the Sheiks, could not find him ?
Stopped looking? Never tried is more like it

We won't be so lucky the next bush more toxic waste will show up.

Gas Cash or Grab azz no one but But brother Neil ....got off scott-free

a billion dollars later, the family puppets told to get the jebb$ter, elected,
So they Anti up to try to steal more $$ - by spending how much?











**It really is a good one Thanks Sierra Ledge Rat
[Click to View YouTube Video]


I watched an hour long tv show on making "urban" skiing videos
then the 4-5 best were given proffesional Polish and offered for judging .

Trashing expensive stix and dropping off parking garages 5 stories high onto built up ramps
Crazy cool mid-night to sunrise filming not only on college campuses some municipal town hall plazas and such....
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Feb 20, 2016 - 08:32am PT

Great video...

mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2016 - 09:57am PT
Aw, fer gosh sakes, not more tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be fed?!?!

Really, Blarney? Gnawmean?

[Click to View YouTube Video]

So you want some more? You got it.[Click to View YouTube Video]I'd sell my soul for you, babe.

Merry Braun's brother is Billy's bass player, didja know?

Why stop?[Click to View YouTube Video]It's a nice day to start, again.
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