{ SCENE IN S.B. }
Monarchs and Moscow
Text and photos by Caitlin Fitch
living
FEATURE • GARDENING • STARSHINE • SPORTS • FOOD & DRINK { TRAVEL }
Where in the World Is “The best thing about Santa Barbara is that my grandkids are here!” said Dick Fuller of Goleta. “I’ve been pretty fortunate to live here this long and to be able to retire here,” he added. Fuller has been a volunteer docent at the Ellwood Butterfly Grove in Goleta since 2007. He enjoys informing the public about the grove, answering questions, and being out in nature.
“We love looking at the architecture here. What other town preserved the old look and then built the new to look old?” said Ben Hinton while he waited with his dog Nimke as his wife shopped. The Hintons were visiting from San Diego after a recent move from Moscow. “Nimke means ‘small hug’ in Russian. We named her that because she won’t do any tricks; she just cuddles!” he said.
{ QUIZ }
Holiday
1}
Traditions In which city was Handel’s Messiah first performed?
❏ London ❏ Hamburg ❏ Dublin
2}
Which ancient stone structure’s axis aligns with the winter solstice sunrise?
3}
Which winter holiday originated on Seinfeld?
❏ Newgrange ❏ Stonehenge ❏ Rapa Nui
❏ Festivus ❏ Chrismukkah ❏ Yak Shaving Day
{ ETC. }
Snow at the Zoo Turns out it’s going to snow in Santa Barbara — a lot. Eighty tons of the white fluff is predicted to fall on the S.B. Zoo for area kidlets (ages 4-12) to sled on and frolic in. The ice crystals are being created to celebrate the zoo’s snow leopards, Everett and Zoe, who came to the S.B. Zoo as part of a global conservation accord. In addition to the humans, some critters will get the cold white stuff added to their enclosures, including the elephants, meerkats, capybaras, Asian small-clawed otters, and (of course) the snow leopards. Other kid fun includes a climbing wall, face painting, and electric ride-on animals. Sunday, December 8, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. S.B. Zoo, 500 Niños Drive. For more information, call 962-5339 or visit sbzoo.org. — Michelle Drown
Rick Steves?
T
en minutes into a discussion with professional happy wanderer Rick Steves, on the phone from his hometown near Seattle, about other travel writers and the ongoing philosophical competition between journey and destination, he suddenly stops. “What are we doing?” he asks with enough genuine curiosity to give my laughter a hollow death. It’s not a joke. Just for the record, I remind him we’re talking to pave the way for his appearance at the Granada. “Oh,” he says, “and what am I talking about?” followed by the sound of shuffled papers; then yes, he said, it’s a lecture titled Lessons from a Lifetime of Travel. Okay, then, he asks, “When does this interview begin?” Steves ought to be forgiven his mild confusion, which he later swore had nothing to do with either the accumulated culture shock or jet lag inherent in traveling three months of each year. Likely, this brief disorientation was due to everyday pressures. Steves produces a weekly NPR radio show and weekly PBS television, not to mention this new book and the annual grind of updating his most famous work, Europe Through the Back Door, which first appeared in 1980. “You know I’m not very well-read when it comes to other travel writers,” he confessed. “I do read a lot of nonprofessional books, and people constantly send me their travel journals.” “And you read them all?” I ask, incredulous. “I try to,” he said. There is something more kindly professor than intrepid traveler as Steves’s voice summons visions of Mr. Rogers. But he came upon this persona authentically; a former piano teacher and tour guide, he only wanted to make the continent easier for people of his ilk. The occasion for philosophical waxing about onthe-road dharma, however, was prompted from his recent hosting of part-time Santa Barbaran Pico Iyer on his radio show, where they explored topics more psychological than logistic — helpful hints for making a global soul rather than braving customs. “I think of my career in terms of Maslow’s theories of self-actualization,” said Steves, surprisingly. “My first years were all about
4,000
pounds
physiological needs.” Travel tips were the equivalent of food and oxygen in his first books; then, he said, came the enthusiastic cultural side, the books meant to build aesthetics into the mix. “But in my last decade, I’ve been passionate about getting people to travel outside their comfort zones; this is the pinnacle: traveling as a political act,” he said. People need to find themselves in places that speak another tongue to find something beyond their assumptions. Presumably he will elaborate on this theme when he comes to the Granada Theatre next week. So which is more important, journey or destination? I asked the man who seems obsessed with both. He thought for a second. “It depends on which one changes you,” he said. The most interesting factoid about Rick Steves is the fact that even though he travels three months every year, he lives in the town where he grew up; in fact, his office overlooks the junior high schoolyard he attended. “I’m looking at it right now,” he chuckled. So is he the ultimate homebody passing himself off as the inveterate trekker? “First, let me say that even though I travel three months a year, I bet I love this town as much as anybody who never leaves. Living in the north part of Seattle made me think about being a good steward of the place where I live. But I’ve been traveling for one-third of my adult life, and I consider it all time and money well spent. You know one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been is India,” said Steves, who currently yearns to go to the South Seas just for fun. “People ask, isn’t there a lot of suffering there? But what I think is that there is more joy there in just daily life, and there is probably just as much — D.J. Palladino suffering right here.”
4·1·1
Rick Steves comes to
town Monday, December 9, 8 p.m., at the Granada Theatre (1214 State St., 899-2222). Tickets: $21-$43 (general), $16 (UCSB students). For more info, call 893-3535 or visit artsandlectures .sa.ucsb.edu
BY THE NUMBERS The weight of the 32-foot menorah erected each year in Manhattan at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street. Due to the structure’s height, a crane is needed to light the candelabra. SOURCE: wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorah_(Hanukkah).
december 5 , 2013
THE INDEPENDENt
45
answers: . Dublin; . Newgrange; . Festivus.