Chronicle bestseller list, plus upcoming radio show about food

"Cactus'' made the SF Chronicle bestseller list this week in the Bay Area paperbacks category.
Also --- I will be talking about dehydrated matzo balls and other unusual backpacking foods on KCRW's "Good Food'' program at 11 a.m. (western standard time) August 2. I will post the podcast link when it's up. If you have any unusual backpacking-food suggestions, shoot me an email; at some point I'd like to do a follow-up post about this subject.

"Chomp!!!!!''

I'm not sure if I told you this before, but I kept two kinds of diaries during my wanderings --- a regular diary and a "Comic Book'' diary. This entry, from the "Comic Book'' version, gives you some sense of what was going through my head during the title sequence from "Cactus Eaters.'' Note the facial expression. Also, here are some scratchboard sketches inspired by various critters I saw in the American West. Alas, the grizzly sketch is a memento mori. They've been extinct in my native state since the 1920s. Nice going, California.

Range of Light

Now would be a great time to hike the John Muir Trail, which was completed 70 years ago and is still the most beautiful footpath in America (and possibly the planet.) It's also a genuine adventure; you bag a high-mountain pass almost every day. I guarantee that this path will turn you into a lifetime backpacker. If you can put up with a bit of leg burn, one or two scary creek crossings, and two or three thousand mosquitos nesting in your nostrils, this hike is for you. It also helps if you're handy with an ice axe. I grabbed this shot with the Behemoth Camera a number of years ago.

The Cactus Eaters in the Boston Globe

The author Steve Almond wrote this detailed review of the Cactus Eaters for The Boston Globe. In other news, I am adding several speaking dates in the Bay Area and points south; I will give more specific updates very soon.

Vultures

Vultures are cool. They are a hiker's companion. Sometimes, they sweep down close enough so you can see their red faces, their necks and wrinkly baldness. Some people demonize them -- so much that the federal government has placed them under the protection of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act -- but I've always liked them. I like the way they fly -- always wobbling, making constant corrections, as if they think they are going to crash.They are squeamish, and startle easily. If you sneak up on one of them from behind, a vulure might projectile-vomit a foul bisque of semi-digested carrion all over you, and then, hours later, go back and re-eat the vomit. (Waste not, want not!) Equipped with stomachs that are 10,000 times more resistant to botulism than the common pigeon, they also carry enzymes that can neutralize anthrax and hog cholera. Say what you will about vultures. They keep our deserts tidy.

(by the way, that great photo is by Robert Bernstein. I found the photo at www.vulturesociety.homestead.com/photos.html)

Eden of the West

I hope you will indulge me in a few more of these color slides from the vault. You should have seen this Monster Camera-- an old-school Pentax K-1,000 with a 35-to-75 m.m. zoom. My good friend, John Murray, had to teach me how to operate this thing. It must have weighed five freaking pounds, and I attached it to my chest using a cross-your-heart contraption that looked like Betty Page bondagewear. Every time I walked down a steep switchback, that big fat camera would pound against the center of my chest like a heart defibrillator. These photos have lost a little something in the translation from slide to digital, but they should still give you some sense of the fogbound Cascades in late summer.

Pacific Northwest stream

I brought a huge, clunky SLR with me on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was kind of a pain, but some of the images are really nice. Here's one from the North Cascades.

Urban hiking and the ghosts of Haight Ashbury

Next week, if I can find a spare hour and a half, I will take that scary "ghost tour'' of the Haight, the one where you walk up and down very steep hills and get to meet the ectoplasmic presences of Hendrix, Joplin and so many others.

If I survive, I will provide a full report right here.

The Easiest Hike in the World?

Every week I get dozens of messages from readers who are out doing extremely adventurous things. Just the other day, I heard from someone who is about to camp 40 miles out in Alaska's deepest backcountry among the grizzlies and eagles, at a lake so remote, it isn't on any map. I hear from people who are in the middle of hiking national scenic trails, running some truly frightening endurance races and doing other crazy things. But every once in a while, it's good to know about "slackpacking'' options that give you access to views and libations with no effort at all. One such hike is out here in California, not far from Muir Woods. All you do is drive up Highway 1, turn right on the Panoramic Highway and park your car at the Pantoll Ranger Station (if you can. Parking there is kind of a pain.) Then you strap on your running shoes (who needs hiking boots for such a short walk?) and head toward the ocean. On a clear day, you will see some astounding views, and the redwoods are beautiful. It's almost all downhill (or flat), and you wind up in lovely -- if somewhat sharky -- Stinson Beach for fish and chips and perhaps a beer or two -- so long as you've brought a designated hiker-driver along with you. Then, when you are finished with your dining, shark-watching and libations, hop on the West Marin Stagecoach ((415) 526-3239), which will take you and your friends right back to Pantoll for dirt cheap. Calories expended? Zero. In fact, this may be the one hike in the world where you get fatter as you walk along. In other words, it's my kind of trail.

(by the way, this is NOT to be confused with the Tourist Club/Beer Woods hike that I wrote about a short while ago.)

You know it's time to replace your disgusting backpack

It's time for me to get real.

My filthy, animal-bitten, smelly backpack has got to go. I think it's beyond rehabilitation at this point. True, it's got a lot of sentimental value. The pack was with me for every step of the Pacific Crest Trail. It almost drowned me in Bear Creek. It weighed me down on a thousand switchbacks. And, most recently, I used the pack as a toboggan to help me escape from the Kentucky backwoods.

Now, sad to say, I'm probably going to get rid of the thing. And I'm not the only one who should think about doing this. Here are a few quick rules of thumb for those of you who simply can't let go of your backpack,even though its time has come...

1. You know it's time to replace your backpack when people you've never met start stuffing five-dollar bills into your hand.

2. You know it's time to replace your backpack when you go to the airport and get pulled out of the line by the "special security check team.'' And they're wearing HazMat suits.

3. You know it's time to replace your backpack when you walk down the streets of Haight Ashbury and no one tries to talk to you. Not even Greenpeace.

4, You know it's time to replace your backpack when the EPA puts it on the "National Priority Superfund'' list -- right between "Falcon Refinery'' and "Humboldt Smelter.''


I will add more to this list when I think of them.

If you have suggestions of your own for this list, please send them along ...

The Cactus Eaters in The San Francisco Chronicle and Elle Magazine

This morning I walked down to the food market in search of non-mealy organic nectarines. Glancing beneath a teetering pile of fruit, I saw a bunch of San Francisco Chronicles, thumbed through one of them, and saw this really good review of The Cactus Eaters in the book section. Also, Elle Magazine named The Cactus Eaters its top readers' pick of the month for August, which means that I get to go on and compete with the top readers' picks for every other month of the year. I'm very happy about the readers' pick, although I kind of get the feeling that the judges would not grant me any decision-making authority if we all went on a long-distance desert survival hike together.

Speaking in San Francisco on Tuesday, July 15, at 12:30...)

At half-past noon, I will speak at Stacey's Bookstore on 581 Market Street in San Francisco. I will read a brief but scary "cliffhanger'' section that takes place in the arid hinterlands of Southern California. After this reading, which is a joint event with Vincent Carrella, author of "Serpent Box,'' you should linger in this great neighborhood, which is close to a lot of great museums and coffee, (and serviceable bagels.)
By the way, thanks to Book Passage for a terrific reading. Before speaking there, we hiked part way up Mount Tam, where I saw a lot of fat, healthy redwoods, ferns, frogs, streams, and some of the largest, scariest dragonflies I've ever seen. (They looked like oversized knitting needles with wings.) About halfway up, I saw an incredible view of the whole SF Bay. When I have a free day, I'll head back up there and do a long trail run up to the summit and back.

This Saturday: Book Passage two-fer in Corte Madera

This Saturday (July 12) I will speak at Book Passage, at 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard in Corte Madera, California, at 4 p.m. Don't leave the premises afterwards, because Zoe Ferraris, author of the acclaimed "Finding Nouf,'' will be speaking there, on the very same day, at 7 p.m.!!

Who knew that you could freeze-dry gristle? (updated post)

I'm going to be on a food program very soon, talking about a subject that is dear to my heart -- namely the bowel-crimping, stomach-churning, monodiglyceride-filled foodstuffs that I choked upon while dwelling in the backcountry. I'm talking about "Big Bill's Beans N Rice" and the "Sweet And Sour Supper Surprise In A Bag.'' Anyhow, this frank conversation about foul, and not so foul, outdoor meals will air on KCRW, So.Cal's mighty NPR affiliate, on Saturday, August 2, from 11 to noon, Pacific time. The show is called "Good Food'' with Evan Kleiman, a restauranteur, (she owns the Angeli Caffe on Melrose, down in L.A.) interviewer, and one of the founders of the Slow Food movement. I'll give a heads-up when it's about to come out and then post it right here. Also, to help you cope with your Fourth of July camping adventures, I've added a couple of items that I inadvertently deleted from my list of backcountry camping don'ts, listed below, three blog entries down...

I just blew my golden opportunity to swear on the radio

I was just on the Jay Thomas show on Sirius -- and it was my golden opportunity to swear up a storm for 15 minutes straight. But the best I could manage was to say one little "Damn'' on the air. Gosh darn it!!!

Things you should NEVER do in the backcountry, redux

Backcountry "Don'ts'' (the unexpurgated version!)

NEVER bring a fondue maker into the woods with you. The bread crumbs, fruit wedges, gas and molten cheese will form a white magma that will spew all over you, leaving fourth-degree burns all over your entire body.

NEVER cook a meal while sitting inside your tent, even when it’s raining outside. (Trust me. Your tent will explode.)

