[extropy-chat] Youth Extension

[Spike]

> > > Ok, excuse my lack of knowledge -- who/what is Rocinante?
> > >
> > > R.
> > 
> > Don Quixote's stallion.  s
> > 
> Also, perhaps more familiar to US readers:
> 
> Rocinante is the truck author John Steinbeck drove across the United
> States in 1960. He recounts the journey in Travels with Charley, a
> bestseller that initially sold more volumes than any of Steinbeck's
> other books and won the 1963 Paperback-of-the-Year Award.
> 
> In February of 1990, the Plates family generously offered to donate
> Rocinante to the National Steinbeck Center. The truck was shipped to
> Salinas and has been in storage. Rocinante was lovingly restored to
> its original glory by Gene Cochetti and on April 1, 1998, Rocinante
> was moved into its new home in the Main Exhibit Gallery of the Center.
> 
> BillK

BillK, perhaps we should mention that the National Steinbeck
Center is less than 2 hrs drive south of the San Jose Airport.  

After reading Travels With Charlie and all the other books by 
Steinbeck, I went down to the annual Steinbeck Festival in 
Salinas/Monterey, where they had on display Rocinante and 
some other wonderful Steinbeck memorabilia.  This past year
was a major hootenanny for it was Steinbeck's the 100th
anniversary of Steinbeck's birth.  Behold this beautiful
truck, which Steinbeck commanded while creating a wonderful
literary work of art:  

http://www.steinbeck.org/Rocinante2.html

I looked all over for a 1960 model GMC fleetsider that I 
could rebuild, paint green and make into a replica of 
Rocinante.  When I learned that the V-6 would go only
11 miles on a gallon of fuel, (about 18 liters per 100 km) 
my enthusiasm cooled considerably.  I decided to settle
for a poster of Rocinante, and for naming my trusty
mechanical steed after those two characters, Don Quixote's 
horse and John Steinbeck's truck.

I have often been compared to Don Quixote.  Literary
critics have observed: "Spike, Don Quixote was a tall 
skinny cat, and so are you."

Yes, of course, but also consider that Don Quixote had
his own unique view of the world.  He treated his 
dilapidated old horse as a champion steed.  Where the 
others saw only the rough serving wench Aldunza, Quixote
saw a beautiful princess, Dolcinea.  (Of course Dolcinea 
is the stunning beauty Sophia Loren, so Peter O'Toole's 
optimistic vision is actually the most accurate.)

Cryonics has been described as a Quixotic vision, a
fantasy of the eventual defeat of inevitable death and
decay.  If so, let us all be Quixotic in our every vision 
of the future.

spike