tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post921409428643580073..comments2024-03-19T21:14:01.007-07:00Comments on The Compass Rose: METRO - A Day in the LifeCurtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-36744616768685587262010-03-22T08:02:56.062-07:002010-03-22T08:02:56.062-07:00There are actually nine villages, each with its ow...There are actually nine villages, each with its own distinct valley separated from the others by mountain ridges. The village that won the national rugby title that year had the privilege of playing the Scottish national team while we were there and gave them all they wanted. Figure each village has less than a thousand people and most of those are either schoolchildren or retired grandparents. People of working age, between 20 and 50 years old, are mostly away working in New Zealand and Australia. So the village drew its team from a total pool of perhaps 50 rugby players?<br /><br />Rarotonga is at 22 degrees south latitude, so it's actually subtropical, same as Hawaii. Some of the northern Cook atolls are within five degrees of the equator.<br />I visited Tarawa atoll in Kiribati within a degree or two of the equator. If you don't wear a hat while waiting for the bus your brains will cook.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05061304265345986242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-37688419621181857952010-03-22T06:49:06.103-07:002010-03-22T06:49:06.103-07:00Interesting.
We rented a little motor-scooter and...Interesting.<br /><br />We rented a little motor-scooter and did the circumnavigation of the island, stopping to investigate the sights. It was immediately apparent that the island was like a little town where most everyone would eventually know everyone else. I did my first snorkeling there, and was amazed at the tube fish, inside the reef. How fast they could move! And the amazing colors reflected off their opalescent bodies!<br /><br />One afternoon it began to rain, harder and harder and harder, water was gushing off roofs. Then, just as suddenly, it stopped, and within 10 minutes the heat had evaporated all the puddles and pavements.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-38936477354268962010-03-22T00:51:58.801-07:002010-03-22T00:51:58.801-07:00My wife and I lived on Rarotonga for nine months, ...My wife and I lived on Rarotonga for nine months, twenty years ago, while she trained nurses for the outer island atolls and I taught school. I flew in via LAX and Pape'ete. I read Typee while in residence there, but in school I taught Orwell's Animal Farm and Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Performing arts are so much a part of the culture that teaching didn't seem like work. The best place to view sunsets on the island was the chapel at the hospital where my wife taught her classes. I flew out by way of Fiji.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05061304265345986242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-22490300495972400412010-03-21T20:32:54.748-07:002010-03-21T20:32:54.748-07:00Craig:
We had a lay-over of about 2 hours in Fiji...Craig:<br /><br />We had a lay-over of about 2 hours in Fiji waiting for our hop to the Cook Islands--Rarotonga, which was our destination, where we spent a crazy week in the late 1990's. <br /><br />It was our first encounter with the tropical humidity. My clothes stuck to me, and my hair felt like matted fur on my head. <br /><br />But the sunsets were something to behold.<br /><br />I especially loved swimming in the "princess's" pool, a small cove-like surround of rocks which created a kind of mini-bay, within which there was almost no perturbation, and the light greenish hue of the warm water seemed like--must have been--paradise.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-30801851360109132922010-03-21T20:23:07.433-07:002010-03-21T20:23:07.433-07:00I think Fiji is a better choice than Fuji, but the...I think Fiji is a better choice than Fuji, but then I'm biased. I lived in Fiji for nearly four years and even met the former prime minister on several occasions while he was still in office. The last time I spoke with him was New Year's Day Y2K. We talked about Charlemagne and the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dateline does a little jog around Vanua Levu, where worldwide television coverage of the new millenium began. The 180th meridian bisects that island within walking or at least swimming distance of his home village. Boarding passes that served as book markers in my copy of Island of the Day Before are a clear indication that I visited Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia while reading that book.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05061304265345986242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-10903659183293548892010-03-21T16:06:31.340-07:002010-03-21T16:06:31.340-07:00Curtis,
I got the book title wrong:it's "...Curtis,<br /><br />I got the book title wrong:it's "The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control" by Ted Striphas.<br /><br />Sorry for the error.Conrad DiDiodatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312831623791642286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-21966161934784697742010-03-21T14:02:49.706-07:002010-03-21T14:02:49.706-07:00Curtis,
you might find Ted Striphas's book &q...Curtis,<br /><br />you might find Ted Striphas's book "The Late Age of Capitalism" particularly instructive in your appraisal of the nature of e-literacy. Using very current examples, Striphas talks very convincingly of the transformation of the text's materiality and use- value in a very different reading market.Conrad DiDiodatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312831623791642286noreply@blogger.com