“You know, Sir, the news has become so fake, and people have been rendered so believing in the foisted fakery as to render them blind to reality, folks will now look out their window and see gray clouds and snow, and if the news in their hand has told them the sun is shining, then they will see sunshine. The next day any shred of reality, of the actual, will be lost in the well of the fake that is the media—to include social media. My point is, I wonder about your travel writing. Your travel-logs appearing now are for last summer. Do you still write them? This is very important. For it seems in such a fake world that the only chance for real news is that travelers such as yourself report on their experiences.”

-Paul Bing Ham, by truck down a nighted Kansas road

It does not escape this muddled mind that fakery is not regarded as a word by this word processing dictionary. The day before yesterday Charles reported by text, to stay out of the sun and that an astrophysicist was predicting earthquakes for this week. Yesterday, Bob in Utah told me that an earthquake hit the Wyoming/Utah border in the Uinta mountains. He consulted with a geologist he works with, who informed him that the 4.5 quake did not even occur along a fault line, but along Mirror Lake Highway in the foothills. None of this will make the news.

This reminds me, in our fact-checking world, of a sign my wife and I saw outside the Lariat bar and grill in Greshem, Oregon. She texted her friends that the Lariat was open again for breakfast. Her friends checked the online menu, and corrected her, she did not know a thing, there was no breakfast at the Lariat. Even though we sat at the bar having a drink and ordering breakfast, the greater social media world was convinced, that the girl that had been too busy to update the website because she had to fire the cook for smoking more weed than brisket tended the stove instead of the ether scroll…

AMTRAK has been pushing hard to revitalize rail travel as a part of national infrastructure. Discount sales are run often. Trains are over booked. More trains run along the various lines. More cars are added to trains. Most passengers this winter are first-time train travelers. They have cited continued air travel delays, rescheduling, being abandoned without return flights, near misses unreported by news, of obnoxious TSA agents. Many people visiting and relocating by train are very lonely and reach out to others for friendship, giddy in this post-COVID age, AEG 6 [After Everything Got Gay.] At the LA terminal last Thursday, as Wetzel picked me up, an automated robot car was stuck in valet, holding up meat-driven vans and cars…

Most stations and even platforms are being updated. The coach cars are being refitted, the 1960s design rebuilt to replace five restrooms for 1960s humans with three for 2020s land whales. The 11 Coastal Starlight, from Seattle to Los Angeles, is the most often canceled line; mud, rain and snow often covering the tracks along narrow Cascadian passes and wide rivers. A three day delay brought me to sunny San Jose. That line operates out of Los Angeles, which is the most well organized train station. The local mass transit is much more a priority there than I other Amtrak hubs. The security is the best, always a dozen armed uniforms in sight. The trains crewed out of LA are the #11/#14 Coastal Starlight, the #3/ #4 Southwest Chief and the #1/ #2 Texas Eagle. For boarding at the head of a line, LA offers you the best service. The coach or sleeper attendant that books you at the ticket office or on the platform, gets you on a half hour ahead of time, and then rides the train with you. The busier Chicago hub has special people herders for the score of lines its serves.

LA based trains are the oldest equipment, the engines prone to breaking down, with the most delays. But, the cars are the cleanest, with an inspector boarding in LA and making threatening announcements to the staff to clean everything. The upside of LA getting the old gear and losing to Chicago there, is that their coaches got refitted first! There are less restrooms, but they work better, are easier to clean, are not rattling to pieces and are attended by nicer staff.

People in LA are much nicer than Chicago folks. The passengers are nicer too. Two random black men met three black babes taking a train to a birthday party for one of the women. Becoming friends within minutes, they soon broke into song, the small man leading the chorus in a “Happy birthday!” song and entertaining the entire car.

I have noted over Portland, LA and in Northwestern New Mexico, between 12 and 36 air frames a day laying down chem trails, which turn into line clouds, then swirl, sometimes dissipate, sometimes bring rain. Very few folks seem to notice. Wetzel, a pilot, told me, “I have a theory. Perhaps atmospheric nuclear testing in the past caused harm which must be treated allopathically?”

This brings me back to the event that began the AEG age and shattered so many minds into easily manipulated ciphers:

Maskless Mass

Crux Cross and Crumbled Cracker Reporting: 1/22/26

By email… “Oh, that reminds me: A report. I attended a catholic mass downtown this past Sunday. Old St. Patrick's Church. A late mass that features a win and cheese social for young adults afterwards. Packed. Zero masks. Overwhelmingly young adult. Skewed possibly as high as 60:40 male female. Not an expert, but I think it had a very high quality choral group. Lots of Latin throughout the liturgy, but readings in English. Eucharist at the rail if going down the middle aisle, ministers at the sides. Not exactly a super tight altar server crew. Homily somewhat informal. I could go deeper into the woods re liturgy and the Latin thing and the homily, but I'll leave it there. Also there was one exceptionally good looking blonde female—possibly in the chorus as she received eucharist almost last, and she was well dressed (... ok, I won't go into the woods on fashion either; ask Lynn, one word: Talbots). She alone could have been responsible for 10% of the male attendance.

Thanks again, mileage good, morning exercise ok, still in NYC.

One correction/clarification please: I believe it was eucharistic ministers on the sides, but I'm not absolutely sure. I'm not familiar with the church and if priests came in to assist I might have missed it.

CC

…

Crux, thank you. For my part, on trains servicing Seattle, Portland, San Jose and La, masks are holding at 5%. Women of all races, black men, trans persons and white male sissies account for all of the mask wearers.

The Southwest Chief offers the most seating, touching in many small Southwestern and Great Plains towns. The passengers are working class. This increases the chances that a coach prole can find seating for breakfast in the dining car. On this trip, despite my eyes paining me, as I think the glasses script is now out of date, I read Against The Machine by Kingsnorth and Faust by Goethe, and did much sleeping. I left LA on Saturday at 5:30 PM. Montius picked me up at Newton, Kansas at 2:00 AM Monday. We met Paul in Winfield Kansas at 5:30 PM Wednesday. Paul will be taking me north to Saint Louis on Monday, weather permitting. There I should meet T—B Wright.