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Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 20, 2016 - 10:21am PT
More from ROY!!


NEGRO GIRLS a.k.a. US AND THEM

Negro Girls is not really my route. The FA belongs to Kurt Smith. In fact, I almost snaked his FA by soloing through him and passing him as he was bolting it up on lead. But I didn't complete that folly.

This was before Kurt Smith really had chops, so well before 1988. I'm pretty sure it was 1984. I started bouldering the route, even before Kurt had topped out on his FA. I was wearing a Walkman, listening to the B-52s, and smoking a joint as I climbed. I climbed next to his rope and passed up the first bolt. Then I went over a little overlap and went past the second bolt. Kenny Ariza , Kurt's belayer, wasn't very happy with me soloing a route they were still trying to complete.

Kurt was drilling the last bolt on the first pitch and I decided to just go on up and see how things were going for him. Obviously, I had plenty of confidence that Kurt wasn't going to fall and sweep me off the face. He wasn't so nonchalant!

As I came up to his drilling stance, un-roped and relaxed, Kurt pleaded that I not finish his route before he topped out. (Yes, I was being a brat). I finally realized my prank would've devastated him, so I waited for Kurt to finish his FA. I flipped over my tape while he pounded his last bolt, and then he completed the pitch, getting the FA. Understanding that humiliating a young climber by soloing around on his new FA before he finished it wasn't such a good idea, I actually had him throw me the rope and I tied in to finish the pitch from that last bolt.

I am surprised to hear I am credited with the FA. It should be Kurt Smith and Ken Ariza. I was just a fly in the ointment. Technically, it's true, I was involved, but in a weird, gray area, stupid sort of way. This is the first I've heard of "Negro Girls", to the right of Walk on the Wild Side.

As I see it, Negro Girls is a coarse and clunky play on outdated norms and a pop song. Sure, I could've made such a gaffe, but I don't remember being involved in naming the route. It was their route to name. They named it "Us and Them". Colored Girls would be more apropos for a route on that rock and would be more pleasing to me aesthetically. But I already have a Colored Girls route, as far as I know.

Berg Heil !
Roy Mc

'm not sure THIS NEEDS TO BE SAVED but
Hello Owen,

You and I have not actually had much discourse on the matter.
I thought you might appreciate my sentiments.

I do apologize for the way that you felt when you came across this LWF name, in "pristine wilderness" as you stated. This also extends to anyone so offended.

Of course I knew this route name could be hurtful, which is why Randy Vogel's original published name, Thin Line, is something I appreciated because it helped me escape the gaffe created by my impetuous insolence.

As I have just learned from Randy Vogel, I may have long ago greenlighted the LWF name for one of Al Bartlett's subsequent Joshua tree guides. I have never seen it. This is probably how it came back.

Guess what: I would have been much happier altogether if it had just stayed Thin Line.

Perhaps you saw that I stated this from the get-go. For reasons stated below, the transgression stands.

The entirety of what you see in bold also exists on the Thin Line a.k.a. LWF route page.
One only needs to click the link titled WITH UPDATES, to the right of the SUBMITTED BUY line.

On the route page, for brevity sake, the moderators have pasted an excerpt of this just below the route description.


"Limp Wristed Faggot" was the provisional name given to this route when it was first ascended, in 1984.

"Thin Line" was the name ascribed to the route when it was first published in the 1986 Joshua Tree Rockclimbing Guide, by Randy Vogel. It stayed that way for 20 years. I will deem this the primary name.

The provisional name, LWR, resurfaced on Mountain Project without my knowledge, in 2006. So the route lived with that name for 10 years, and it was predicated upon some historical basis. It also became revived in the guidebooks, something I became aware of only very recently.

There has been much controversy here on Mountain Project over the name LWR, to include on one hand, concerns of bigotry, accompanied by the call from some readers that the name be changed. This has been met and resisted vociferously by other readers due to concerns over censorship.

For this reason, (and because either name appears in different editions of the guidebook) it is my wish that both names be retained, with the primary name leading. Respectful of both sides of the controversy over the name, I suggest this route be published on Mountain Project as: "Thin Line a.k.a. Limp Wristed Faggot". I recommend not using any phrases such as "the route formally known as", because this will not be respectful of those who have concerns over censorship.

For those readers who wish to appreciate how such a route name originated, I have provided the narrative below.


the next excerpt is a redux....

THIN LINE a.k.a. LIMP WRISTED FAGGOT

I am the Limp Wristed Faggot. 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 23, 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, the time of the FA, 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 Brits call cigarettes fags. You were so pumped (limp wristed) you couldn't even hold a cigarette (faggot)." In fact, it was the weight of a joint which bent my wrist back, not a cigarette. I know children might be reading this, sorry about that.