NEVER forget that “freeze-dried’’ and “chili’’ is a very bad combination. (Trust me. You will explode.)

NEVER try to reason with anyone riding an All-Terrain Vehicle --- especially if he or she is drunk and holding a 12-gauge Mossberg hunting rifle and wearing a knit cap that says "I Like Big Jugs.''

NEVER try to make your girlfriend, or boyfriend, hike faster by calling out a military cadence in a fake Southern accent. ("Sound off, sound off, one, two, three, foe!")

NEVER attempt to brush your teeth in total darkness. Preparation H does not fight gum recession. And it tastes fishy.

NEVER bring artisan-quality cheddar cheese into the Mojave Desert with you in mid-June. A horrid white pus will extrude from the cheese, and you will vomit.

NEVER set up your tent in the middle of a mule trail in the North Cascades. Brighty, Big Snort and Old Thunder will trample you to death in your sleep.

NEVER underestimate the amount of toilet paper you will use in the backcountry. Sticks and stones won't break your bones but they will leave nicks and abrasions on your derriere.)

NEVER camp at a suspiciously beautiful, yet strangely empty, lakeside campsite. It is probably empty for very good reasons (think “flood plain,’’ “poisoned water’’ and “spaniel-sized mosquitoes.’’)

NEVER eat the freeze-dried stroganoff. It has been mummified and sealed away for good reason.

NEVER cut the handles off the toothbrush “to save pack weight.’’ Toothbrushes weigh less than an ounce – and if you try to brush your teeth with the head of a toothbrush, it will fall down your throat and lodge in your trachea, and you will die.

Please feel free to send in your own suggested "don'ts." Eventually I will update this list.

WJBC: The Voice of McLean County --- plus, my television debut on WHAM TV, Rochester, New York

This just in. Here's my conversation with WJBC.

Also, here is my television debut.

Total chaos (but it worked out at the last minute)

Yesterday, I somehow made it into Anaheim in time for the First Time Author's Panel at the ALA, in spite of a cancelled flight (mechanical failure), a delayed rescheduled flight (horrible air quality), and two missing pilots (they finally rounded up a couple of them somewhere.) On top of everything else, I got a ride from someone whose GPS system went haywire, so we ended up circling the convention center again and again and again and again. As if this weren't enough, someone sent all my luggage to LAX by mistake, which meant that I was the only one at the convention who was dressed like a total slob. In spite of it all, I arrived at the panel in time to deliver my presentation, and it went very well. Next stop is Palos Verdes.

Upcoming Cactus-related events

I am about to head down to Southern California for more readings (and I'm bringing a newly purchased "wicked salamander'' rubber stamp just for the occasion.)

Here is the list.


June 29, 2008
ALA Convention

1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
"First Author, First Book" panel discussion.Anaheim Convention Center, Room 203 A
Authors include Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), Janelle Brown (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spiegel & Grau), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). Then I will sign and stamp books at the HarperPerennial booth from 4 to 5. At the convention, you will have many book-stamping options: rainbow-colored ticks, Opuntia cactus, yucca, range cow skull, coiled rattlesnake and, at long last, salamander.


June 30th, 2008
2-2:30 p.m., book reading and signing.
ALA Convention,
Anaheim Convention Center. This will be part of "LIVE! @ "Your Library Reading Stage'' at the center (just look for the signs).

July 1, 2008
2 p.m.
Malaga Cove Library
Palos Verdes Estates, CA.(PV is my hometown. This was my childhood haunt and it's one of the most beautiful libraries I've ever seen.)
July 02, 2008
7:30 PM
Discussion and Signing
BORDERS
3700 Torrance Blvd
Torrance, CA 90503
(a sort of homecoming. I was born in this town at Little Company of Mary Hospital.)

Then I will be back in the Bay Area for a while:

July 12, 2008
4:00 PM BOOK PASSAGE
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925

July 15, 2008
12:30 PM STACEY’S BOOKSTORE
581 Market ST
San Francisco, CA 94105
*Joint Event with Vincent Carrella, author of "Serpent Box.''

There will be more events a bit later on in the summer (and more in the early fall, too.)

Mrs. Dalloway's and Anaheim

Thank you to Mrs. Dalloway's for a thoroughly enjoyable evening in Berkeley yesterday. (Full house, beautiful store, and dozens of people I've never met before.) Better yet, it was welcoming and very comfortable, like reading in someone's living room. After the reading, I talked to a woman who had a situation that was scarily similar to my "cactus bite'' situation (so I'm not the only one!) The turnout was a pretty even split between non-hikers and hikers, although there were a couple of PCT through-hikers from '81, along with several people who are contemplating the trail. I gave them a list of recommended readings, including "The Pacific Crest Trail: A Hiker's Companion,'' by Karen Berger and Daniel R. Smith, which provides a solid, entertaining overview of the flora, fauna, landscape and history. In the coming weeks, I'm going to Anaheim, California, for the American Library Association conference at the convention center. Also, I'm going on a national speaking tour of sorts without leaving my house. I am doing phone-in radio spots in Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and will provide more details when the time draws near. If you happen to live in Rochester, NY, a TV station is running a brief bit about "Cactus'' early next week, possibly with some scary photos dating from the trip. I'll keep you posted when I find out more about these things. No news about the crawlspace letters today. And keep sending in those hiking (and non-hiking) stories. Eventually I'd like to set up some kind of on-line anthology featuring your work.

Who is the Mystery Woman?

The mystery deepens. Yesterday, I reported on the "Crawlspace Letters'' -- a letter from a lovesick GI in Germany, to a sweetheart that he addresses only as "honey.'' Well, today I was looking through the letter and saw a striking photograph of a woman wearing a mink stole and a furry hat shaped like a pith helmet. In her arms, she holds a bonneted child who looks to be about six months old. Who is the mystery woman and her baby? Is the woman the "honey'' in the letter? To be continued. And, just in case you are wondering, I am making absolutely none of this up.

Editorial reviews: The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind -- and Almost Found Myself --- on the Pacific Crest Trail..

A couple of you asked for this round-up, so here it is. I give these to you straight-up, but warning: Spoiler Alert!



'Cactus Eaters': Rough trail, enjoyable book
Jory John, Special to The San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday, July 16, 2008


The Cactus Eaters
How I Lost My Mind - And Almost Found Myself - on the Pacific Crest Trail
By Dan White
HarperPerennial

"I was so tired of feeling weak. I wanted to start my life over by tracking bears through the Cascades and washing my face in a stream spilling off a thousand-year-old glacier," Dan White writes in "The Cactus Eaters," a compelling, often laugh-out-loud-funny account of his time spent traversing the Pacific Crest Trail, an extreme 2,650-mile trek.

Since its designation as a national scenic trail in 1968, the trail- spanning Mexico to Canada - has served as a monstrous challenge for even the most adept hiker. It is renowned for its cavalcade of unexpected difficulties - from lack of water to bad weather, terrain challenges, outdated maps, wildlife, fussy landowners and more - and it crosses three entire states, through high and low deserts, forests and snowy peaks. To White, the trail represents more than just bragging rights. It is an antidote to a life of fear, laziness and second guesses, a chance to replace his modern comforts with self-inflicted hardships, one step at a time. It promises a new identity for a man who is tired of his old one. Plus he can quit his day job.

With his adventurous girlfriend at his side, the 25-year-old is driven to the start of his adventure by his rightfully worried parents. Devoid of outdoor training, starting out late in the year - mid-June, instead of the recommended late April - and carrying far too much gear, the two leave much to be concerned about. To the folks they encounter, many of whom have knowledge of the trail's potential hazards, they are, at best, a joke. At worst, they're a walking tragedy.

When they finally set out into the Southern California desert, a comedy of hiking errors begins, building up to a near-death experience involving a panicked attempt to suck water out of a cactus. This is followed by much cactus-related pain.

White's ability to convey dialogue and his way with internal monologue surpass even Bill Bryson's comic touch. The book is packed with good jokes, often resulting from the lack of a cool head and a clear sense of what to do next. But the consistent action and White's extensive sense of history strike a good balance, rooting the book firmly in the adventure category. White can also write gorgeously, like this description of the desert: "You didn't even whisper when the sun came looking for you like a searchlight. In a way it was glorious, the relentless watching of the red ball as it sank, the feeling that I had outwitted the sun."

Because it's a story about hiking, the plot naturally follows the trail, and it's never quite clear what's around the next rock or cliff or lake - be it hunter, insect swarm, snow, bear or waterborne illness. The trail also serves as a metaphor for the disparate elements in White's life: the unknown territory ahead, a new relationship and an undying unwillingness to deviate from his chosen path.

Throughout all of his encounters, White is hardest on himself, whether he's feeling manic or cocky or making silly errors or pleading with God or arguing with his girlfriend. He holds himself accountable, repeatedly, to the point where the reader forgives him nearly as much as his girlfriend does. He's an unlikely candidate for this kind of expedition, and he's willing to present the bad Dan with the good. Is he selfish? Sometimes. But only those driven by obsession can succeed. He wants something real to be proud of, something full and lasting. His reasoning elicits your sympathy, even if you don't agree with all of his decisions.

White has written a book filled with energy and enthusiasm for its subject. It wouldn't be surprising if this became the Pacific Crest Trail voyager's new must-read.

Jory John is on the staff of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing center in San Francisco


SALON

Summer reads:

Salon's staff is recommending summer books that transport you to new places without making you go through airport security.

True confessions: From a trek through the American West to a life filled with music, these memoirs will whisk you away.

