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3Deserts wrote:However, as a California native, let me respectfully nip this in the bud now: never again utter or write "cali" as long as you live.

Marmaduke wrote:I agree with 3deserts, NO Cali, just like you don't go into San Francisco and call the city "Frisco"

butitsadryheat wrote:Dman... Welcome to Cali

3Deserts wrote:dman, jesting (and jousting!) aside, following other suggestions, Agassiz would make a neat introduction to the Sierra. It's a really beautiful area, the approach hike is very appealing and easy, the scramble isn't hard, and will introduce you to some pretty typical Sierra terrain, with the option to get in to some 3rd class stuff if you choose to head off the standard gully routes from Bishop pass. For what it's worth, it's the only 2nd class route Peter Croft includes in his Sierra book. If there's early season snow though, be careful. If you start up and it's looking too dicey, you can still spend a wonderful night amongst some very charming lakes and tarns, and maybe scramble around Chocolate Peak a bit.

Speaking of, if you're in a book-buying mood, I'd suggest Croft's book "The Good, the Great, and the Awesome," and Fiddler and Moynier's climbing guide to the Sierra (forget the exact title), and Porcella's guide to climbing CA's 14ers, in addition to Secor.

Now, back to Comedy Central:

A5RP wrote:

Marmaduke wrote:I agree with 3deserts, NO Cali, just like you don't go into San Francisco and call the city "Frisco"

You funny White Anglo Saxon Boys.

Ha ha! That's funny. The assumption I mean. Almost as funny as assuming a sailor might have curious bedroom habits!

Jesting--again!--aside, so you know: white yes, Anglo and Saxon no.

And, since we're going there, not Protestant either. Like you, a good Roman boy actually!

A5RP wrote:I'm Super close Bro's with some very hardcore "Real Cali Natives" and they insist on identifying as "Cali Sordeno's" or "Cali Nordeno's".

Guess that is the difference between cultures. Those that are true natives and those that claim to be natives.

Vato, seriously: what does that all even mean?

"Super close bro's?" "Bro?" Pretty white vato.

"Very hardcore "Real Cali Native?"" Seriously. What does that mean? Like, more nativer? Like, 'I'm more born in CA than you?' Like, 'more pregnant?' Half native? WTF? You either are, or you are not. Like, born here I mean. Like me. Born in downtown Los Angeles (the not WASP part! Hey! Whadyaknow?). Let me emphasize: "Los. Angeles." Like, "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles." The original name.

Or, hell, let's really get native. The original name of my home town Los Angeles is actually "Ya'ngna," and the people who named it, the Tongva, who've lived here for several thousand years are definitely nativerer than you and I and everyone we've ever met born here. Or more borned here.

"True native."

Perhaps you're suggesting that's me?

Again, see above. Born and raised.

How having a Spanish linguistic heritage somehow imparts greater nativity is a mystery to me. If you're born here, you're born here. Either as hardcore, or as little hardcore as the homliest, pastiest Phred you ever met.

A5RP wrote:I am a suedo immigrant from Espana and came over here with my parents when I was 20 months old. I could never claim to be a "Cali Native".

"Suedo." You mean you're a big slimy booger?

Oh. Sorry. You meant "pseudo." Nevermind.

Spain: best athletics in the world right now. The double Euro championship and WC championship is a thing of timeless beauty, as is their style of play.

Nadal. Contador. Indurain. Spanish athletes are providing some of the most marvelous spectacles in sporting history. I love the food. Love the wine. Love the language. Love the literature (Cervantes!).

THAT SAID (and this will be news to you!):

If you are of European Spanish extraction (of which you can be rightfully proud), then you are JUST LIKE ME: a white, non-Anglo, non-Saxon American of European descent, although I will concede you might have some north African blood lines in your history whereas I don't. Hard to know. Do you know? It might make a good story.

Okay, thanks for tuning in. From here on in, I'll channel my frustration of not one but two forced Sierra cancellations in to something more productive than sparring on the intarwebeños.

Y'all be safe this weekend. Don't let your asses get burned by the thunderbolts!

3Deserts wrote:
Also, I would take very strong issue with your assertion that it was a barren wasteland. Very, very far from it. Moreover, there were far more than a few dozen natives living here. If you would like a beginning list of resources to help enrich your understanding of precolonial life in coastal southern California, I would be glad to compile a list, including contacts for actual living Tongva teachers, linguists, and professors, who also double as native botanists and ecologists at Claremont College and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden--some of whom I've met and talked to at length personally, and see on a regular basis.