Pictured are four Native Americans, in authentic garb. Surrounding them are a host of TV sets, on which appear images from movies, TV shows and commercials that portrayed or rather misportrayed Native Americans on screen. Included on the various TV sets are images from Smoke Signals, Billy Jack, the Crying Indian from the Keep America Beautiful commercial, Little Big Man and The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Some of these images are more obviously offensive. A white actor playing Indian, Tonto and the whole crying Indian thing. Certainly, the sole male model draws the eye the most, but the three women, plus papoose ground the image in the meaning that it was meant to convey.

Alice and Chris arrived safely in town, after check-in they swung by Chez Harry’s for a visit. Harry was more than willing to fix dinner for every one, but Chris insisted on buying everyone dinner. He had Harry choose the place and it was a beauty, Paesano, the same Italian restaurant where we celebrated Bub’s next to last birthday. It was great, and both Alice and Chris were pleased with the choice. They are both avid foodies, which makes me think that we are going to have to up our game for Chris’s upcoming visit to Saint Louis in late July. A year-and-a-half of Covid, plus being out-of-town since the great reopening is going to make this endeavor difficult.

In-between road trips, this one and the last, which also bracketed twin episodes of house guests, first CRAB and then Dan and Britt, we managed to catch up a little on local Saint Louis events. A TV news report told us of a bear sighting out in Wildwood, where Dave and Jill once lived. This is not too surprising, because this is near the far west end of Saint Louis County and is already pretty rural and is surrounded by even more rural counties. But the TV news report went on to compare this bear sighting to a previous one that had occurred in none other than Richmond Heights. A bear was treed and darted east of Galleria, little more than a mile from our house. This happened in May, while we were out west. I assumed that the tranquilized bear was transported to a locale that was more bear friendly, like Wildwood, but it appears that while we have been encroaching on wildlife, wildlife has been also encroaching on human habitat.