By Salon staff

"The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind -- and Almost Found Myself -- on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Dan White

The Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada, is one of the longest and most scenic hiking trails in North America. It winds through California, Oregon and Washington, and passes through some of the most rugged terrain in the country. As Dan White's travel memoir, "The Cactus Eaters," makes clear, it's not for the faint of heart or tender of foot: Hikers can go up to 200 miles without encountering signs of civilization, and because of the trail's length and difficulty, only about 120 people complete it every year. More than half of those who begin the trip do not finish it.

"The Cactus Eaters" is White's spirited and amusing account of his journey along the Pacific Crest -- equal parts adventure story, history lesson and relationship log. For White, the ruggedness of the trail offered an escape hatch from the doldrums of adult life. Before embarking on the trip, he was dreadfully bored with his job as a reporter at a newspaper in Torrington, Conn., where the paper's lax editorial standards allowed for, among other errors, the printing of two consecutive Wednesday issues in the same week. Upon hearing about the trail, he persuaded his girlfriend, Allison, to join him as he quit his job, abandoned his apartment and set out on what he called "an American safari."

The trip, however, seemed troubled from the start. Setting out in Southern California, the two were clearly overpacked -- their baggage included a John McPhee anthology and a kite. They were also frightfully inexperienced: Their previous hiking experiences had involved little more than day trips and an aborted attempt to walk the Connecticut section of the Appalachian Trail. Most ominous, Allison succumbed to food poisoning on the journey's first day and quickly began throwing up. In the weeks that followed, the couple's fortunes improved. But they still managed to run out of water, get lost and have their water filter sexually assaulted by salamanders. They also spent an inordinate amount of time bickering about each other's commitment. To his credit, White paints a remarkably unflattering portrait of himself, as a childish companion and boyfriend whose grand visions of the hike often threaten to tear the duo apart. It doesn't help that he's a frightfully poor decision maker, who, at one point, tried to extract water from a cactus (an attempt that ended with several dozen spikes embedded in White's face).

Although the act of walking doesn't often recommend itself as a topic of long-form nonfiction, "The Cactus Eaters" manages to be both eminently readable and fun. White breaks up his narrative with colorful tangents about the trail's history, and describes the couple's misadventures with witty, vivid prose. Although some of his epiphanies (about the spiritual nature of hiking, for example) seem a bit contrived, his breezy tone keeps his momentum from sagging, and the couple's happier moments balance out their more dire predicaments. All in all, "The Cactus Eaters" is the perfect summer read for those of us who love being outdoors, but don't mind, every once in a while, letting somebody else do the walking. -- Thomas Rogers


BOOK REVIEW
Boston Globe
A writer answers the call of the wild
By Steve Almond | July 22, 2008

The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind — and Almost Found Myself — on the Pacific Crest Trail, By Dan White, HarperPerennial, 374 pp., $14.95

Anyone who has ever daydreamed about embarking on a spiritually transformative odyssey into the wilderness, but hesitated owing to a lack of experience, or an excess of neuroses, should count "The Cactus Eaters" as a kind of prophetic text. It is a funny, frequently harrowing, and altogether mesmerizing memoir about just how wrong a backpacking expedition can go.

As the subtitle suggests, the book recounts the journey of Dan White and his long-suffering girlfriend Allison, who trudged from Mexico to Canada along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. The book opens with the pair waylaid in a remote patch of desert, a broken water filter all that stands between them and the buzzards. Herein lies the central source of suspense in this debut: Will White and his Girl Friday actually survive the trip? The answer is yes, though just barely.

Among the various degradations they endure: dehydration, giardia, vicious cactus thorns, and killer ticks. Oh yes, and bears. Several hundred miles in, White runs smack into a slumbering black bear -- though he's too frightened to recognize the situation initially. Instead, he convinces himself that it's merely a sculpture. "Why would someone take the time to sculpt and sand down and set up this marble lump and plant it right in the middle of the PCT, where a hiker might run right into it," he writes. "And what, exactly, was the sculptor trying to prove? Was the artwork an expression of guilt? I was getting myself all worked up and annoyed when the statue, suddenly, moved."

This passage provides a flavor of White's humor, which is, like the author himself, both goofy and indefatigable. Throughout his saga, he comes off like a suburban nebbish with an obsessive streak that far outstrips his competence. The PCT becomes both his white whale and his straight man.

But White is more than just a survivalist joke machine. He's also a deeply self-reflective writer, who traces his psychological compulsion for hiking back to his childhood idol, the naturalist John Muir. It was Muir, he explains, who "sold me on the notion that a man could internalize the beauty and harmony he finds within nature and bring those qualities home with him. He might even use these qualities to mend the broken pieces of himself."

White also writes, with great eloquence, about America's pathological relationship toward wilderness, in particular our national penchant for commodifying the great outdoors. He conjures up figures such as James McCauley "perhaps the creepiest showman in the history of backwoods tourism" who amused gawkers in Yosemite more than a century ago by flinging objects off a 3,200-foot cliff.

More lovingly, he evokes the various hiking fanatics he meets on the trail, all of whom seem hellbent on escaping the artificial reality of civilized life. By the end of his own journey, White has joined their ranks. He's a certified trail rat who's lost his own bearings, not to mention his girl-friend.

And yet his descriptions of the natural beauty he encounters are so vivid, so rhapsodic, that it's easy to see why he's seduced. "The desert commented on its own dryness," he writes at one point. "The wind rushed like water. A mirage washed up against a pile of rocks." Further on, he describes "the watery flavor of a salmon berry," baby mountain goats "floating up [a] cliff face" and lizards that appraise him "like insurance adjusters."

"The Cactus Eaters" is far more than a Sierra Club-approved romp. It's gorp for the soul, a fascinating and surprisingly moving testament to the call of the wild.

Steve Almond's essay collection, "(Not that You Asked)" is just out in paperback.


LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Discoveries

A trek up the West Coast from Mexico to Canada.
By Susan Salter Reynolds
The Los Angeles Times
May 18, 2008


The Cactus Eaters

How I Lost My Mind -- and Almost Found Myself --

on the Pacific Crest Trail

Dan White

HarperPerennial: 374 pp., $14.95 paper

"The word Sierra conjures images of mountains, glaciers, rivers, and charming marmots. Scratch those pictures from your mind. Replace them with dust and dirt and sweat, canyon oak, piñon pine, and in the middle distance, blunt-topped crags the shape and color of an old dog's teeth. . . . [F]or the most part the scenery is pale beige, the color of stucco, the color of gefilte fish."

Dan White is not in the habit of romanticizing. He and his girlfriend, Allison, left their jobs in Connecticut to walk the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. The book opens not quite three weeks into the trip, and both travelers are a little the worse for wear. What with the ticks ("Walkers whip off their clothes to find forty or fifty of them at once, looking like M&M's with legs") and other perils, it's a trail that "extracts a toll for a glimpse of its pretty places. . . . More than 50 percent of the people who walk the trail give up in despair, often within the first week."

On the day the book opens, Dan and Allison have run out of water. "I have a degree in English with honors from Wesleyan," White writes with mock incredulity. "You're the smartest guy in the room," he tells himself -- but he's run out of water, and he can't find any. Still, there's great joy in the couple's escape from the rat race. He and his girlfriend worked for a newspaper that had "a hate/hate relationship with its readers. People in town never said they 'subscribed' to the paper. Instead they said they 'took' the newspaper, as if it were a pill or a suppository."

Through the Angeles Forest, Tehachapi, the high passes on the John Muir Trail, the Range of Light, the Pacific Northwest, the Lois and Clark Expedition, as White calls it, picks up characters and bits of lost history.

The two explorers have strange dreams. They contemplate marriage and careers and compromises. "Every step toward Canada was a step toward manhood," White writes, in that voice you will grow to love. "I feared that the trail, if I never finished it, would leave me stranded in a permanent kindergarten. . . . "

Susan Salter Reynolds is a Times staff writer.




PUBLISHERS WEEKLY


Traversing broiling deserts, snowy mountain passes and dank rain forests on its crooked way from Mexico to Canada, the Pacific Coast Trail is an epic challenge for die-hard backpackers. White and his girlfriend, Allison, set out, late in the season and bereft of experience, to tread all 2,650 miles of it, leaving behind lousy reporting jobs and hoping to find self-definition and a deepened relationship. (They call their trek the Lois and Clark Expedition.) Hilarious greenhorn misadventures ensue-including the author's ill-advised chomp, while dizzy with dehydration, into a reputedly moisture-laden prickly-pear cactus-that tested their survival skills and commitment as a couple. The trail becomes less an itinerary than a world unto itself, full of squalor, discomfort and majestic scenery, and peopled by charismatic misfits and an austere cult of ultra-light speed-hikers, as the couple rely on arcane camping gear and bizarre gummy-bear-and-marshmallow diets. The wilderness authenticity the author seeks proves elusive; all journey and no destination, the story itself eventually trails off with the hero even more callow and confused than when he started. Still, White's vivid prose and hangdog humor make readers want to keep up. (June)

KIRKUS REVIEWS
Journalist White and his girlfriend Allison tackle the Pacific Crest Trail, Mexico to Canada and all the many miles and weather developments in between. They both worked at a small newspaper in Connecticut. He was a book-smart nerd with a deep-seated need to rebel; she was professionally ambitious but with an appetite for adventure. They fell for each other and, in an act of sublime ignorance, decided to knock off the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail in one summer-long act of youth and bravado. That was ten years ago, which has given White time to recover from their trail-trial-by-fire and to find some humor in the story. White and Allison encountered a typical gallery of blowhards, weirdos and good Samaritans on the trail. They desert-fried and snowfield-froze. They found scorpions in their boots and swarms of ticks everywhere. The food was scary (and so was the diarrhea). But they also saw peach-colored mornings and lavender evenings; they skinny-dipped and made love. Drawing on diaries he kept at the time, White polishes up these memories, serving them forth with brio and dash. But he also unsparingly portrays his selfish ways as he gradually descended into an edgy and anxious frame of mind. He was raw: a buffoon, quixotic when not churlish. Readers will laugh with the author as he delivers one-liners ("It changes you when you bite your first cactus"), but they will also steam at his solipsistic antics and become unnerved when they see him making critical decisions with decidedly impaired judgment. No wonder Allison broke up with him after the big hike. Brings a fresh perspective to the timeworn adventure-travel genre.''


