PRINCETON HHH HASH #862.4

Date: January 6, 2002
Weather: Sewer Generic
Venue: Somerville Circle to the Somerville RR Station
Set: Solo
Time: 1:00
Hashers:

First Wave: Hey Yo! Paully, Juicy, Geezer, T. J. Pray, WeePee, 
Binky, Atomic Duck
Second Wave: Dummer
Third Wave: Wacko, Holding Out

Descriptions, Polemics, and Lies:

A vast despoiled landscape greeted the pack. At the end of the 
universe, after the galaxies have moved out of sight and the protons 
have begun their slow dance of decay, the pitiful remnants that the 
collective intelligences left behind will resemble this part of 
Somerville, NJ: an endless sea of plastic bottles (not even protons 
in that stuff - it never decays), dead tires, and the other 
fortunately unrecognizable detritus of "life" in New Jersey. Is any 
of it worth it, one asks?

With that philosophical question, I turn you over to the musings of 
the Duck:


"Yesterday's hash was set in a visually polluted landscape. It was
rather sad and it reminded me of a poem called "Binsey Poplars" by
Gerard Manley Hopkins.

To allow you understand the analogy, I will reproduce the first few
lines of that wonderful poem:

My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
Áll félled, félled, are áll félled;
Of a fresh & following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow & river & wind-wandering weed-winding bank.

Well, firstly there were no Aspens trees that created a wonderful
canopy of shadow and light. It was an overcast sky that threatened to
rain or snow. Just the way some Hashers like it (but not duckies, we
like the sunshine and warm weather).


Áll félled, félled, are áll félled;
Of a fresh & following folded rank
Not spared, not one

There were no felled trees by men. But boy, the effect of all that
trash littering the hash trial was sad. What no doubt used to be
beautiful landscape, like the grounds of the forest near the building
that once housed a nuclear reactor where I now work has been reduced
to something that is not distinctly enjoyable.

Whose shadow that swam or sank on meadow and river and wind-wandering
weed-winding bank.

Well, the Raritan river was not pretty. At least not in comparison
the image I have of Aspen trees on a sunny day creating a wonderful
play of shadows on the river bank. Nor was it winding yesterday.
Thank God. I had enough trouble trying to keep up to pace with the
pack and not try to get lost.

Gerard Manley Hopkins came to my mind as I ran yesterday's hash.

And there were no ducks to be seen. They have seen the light and
flown away to better places.

Was the hash worth doing? Most definitely. For without knowing the
ugliness in this world, how could we ever appreciate the value of
beauty when we see it? And not just forests but other more important
things as well."



Hash #863.4, Sunday, January 13. Pyro sets

Hash # 864.4, Sunday, January 20, Juicy and Marsha! Marcha! Marsha! set

Hash #865.4, Sunday, January 27, Geezer sets

February is available!