Imaginary Wild West meets Modernity.... off geographic topic but interesting

The New York Times runs a piece today about historic Tombstone Arizona's battle to deal with the mountains of trash produced by the 200,000 tourists who visit each year to experience the world of Wyatt Earp, etc

It is fair to say that well before the Earp brothers shot three cowboys in a lot behind the O.K. Corral, this city had a trash problem. Mule and horse droppings were everywhere. The stench of leather being tanned, charcoal burning and ore being dug out of the earth burned the nostrils. Garbage piled high in the muddy streets.

The article notes that Tombstone issued an ordinance in 1881 -- Ordinance 6 -- that created a Board of Health and stipulated how to dispose of animal carcasses, rotting food and dead bodies. This ordinance was enacted before the much better known Ordinance 9 -- the one, also issued in 1881, that banned carrying guns in the city.

And still, more than 130 years later, the city continues to wrestle with its refuse.

Happy Karl May Year!

Poster for one of the exhibits

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Happy Karl May Year! The German adventure writer who gave us Winnetou and Old Shatterhand was born 1842 and in died in 1912 and many events are scheduled to mark the 170th and 100th anniversaries.


A web site has been set up to keep track of events and news. There is a long series of exhibits, festivals, symposia, conferences, lectures and other events programmed throughout the year, mainly in Germany but also in other countries. Some of the exhibits kicked off already in later 2011.

With any luck, I'll be able to get to some of these and report here.