“In the well-written, laugh-out-loud, self-deprecating spirit of Bill Bryson’s Walk in the Woods and Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally, Dan White takes us along for a walk on the wild side of adventure and love. I couldn’t put it down.” — Eric Blehm, National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of The Last Season


“Dan White forges miles past travelogue to carve a poignant, uproarious, and deeply compelling love story between man, woman, and the land between.” — Franz Wisner, NY Times bestselling author of Honeymoon with My Brother

“Think Into the Wild with a touch of Annie Hall, as told by Woody Allen, and you begin to get the picture of Dan White’s riveting account of a long, life-altering walk most of us will never take. White’s tale of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail’s grueling 2,600 miles, from Mexico to Canada, is by turns funny and achingly painful — physically and emotionally. As White and his long-suffering girlfriend encounter a cast of extraordinary characters — as well as bears, rattlesnakes and nasty bugs — you feel like you are with them every step of the way. A wonderful read — even if your longest hike is usually out to the driveway.” — Kenneth C. Davis, NY Times bestselling author of America’s Hidden History and the "Don't Know Much About ...'' series.

... and this just in: Elle Magazine chose The Cactus Eaters as its top readers' nonfiction pick of August 2008. (The other two books look great; I've added them to my must-reads for the month. For the record, those books are Doreen Orion's Queen of The Road -- just started it; hilarious so far, and John and Jean Silverwood's Black Wave, which I have just ordered.)

The Crawlspace Letters

I live in an extremely old apartment --- it predates the SF earthquake. It has some strange features that you don't see in buildings these days, including a potato storage basin and a flour bin. Today, I was reaching into a dark and dusty crawlspace behind my bookshelf, which is deadbolted to the wall. I was just trying to get to a couple of pictures and books that had fallen way back into the crawlspace-- but when I reached back there, I found a clutch of old, yellowing papers. It turned out to be love letters that an American G.I. sent to his girlfriend (or wife -- I can't tell...) from Europe in World War II. I'm hoping to use my research skills to track down the author of the letters (or the descendents of the author) and send these back to their rightful owner. More later.

Mrs. Dalloway (and Anaheim.)

This Thursday, I'm speaking at a beautiful (and well-run) bookstore called Mrs. Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts, in Berkeley's Elmwood district. I will read two short pieces at 730 p.m. and answer any question that you might have. Also, I will bring some items from the trip, and a wide assortment of commemorative rubber stamps reflecting the flora and fauna of the western wilderness -- including the "Psychedelic Range Cow." The book store is located at 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley. Come here early to browse the shelves and check out their author's events listings. You will love this place. I would hang out there all the time if I lived just a little closer to Berkeley!

If you happen to be in the Southlands later on in the week, I will be at the American Library Association conference down in Anaheim. I will take part in a panel discussion called "First Author, First Book,'' at the Anaheim Convention Center, Room 203 A, with the authors Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), Janelle Brown (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spiegel & Grau), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). An enormous signing will follow. Then, next day, (June 30) from 2 to 2:30 p.m., I will have a book reading and signing at the convention center.

And if you're reading this in Denver, Colorado, I will have a radio broadcast there very soon (I'll give you the details when they come in.)Come to think of it, I will be doing radio broadcasts just about every day, in various places, for the next week and a half.

And finally --- don't miss Zoe Ferraris's SF reading this Thursday! (for info, see the blog entry below the one about the bison.) Get there early, or only the nosebleed seats will be available. Seriously.

Also -- I'm sure you've all heard the sad news about Cody's Books closing in Berkeley after a 52-year run. The store -- a true pioneer in the book world -- shut down on June 20. This landmark store will be missed.

Golden Gate bison.

I live within walking distance of the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park. I'm proud to have them as my neighbors. If you want to see them, they hang out in a field along John F. Kennedy Drive (across from the Anglers Lodge.) Just remember that these bison are built for comfort, not speed. They like to hang out, and, to be honest, they don't move a whole lot. They mostly just sit there, sunning themselves, or wiggling their hairy ears, and who can blame them? Apparently, someone transported the first bison into the park more than 100 years ago, when these shaggy creatures were facing extermination in the wild (although I am glad to report that the current bison population in the U.S. is now close to 200,000.)
These park beasts trace their lineage back to three bison named Sarah Bernhardt, Princess, and Ben Harrison. And that's not all. Now I hear that a family of coyotes has moved into the park. I'm not sure how they got there. There is a lot of open space in SF, but it's quite fragmented at this point. If you see the coyotes, don't try to lure them with food, and don't pretend that they are dogs. Coyotes are wild to the core. Chase them off and give them plenty of space. (and keep a watchful eye on your small dog or cat.)

Cactus Eaters: Number One travel book on Amazon. plus ...Capitola Book Cafe reading (and did I mention that Fogheads Rule?)

Last night's crowd was stupendous --- the group included family members, Santa Cruz friends and a former Santa Cruz Sentinel colleague, a high-school pal, members of my Santa Cruz writing group, a former student and many other folks that I'd never met before. A big bunch of people followed my sister and brother-in-law to an after-party at a funicular-accessible restaurant in Capitola By The Sea.

Also -- I am very grateful to this blog's readers for sending all your crazy adventure stories. Keep rolling them in. (and one last thing -- "Cactus'' was the number-one travel book on Amazon yesterday --- a shock to my system to say the least; thanks for passing this around and letting me know about your own explorations and adventures.)

Zoe Ferraris

Don't miss author Zoe Ferraris, who is giving two readings right here in the Bay Area. The author of the critically acclaimed "Finding Nouf'' will speak on Tuesday, June 24, at M is for Mystery and More, San Mateo 7:00 pm. She will also speak on Wednesday, June 25, at Books Inc, Opera Plaza, San Francisco (601 Van Ness, SF 94102) 7:00 pm. Both events will feature readings, signings and discussion.

Fogheads Rule --- plus Capitola

Thanks to KFOG and all the Fogheads who called in during my in-studio interview this morning. It was a great conversation. One of the callers asked about the disgusting food that one often eats on cross-country adventures. I told her to steer clear of home-baked granola (it goes bad quickly, and the nuts rot and become very bitter. Of course, I made 23 pounds of that stuff in advance, and sent it all ahead to myself in supply boxes throughout the trail, meaning that I had to eat that nasty granola for months on end.) Looking forward to Capitola Book Cafe tonight at 7:30 p.m. I will be there early, eating pizza next door, if you want to stop by and say hello.

Pacific Crest Trail/Pacific Coast Trail

I'm getting a lot of questions about the "Pacific Coast Trail'' and why the thing is so darned steep if it just follows the western coastline. Actually, there is no such thing as a "Pacific Coast Trail.'' (someone correct me if I'm wrong about this.) I think that people are mixing up two major trails --- the Pacific Crest Trail, which never comes close to a beach, and mostly stays up high on the mountainous spine of California, Oregon and Washington, and The California Coastal Trail, a network of public trails that spans the entire California coastline and is now about 50 percent finished. If you want climbs, views, bears, snakes and deserts, do the PCT. If you want beaches, shifting sands and crashing waves, walk the CCT.

Capitola and KFOG

I'm very excited about this Thursday's reading in my former hometown. See information below. As I mentioned before, the Capitola Book Cafe is one of my favorite bookstores on the planet. It's well-lit and spacious, the staff is whip-smart, the coffee is good, and there's a silver-colored elephant sculpture on the wall. And, best of all -- it even has a movie marquee out front advertising the latest readings. I can't tell you how many pots of tea I've swilled there while working on an earlier version of this thing.
Just for the occasion, I have unearthed some scary artifacts, including a couple of Chewbacca-esque photos of myself from the Cascades section of the walk. I will also bring your choice of archival stamps --- horned lizard, Opuntia cactus, yucca and rattlesnake --- with a brand new "rainbow-colored bloodsucking arthropod'' stamp that I acquired just yesterday. Feel free to ask me any question you want. One question that I'm hearing a lot lately: "Why did you call the book The Cactus Eaters when only one of you actually eats a cactus, and, to get technical about it, you didn't actually eat the thing at all? You just chewed it for a short while and then you spat it out?'' Um. Good one ... I will attempt to answer tomorrow.



I am speaking at the Book Cafe on June 19, 2008
7:30 PM. It is located on 1475 41st Avenue, Capitola (in a shopping center just a few blocks off Highway One. Look for the bookstore with the movie marquee.)

also, if you happen to be in the southlands this afternoon, (June 18) I am doing a live radio interview on KKZZ-Am Radio, "Evie's Talk Show.'' 6:15 p.m., PST. (covering Ventura and surrounding communities)

And ----- if you're right here in SF tomorrow morning (june 19) I will do a live in-studio interview at 730 PST on KFOG F.M. I'm actually showing up to the studio for this one. I sure hope that the MUNI is running nice and early tomorrow. I'll bring my running shoes just in case.

