I will tell her you said hello and give her copies of your thoughtful comments too. I wish I knew more folks like her – know such older generations of her experience and life force and rationality are out there but not the easiest demographic to reach through the netroots.

Ah Monastery Beach – you probably know locals call it Mortuary Beach – well at least we local moms still call it that.

Salinas built a smashing Steinbeck Center which is the anchor of the old downtown rebirth and rehabilitation that slowly unfolds. And yes, the old Monterey pier still has considerable original charm and so does Cannery Row even though the Monterey Bay Aquarium now stands on the old Hovden Cannery site but must admit the architecture was successful and very compatible and preserved integrity of the waterfront site.

Both have web sites you may want to glimpse and google should take you right to them. Am happy to report old Cannery Row has been nicely preserved – between we local trouble makers and the California Coastal Commission I must say with few exceptions I think you’d be pleased how well our history and environment have been preserved. More tourists but who can blame them.

You should come back and breathe the Pacific air and fog and hang out and fall is the season we locals especially look forward to for optimal weather and fewer tourists and traffic.

Fort Ord closed some years ago and the land is a great boon to residents as more affordable housing and the relatively new Monterey Bay California State University campus evolves. We still enjoy relatively good land use planning and scarcity of water helps keep urban sprawl at bay, no pun intended.

Send me your email and I’ll send along some recent photos of Monastery Beach I took on a recent hike around Point Pinos. afholliday AT sbcglobal DOT net.

Please tell your friend I said hello. If the world had more like her, we just might not be in the fix we’re in today.

I used to dive at Monastery. So many years ago. Does the pier in town (Monterrey), where one of my heroes, John Steinbeck used to walk, and live, look the same? I so miss the Pacific, and it’s smells, and the fog and all. I live so far away now.

Oklahoma kiddo – you know I haven’t a doubt she’d agree with you 100%. Am going to print out large printcopies for her so she can see your comments and Angie’s and my original comment. She was adopted by an Italian couple after the war and they moved to NYC in the early 50’s where her adopted papa worked as a translator at the UN.

Until 9/11 she returned to NYC late every fall to visit and go to the ballet and theater with her grand nieces and nephews. They visit her here as often as possible. Except for fragility of advanced age she is fully engaged in life and well loved by all who know her throughout the Monterey Peninsula. Still does her own unique form of yoga, or so she avers.

One question I had however, and which was never answered because it was posted so low, is as follows:

What exactly is considered an “official act” for purposes of sovereign immunity protection?

For example, if Cheney shot someone while out on vacation, and that person were to sue him, it would seem that the shooting would not be an “official act” because it does not appear to be an official duty for which that person was elected…Thus, could the victim sue Cheney for negligence (or even an intentional tort) if it is not an official act?

I’ll go look on Westlaw in the meantime…

Anne…91
I think I like your 93 year old pal. But might I respectfully propose, as an alternative to Utah, that we afford the Palestinians a homeland of their own? And most importantly, respect, which along with the Israelis, they so richly deserve.

The land was not ours to give away…we had to assuage our collective guilt, but at what cost to who?

‘The structure of space/time is more concerned with means than ends: beginnings must be clean to be of profit.’ – Surak (trans. Duane)

Take land from those who live there already, without payment of some kind, and you will end up fighting them.

My fascinating 93-year-old neighbor is a survivor of the Nazi camps and was holding court in her garden following lunch last week at the Carmel Foundation. She says Israel should be moved “lock, stock & barrel to Utah.” When asked why Utah she didn’t miss a beat: “Bush would never let them in Texas.”

She terms her plan “a thoughtful solution to a stupid geo-political post WWII scheme that only ensures war without end.” She should know for the dear is the only survivor of a large and loving family from the Warsw ghetto.

I’d vote for her for mayor but this being Bush’s World, Carmel voters boast a former CIA European chief now serving another Mayoral term. A hometown gal who, among her first decrees on taking office had all UN Flags purged from City buildings.