"Squiffy."

I learned a new word reading "I love camping and have done for 40 years — these are my best tips" (London Times):

1. Put the tent up as soon as you arrive

The biggest dilemma you face is not where to pitch the tent, but whether to crack your first beer before you do. I camp most often with a group of friends, and the temptation to leave the practicalities for later and throw ourselves down on a rug for a few drinks and a chinwag is a powerful one. On no account give in to this urge. As anyone who has tried to follow small-print Decathlon instructions in the dark while squiffy can confirm, it is always an error. Remembering which poles go in which slots first is hard at the best of times, so delay the fun until you are fully erect, so to speak.

That's written by a woman, by the way, Gemma Bowes. I don't think a male would indulge in such low humor, but I'm leaving it in my excerpt, having copied it and encountered it after deciding I wanted to blog because of "squiffy." I don't want to seem prudish, so I'll just say I think that kind of double entendre has gone out of style.

Anyway, let's talk about "squiffy" — meaning "drunk." It is in the OED, with the oldest use from a letter written around 1855: "Curious enough there is a Lady Erskine, wife of Lord E, her husband's eldest brother living at Bollington, who tipples & ‘gets squiffy’ just like this Mrs E." 

"Dartmoor is the last place in England and Wales where the public have a right to camp on common land, thanks to the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985..."

"... which states: 'The public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation.' Alexander Darwall, a City fund manager and Dartmoor’s sixth-largest landowner, tried to end that right by taking a legal case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he argued that camping was not 'open-air recreation' and the legislation meant that anyone caught sitting down to rest, picnic or paint on common land could also be sued by the landowner for trespass...."

I'm reading "Extend wild camping rights across England, says Dartmoor boss/After the Supreme Court secured the right to backpack camp on Dartmoor, the national park’s chief executive has urged other national parks to be allowed to follow suit" (London Times).

"Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, said she would like to see a right to backpack camp in 'all open access country' in England, which is land the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives a public right to walk across, such as mountain, moor, heath, down and common land.... 'We want a right of access to woodlands and watersides, places that were defined as open country in the Countryside Act 1968 but then nothing ever happened with that. Access close to homes would help the government with their target for green spaces within 15 minutes of everyone’s home.'"

ADDED: I was reminded of this passage in Bill Bryson's "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" (commission earned):

"Am I the only one in the city being lectured on dates about Burning Man?..."

"... I hadn’t even finished chewing my first mouthful of pasta before his 37-minute tale began. (Yes, I timed it.) He fiddled excitedly with a loose dreadlock as I once again fell victim to an eternity of spiritual mansplaining. The formula was all too familiar. A compulsory mention of the 10 'core principles' of Burning Man, which, in more obnoxious settings, have also been referred to as 'the truths.' 'Inclusion is the core of our culture' he said. 'It’s written in the charter.'... [A]ttending Burning Man often costs a minimum of $5,000. And what kind of person my age, early career, has nine days to spend frolicking in a desert?..."

Writes Cate Twining-Ward, in "Men, Please Stop Talking About Burning Man/Am I the only woman meeting Burning Mansplainers on dates?" (NYT)(free-access link).

"Do you think that someone who is a drug addict is absolutely incapable of -- that all people who are drug addicts are absolutely incapable of refraining from using drugs?..."

"All right. Then compare that with a person who absolutely has no place to sleep in a particular jurisdiction. Does that person have any alternative other than sleeping outside?... They have... none. They have absolutely none. There's not a single place where they can sleep.... So the point is that the connection between drug addiction and drug usage is more tenuous than the connection between absolute homelessness and sleeping outside."

Said Justice Alito, in yesterday's oral argument in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. There's a precedent, Robinson v. California, that found it to be cruel and unusual punishment to make a crime of the "status" of drug addiction. The 9th Circuit said that the city — by prohibiting sleeping outdoors — had made a crime out of the status of homelessness.

For more detail, see the SCOTUSblog coverage: "Court divided over constitutionality of criminal penalties for homelessness."

"Supreme Court to Consider How Far Cities Can Police Homelessness/A group of homeless people in a small Oregon city challenged local laws banning sleeping in public."

