[MD] nee-vadah, Kali-fornya

[John Carl]

Ok, a long time ago, when I was growing up and going to school, I wondered
where the name "Nevada" came from.  Nobody knew, back then.  My teachers
didn't have such thing as a wiki, and it wasn't a prominent piece of
historical fact, and every spanish speaking person I knew and talked to,
just shrugged their shoulders and said they had no idea what it meant or
where it came from.  This went as far as Sierra College in the 80's and
included some pretty smart people who knew lots of stuff.  Didn't know where
the word came from tho.

Now, of course, you can look it up and unhinge the mystery.  Its all defined
and delineated and expertized.  The thing is though, I'm still skeptical.
 I figured out some time ago, that the truth as promulgated by experts is a
plausible enough lie that nobody else  contradicts you.

So please allow me to contradict, in my usual annoying way, brainwashed
society's ideas.

First off, Nevada was basically founded by miners who migrated from the
California gold fields, and the most beautiful town they'd ever seen or
heard of is nestled right here, the Twin of Grass Valley, Nevada City.
Except it wasn't Nevada City back then, it was just plain Nevada.  To this
day, there are very old roads going from my county to Carson City.  Roads
and flumes and old telegraph poles and all kinds of communication between
this town and theirs.  We're the biggest and nearest town in an uncivilized
world  and non-Mormon to boot.  Don't tell ME they'd never heard of the name
Nevada and innocently and coincidentally named their state the same as this
town, by accident.  We were here first and they knew it.

It's claim jumpin', is what it is.


The other clue  that the experts screwed  up came to me  was when Sasha, my
Ukrainian friend was visiting.   The first time he saw the big dry state on
the other side of the divide, he laughed and said  "Nee - vadah;  no -
water", Ne-vada is Russian for No Water - and obviously the most logical
name possible for a giant hunk of granite that scrapes all the moisture
outta the sky and dumps it on the good side of life.  The mountains that do
that are the No Water mountains.

 This state was Russian before it was Spanish.  When the Spanish missions
 started drifting north, the Russian Fur trading forts had been here a
while.  Whoever gets there first gets to do the naming.  It's the rule.
 Otherwise, I'm gonna rename them right now.

Even now, it's kind of weird because they aren't called "The Nevada
Mountains"  They're called the Sierra Mountains.  Everyone has always  known
that "sierra" is Spanish for  "mountain".  Read any map with "Sierra Madres"
and "Sierra something or other" all over Mexico and S. America.  So saying
the "Sierra Mountains" is a silly cross-cultural redundancy that can only be
pulled off once before confusion sets in.  It wouldn't make sense.

Stupid experts.

We should lobby the Sierra Club to change their name, just to be annoying.
 Tell 'em their name is  a cultural insensitivity.

THE Sierras.  Like THE Mountains.  The only ones.  It's cultural-linguistic
hubris, it is.  Write your congressman.


Maybe it's just because of an assumptive Russo-phobia that persisted and
colored everything academic after the 50's, that nobody would dig deeper
into such an anomaly.  Maybe nobody cares like me because we had to change
the name of OUR town when THEY copied US.

Or maybe I'm just sore because I lost $26 playing Black Jack and the
all-you-can't-eat buffet was closed.



Actually, Reno has become more interesting to me these days.  I like my
Babylons in faded hues, deserted glamour, tarnished glitz.  It takes on a
richer and poignant meaning than when it's crowded and succeeding.   Reno
went heavy into redevelopment, right before the big bust.  They were trying
to compete with, what they rightly saw as a huge new threat from Californian
Indian Casinos, and so they tore up the whole downtown to try and tuck a
transcontinental railroad under the rug, fix up a living river into a water
park, and generally spruce up and rebuild the way Big Casinos like to do.
 And then the bubble burst, and the little old ladies who want to sit and
jingle their money away had a much more economical way to do so, just 30
minutes from Sacto and snowtires not needed.

You should go there some time, if fading Babylons are a tourist attraction
for you like they are for me.  Lu and I got two free nights in a real nice
room, and I told her we were actually hired players.  They didn't care
anything about us, but that we come and wander around and help the place
look like people were there.   My three girls are going to private schools
on much the same plan.  Enrollment has dwindled to the point they need props
to make it look real, and are willing to pretty much forego tuition.

I told Emily as I took her to PUC, that when I was a senior, I couldn't
afford College.  My dad made too much money.  Honestly.  He didn't believe
in College, wasn't willing to pay anything towards it, and I didn't qualify
for scholarships because of his income.  I told her, I vowed that when my
girl was old enough to go, that wouldn't happen to her.  I'd make sure and
be so poor that she could get a college education.

It's a weird system.  Don't ask me.  I didn't set it up.  I'm just an
observer, not an expert by any means.