who?
twenty-fifth september | ten thirty post meridiem
What's the hubbub, bub?
If you're ever unfortunate enough to find yourself in Albuquerque, I suggest you head straight for the Atomic Museum and never leave. It is AWESOME. Not Smithsonian-large, or anything, but it does everything a museum should do right: it includes a huge variety of exhibits relating to anything having to do with atomic energy, from a highly detailed history of the Manhattan Project to an extensive catalog of radioactive household items (toothpaste, dentures, salt substitutes) to a history of "civilized" warfare going back to the middle ages, to a very entertaining collection of atomic-themed pop culture items to a large tribute to the contributions of female scientists to exposes of the exploitation of American Indian uranium miners and the Radium Girls, who were employed in the first 20 years of the last century to paint luminescent dials on clocks and such, and would go home in the evening with their skin and hair glowing (some would also paint radium on their teeth to surprise their boyfriends). What makes these so great is that their presentation assumes the audience is both intelligent and has a sense of humor. It's an exhaustive and labrynthine setup, and if you're a huge dork like me you'll love it. You can touch the shell casings of two of the nuclear bombs that fell on Spain in 1966 when the B-52 carrying them collided with its refuelling tanker - what else could you want?
I got the gayest haircut today. What's left now perches neurotically on my skull like a yarmulke that thinks it's a teepee. I'm already mainlining vitamins in the hope that it will grow out soon.
Tomorrow I leave early for Texas. First stop: Marfa, then the 90 to San Antonio and Austin. This is real road tripping now: Texas is the first state I've never been to. Yee Yippee Ha Ki-Yay, medooks. Ta.