And, finally --- I will be speaking in Berkeley on June 26, 2008
7:30 P.M.., at the beautiful Mrs. Dalloway bookstore, on
2904 College Avenue. (check this place out if you haven't seen it before; it's one of my very favorite new-ish bookstores in the area.)

Meeting my doppelganger!

This week I had a chance to meet my doppelganger at a reading (his reading, not my reading.) I said, "I just want you to know that every time I go into a book store, people think I'm you.'' He agreed that we look very much alike -- even though he is actually a few inches taller and has a different color of hair. I agreed to be very polite and careful to everyone from now on so people don't blame him for my misdeeds. Also, I apologized for leaving his book at home, meaning that he couldn't sign it for me. "No problem,'' he said. "I'll just sign one of yours.''

High Sierra

I've been hearing from a few hikers who have reached Kennedy Meadows and are now getting a bit closer to one of my old haunts, Mammoth Lakes, in the Eastern Sierra. In case you missed this one, here is a story I wrote for the New York Times Escapes section about Mammoth Lakes last year.

Interview on KPFA

Listen to my interview with Denny Smithson on Cover to Cover KPFA Berkeley by clicking here

Dust off those fanny packs and get out on the trail

It's great to open up my inbox and see messages from readers who are heading out to hit the trail this week (I'm glad I haven't scared you off!) In fact, I've heard from a bunch of folks who say they are amped to go out into the backcountry and stomp around for a while. By the way, I took a "sneak preview'' hike of sorts on a Kentucky section of the 1,800-mile under-construction "Great Eastern Trail,'' which parallels and in one section overlaps the Appalachian Trail. I can't wait to through-hike this thing when it's all done. It might even end up as America's newest national scenic trail at some point. Stay tuned to find out more about the "G.E.T.''

"Cactus'' --- Updated list of readings and appearances

Here is the most updated list, as of today. I will, of course, bring photographs and other materials to share, along with your choice of flora/fauna stamps. It will be great to meet all of you. As you can see, I've added some dates, and I'm getting quite a lot of emails because of Salon's selection of The Cactus Eaters as part of its recommended summer reading list .

Their other selections are When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris, The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw, and Swish: My QuestTo Become The Gayest Person Ever, by Joel Derfner, and Drunkard: A Hard-Drinking Life by Neil Steinberg. Now I'll have to read all the books on the list (except, of course, for mine, which I've read about 134 times.)

And here is that list of interviews and readings:

June 11
Interview
National Geographic Weekend
a weekly syndicated talk show. This will be broadcast at a later date at 120 stations nationwide.(I'll provide updates and a list of participating stations when it's about to be aired.)

June 18
Ventura, California(phone-in live interview)
KKZZ-Am Radio, "Evie's Talk Show.''
6:15 p.m., PST.

June 19, 2008
Live, in-studio interview
KFOG FM - San Francisco
7:30-8 AM

June 19, 2008
7:30 PM CAPITOLA BOOK CAFÉ
1475 41st Avenue
Capitola, CA 95010. Very excited about this. This is my adoptive home town, and I wrote an early, early draft (actually, some of the diary entries) right here.

June 26, 2008
7:30 PM MRS. DALLOWAY
2904 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705

June 29, 2008
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
"First Author, First Book" panel discussion.
Anaheim Convention Center, Room 203 A
Authors include Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), Daniel White (The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind—and Almost Found Myself—on the Pacific Crest Trail, HarperCollins), Janelle Brown (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spiegel & Grau), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). A book signing will follow.



June 30th, 2008
2-2:30 p.m., book reading and signing.
ALA Convention,
Anaheim Convention Center. Room TBA.

July 1, 2008
2 p.m.
Malaga Cove Library
Palos Verdes Estates, CA.(PV is my hometown. This was my childhood haunt and it's one of the most beautiful libraries I've ever seen. I used to hang out at the fountain and count the goldfish when I was six years old.)

July 02, 2008
7:30 PM
Discussion and Signing
BORDERS
3700 Torrance Blvd
Torrance, CA 90503
(a sort of homecoming. I was born in this town at Little Company of Mary Hospital. Wondering if any of the nurses will be present.)

July 12, 2008
4:00 PM BOOK PASSAGE
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925

July 15, 2008
12:30 PM STACEY’S BOOKSTORE
581 Market ST
San Francisco, CA 94105
*Joint Event with Vincent Carrella, author of "Serpent Box.''

September 24, 2008
2:30-3:30 p.m., and 730-830 p.m.
2008-2009 Creative Writing Reading Series and afternoon conversation
Saint Mary’s College of California.
Moraga, CA.

Early Fall, date to be announced --- looks like I will have another speaking engagement in the East Bay. I will provide updates when this is all firmed up.

November 2008: date to be announced
reading/reception at San Jose State University

My SF doppelganger

Apparently I bear a striking resemblance to another San Francisco-based author. Twice, I've gone into bookstores and have had employees launch into fandom freakouts --- "oh my goodness. How fantastic that you would just drop in on us out of the blue. Let me get the manager! Oh, this is such a privilege. Would you like a coffee or something?'' And then I've had to explain to them, sorry, I'm not that person, and then they slink off into various corners of the store. I'm thinking of shooting the guy an email to see if we can pose for a photo together. Then people will see that we don't look completely alike. Or maybe I'll just pretend to be him and try to steal his fans.

My Pacific Northwest sojourn

What an incredible three days. The last time I was up in your area, I arrived on foot and left on the Green Tortoise hippie bus (which all of you should try at least once in your lifetime. It's crazy.) I started out in Bellingham, where I spoke at Village Books in the historic Fairhaven area. Bellingham is one of those towns that pays tribute to its past without ever looking like a 'museum town.' It felt very alive and real to me. Then I drove on to Seattle, where the Secret Garden bookstore and Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library organized a fantastic reading night --- killer turnout, great questions, and I hope I convinced at least five or six people to try a through-hike on America's greatest long-distance footpath. Then I rolled on to Portland, which was one of the biggest surprises of all. Of course, I stopped by the legendary Powell's book store, which did a Q and A with me this summer. Downtown has an ingenious running trail that weaves across, beneath and around the historic steel bridges and shipyard. After a great reading at the B & N in the Clackamas center, I explored downtown, and had beers at a crazy bar with motorcycles dangling from the rafters and a long-haired band shrieking away on stage. It was like being 19 all over again (but with a depressingly real, not fake, I.D.) P.S. --- Today it was great to see a mention of "Cactus'' in Salon, which put the book on its recommended list of summer reads. The review is up today. Anyhow, it was great to meet all of you. Keep sending those pack-weight/camping horror stories and give me a heads-up if you're coming to one of the upcoming readings.

Portland

I will see you all at the reading after my urban trail run through this beautiful town. Tomorrow, leaving the city might be a slight problem. Aside from the fact that I will be leaving reluctantly, there is, apparently, a huge parade going right past my hotel around 8 a.m.!!

Seattle and beyond

Everything is elevated to a whole new level of quality in this city. Even the meatloaf is good out here. I had a fantastic reading at Seattle Public Library's Ballard branch, sponsored by the Secret Garden Bookstore. The library itself is something you have to see. (It's all green construction. There is a field of actual grass growing on the roof!!) The audience was fantastic. More about all this later, but I'm leaving for Portland this very second. (look for my interview in today's Portland Oregonian. I'm speaking tonight at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 12000 S.E. 82nd Ave, Portland.

Camping and backpacking horror stories

Thanks to all of you for sending me your stories about backcountry mishaps and truly enormous pack weights. You are doing wonders for my backpacking and camping self-esteem. I'm thinking of having some sort of contest for the best stories about overpacking, getting lost, etc. Stay tuned on that front. Meanwhile, I hope to see you all at the Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library tonight at 6:30 p.m.

Bellingham

What a beautiful town. The people here are all smart and engaged with the world -- and they all look about 20 years younger than they are. (I guess everyone eats well and does a lot of trail running. No swilling of double martinis out here.) I had a very good time reading at Village Books. I'll crash for about 13 hours now and then I'm heading off to Seattle.

From the Cactus archive

For this week's readings up in Oregon and Washington, I've unearthed some trail artifacts and a couple of really scary photographs and journal entries dating to the "Lois and Clark Expedition.'' I'm looking forward to sharing a few trail stories with you (and hearing yours, too.)

Radio interview, and details about my visit to the Pacific Northwest this week --- without smelly pack

If you are in the Bellingham, Washington area, and happen to be awake on the early side, switch on your radio and listen in on my brief live interview on KGMI at 7:15 AM PST. Immediately after the interview, I will board a plane and fly up to one of my very favorite places in America, the Pacific Northwest, where my "Cactus'' tour will begin. However, I will most likely leave my backpack behind because he's picked up a terrible odor from my last outdoor sojourn in the Southeast. (bear scat? Whatever it is, it won't go away.) Anyhow, I'm looking forward to meeting readers and hikers up there. Many of the loveliest sections of the PCT are right there--- Crater Lake, the Goat Rocks, the Pasayten Wilderness. The list goes on and on. Out in the Pacific Northwest, I ate too many huckleberries, stomped through pumice flats, and stayed at an absurdly cheap, now-non-existent bed and breakfast in Snoqualmie Pass. (If you were a Pacific Crest Trail hiker, they would let you stay there for about eleven bucks a day. No kidding.) I also spent some time in gorgeous Stehekin, Washington, where I ruffled a few feathers by eating an entire pie during a slide presentation about mountain goats. Anyhow, I look forward to meeting you all up there. I will read from my book, answer questions, and share a couple of trail artifacts. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions about the readings or would like to stop by and say hello. I only wish I had more time so I could visit my favorite hiking spots. (oh well; maybe next time!)

