I had some Reservations

   Never wanting to miss an opportunity for fun can be a full time job; take eating out for instance. I wish I had a dollar every time I made reservations under an alias."Yzerman, party of two" turns heads if you're dinning in an upscale restraunt in Detroit, as does "Kavorkian, party of one".  
  In New York, I have on occation made reservations under DeNiro. It usually comes with the best table in the house AND a look of distain or at least disapointment. No harm, no foul. After all, what's in a name.

     This past weekend I ventured up to the northwest corner of Montana. I spent the weekend on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The reservation spraws out over 1.3 million acers of absolutely beautiful landscape. I've made reservations, had reservations and been on lots of Indian Reservations and I will say,  the Flathead Indian reservation in northwestern Montana is by far the prettiest and cleanist. As a testiment to the current status of cultural integration, I'm sad to say the only thing that attempted to detract from the natural beauty was the billboards and signs combatting meth. One sign in particular caught my attention; it was a billboard written in english and in the Salishan language of the locals. The Flathead (Salish proper) have a language all of their own. Currently only anout 200 people, mostly tribal elders speak. In an attempt to hold on to tradition, the younger Salis have plenty of signs, strung out along the roadways, in English and Salish.

     No matter what you call it or how you say it, I'm hooked on Flathead Lake. I can't help thinking, however, that the last time I saw signs in English and another language I couldn't even begin to read, I was 2000 miles away in Dearborn,MI. That's magnoon! 

 Magnoon -  Egyptian-Arabic dialect word for "crazy"