Too much curious stuff

[Joel Pomerantz]

Hello Thinkwalkers of the world, especially of San Francisco,

In this news rounddown:

➤🤡 Puzzle your Eastbay giftees
➤🤡 Book discovery
➤🤡 Hoax debunking
➤🤡 NSPM-7
➤🤡 Musick Creek
➤🤡 Divisadero Display


Puzz abuzz ➤🤡 Puzzle your Eastbay giftees

We’re getting the crass promotion out of the way right at the start, here.

The Lake Merritt Watershed map I arted and coaxed into puzzlehood (Scott Oliver made the original map) is a perfect way to puzzle your friends. Buy one at an Eastbay (Piglatin for beast) store (such as Spectator Books) or on the Oakland Puzzle Company website:
oaklandpuzzle.com/products/lake-merritt-watershed

You can, if you live in SF, also get one from me using the order form at:
joelpomerantz.com/machform/view.php?id=11159


1971 gem ➤🤡 Book discovery

It’s the best diary yet. It's by one of the first known “invaders” to come here.

I've stumbled across some books edited by a slightly mysterious person named John Galvin. One of them, published in 1971 by John Howell Books (no longer extant) is right here in my hands. It concerns (and is titled) The First Spanish Entry into San Francisco Bay, 1775, and has original (Spanish & English) journal entries that have never before been digitized. Despite antiquarians losing out on sales whenever an old important resource like this becomes digitally available, I have digitized it.

I will soon post the journal from Fray Vicente Santa María, who was on Ayala’s ship when it became the first known European craft in the bay. I’d like to post it now, but I need someone who can help me conjoin into a single PDF the three parts I created when I scanned it. I stopped paying the pretty large fees to Adobe and so can’t use Acrobat that way anymore. Can you help?

This Santa María was a good writer and one of the few who wrote for himself, not his bosses. He also, amazing to say, learned the local languages. He was deemed not-a-team-player by the president and founder of the mission system, Junipero Serra. For that, he was sent south (literally) after a stint at the mission in San Francisco.


Theoscience pseudohistorian ➤🤡 Hoax debunking

Some years back I was contacted by someone interested in finding a crude old map they had once seen. I helped them find it and in the process discovered a purported diary from 1776 that is a bizarre hoax. The map was the least fascinating thing in that hoax diary. I call it bizarre because of these factors:

1) It’s in the public library as nonfiction and even sometimes has been listed as an important historical source but to me is obviously fiction.
2) It first came out (1969) as a fun little 44-page typed thing, but later came out with another 100 pages added for a second edition, with more diary entries and an added flimsy backstory clearly designed to answer critics who would have doubted it. To me it seems even more dubious.
3) It is laced with doctrine from the real author’s offshoot of theosophy (at least that’s what it seems to me; theoscience, he called it) put into the mouth of a character who supposedly was an unknown part of the Anza Expedition.
4) The character’s diary indicates so many incredible feats and rescues and unusual ideas that that alone would make it impossible for him to have been unknown from other sources. And yet, he appears nowhere else.

It’s yet another weird little side project for me. I have begun to assemble examples of quotes and evidence showing how impossible it is. With the 3rd edition having just been released by the son of the original hoaxer, this work of art deserves attention for entertainment and as a teachable moment, but not as a true diary.

I’ll post this work, too, when complete, but for the moment you can only see some of my critique as a review of the 3rd edition on Amazon (unfortunately not accessible to you unless you log in to Amazon, but worry not, I will post it on my site soon).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RAR2LY7UAUPZX


Possible disaster ahead ➤🤡 NSPM-7

I just want to make sure you know about this so-called Presidential Memorandum. It has been a few months and too few media outlets have featured the story. It’s called NSPM-7 and the memo declares it a big old crime to be part of any progressive organization or effort. This may seem like a joke not worthy of attention, but the administration has begun efforts to carry it forward and declare various organizations in violation. Please inform yourself.


Completely paid off ➤🤡 Musick Creek

As you may recall, I launched an effort to build a nonprofit organization. Then we bought 134 acres in the mountains south of Yosemite, saving it from development and (as it happens) many of the effects of a large fire, too. We created community around the nonprofit, which is called Musick Creek Confluence. There has been much happening in the forest: education, erosion control, tens of thousands of replanted trees, campouts, music, and plenty of water flowing.

But now [drumroll] we finally get to announce that we have raised and paid off the nearly $200,000 that it took to create this entity and buy the land from the music & arts camp that put it up for sale. In the meantime we have received major grants, many from the government when it was not shut down, for our forestry and educational work But only small private donations could be used for reimbursing our sweet lenders.

Joanna McClure generously offered to forgive the $17,675 we owed her for the last land payment which she had paid for us. This is a wonderful moment. Thank you Joanna! We have no more debt! Future funds can go toward cabins or a lodge or events or other structures if we decide to go that way.

And in the meantime, the no-longer-so-new org, Musick Creek Confluence, continues to act as fiscal agent (nonprofit umbrella) for Thinkwalks and Seep City. That means you can get a nice tax benefit by donating bigly to support my SF natural history educational work (or for donating to the forestry education and community-building work at Musick Creek).

For more donation info, see after my signature.


On hold due to sale ➤🤡 Divisadero Display

I have not yet replaced the missing map display on the Green Earth grocery (Divis at McAllister). I’m waiting for the family that is buying the store from Hani to finish their process, then I want to talk with them before I put up a map display again. Hani is even older than I am. It’s good he’s retiring after putting five wonderful daughters through college. But it does necessitate some patience.

➤🤡➤🤡➤🤡➤🤡
You probably noticed that this email is mostly about assembling future educational materials. Oh, except for the puzzle which is fully available right now!

To order it…

Within SF: joelpomerantz.com/machform/view.php?id=11159
Elsewhere: oaklandpuzzle.com/products/lake-merritt-watershed

Have a happy!
Joel
—
seepcity.org
thinkwalks.org

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