A NYT article about a case up for oral argument today.

The plaintiffs’ argument rests in part on a 1962 case, Robinson v. California, in which the Supreme Court held that laws imposing penalties on people for narcotics addiction violated the Eighth Amendment because they punished a state of being, not a specific action, like drug possession or sale. 

In a similar fashion, the plaintiffs contend, Grants Pass is punishing people for being involuntarily homeless, not for specific actions.

"Oliver [Anthony] splits his time between the farm and a remote wooded encampment where he lives a spartan life in a tent and small trailer with his pregnant wife..."

 and their two young children. He and I both hope that his homestead can serve as a pilot site for my proposal... to build free healing centers in depressed communities across the nation, places that help reclaim a generation beset by depression, PTSD, loneliness, addiction, and mental illness."

Writes RFK Jr. at Substack.

Today's sunrise at High Rock Bay — Copper Harbor, Michigan.

Home now, but these photos were taken this morning, beginning at 6:02 Eastern Time, 44 minutes before sunrise time:

6:31:

6:35:

6:39:

6:45:

6:58:

All photos taken just a few steps beyond our campsite, which looked like this:

The lake is Lake Superior.

"For much of the recent past, one assumption in addressing homelessness has been that everyone wants a solid roof."

"The debate over encampments is shifting those assumptions. Increasingly, cities and states are exploring whether there can be a sense of dignity and agency in 'safe outside spaces' as an end in themselves. As some carry out sweeps to clear out encampments, others are experimenting with the idea of making them more humane, hygienic, and livable as one potential part of the solution to the housing crisis.... The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it is unconstitutional to ban sleeping in public if there are no other sleeping options available, and some municipal courts have made similar rulings.... The Georgia Senate is considering a bill that would criminalize camping and force municipalities to comply. But the bill would also allow the state to designate areas for sanctioned camps. In Savannah, Georgia, Shirley Walkowicz says the move to criminalize what she is doing – living in her car – 'just shows that people don’t [care] about me and people like me.'"

 
From "Disband homeless camps? Some cities rethink them instead" (Christian Science Monitor).

"For more than 1,000 nights, Isaac Ortman, 14, has slept beneath the stars in his backyard in Duluth, Minn., including on a night when the temperature dipped to minus-38 degrees."

"What started as a whimsical self-challenge... is now a nightly routine.... [He] even insisted on sleeping outside after he broke his left wrist in an accident at home this month. 'We came home from the emergency room, and I went back outside like I always do,' Isaac said. 'It’s like the time we saw a bear walk up to our patio door. Thirty minutes later, I was brushing my teeth and getting ready to go to sleep outside.'....  His dad [said] 'He found a waterproof hammock to string up in the yard, and he has a couple of sleeping bags, under-quilts and over-quilts that he can add depending on how cold it is.'... Isaac said [he has] an insulated hood.... 'It goes over my entire face and cinches up so just my nostrils are out.... Even in the cold, I sleep just fine....' ... [H]e prefers snow, rain and wind to the heat and humidity of the summer. 'Unless it’s below zero, I like to stick one of my legs out at night, so I don’t get too hot,' he said. 'If you’re cold, you can always put on layers. But in the summer, there’s only so much you can take off. You get all sweaty, plus there are mosquitoes'...."

From "Minnesota teen has slept in his backyard for nearly 3 years just for fun/'I guess a lot of people might find it a little unusual, but to us, it’s now the normal routine,' said Andrew Ortman, the teen’s father" (WaPo).

Lots of themes here, but there are 2 that I personally identify with:

1. Finding something you like and doing it repeatedly — a positive ritual. I blog every day and also have a ritual — though not every single day — of going out to the same place every day at sunrise. I find this immensely satisfying.

2. The weather will sometimes challenge us, but I agree that the challenge at the cold end of the scale is better than the challenge at the hot end. Sure, the cold has more power to kill you, but there are outward things you can do! Bundle up.

I've got 9 carefully curated TikToks for you this evening. That is, these are all things I liked.