Date & Time Location

June 4, 2008
6:45 p.m.
VILLAGE BOOKS
1200 Eleventh Street
Bellingham, WA 98225

June 5, 2008
6:30 PM SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Ballard Branch
5614 22nd Ave. NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(this event is being sponsored by the Secret Garden bookstore)

June 6, 2008
7:00 PM BARNES & NOBLE
12000 SE 82nd Avenue
Portland, OR 97266

Also -- it was great to speak with another Pacific Northwest resident this week -- Lisa Haneberg --- who has posted her 'fireside chat' podcast interview with me about "Cactus'' on her popular site, Managementcraft. Here is that link:

http://managementcraft.typepad.com/management_craft/2008/06/fireside-chat-w.html

Aside from my reading events, I will be doing a taped in-studio interview on Evergreen Radio in Seattle on Thursday, June 5, at 3:45 p.m.

Interview with Little Clay Pig

And this just in --- a good talk with influential lit blogger Little Clay Pig, right here in San Francisco. Actually, you should read that blog regularly; it's a good one.

Little Clay Pig

By the way, this week I will figure out a way to put in clickable links for my readers. Sorry about that. What can I say? I am a total Luddite. Also, if you happen to be a reader of the Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and NY Newsday, look for the LA Times review, which is reappearing in various places. Also, I had a really good podcast talk with the author Lisa Haneberg this week. I will include the link to that podcast at some point next week.

This just in: Good Times, Santa Cruz

here is the link to the story by Christa Martin. Don't be scared by my huge, staring eyeball in the picture!!!!

http://www.gtweekly.com/a-e/the-lois-and-clark-expedition-1

Haight Ashbury poultrygeist

Hi everyone. Sorry I've barely blogged lately. The reason is total exhaustion, on account of a very loud, annoying rooster that has been keeping me up at night. A number of months ago, I mentioned the fact that this tin-eared, crazy chicken moved into my Haight Ashbury neighborhood. For months at a time, he was so dead-quiet, I figured his owners got sick of his racket and made capons out of him. No such luck. The rooster is back in action now, and he's driving me batty. All day long he makes the same loud, horrible noises -- "Muck-muck-magooooooooo!'' I hope the chicken calms down soon. Until then, I'll do all my writing down at the Mission Creek Cafe.

The Cactus Eaters: Readings and travels

Here is the most updated list. Stop by and say hello. I look forward to meeting all of you.


Date & Time Location

June 4, 2008
7:00 PM
VILLAGE BOOKS
1200 Eleventh Street
Bellingham, WA 98225

June 5, 2008
6:30 PM SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Ballard Branch
5614 22nd Ave. NW
Seattle, WA 98107

June 6, 2008
7:00 PM BARNES & NOBLE
12000 SE 82nd Avenue
Portland, OR 97266


June 9th, 2007
"Cover to Cover”/KPFA-FM
Berkeley, CA
3:00 – 3:30 PM

June 19, 2008
In-studio interview
KFOG-- San Francisco
7:30-8 AM

June 19, 2008
7:30 PM CAPITOLA BOOK CAFÉ
1475 41st Avenue
Capitola, CA 95010

June 26, 2008
7:30 PM MRS. DALLOWAY
2904 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705

June 29, 2008
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
"First Author, First Book" panel discussion.
Anaheim Convention Center, Room 203 A
Authors include Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), Daniel White (The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind—and Almost Found Myself—on the Pacific Crest Trail, HarperCollins), Janelle Brown (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spiegel & Grau), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). A book signing will follow.



June 30th, 2008
2-2:30 p.m., book reading and signing.
ALA Convention,
Anaheim Convention Center. Room TBA.

July 1, 2008
2 p.m.
Malaga Cove Library
Palos Verdes Estates, CA.(PV is my hometown. This was my childhood library.)


July 12, 2008
4:00 PM BOOK PASSAGE
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925

July 15, 2008
12:30 PM STACEY’S BOOKSTORE
581 Market ST
San Francisco, CA 94105
*Joint Event with Vincent Carrella, author of "Serpent Box.''

September 24, 2008
730-830 p.m.
2008-2009 Creative Writing Reading Series
Saint Mary’s College of California.
Moraga, CA.

November 2008: date to be announced
reading/reception at San Jose State University

The Kerouac pigeons

Do you ever have one of those days that is luminous and wonderful one moment and grim (and rather disgusting) the next? Just the other day, I was in North Beach, and I stopped by City Lights books. They had one rather lonely-looking copy of "Cactus,'' so I signed it, which was fun, considering that City Lights is the land of Ferlinghetti and The Beats. The City Lights staff was very nice about it. They put it back on the shelf with a little sticker saying "Signed By The Author.' Moments later, I was walking with Amy down Columbus, and an enormous group of pigeons, straight out of Hitchcock, swooped down and voided themselves all over us -- a tidal wave of voiding, and it covered both of us from head to toe. We tried to run but the pigeons closed in on us and kept bombing away. Wham, wham, wham. Passersby stopped and stared. Amy insists that this incident was "good luck'' and "a very good sign.'' She even joked that it was some kind of ectoplasmic shout-out from beyond the grave by Kerouac himself. I think my dry cleaner will disagree.

The Cactus Eaters is now available nationwide

So the doomsday clock on my author's web page has stopped ticking. That can only mean one thing; my book is now in bookstores all over the place. My pal, James, (who happens to be a character in the book) wrote in to let me know that he got "Cactus'' in Minneapolis just the other day. It was pretty surreal to see a nice big bunch of them in my neighborhood bookstore up here in the Upper Haight. Today, I walked into the store and decorated them all with rubber stamps dipped in bright green archival ink. I also signed them. Anyhow, if you run into me at some point, I would really like to sign and stamp your book or books. In fact, I will sign just about anything, except for a blank check. Make sure to specify "lizard, snake, or longhorn steer skull'' before I stamp it. Otherwise, I'll pick the creature for you and you'll have to accept my choice.

On KPFA FM

This is extremely short notice, I realize, (as a matter of fact, I'm giving you a roughly four and a half minute notice, to be precise) but if you happen to be in the Ventura County/Santa Barbara area, the NPR affiliate is doing an interview with me today at 1:06 p.m.

Back from the backwoods

I had a fantastic time in the Southeast --- I heard my first whipporwil, heard a black bear snort (very close by!), met a bunch of great people, went to a Bourbon tasting and explored some of the greenest, steepest backcountry I've ever seen. On the downside, I got a bit turned around up there in the wilderness. I had a close encounter with some kind of invasive rose-bush-like plant; both of my legs have red, crosshatching scrapes all across them. My next order of business is to beef up my backcountry survival skills. I'm hoping to enroll in an intensive orienteering course this summer as soon as i can find an open patch in my schedule.

Off to the forest

Friends and family --- after I file this, I'm heading out the door and flying out to the Southeastern backwoods, which means that I will be kind of hard to reach for the next three days or so. I'm bringing lots of MREs and a spanking-new seven-dollar nickel-plated compass that I just bought from Robert's Hardware in Haight Ashbury. I'm in good hands. By the way, this is probably my last ramble ever with Big Mofo, my trusty -- and enormous --- backpack dating from the PCT. He's covered with mouse bites and duct tape, the zippers barely function and the hinges are almost rusted out. The time has come for an upgrade.

Someone outbid me on the "cactus-shaped rubber stamp'' listed on Ebay

Mr. Big Bucks, I hope you're happy. I had my sights on that attractive little cactus-shaped rubber stamp on eBay. It was going to be one of my promotional gimmicks, and now it's gone --- all because of you. The bidding war was ferocious. I lay down $4.50. You upped the ante to five bucks. The next thing you know, you jacked up the price to $6.50. Whoever you are, you are shameless.

In the footsteps of Daniel Boone

I'm heading off to the Cumberland Gap for a while. I will be going on a journey through a remote forest full of elk, sandstone cliffs and wild ginseng. I'll see you all when I get back. (just so you know, I'm bringing plenty of water this time, and the trail is not that long. Seriously.)

Radio Cactus

Here is the link to my radio performance on KQED Writer's Block. I had fun doing this.


http://www.kqed.org/arts/writersblock/

In Ruins

A few months back, I mentioned an eventful journey that I took (in a four-wheel-drive vehicle) up a scary dirt road into a remote canyon filled with fascinating Fremont-era ruins in Utah. If you're interested, my article on this subject (with color photos) appears in this month's Backpacker, which is now in bookstores and news stands. Check out the pictures of those spooky petroglyphs -- and, if you have a chance, make your way out to Range Creek and see them for yourself. It's well worth the trip.

KQED Writer's Block

I had a great time going into the KQED studio and recording a scary section of "Cactus'' for radio broadcast. It will be podcast a few weeks from now, and when it's available, I'll post the link right here. Stay tuned.

"Cactus Eaters Kids" -- my coloring book

My nieces have expressed strong interest in my book. This is a problem, because there are a lot of bad words (!) and some scary situations in this book. To solve the problem, I've decided to create a "clean version'' of the project called "Cactus Eaters Kids'' I'm editing out all of the swearing and most of the disturbing situations. It will be about 20 pages long (give or take a couple of pages.) I expect to finish it and distribute it to my family and friends in about three weeks. It will include many pictures of cacti and mostly harmless fauna.

Who wants to go backpacking with me?

As part of my book tour, I will (apparently) be leading at least one hike into the woods. All I can say is, bring plenty of water. Also, proceed at your own risk. But seriously, if this happens, I will be very careful not to stray too far from civilization. Also, I promise to do a careful head count to make sure that no one gets left behind in the forest.

