Not me

My friend Ed Park once told me a story about a native of the country of Lebanon, a serious chukar hunter.

—Pat Wray, A Chukar Hunter's Companion

West is West

Not me, and not even "Ed Park"—from Michelle Richmond's blog* on SF Gate (part of the SF Chronicle):

After the horrible earthquake and tsunami that wiped out much of the northeastern seaboard of Japan, making hundreds of thousands homeless, killing at least 8,000 people, and leaving stores empty of basic supplies, Westerners experienced a wave of respect for the people of Japan, as one question made the rounds of Western media: "Why is there no looting in Japan?"

Ed Park posed the question in his blog for The Telegraph, noting the impressive way in which the Japanese had banded together in a communal effort to survive.

But if you click through to the blog...you can see it's by Ed West. He looks like this:

Lately I look like this (photo by Laird Hunt):


_________
*"This is an SFGate.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by SFGate or the San Francisco Chronicle. The authors are solely responsible for the content."

My life as a dog

Not me:

Dr. Park was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2002, Dr, Park completed his internship at Oradell Animal Hospital in New Jersey. He became a clinical instructor for emergency and critical care at Cornell for two years before moving to California for his residency. In 2007, Dr. Park transferred his residency from Advanced Critical Care in Orange County to CCVSC with Dr. Gfeller. Dr. Park has continued to work for our practice and will be finishing up his residency at FVSEC under the guidance of Dr. White. Outside of work, Dr. Park spends time with his wife and newborn son. He loves piano, martial arts, cooking, and is a fan of the New York Mets.

Clenching my fists futilely

I've never come across myself in a work of fiction*—but I just came close! This is from Philip K. Dick's early story "James P. Crow":

Ed Parks got up from the table and moved into the living room of his modest five-room dwelling unit, located in the section of the city set aside for humans. He didn't feel like eating. "Robots." He clenched his fists futilely. "I'd like to get hold of one of them. Just once. Get my hands into their guts. Rip out handfuls of wire and parts. Just once before I die."

*not counting ones I've penned myself:

"Do you think you could put us in touch with some other Ed Parks who might be film critics?"

It was a strange request. "I don't know of other Ed Parks. Rather, I know there are others, but I don't know that any of them work in my field, such as it is. I’ve heard of an Ed Perk and an Ed Parr, both journalists, but I don’t think they’re film reviewers. Perhaps your wife is thinking of one of them?"

"No, no," Lex said. "Terribly sorry. But here's the thing. Are you now or were you ever Edward Parks?"

"Parks with an -s?"

"Yes."

"Of course not. How could I be?"

Aqua Fantasia

My Korean website!

Boundary issues

Not Me:

During the event, competitors had to strip down a traditional field boundary wall before rebuilding a section – all within seven hours. Some 18 men and women took part, including some youngsters.

Winner of the professional class was Iolo Jones of Deiniolen, who narrowly beat Cumbria’s Ed Park. Both men are former British amateur champions. —Daily Post North Wales

* * *

Me?

Six easy pieces

Model aircraft and even a souped-up John Deere mower joined cars at Derick Samson's second annual car show Saturday, May 22, in Marshall.

Ed Park brought his 1936 Ford Cabriolet, which he has owned for nearly 50 years.

His car, he said, is "what you call a survivor of the old '40s/'50s custom; ... '37 DeSoto bumpers, '49 Chevrolet license plate surround, '39 Ford taillights, '40 Chevy headlights, '39 LaSalle grille, '49 Mercury dash," he said, and made reference to Johnny Cash's song "One Piece at a Time." —Marshall (MO) Democrat

Daily inspiration

I don't have an MBA or a degree in CS, I didn't know what a Consent of Board was, I'm just a dopey kid from Koreatown but I will NOT give up

—Ed Park's Twitter feed

Strix Nebulosa

Back in the ‘50s, Ed Park and I were calling great grays on the old Newberry Crater road on a dark gloomy night. I was standing in the middle of the road, bent over, hands behind my back, and moaning that low hoot when suddenly headlights from a side road pinned me in their light. Someone appeared out of the darkness, dressed in a dark blue uniform, and a burly voice said, "What is this, some kind of religious ceremony...?"

—"Big Time: They Don't Come Any Bigger Than the Great Gray Owl," Jim Anderson, The Source Weekly

And you can quote me on that

The company’s FluoroXprene offering can be formulated as either a thermoplastic vulcanizate or thermoplastic elastomer. The material acts similar to a high-end Santoprene—the TPV/TPE designed by Advanced Elastomer Systems L.P. and now owned by ExxonMobil—said Ed Park, Freudenberg-NOK senior staff chemist and FluoroXprene developer. —Rubber News

Taxonomy

“If a bird is big and you can eat it, it’s a pheasant. If it’s small and you can eat it, it’s a quail. If it’s big but inedible, it’s a hawk. Everything else is a dikky bird.”
—Ed Park

An Inquiry into Market Values and Philosophy of Bay Area radio in the '90s

Totally, totally not me:

back in the 1990s, in college, our friend ed park liked this particular song tom cochrane’s “life is a highway.” before he mentioned it, i had never heard of it. why? did that song simply never get big in the bay area when it came out? otherwise, was it not played either on alternative radio or else hip.hop radio? you see, the bay area went through much of the early 1990s without a top 40 radio station. did you realise that?

