Stinky Pinky

So my friend the Dude tells me let's load up all the kids and head to Mount Diablo for Black Friday, and I say sure. I'm always up for a educationally enriching experience.

So we end up on the north end of the park off Mitchell Canyon Road, out near Clayton, just because the Dude is coming in from Sacramento, and that's the closest entry point for him.

Well, I'd never been to that end of the park before, and I'm so glad we went there. We ended up on the Eagle Summit Trail, and I was really struck by the variety of plant communities there. Oak savanna down below, then manzanita-dominated chaparral as you get a little higher, then pine forest near the summit.

But you know what my kid was interested in? Poop. He kept pointing out all the poop to me on the trail and asking me what kind of animal made the poop, what did the animal eat who made the poop, was the animal sitting, standing or flying at the time the poop was released.

Well, I guess poop is part of our wondrous natural world too.

Oh, and I taught the kids how to play Stinky Pinky. Stinky Pinky is a game where you think of a two-word phrase that rhymes (typically a noun-adjective combination) and you give everybody a clue and they have to guess what rhyming phrase you've thought up.

And before you give the clue, you say "Stinky Pinky," "Stink Pink" or "Stinkity Pinkity" depending on how many syllables are in the words that comprise the phrase.

Like for instance you might say...

"Stinky Pinky. Footware-shaped illumination device."

And the answer would be "sandal candle."

And the object, of course, is to come up with a Stinky Pinky that's so obscure or convoluted that nobody can guess it.

Well, then I get back to El Cerrito, and the kid's been asleep in the car seat since we got on the freeway in Clayton, and I'm looking at my map of Mount Diablo State Park waiting for him to wake up, and I see that there's a place not far from Mitchell Canyon called the Rhyne Mine.

And I said, "Hey, I'm gonna remember that one the next time I'm playing Stinky Pinky and there's actual money or beer involved."

Kurt "big daddy" True
24 november 2007