1. Some have FOMO, but a lot of us have FOPU.

2. A lobster has been seen in real life.

3. Kayak camping and the coconut crab.

4. The L.A. conversation.

5. What does Dolly Parton think about prostitution? 

6. I remember when I lost my mind.

7. When David Bowie shouted out "It's great to be in Cincinnati..."

8. The different generations react to they/them pronouns.

9. Unclogging the drain.

The view from Pikes Peak... Pikes Peak, Iowa.

The day before yesterday, roaming around the Driftless Area, we stopped at Pikes Peak State Park — "a 500-foot (150 m) bluff overlooking the Upper Mississippi River opposite the confluence of the Wisconsin River."

Like the more famous Pikes Peak in Colorado, it is named after Zebulon Pike. 

Here's a slightly more southward view. The bluff on the opposite shore is Wyalusing State Park, where we camped Sunday night:

We hiked on the Bridal Veil Trail...

I've got 5 TikToks for you tonight. Let me know what you like best.

1. A way of planting potatoes.

2. A way of slicing apples.

3. Camping... and terrorized by ducks.

4. A song about thinking of what you wanted to say long after it's too late.

5. Coming upon a sandwich station that someone else did.

"The [Rainbow] gathering is organized around large camps and communal kitchens that serve coffee, tea and food. No money is exchanged."

"At a trading post, kids and adults bartered for jewelry, stones, glass pipes and Snickers. A painted rainbow was being erected over the 'Granola Funk' stage in the meadow, where a musical, a gong show and other performances would take place. At the Christian-themed Jesus Kitchen, one attendee said the nondenominational gatherings had made him a believer. 'I’d never seen Christians do it the way these guys do it,' said Gavin Boyd, 25, a carpenter from Fort Collins, Colo. It was, he said, less orthodoxy and more spirituality."

 
"The Rainbow Family comes to Colorado, bringing peace, love and anxiety" (WaPo).

This weekend is the 50th Anniversary of the first Rainbow Gathering.

Most of the WaPo article is about the locals worrying about the environmental impact of the gathering and the group's basically good reputation for sanitation and cleanup. There was a little something about politics:

"[R]esearchers... concluded that 'online reservation systems present the unintended consequence of excluding low-income, and perhaps nonwhite, would-be campers.'"

"The reason involves socioeconomic factors that correlate with the requirements of booking online, the study’s lead author, Will Rice, a parks management specialist, told me. For example, lower-income groups are less likely to have access to high-speed internet — a must for the most sought-after campsites. 'You have to be online to reserve them right when the window opens. You have to have really high-speed internet so you can be one of the few people who get those reservations.' To put that in perspective, in one remarkable instance cited last year by Recreation.gov, almost 19,000 people competed to book 57 campsites for the same dates."

 From "In the Scramble for a Campsite, Everyone Deserves an Equal Chance" (NYT).

I accomplished my #1 goal for the summer!

I slept overnight in the camper!

Meade took that picture of me after our hike out to see the sunrise. And here's his panorama that includes me along with the sunrise (to enlarge click (and click again)):

I'll have a few of my sunrise pictures in a separate post. This is a post to celebrate what was, for me, a big challenge.

"During the first night, in a rustic hot spring resort where the talk of the town was an owl that had taken residence in a tree..."

"... I came to terms with the fact that this was indeed going to be uncomfortable. I’d once lived outside for a month in a Thai Buddhist permaculture commune, slept in countless hostels, and meditated for 100 hours over 10 days in the Southern California desert. Living in a van when nightly temperatures dropped to 30 degrees would be another notch on the belt, I thought. Caity was astonished by my equanimity in the face of hundreds of opportunities to complain. Discomfort is inevitable, I’ve learned, but suffering is optional. I shivered and smelled, but there was no use resisting what I couldn’t change." 

From "#VanLife, From the Passenger Seat/When Caity Weaver wanted to try living out of a van as research for an article, she recruited her friend Michael Arnstein to come along for the ride. He shares what it was like to ride shotgun for a week" (NYT).

"What is ‘Type II fun,’ and why do some people want to have it?"

A WaPo headline asks a question I didn't have but now want to know how to answer.   

