My brief ramblings on "Ashiwi Country" in Pyramid #74 aren't even a little game-useful, but:
- It's oddly appropriate for me that this article shows up in the around-Christmas issue. After getting married and earning his PhD, my father was in the Air Force for a while, a consequence of going to school on Uncle Sam's bill via ROTC. He was stationed at Kirtland AFB (next door to a Navy base, apparently, which has always seemed a bit odd to me) near Albuquerque and absolutely loved the place. My parents moved away shortly before I was born, but my father retained a certain amount of New Mexican bric-a-brac, which was most visible in the form of Christmas ornaments. As a result, I've always associated Christmas, to some extent, with the desert Southwest.
- I didn't get to see the Southwest until many years later, when I was part of a summer of archaeological work on the Zuni reservation. I gotta say, the people are lovely and the scenery is pretty spectacular, if you like that sort of thing. And it really is a dry heat.
- I didn't get into it in the article, but I should mention that Frank Hamilton Cushing is a bit of a controversial character among the Zuni. He was an important and useful bridge between the Zuni and the white world, but publishing all that stuff about their religious practices was a huge betrayal of trust.
- In the introduction, Steven says of the article "This meaty guide in the vein of Riggsby’s GURPS Hot Spots series..." DO YOU HEAR THAT? IT'S OFFICIAL! HOT SPOTS IS MINE! MINE, YOU BASTARDS!
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