getting something off my chest

Kim and I went to see “Romeo and Juliet” down on campus a couple weeks ago. And, in fact, despite my initial apprehension that it would, well, suck, it did, in fact, NOT suck. I liked it a lot.

Why do I tell you this? I’m getting to that.

Sometime in act II, Juliet squeaks out the famous line “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Remember that?

Well, I disagree. I call @#!*% .

There are two terms in backcountry skiing that I have of late found to be sticking in my craw, as it were. Ruining the fun. I realize I should just get over it, I should know, like Juliet obviously does, that what you CALL something has nothing to do with what something IS.

That’s what the semioticians have been telling us for a long time, right? The signified has only a random, arbitrary relationship with the signifier.

Well, Saussure is wrong on this one. I don’t buy it. My evidence? My craw. And what’s stuck in it.

I submit that the term “Meadow Skipping,” which is used to denote low angle skiing, often in trees and, er, meadows, when the avalanche danger is high, is the gayest possible term for said activity.

I am reminded of Bambi every time someone says it. “The MEADOW!”

I say no more Meadow Skipping. Rather, “Let’s stay low angle.” Or, as Sergeant Esterhaus always used to say “Let’s be careful out there.”

Isn’t it always better to quote Hill Street Blues than to use a term like “Meadow Skipping?”

Okay, here’s the other one, and I realize I may be stepping on some sacred cows here, but I have to get it off my chest.

“Dawn Patrol.”

How stupid is that? What are we, Israeli Commandos? “WOLVERINES!”

No, no we are not. We’re just getting up early and skiing. After hiking. Sometimes it’s dark when we start. Whatever.

If someone sent out an email in the summer and said “Hey, who’s up for a dawn patrol up AF Canyon tomorrow” he would be shunned like an Amish kid caught watching First Blood. In cycling we say “I’m riding early tomorrow, anybody want to meet me at the mouth of the canyon at 6:30?”

Not dawn patrol, like you’re an extra on Band of Brothers or something.  Getting out early.

Good talk, Rusty.