New improved list of readings and appearances...

Also, I've recorded a chapter of the book for KQED Writer's Block. It should be available for podcasting in about three weeks. I'll post the link when it's ready. When I get closer to the bookstore events, I'll post addresses for the stores.

June 4, 2008

7:00 PM


Village Books
Bellingham, WA



June 5, 2008

6:30 PM
Seattle Public Library

(with Secret Garden Books)



June 6, 2008

7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
Portland, OR



June 19, 2008

7:30 PM
Capitola Book Cafe




June 26, 2008

7:30 PM
Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts
Berkeley, CA

June 29,
American Library Association conference, Anaheim, CA. 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m, location to be announced.

I will take part in a panel called "First Author, First Book,'' with Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). Visit http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2008a/home.cfm for more information.


July 12, 2008
4:00 PM
Book Passage
Corte Madera

Link to author's page ..

And here's the link to my HarperCollins page, with the cover and some biographical info...This will be updated and augmented in the coming weeks. Thanks to my readers for pointing out the 'doomsday clock' function (which I did not notice at first!)

http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/33024/Dan_White/index.aspx

Whitmaniacs converge on San Jose

If you happen to be in San Jose on April 23rd, the Poets & Writers Coalition is setting up a small army of readers who will perform Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself'' in its entirety. This event will start at 1:30 p.m., location TBA. I will fill in the details as soon as I get them.

Back from the desert

Last week, we drove a Dodge Avenger through the California outback, with Gram Parsons and Midnight Oil blasting in the CD player. We saw our first condor, black and white, with board-straight wings. He floated above the red steps leading down from the High Peaks Trail through the Pinnacles. Out in the Mojave, I set up a tent near a Joshua tree, stopped a giant raven from tearing up the campsite of three So.Cal. frat boys, (by the time I arrived on the scene, the creature had eaten some of their tortillas) and climbed Ryan Mountain at the hottest time of day. In camp, three teenage partiers climbed a 50-foot boulder. They stood at the edge of the drop, twirling glow sticks, staring at their hands and jabbering until four in the morning. My vacation wasn't exactly perfect. One night in a high country camp, a semi-deranged caretaker stole my utensils, water and sleepwear. Still, it was a good time. I'll be back there soon.

Dates for "Cactus'' readings so far (updated)

Several friends, writing colleagues and family members asked for this, so here it is, and I'll keep adding updates when I get them. If you happen to live in any of these places (or are just passing through when I'm in town), stop by and say hello. As the dates get a little closer, I will fill in the addresses.

June 4, Bellingham, WA., Village Books, Wednesday
7 p.m.

June 5, Seattle, WA at Seattle Public Library (in conjunction with Secret Garden Book Store) 630 p.m.

June 6, Portland, Barnes and Noble, 7 p.m. …

June 19 -- Capitola Book Cafe, Capitola, California, 730 p.m.

June 29, American Library Association conference, Anaheim, 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m, location to be announced. I will take part in a panel called "First Author, First Book,'' with Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). Visit http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2008a/home.cfm for more information.

"No Country'' nightmares

I finally got around to seeing "No Country ...'' at the Red Vic the other day -- and
I must say, I regret it. Now I'm having nightmares that the helmet-headed mumbly guy is out to get me. On the good side, I like the theater. They serve you popcorn in wooden bowls, they have padded benches instead of seats, and before the main attraction, they run a short film showing a rude Red Vic patron kicking over his soft drink and making a mess -- only to be grabbed, and, presumably, eaten alive, by a green-skinned monster that lives beneath the seats of the movie theater.

Book signings/readings in June

I'm scheduled to speak throughout the Pacific Northwest in June, with several appearances in the Bay Area and Central Coast. I'll post the schedule up here when I've firmed everything up. By the way, thanks to everyone who showed up to the Steinbeck Fellows reading the other day. I will post again in a couple of weeks. (I'm in a work-induced blog hibernation, with galleys and student papers...)

Banana slugs, bongo players, fat-tire unicyclists and sex in the woods

It's hard to believe that the Forest of Nisene Marks was once a sad stumpy wasteland, with loggers doing their darnedest to hack down every redwood they could find. In the turn of the century, this place was a disaster. Now, the forest offers some of the best hiking you can find anywhere on the Central Coast. You can hike all day on the edge of steep ravines, splash through streams and ogle banana slugs, which look like slices of overripe mango. Second-growth redwoods grow so tall, you can barely see the tops without straining your neck and back (like I did.) It's easy to forget the place's unfortunate history until you stumble across a fat stump with ferns and moss growing out of it, the broken-down remains of a cabin, or a set of railroad ties fading into the woods. Sometimes you forget you're near Santa Cruz --- until you see the signs of wacky behavior: fat-tire unicyclists out on an illegal trail ride deep in the park's interior, someone lost in the sounds of his own bongos, a crazy guy blatting out a song on the digeridu while sitting cross-legged on a folding chair, and a couple having loud, exhibitionist sex in a Range Rover with the windows down on the fire road, paying zero attention to the small army of moms pushing babystrollers right past them. There are few people out here, even on a nice day. Get here early in the morning and watch the steam rising off the redwoods.

Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons co-creator, dies at 69

I was sad to hear about this. D and D helped me survive middle school -- even though my brother was much, much better at it than I was, and my hapless, wimpy dwarves and henchmen always ended up broke, defenseless and slaughtered early on in the game. This might sound like a stretch, but I would even argue that there are certain connections between D and D and long-distance backpacking culture. The trail can turn into a role playing game. You can lose your identity and get a 'trail name.'' Sometimes, a backpacker will identify so strongly with his/her trail name that the name becomes a kind of character. Out on the trail, you find yourself in the middle of a quest narrative that goes on for thousands of miles. And, if that's not enough, there is a slightly geeky aspect to certain long-distance walkers--- and I'm not exempting myself from this admittedly broad characterization.

The opposite of road rage

The other day, I was driving through SF's Inner Sunset neighborhood, in a hurry, on the way to the Yum Yum. A car full of very young people cut me off at that tricky four-way intersection (Irving and 9th.) I honked my horn. Down came their driver's side window. I braced myself for the nasty threats, the fists, the finger. But no. Instead, a bearded, frizzy-haired guy leaned out the window, made a "calm down, take it down a notch'' gesture to me with his right hand, and calmly mouthed out the following words:

"It's ... going .. to ... be .. OK.''

This is the first time that I've ever gotten into a road rage situation with a crisis intervention counselor. Needless to say, the encounter left no negative residue at all. I wish this kind of thing would happen more often. If this were NYC, all my teeth, at this point, would be missing.

Capitola Book Cafe

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at my (former) home town on June 19th, when I'm scheduled to speak at the Capitola Book Cafe. I hope to see you all then.

Dennis De Young Museum

I had a great time at the Dennis De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. What a great place. I hate the provisional-looking exterior but the content of the museum is top-notch. I was skeptical at first --- a whole museum, dedicated to the former lead singer of Styx? Fortunately the collection is more than just classic rock memorabilia. There is an excellent installation by Kiki Smith, showing the figures of two children riding a box kite into a 'storm' of hanging raindrops, each one made of handblown glass. They've got a really good Andy Goldsworthy installation, and the traditional art from New Guinea is the best display of its kind I've ever seen. They also have a journal on display with the original handwritten lyrics to "Mr. Roboto,'' which was also cool to see. All in all it was a very good experience (and not too expensive.)

Morbidly obese and lazy hawk in Golden Gate Park

I am growing concerned about the morbidly obese and lazy hawk in Golden Gate Park (in a field beneath a copse of trees, not far from the De Young Museum.) It is so waddlesome and lazy that it can barely fly anymore. It looks like a basketball with wings. I guess the food supply (pigeons, rats, gophers, more rats) must be very plentiful this year. Or maybe all that second-hand pot smoke is drifting up into the trees, sending his appetite out of whack.

On the road

Look for me out on the road starting in June. I am taking "Cactus Eaters'' to various cities and towns. This will probably include some sort of slide show/ power-point presentation featuring emigrants, mountains, flora, fauna, pioneer cannibals, trail logistics, little-known factoids, etc. Details to follow.

More information about getting drunk in the woods

Some of you have asked me to provide some more specifics about the phenomenal "Beer Woods'' hike in Muir Woods. (That's the one where you embark on a four-mile loop with a working beer bar right in the middle of the redwood forest.) Here goes. The pub is actually a faux Swiss chalet with stunning views of redwoods and Mount Tam. It's called the Tourist Club, and it's managed by a 600,000-member group called Naturfreunde, with headquarters in Austria (so they know from beer.) The club's address is 30 Ridge Ave., Mill Valley. Call in advance (415 388 9987) to make sure they are open. Also, bring a lot of food before you go there. It's hard to hike back out of the forest, over steep and sometimes slippery terrain, while shnackered.

Montara Mountain

For those of you who are out here in SF, and are looking for a quick escape, and are sick of the crowds in Muir Woods, try this hike. It's just off Highway One beyond the Devil's Slide (near Montara.) It's eight miles round trip -- and the first four miles are straight uphill--- but the views of the East Bay and San Francisco are tremendous. Warning: clear your schedule after you do this. I couldn't walk for a couple of days afterwards.

Allegedly phallic tree revisited

I have been trying, in recent weeks, to make my Cactuseaters blog more focused on the environment, backpacking, trees and "green'' issues. With this in mind, I've decided to republish a story I wrote some years back for the Santa Cruz Sentinel about an "allegedly phallic tree.'' For some reason, this story resulted in a small avalanche of strange attention; I went on various Howard Stern-style radio programs to talk about this particular shrubbery.

