> Russo Loco Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > So I presume it's safe to assume that the car
> > is named after the town where it resided -
> > which in turn was named after the lumber
> > company - and has nothing to do with my
> > second cousin John McPhee
. . .
gregcoit {Replied}:
--------------------------------------------------
> I should know better than this, but here goes...
>
> Are you really related to John McPhee, Russ?
> I think i've read just about everything he's
> written, at least in book form. I'm sure there's
> lots more in magazine form I have yet to see.
> Sadly, he seems to be retired now. A very
> talented writer - I've learned tons from reading
> his books.
Right, Greg -
I vaguely remember McPhee mentioning something in 'The Crofter and the Laird' about his father Angus being married to a Roemer girl. She was my mom's dad's sister, so John is a second cousin on my mother's side of the family. My daughter Cindy (Jackelopette here on the forum) met John at a reception several years ago when he came out to U.C. Davis where she was a student to visit his old friend Eldridge Moores, with whom he had traveled a great deal while writing 'Assembling California'. In addition to being a professor of Geology (Emeritus, IIRC)*, Moores was a cellist in the U.C. Davis orchestra when Cindy was a member of the student choir. Per Cindy, McPhee remembered my mom as his 'Aunt Spindle' (she was nicknamed 'Spindleshanks' when a kid due to her skinny legs).
IIRC, John McPhee is roughly ten years older than I am, which would make him 84 or 85 by now. SFAIK his latest book, 'Silk Parachute', was a pre-retirement farewell.
-
Roosso
p.s. Probably my favorite McPhee book is 'The Control of Nature', in which part one describes the lower Mississippi River and almost predicts what happened to New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina, and part three accurately describes the recurring cycles of flash floods and raging fires that plague Southern California's mountain ranges.
* IIRC, Eldridge Moores is best known as one of the earliest adopters and promoters of 'plate techtonics', long before the concept became generally accepted by leading geologists.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2016 02:29PM by Russo Loco.