So Mike Paul liked the name, because he knew those individuals 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, we all thought. 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.

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.

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.

I'm not big into route ownership. Once I top out on a trad route FA, I'm done with it. By comparison, I find the top-down FA experience equal to that of high school auto shop, so not bad, but I have no great emotional connection to such an experience.

A route begins and ends in the public trust. If those who become the custodians of this public trust choose to alter my route names, add or remove bolts to the rock, I say this is their prerogative. But they do so at the risk of fragmenting their own lineage.

Happy Climbing!
Roy McClenahan

2/22/2016

Thank you Owen for bringing this issue to my attention.
Thank you moderators for your patience throughout this discussion.

For anyone interested in the actual rock climb, I have posted pictures from the FA on the route page.
I am now moving on to other things. Roy Mc

The next post accidentally grabbed
From Nederland, CO
Joined Dec 26, 2010
24 points
Rob T
16 mins ago
quote | flag Well that settles that. Which route shall we fix next? Looks like there are 9 routes involving "Queer" in the name, perhaps one of those? Jump to another protected class?

Women? Daily Dick Dose? Pumped Full of Semen?

Addicts? I'm not going to bother digging up all the drug and alcohol references , but I'm sure you can find plenty in the database.

Get on it people, clearly no one else is willing to save the world.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2016 - 10:32am PT
JP Auclair's /street /segment is GREAT, Gnome.

Thanks, SLR.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
zBar, you've posted this interview before, or the part of it showing Gingerburger in the crowd, diggin' the poet.

( ^^^ ) There's more "diggin'" goin' down here than ever was dug by an army of immigrant starvin' Irish navvies pushin' the railroad over the mountains and across the great desert and creatin' PROGRESS and manifesting DESTINY so that tired, poor, huddled masses could occupy the barren wastes heretofore only used by wildfowl and mustangs.
--Malherd Badower


THE WILD ANGELS

We don't want nobody tellin' us what to do
We don't want nobody pushin' us around
We want to be free
We want to be free to do what we want to do
We want to be free to ride
We want to be free to ride our machines
without being hassled by the man
And
We want to get loaded
And
We want to have a good time
And
That's what we're gonna do
We're gonna have a good time
We're gonna have a party!!!!
--Peter Fonda

zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 20, 2016 - 02:59pm PT
that street segment has been on here before - now I'm trying to figure out where

first guess Brandon
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 21, 2016 - 03:08am PT
Moved up thread to emphasize the blinders of a world blind to poison oak & ivy




Uncle Jim
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 21, 2016 - 03:27am PT
Everyone that has not grease monkeyed us please pray
[Click to View YouTube Video] going on the longest stretch since being air dropped into a
Motel 6 for more than a year, that I've had no contact....


The Dream Charges Down the Hall

I'm not notified,as per the document

but not hearing ?
One can only hope.
Of course putting in black & white,

will most lixely jinx it,

and today ?

Will Getz . . . .a call

Sorry all,
to be cryptic... Thinly veiled .. .
The orphan's dream...
The charges dream down the hall
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Feb 21, 2016 - 07:31am PT
The Bird, the Bard, the Bob, the Mysterious Woman, and another Poem Gone All Wrong

Charlie Parker and Bill Shakespeare
Were drinking in a bar,
When in walked young Bob Dylan
With a beat up old guitar,
As he sat down on a bar stool
For a draft and two side cars,
And he saw there were two characters
Who were as out of place as Mars,
And inquired of them politely,
As if they were movie stars,
Who had passed into the ether,
And whose return was most bizarre,
"I believe that I remember you
From school days seminars,
And am curious that I've run into
Such two famous avatars,"

Charlie Parker only smiled
But Shakespeare replied,
"We be whom thee hast waited for,
Emissaries from the ether,
Thus to even up the score,"
Then Bob interrupted,
"Clearly you've appeared,
For a reconciliation,
But why stop for a beer?"
Charley Parker's smile got wider,
That the gist was up was clear,
Just then a car approached the bar,
A woman with her lipstick smeared,
On the passenger seat,
Was a loaded thirty eight,
There were tears on her cheeks,
And her eyes were full of hate,

Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!!
Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!!
Literary Alert!
This is an important message from the writer. Please return to your previous activities. Out of respect for the persons depicted in this poem I have decided to give it a rest. This poem has been suspended until further notice. The remainder of the writing will be substituted by poetry of a more placid and soothing nature.

It was springtime in Maine,
And the birds were all a 'chirping,
The muskrats and the Beavers,
Were all busily a 'working,
That's when Suzy and Will,
Walking home from school,
Passed by the old mill,
At the bottom of the hill...

(to be continued)
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2016 - 08:33am PT
Nothing to be done except more work.
And poetry is work, unless it's enjoyable.
Me, I get frustrated, so my stuff's more like jingles,
while Bushman polishes his:
and so they reflect his talent and dedication.