"The Late, Great Ed Park"

Last Tuesday, I posted a "Not Me"—a link to an article by Ed Park about hunting as a "green" activity—and, later, a "Totally Not Me," which listed the table of contents from a 1965 copy of True, The Man's Magazine." (EP had written a piece called "Shoot Swans? Why Not!"—perhaps satire?!)

I didn't know it, but this Ed Park—judoist, Korean War vet, outdoors writer—passed away last Tuesday. From his very interesting obituary:

Raised in Portland, Park was just out of high school and working as a fire lookout on Black Butte in 1948 when he wrote his first outdoor story.

The account of a bobcat attacking Park’s dog was rejected by Outdoor Life magazine, but Park persisted, writing and publishing thousands of articles for nearly 100 publications.

It's an odd feeling for me, reading this obit—every line is strange, or sad, or strangely sad:

“Ed was fascinated with nature; he was interested in every little thing,” Lewis said.

“I was astounded I’d be getting a call from Ed Park,” Monroe said. “I cut my teeth on Ed Park when I was in Vietnam. That’s what we’d do, read the big outdoors magazines, Field & Stream, Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, and Ed was writing for all of them,” he said.

Here's another tribute, more personal, from The Source Weekly. (And here's an old interview with Ed Park (I think I already posted this.)

This article confirms what I only recently suspected—that this Ed Park had written The World of the Otter, a book I bought earlier this year:


(There's an article about otters in literature that I am—seriously—contemplating writing.)

Also: I am now pretty sure that he is the author, with Lue Park, of 1992's The Smoked Foods Cookbook, copies of which were prominently displayed next to Personal Days at my Brooklyn B&N reading.

* * *

After suffering a stroke in 1991, Ed wrote his articles with one finger.

* * *

For a while, I believed that there were at least three authorial Ed Parks—the article writer, the cookbook writer, and the man behind The World of the Otter (and The World of the Bison). I liked having this unlikely fraternity...It is weird to say this, but I will miss him.

—Ed Park

A fur piece

Not me.

On your toes

A piece on "Mad Men at the Movies" quotes..."Ed Park"?

Ed Park at the Village Voice notices how "it keeps its edges with on-your-toes dialogue and a fine-tuned critique of corporate culture."

That's from Birmingham's Black & White City Paper...but (obviously) I did not write about Mad Men for the PTSNBN! What is going on here? Another "Not Me"?

The article starts with various critics weighing in on Mad Men...then reveals that the quotes were actually taken from reviews of earlier films....Ah! That's what I said about The Apartment, back in 2002. The argument being that "there is nothing new under the sun"...(Don't know if it's really the dialogue that I like about MM...?)

I do like that brilliant bit of assigning by Dzyd Dennis—two workplace movies, a forgettable Hugh Grant–Sandra Bullock offering (all I remember is H.G. beaning S.B. with a tennis ball, or was it the other way around) and the Wilder classic.

Annnyway....haven't thought about that piece in a while.....zzzzz....

Train in vain

"My" version of Triaspirational.

Thursday Ouroboros — I will Kadare — Not Me

Dzyd Will draws our attention to this Polish poster for Fatal Attraction:



(Check out the Airplane 2 poster as well.)

* * *

Our big-power cultural provincialism requires a corrective. “Great Albanian writer” may risk a reflexive yawn. But it’s tiny worlds that fill the large ones: Jane Austen’s village society, Mark Twain’s muddy Mississippi, Cervantes’s somnolent Mancha. For that matter, Dante’s hell is largely populated from the bloody quarrels of a few small city-states.
—Richard Eder on Ismail Kadare, NYT

* * *

Not me.

Previous incarnations

Having lived through the Great Depression, Ed Park is more than a little unnerved about this year’s financial turmoil. He remembers the bank closures then and said he and his friends are “scared to death” it could happen again. —The Bulletin

M.P. Phone Home

From today's AP wire story on Michael Phelps (via Dzyd Sarah):

"He is just a normal person, but maybe from a different planet," said Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov, fresh off a thrashing by the Phelps-led Americans in the 800 free relay Wednesday but still wearing a silver medal around his neck.

Cornel Marculescu, who runs the sport's governing body, concurred with the intergalactic theory.

"The problem is, we have an extraterrestrial," Marculescu said. "No one else can win."

British swimmer Simon Burnett has a different take, which he shared with American men's coach Eddie Reese when they ran into each other in the cafeteria.

"He was saying to me, 'I think I've figured out Michael Phelps,'" Reese said. "'He is not from another planet; he is from the future. His father made him and made a time machine. Sixty years from now he is an average swimmer, but he has come back here to mop up.'"

* * *

Check out these false Olympics pictograms at Crude Futures.

* * *

How popular is your name? (There are 12 people in the U.S. named Ed Park??? Fewer than I thought!)(Hmm, but there are 298 Edward Parks...)

(Via MUG)

Is this Ed Park? (Cont'd.)

Not me:

"Does Ed Park know of any other ethnic group in the world that embraces you as one of their own simply based on looks?"