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Show The Park Record A-14 Wed/Thurs/Fri, May 4-6, 2005 SUNDAY IN THE PARK warning: By Teri Orr May cause extreme envy from friends, family, neighbors and anyone in sight. DUCAT, Salt Lake Motorsports 1077 South Main St. Salt Lake City, UT 8'11 1 I 80M7B.-1000 HIGH PERFORMANCE MOTORCYCLES, SCOOTERS, PARTS, ACCESSORIES, APPAREL AND AN EXPERT SERVICE CENTER www.saltlakemoto.rsports.com DUCATI • It's a matter of faith... The tulips that have survived the deer are! ready to Moped with high heels on. He asks me to promise I pop open any day now. Ditto the flowering crabapple will try to duplicate that. (At least I'm pretty sure he planted (okay re-planted) just last year. The bitter- is gay.) Another friend told me how very elegant the sweet part is I will most likely miss their great debut. women were there, even in the market, wearing Last fall, my former neighbors, The Good Sisters scarves and long skirts, just to pick-up a loaf of of the Cul De Sac, invited me to walk with them on a bread. I confide all .this to a woman friend who says, pilgrimage through Spain, The El Camino, as it is wear black and throw on a scarf, you'll be elegant, known or The Road to.Santiago. I was flattered but too. Then she adds, You won't wear sneakers, will May, while off-season for lots of Park City, is pretty you? and I hear a slight hissing sound as she says the intensive for the internal workings of my job. I word, sneakers. I assure her, on behalf on an entire offered up my blessings for their journey and I nations of Ugly Americans, I will try to bring the watched them train for the 10-mile plus a day walk appropriate footwear. and I found them books and sites on the Internet and My mother, a woman who has never traveled holiday presents related to the trip. You can still beyond North America, does not like the state of the come, they would offer over dinners during the win- world or my desire to travel in it. She is Irish and ter. And I would sigh and say, wrong time, no money, Scottish, a Wallace born to an O'Reilly-a combino training, and ever unstated, maybe not enough nation that has a rather difficult time with emotions faith. when sober. So she calls me one night to express her You are a sophisticated reader, you know where concern and love and it comes out sounding like a this is headed. About a month ago, I had an epiphany rather fractured Professor Higgins. She says. The that involved the five people in my life who died last terrorists in Spain, strike mainly, on the train. I try to year, three of them suiassuage her fears, cides. Without giving you but I am apparently the stuff that therapists the comfort• • About a month ago, I had an missing get big bucks for, it boiled ing vowels sounds down to this- life is epiphany that involved the five people in omitted by her more short. Did I really think a familiar Fox News, my life who died last year, three of them and my assurances couple of nuns would in my mid-life-plus stage, suicides. Without giving you the stuff that fall on deaf ears. invite me again on a trip And for you, my therapists get paid big bucks for, it boiled half-dozen like this? loyal readers, I have I took out my over- down to this - life is short." ^ ^ ^mmmmtim ^^^^^^^^^^^ arranged a little worked credit card and _ ^ _ _ _ ^ ^ ^matllm ^ ^^^ treat. Jane Gcndron, worked it some more. I i ™ ^ " " * " ^ ^ ^ ^ " * " * ™ ^^^^ booked a ticket. By the a former Park lime you read this column I will be on the Record staffer, a current Park City Performing Arts border between France and Spain starting my jour- Foundation employee and a gentle spirit, will fill in ney in the Pyrenees. The Girls have gone on before my absence. You will be in good company. me. We have worked out a system of bread crumbs so Finally, thank you to all who have urged me along I should have no trouble to catching up to them. this journey, in ways large and small. The offer of the : This is Mary Ann's journey. Something she wanted walking stick, the foam pad, the all weather jackcl, to do years and years ago, before she had cancer and the ride to the airport. The many measures of had the titanium rod placed in her leg. (I always encouragement that I will carry with me on The wanted to be a donor, she likes to say, I just never Road. thought I end up a golf club.) Suzanne has also faced When I called today to confirm the one reservaand triumphed over a health crisis. Mine is now a tion I have to start the trip I explained I would need good five years, the exact amount of time left the help in finding the right bus to Roncesvalles from doctors once gave me. behind me. It seems we three Pamplona to start my journey. Ah, a pilgrim, said the are overdue a celebration. front desk clerk in English. She explained how to I suspect we will do as we have always done- proceed. Then, she added, I will not be here on the talk and walk and talk some more. We will carry night you check in but let me wish you now, Bueno everything we need in our packs and sleep and eat at Camino. I hung up the phone knowing I was already farmhouses and hostel-like places open to pilgrims on my way. along the way. I will spend the next several Sundays far. far away I have heard many tales now of the trail. The only from the Park... part that intimidates me is the end of my journey in Adios Amigos Madrid. My gay friend got all gimlet eyed when he Teri Orr is a former editor ofThe. Park Record and said there is no more beautiful sight in Madrid than director of the Park City Performing Arts Center. a woman in a short skirt riding sidesaddle on a CORE SAMPLES By Jay Meehan Historical contexts What is a hero? A girl who finds the courage to try something new. A boy who discovers the- strength to r.i3ch further than hi? ever has. Tries? fcitk, and thousands 'ike them, have the hope? of a belter future and the power to moke it hoppen By taking part in afterschool programs, kids explore, learn, grow, and most importantly, find the hero inside themselves. Let us know you want afterschool programs in your area. