Scott Corey in his 'annual' e-bulletin

Old Coot Hikin'

(aka Scott Corey)

I hadn't heard from my old Berkeley friend Scott Corey (UCB Poli-Sci PhD) for a couple of years, and that's because two years have passed since his last annual e-bulletin, as he admits in his own words:

It has been two years since my last bulletin, but I'll try to be reasonably brief. The two best things have been getting past the need to work two jobs, and getting to hike farther out in the mountains. Since quitting the second job, I've been able to join the choir at the Methodist Church, and been in two local plays. The West End Theater is the best community theater I’ve seen, and it has been good for me to sing and speak in public after years of singing as I scrubbed floors. I was Mr. Brownlow in "Oliver!" More recently I had four roles in the "radio theater" (performed to an audience) version of "It's a Wonderful Life." The hardest was the Announcer, who needed to be a bombastic egomaniac.

Yes, I agree. There just aren't very many prominent bombastic egomaniacs that one might choose to model oneself after. Be as that may, didn't Scott mention hiking?

Hiking took off when Garrett Olney, a semi-retired Plumas County judge, asked if I could use a hiking partner. He has a four wheel drive truck, so we can get to trailheads I could never reach in my Saturn SL. He has a wealth of local knowledge that he relates as we hike to places like Dead Man's Springs, or Pilot Peak. He also shares my liking for cross country shortcuts and no-longer-really-there trails. But the best thing is the caliber of intellectual conversation. For me, dragging up a rocky trail or a snow covered slope, sore and dehydrated, while discussing police shootings, the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, Second Amendment issues, and terrorism is just about the best thing on Earth.

Sounds right up my alley . . . or hiking trail! Good way to work off stress! And that's needed:

The job is more stressful than ever . . . . And then there's politics. Our county went for Trump, but by smaller margins than the rest of rural Northern California. I am very dismayed that someone could get elected after speaking as he has. Despite my well-earned weariness with political correctness, I am disgusted that legitimate concerns of so many people have to be saddled with the baggage of Fox News claptrap. One colleague from Berkeley days has challenged me to start writing on the subject. The idea is that there aren't too many people who have, simultaneously, a good education, moderate politics, and extensive familiarity with rural, white, working class perspectives. So I guess I'll see what I have to say, and what can be heard.

Yeah, that pretty much leaves Scott as the chosen one. Good luck, Scott. You'll need it now. Trust in the Lord, but keep your powder dry.