According to REI Co-Op, "Type 2 fun is miserable while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect. It usually begins with the best intentions, and then things get carried away. Riding your bicycle across the country. Doing an ultramarathon. Working out till you puke, and, usually, ice and alpine climbing." 

The WaPo article says: 

On this scale, Type I fun is an activity you’re sure you’ll enjoy, and you do. Think: sharing a nice meal with friends, going to the beach....

Type III fun? It’s actually not fun at all. It’s often described as “harrowing,” like getting dangerously lost in the wilderness or trying to swim across the Atlantic....

But Type II fun? That’s the sweet spot. It challenges you without putting you in danger — and it’s often uncomfortable but in ways that also make you feel alive.

I'm reading this just as I'm trying to get my mind around going out for several days in our new camper, which is Type I fun for Meade, but Type II for me:

Testing out the camper in the heartland.

"Why does no one say that glamping isn’t real? It does not exist outside the lifestyle pages. It’s a magazine fantasy for middle-class people."

"Lovely photographs of professionally styled and accessorised spaces — a four-poster bed with artfully dishevelled linen sitting on a beautiful faded rug inside an authentic Mongolian yurt — are taken at the golden hour to convey an idea of bucolic bliss.... The women are wearing expensive kaftans and beaded jewellery; the men have pastel sweaters knotted around their shoulders, like Italians. Everyone is tanned. Then there’s the reality. There is no plump, inviting bedding. There is no rug. The bed is hard. The inauthentic, not-Mongolian yurt is really gloomy and dark, what with the lack of windows or light, and it smells musty. You weren’t expecting the other glampers to be quite so close.... The men don’t look Italian: they are in bad shorts with blindingly white skin.... There is nothing wrong with normal camping. There are little family-owned campsites all over the country that really do have ocean views and wildflower meadows, fresh eggs for breakfast and locally grown vegetables for supper. If that’s not your thing, there are lovely and affordable bed-and-breakfasts in wildly scenic spots. I feel sad for B&Bs and small family hotels, nudged out of the running by so-called glamping and Airbnbs, which should really be called Airbs, as you can’t count on a fry-up." 

From "Glamping fantasies fold faster than a damp yurt/A madness has gripped the middle classes. It’s still a tent in a muddy field, folks" by India Knight (London Times).

A fry-up. I learned a new term, but I think I know what it is. Ah, yes:

Somerset Maugham said that to eat well in Britain you should eat breakfast thrice daily, and perhaps he was right. We're damn good at it – bacon and eggs, the sausage sandwich, boiled egg and soldiers, kedgeree, bloody marys, eggs benedict, marmalade and toast, gegs, Marmite, all make me leave the breakfast table with a great spring in my step. But we should find the man who decided that the majority of these beautiful things were best enjoyed all on one plate and slap his pudgy wrist.

Anyway, about that glamping. It could exist. And all presentations of travel should be met with skepticism.

"The five members of HOWL's board... have begun weighing the possibility that their perfect place may not be long for this world."

"There are no clear inheritors of [The Huntington Open Women’s Land], which was designated a place for women and women only by a private donor in 1986.... Such stories of pending obsolescence are common among the living leaders of the womyn’s land movement, who began founding rural lesbian utopias in the 1960s. At the peak, in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there were an estimated 150 such intentional communities in the United States. The lands are now at risk of dying out, partly because of their virtues: They exist in remote, off-the-grid areas.... In the absence of the men, women often comfortably lounged around the premises in various states of undress. HOWL in particular was envisioned 'as a place where young women have role models of strong old women....'...  More recently, HOWL joined Hipcamp, an online camping booking platform, which has led to an uptick in visitors.... 'This is a business,' said Barbara Lieu, 74, who manages the properties. 'Some might say it’s not, but it is.... I don’t have a fantasy that young lesbians will want to come here. They have enough freedoms in the world that we never had. And they’re transitioning in all kinds of ways.'... Starting about a decade ago, HOWL began to welcome anyone who identifies as a woman. The move caused some longstanding members to bristle.... There have been rumors of new separatist communities springing up elsewhere. [There is word] of one run entirely by trans women in the South. The rumors place it on an alpaca farm...."

From "Why Doesn’t Anyone Want to Live in This Perfect Place?" (NYT).