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN 9 / ) ] Afterschool programs Helping kid* find the hero within. www.afterschooialliance.org They come in clumps, these harbingers of They probably had their eye on the California wine , spring -- piling up at your feet like panting pup- country. Ah, the vagaries of history. Imagine, if pies. This year saw the local resorts closing-down you will, Hemingway and Fitzgerald doin' that » the same day as the final round of the Masters golf "lost generation" thing in the cold-water flats of* tournament. There was barely enough time to San Francisco rather than 1920s Paris - penning locate an unoccupied barstool and rattle a few soon-to-be-literature over brandy at sidewalk cafes . cubes before Tiger chipped his way further into in North Beach rather than the Left Bank. mythology. Word has it that, this year, north-central New The mission was successfully managed, howev- Mexico might well be playing host to an intimate . er, utilizing a LeMans start and a rather arcane and tasteful mole and agave wingding as a way of ' route through old town to Swede Alley. These celebrating that very same Battle. The hardthings usually work themselves out. Thirst is a earned legacy of 140 some-odd-years of gringo great motivator but, then again, so is lust... for the hangovers should not go ignored. back-nine on Sunday at Augusta. Which brings us to the Kentucky Derby and the , A couple of other rites of spring are wailing in over-the-top hoopla that attends this annual rite of . the wings to pounce upon the culturally aware, yet horseflesh and debauchery. This year's ritual, due ill prepared, among us. Like "skunk cabbage" and to logistical considerations, will transpire in front the "blue and gold spiderwort," they are perenni- of an as-yet-unlocated television set in close prox- . als. ' There's a bit of elbowroom between these two, imity to an as-yet-unidentified barkeep. however. A sidebar to the festivities will be a "suitable" Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo - along with St. tribute to famed scribe Hunter S. Thompson, an Paddy's Day, one of my holy days of obligation. honored son of Louisville. Kentucky, the home of Then, come Saturday, it's the Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs and the most exhilarating twoMost every year, these minutes in sports. two ritual celebrations Hunter, as you may take place while on a have heard, decided , • • There's nothing quite like sippin' a redrock desert road trip to dismount a few.". of some sort. mint julep while putting a few bucks down furlongs short of the finish line a One year, Cinco de on the nose of a nag. I'm sure there will be couple of months Mayo ceremonials took place around a ten! with- no problem finding a New Mexico 'mixol- back. in the historic confines There's nothing '. ogist' with the right stuff to turn mint quite of Canyon de Chelly like sippin' a down Arizona way. The leaves, simple syrup and bourbon into mint julep while campground was devel- heaven." putting a few bucks oped in such a manner as down on the nose of a nag. I'm sure to allow for the huevos m^^^mmmm^^mmmm wmaalmmmmm^mta^m^mm^^ rancheros to sizzle withthere will be no in earshot of a car stereo that occupied itself most- problem finding a New Mexico "mixologist" with ly with the rancheras and nortenos of Los Lobos. the right stuff to turn mint leaves, simple syrup, Somehow the Navajo reservation seemed a log- and bourbon into heaven. They probably do it all ical spot to hoist a few in honor of the victory of the time. the Mexican army over the French back on May 5, There was one year when it became a do-it1862. The invading French, undefeated and lead- yourself concoction after it was discovered that ing the league in road victories, were sporting a not one bar would be open by racetime. This brand spanking new.Foreign Legion. Local book- revolting state of affairs look place along the.' ies had them as overwhelming favorites. shores of Lake Vallecito, up in the hills outside General Ignacio Zaragoza, however, seldom Durango. A cabin with a kitchenette and a TV read the sports pages. Utilizing a ragtag band of was quickly confiscated and ihe alchemy began. 5,000 ill-equipped Mestizo and Zapptec Indians, The best thing about mint juleps is their for-, his team took it to the visiting side that glorious giving nature. By the second one. it matters not spring day, emerging victorious in what came to be whether the first one was worth a damn or noi. known as the "Battle of Pueblo." The next best thing is their sense of humor. They There it wasl A milieu featuring brightly uni- have been known to turn a serious horse race into formed French Dragoons charging through a thun- a Monty Python production in no time at all. derstorm-inspired quagmire only to find themA worse-case-scenario would be getting put in selves amid hundreds of highly irritated and stam- a position where, due to monetary considerations, peding cattle stirred up by a bunch of machete one is forced to root for "Bellamy Road," owned wielding Indians. Mud and blood and a fine by George Steinbrenner, who also happens to own Burgundy wine. "C'est la guerre." as they say. the hated New York Yankees. I'm not sure if the They would lose the war, of course, but by set- Boston geek who owns my L.A Dodgers knows his ting the French back on their heels that day, way around a stable or not, but one thing is for Mexico saved Abe Lincoln's bacon. The French sure, he learned how to shovel manure someplan, after running roughshod over the peons, was where. toi continue northward in support of the Ah, spring! Stampeding cattle and stampeding Confederacy, thereby shifting the balance of power thoroughbreds. The honored folkways of Mexico ', during the American Civil War. I doubt Cinco de and Kentucky. Mariachi music and "My Old \ Mayo is an officially observed holiday in the deep Kentucky Home." Keeping hislory alive is tough south. . duty... although there is a thirst-quenching comThe French, it seems, had continental designs. ponent that keeps it from becoming too tedious. |