Fact or fallacy: Sexy tree too much for some Westside neighbors
DAN WHITE
Sentinel staff writer
May 8, 2002

A Westside resident called the cops Monday to report an allegedly phallic tree.

Officers responded to the Liberty Street home but found no wrongdoing. They said the 20-footer — actually an evergreen hedge of the Luma genus — is protected by its owner’s right to artistic freedom.

"We contacted the city attorney," said Sgt. Brad Goodwin. "It could be interpreted anywhere from being free speech to being artistic. It’s really nothing we have control over."

All trees can be seen as "phallic," but some would argue this eugenia is especially so. Viewed from the front, the hedge looks to have testicles, or perhaps bosoms.

Eugenia is a common plant noted for white flowers and edible fruits, according to the Sunset Western Garden Book. Sunset says the plant "performs best" in well-drained soil.

The owner of the tree, Gillian Greensite, said she found it peculiar the plant has been there at least 15 years and suddenly someone is mad about it. She said no one has complained to her about the plant.

Greensite, director of UC Santa Cruz’s rape prevention and counseling program, also questioned what the offended neighbor was really seeing in this tree.

"If they want to see phallic, they see phallic, I guess. I see trees," said Greensite, an outspoken advocate of tree preservation in the city.

She added the eugenia was "not trimmed for any particular purpose."

The complaining neighbor could not be reached for comment Tuesday....

Amy Sedaris at the Herbst Theater

I thought she did an incredible job. They set it up to look like a sit-down interview with Daniel Handler but it was pure, polished improv comedy, right from the start. She would take some ridiculous, offhand comment from the audience (including an astoundingly tasteless remark about Ms. Sedaris's dead mother in a sexually compromising position), pretend to ignore it, and then refer back to it mercilessly throughout the evening. Comedy is very hard -- it's easy to get up there and look like a shnook --- but she seemed fearless. She sparred a bit with Mr. Handler -- just enough to make you wonder if it was all part of the act or not. I also picked up on a lot of housekeeping tips (how to put google eyes on peanuts, for example.) There were many other weird twists to the evening -- such as Andrew Sean Greer playing the role of a slavish butler, setting down a martini for Amy Sedaris. Someone in the audience asked her about appearing with Martha Stewart, and what it was like to work with her. Sedaris replied that "he'' was very nice

This just in: a date for the upcoming reading

Please come to the next Steinbeck Fellows reading at 7:30 on March 6 (a Thursday) at the main library at SJSU. Peter Malae and Lysley Tenorio will read from their recent fiction (and I will have a short nonfiction piece.)

Just say no to marathon training while stoned

I know that they are just being friendly. But I'm starting to wonder why so many people are offering me "fat nuggs'' while I am wearing workout clothes and doing my long marathon training runs through Golden Gate Park. It seems counterintuitive.

I just drank a $20,000 cup of coffee (!)

I'm sure you've all read about the new Blue Bottle Cafe, which opened recently in the Mint Plaza. This city is full of places where coffee drinkers go to absurd new extremes to get that perfect cup --- and the Blue Bottle outdoes them all. You've got to see this to believe it. The place is clean and airy, with a staff that is in constant motion, stirring the silt out of the New Orleans-style iced coffee with chicory, monitoring the movements of the $20,000 Lucky Cremas Bonmac 105 siphon bar and tasting the product constantly, sipping the brew from tiny little cups. I ordered up a $12 pot, brewed in a glass globe. Quite frankly, this brew was a little bit above my head; it was delicious but I couldn't quite figure out what was so wonderful about it. However, it packed an insane caffeine kick that lingered for about 12 hours. Check it out, but get there early; it was hard to find a table.

Wild Sky Wilderness update, plus upcoming reading ...

I'm keeping a close watch on this one: Washington State preservationists are asking Congress to set aside 106,000 acres of forest, in the heart of Skykomish Valley, as wilderness. The land sounds incredible: old-growth forests, scenic crags and wild rivers, not to mention habitat for bald eagles, wolverines, owls and mountain goats. The proposal has cleared the U.S. Senate. Let's see what happens with this one. If it becomes a reality, I'm loading up my pack and heading out there as soon as the snows clear up. In other news, the Steinbeck Fellows will be reading in March in San Jose. Don't miss it. Peter Malae and Lysley Tenorio will present some of their latest works. Refreshments will be served. (and I almost forgot to mention that I'll be reading, too.)

The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail turns 40!!!

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. (see footnote.) I'm hoping that lots of people will take leaves of absences and sabbaticals to through-hike this 2,650-mile trail. I might seem like an unlikely advocate for this path, considering that I had a rather extreme experience (running out of water dozens of times, getting lost constantly, getting giardia, etc.) However, many things have changed since I hiked it. For one thing, trail angels are leaving more water caches in the drier sections of the hike. The telecommunications boom is another factor. When I hiked the trail, cell phones were rare, unreliable and clunky. These days, people are blogging right from the trail(!), carrying GPS and maintaining at least some contact with the outside world. Finally, there are so many online resources and publications for people interested in lightpacking and orienteering. I'm hoping to hear from some people who are contemplating a PCT journey this year. Also -- thanks to the many people -- including former classmates -- who showed up to my "postcard signing.'' I appreciate your support!!!!

(footnote: purists will note that the trail has existed in various incarnations for much, much longer than 40 years; however, the PCT was designated a 'national scenic trail' in 1968.)

Corrected updated blog entry about Saturday

As it turns out, I will not be signing some advance copies at the New York Hilton from 3 to 4 p.m. this coming Saturday. However, if you stop by and say hello, I will give you a postcard with some information about "The Cactus Eaters.'' These postcards, by the way, are absolutely free. Take as many of them as you want. So far, my visit to New York has been fantastic. I've heard readings by Russell Banks, Phillip Lopate, Victoria Redel and many, many others. So far, every one of the AWP presentations has been first-rate. Tomorrow I'm going to see Edwidge Dandicat and John Beryman. I'm attending panels and getting a lot of great advice for creative writing and comp classes. The only cause for worry is my diet. So far, I've consumed a large banana pudding from the Buttercup Bakery, a cream-cheese smeared bagel from Absolute, an enormous corned-beef sandwich at the Stage Deli, deep-fried zucchini pancakes from God knows where, and other rich gloopy foods. I'm going to be huge by the time I leave this place.

New York

I'm just about to board a plane to New York. I will be out there for the next few days, talking to writers, editors and educators while raising awareness about my book. This means that I will be standing in front of Zabar's, handing out leaflets and waving around an inflatable cactus. Just kidding.

Someone on my street is keeping livestock in his apartment!

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but someone is raising a rooster out here. It's a little strange -- this is an urban area -- but I know it's not my imagination. Every day I hear the strangled sound of the rooster calling out -- "mawk-mawk-magooo!'' For a while, the sound stopped, and I felt bad for the rooster. I thought that it was some 'slow food' thing, carried to a ridiculous extreme, and that he wound up in a soup or as a capon. But the noises returned yesterday, louder than ever. I love all creatures great and small, but not at 5 in the morning.

My morning drive

My morning drive goes something like this: I race to my car, turn right on Divisidero, and the MUNI lurches up from the curb to cut me off. I switch on the radio. It's the same song every morning: Dynamite Hack's mellow folk cover of NWA's "Boyz-N-The-Hood.'' At the corner of Divisadero and Haight, I see the same homeless woman, holding a sign that says "Smile.'' I cut straight through the Castro, then down into Noe Valley, where I amp myself with coffee and a fistful of Noe O's. From there it's 280 South. Soon enough, I pass the charmingly inept sculpture of Junipero Serra and that Flintstones-looking house with red-brown paint. In San Jose, "She Rock The Hips'' beams into my car radio at the same time every morning. Eventually I lose the signal and switch to Greg Kihn in the Morning. An AC/DC cover band is playing "Highway To Hell'' in the studio. They are trying much too hard. By the time the song is over, I have arrived.

The screaming bush of Santa Cruz

I recently visited my old haunt, Santa Cruz, California, to catch up with some friends. I was hanging out downtown, standing in front of a shrubbery near the entrance to Book Shop Santa Cruz on Pacific Avenue. All of a sudden, the shrub began to shake and scream. The leaves parted, and out jumped a pasty shlub of a guy, laughing, while holding a bunch of branches in his hands. When I came to my senses, I realized that the shrub guy was in league with a second man, standing across the street, filming the whole thing. I guess the two of them were filming one of those 'gotcha' style comedy movies, where they bother people in the streets and then incorporate the footage into a narrative. Anyhow, the dummies forgot to ask their "victims'' for releases. If I see myself in their movie, I'm lawyering up.

Back to school

I'm teaching again, starting this Thursday. My new batch of students has no idea that my previous class called me "D. Money'' and "Professor Diddy.'' I'm counting on my readers --- all eleven of you --- to keep this under your hats.

Chocolate and bacon: a bad combination

Some months back, I posted about Vosges chocolates, some of the most experimental chocolate you can find. The people who make them are fearless. They will throw just about anything into their candies --- Banks Beer, rum, champagne, dried violets, powdered tea leaves, even dried-up kalamata olives. They have one chocolate that is so fiery spicy hot that it will make your tongue curl up in your mouth. During that posting, I made a facetious remark, saying that I would support these candy makers until they became too "daring'' and "weird'' and started putting sausage in their chocolates. Well, my fears came true. Their latest chocolate bar includes applewood smoked bacon as an ingredient. I tried a piece of this in Noe Valley and it just tasted ... well, not awful but weird and a little "off.'' When the chocolate melted away, odd bits of gristle remained.