(no subject)

[camwyn]

Okay, remember my web page on how to pass for Canadian? I have to update it tomorrow. Two reasons: one, I still have to insert a reference to the Tragically Hip in the music section. Two...

Two. Yes. Er. Down towards the bottom of that page I make the following comment:

"Canadians generally know things like, oooh, which of the provinces have access to the ocean and which don't, whereas most Americans could probably be made to say that you get real fine surfing in Alberta. (Hint: this is the equivalent of asking for the vast sandy deserts of Maine.)"

Today I got the following email:

i'm sure you've received this link. they're not "vast", but regarding deserts of maine--

http://www.desertofmaine.com

i need to visit your country (besides niagara falls)

*blink*
*blink*
*stare*

Visitors find it difficult to imagine among the rolling hills and rambling brooks at the end of Desert Rd. there is a Desert. Once you take your first step through the gift shop's front door, however, your doubts will vanish as you enter the vast and sandy DESERT of MAINE.

Bwah???

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Been there.

It's... very very very very touristiana. Very.

But kind of inspiring, since it's slowly being reclaimed by forest.

[colubra.livejournal.com]

There are also large bits chunks of California in which oranges are not planted.
STRANGE BUT TRUE.

[camwyn]

*dies of shock and is ded*

heee! :)

[derien.livejournal.com]

Gosh, eor had said he was going to write to you about the Desert of Maine like a month or more ago - I guess he procrastinated and forgot. :)

[unmisha.livejournal.com]

*blink*

Well, I knew Colorado had vast sand dunes, but a desert in Maine. Huh. Whodathunk? (Figures that it's man-made through mismanagement, though.)

[derien.livejournal.com]

In a sense, manmade mismanagement - there is sand not far under the topsoil in many areas of Maine, left by glaciers and lakes which are no longer there. The farming family who was there forgot to rotate crops properly for a few years and lost their topsoil. You can see in the pictures it's not huge, there are trees all around, and they're slowly taking it back over again. But it is weird to see, the dunes right next to the trees. And just funny that Camwyn should have made that statement.:)

[camwyn]

What gets me is the line about 'vast and sandy' matching up with what I'd written. Once again I feel the veil between What Gets Written and What Actually Is wearing perilously thin.

[derien.livejournal.com]

*chortles* Oh yes, I had noticed that when I first read it (and then of course neglected to mention it). Gave me shivers down my spine!

[camwyn]

It's sort of like a very, very, very small-scale form of Clarke Syndrome, wherein the writer predicts a thing and lo! it happens. Only Clarke predicted grand-scale stuff like geosynchronous satellites and TV executives destroying civilisation. My form seems to take the shape of, 'uh, did you know that stuff you said was already real?"

[lasa.livejournal.com]

If I were you, I'd write about world peace and winning the lottery then. It couldn't hurt.

[camwyn]

Actually, what I had planned out involved society getting ridiculously restrictive, then being forced into liberalization again, the science and technology expanding into a grand and glorious new era of exploration and world-wide development. Perhaps I can hasten that a bit.

[aethereal-girl.livejournal.com]

Dude. You know how you like to talk about all the gods you're pissing off?

It's starting.

[camwyn]

Oh, this should be entertaining. Esp. since I decided to go back to the Chinese history gig.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

Well, I could be geeky and say it's not a true desert unless it has a rainfall below a certain threshold, otherwise it's just a dust bowl :-)

[genarti]

I was going to say that. :)

(I still don't think 300 acres really counts as vast, though, even if it undoubtedly is sandy.)

[camwyn]

Well, vast by New England standards. Compared to the rest of the country, New England is kind of smooshed together and felted, so vast by local standards doesn't have to be vast by anywhere else's lights.

[genarti]

This is true.

Still, I have neighbors with several-hundred-acre dairy farms, though, even in Vermont, so I maintain the right to mildly scoff. (Particularly since "scoff" is such a fun word. Scoff scoff scoff.)

Although I must admit that the wording coincidence is rather freaky.

[midnightlurker.livejournal.com]

There are a number of deserts in places you wouldn't expect to find any. I used to think that the old Transformers cartoon was badly misrepresenting the geography of the Pacific Northwest... then I discovered the Oregon High Desert. ^.^

[camwyn]

Oh, I knew about the Oregon High Desert. I have a friend who lives out that way. I also know you can find old-growth forest (very small) and a working farm in New York City, so I tried grabbing for something that just didn't fit at all and 'vast and sandy deserts of Maine' seemed to fit about as well as 'surfing in Alberta'.

(Although you can do SCUBA in Alberta. They do coldwater dives in the lakes and rivers.)