But even Pope and Lamb and the venerable Shakespeare suffered blockage.
James Ellroy, a novelist, not a poet, claims never to experience blockage.
That's just by way of an aside--his prose can read like a beat poem, however.

I am blocked by the need to find a rhyme for "etriers."
I've tried for days.
Still can't come up with one.
I'm offering a free vintage postcard for a rhyme to the word.
In case of a tie, each wins a card.

Here are the cards I've selected to use in this promotion.
You may choose one of them as your reward for helping out.

Uncancelled, virgin.

Cancelled, addressed to Bertha Johnson of Nehawka, NB.

Uncancelled, virgin.

Uncancelled, virgin, deckled edges.

Hang in there, Bushman.
Hope to see the next installment soon.

Meanwhile, here in Merced town, it's the Sunday of the Annual Old Merced Criterium.
Here's from last year's races.


I'll be taking a walk around the course later, but it's still foggy out, and chilly.

Enjoy your adventures today, gang.






zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 21, 2016 - 08:53am PT
Read the nooz, Get some diamonds on them riding shoooz
-Rhymin' Simon


The short hair is a give-a-way, but when I first encountered this one I thought it was that old football player and the Bronco-ettes. Got more drummers than the Grateful Dead.



[Click to View YouTube Video]


What rhyumes with tana nanana?
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Feb 21, 2016 - 09:08am PT
Pronounced like Bouvier or Galibier? Et-tree-ays...?
Or like arrears, tears, beers, austere, et three steers? Et-tree-ears...?
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 21, 2016 - 09:11am PT
ha and at the same moment and with the same smart , similart
a tree air, a re trey air,

aye can't care, for, A tree air, am a free climber and have all my hair

but since or so i get what ever the bushman leaves me

did you go back and see my rock that iS not there?



Off OFF THIS IS HOMEWORK TIME , YOR TIME PASSED WIY. the sun hasty has been up for hours mor' en' three, (tax), NO that shouda' read jax slap 4 pick up 4 ,

way tee a moment n more MOr' 'en more, I'm less and less...

and it is poem too she has to work

so im ota here
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2016 - 09:25am PT
First pronunciation.

A tree A (silent s)

A tree A
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 21, 2016 - 09:34am PT
I don't know about any of y'all, but mama (mamamamama) is no longer in the faktree.

Jamul or NorthEast Otay Cement Kiln. Six O One, 1/2 dozen O the other.




feralfae

Boulder climber
in the midst of a metaphysical mystery
Feb 21, 2016 - 10:17am PT
Mouse,
to mix languages, would not andale rhyme with etrier?

as in "andale! up the etrier!"

or do you want it to scan with the same accented syllable?

ff
hooblie

climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
Feb 21, 2016 - 10:55am PT
gran plie
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 21, 2016 - 10:56am PT
what rhymes with rhymes

Crimes and dimes.
Chimes and mimes.
Climbs, slimes, limes, primes

Thyme, time, I'm

DONE

Can someone convert these to roman numerals

2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 ...

How to you say ... in Latin?



{could probably fake it by et cetera}

Any Catholics in the audience?

Installed my new keyboard. Cloned my disc. I'm all backed up.

Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Feb 21, 2016 - 10:59am PT
Have a nice day
What can I say
Get outta my way

Wait....

Everyday

Etrier
Everyday
Unless you free
And walk away
Or take the whip
With rope to take
But not in time
So big pancake
feralfae

Boulder climber
in the midst of a metaphysical mystery
Feb 21, 2016 - 02:36pm PT
Just laughing and laughing here. Great posts,
What can I say?

:)

ff
zBrown

Ice climber
Feb 21, 2016 - 02:45pm PT
That freeway postcard had me confused and I used to live there. If you come down Highland (on the left hand side of the photo), you're going south and go right past Mulholland and the Hollywood bowl.

Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Feb 21, 2016 - 03:13pm PT
I think there's ivy growing up the sides of some brains here, and my old Pasadena Freeway synapses must be too narrow to process the cyberspace I'm trapped within. Could somebody please perform a modemectomy on my virtual robot mind and return me to the world of the living?

II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X...i give!
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2016 - 05:33pm PT
nugas mystici

si senionem c#m novenario
si metus eius et murum
poetae opus non esset, vitibus,
et infantem esse in citri fructus, viridis


mystical nonsense

if sixes were nines
and if aiders were rhymes
poets wouldn't need vines
they'd be sucking on limes

that's what the caption on the postcard said
[Click to View YouTube Video]
What does TAMI have to do with this?

[Click to View YouTube Video]

[Click to View YouTube Video]
ZBar, that's exactly what the caption on the postcard read: "Hollywood Bowl to the left."


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