THE DIFFERENCE between what I do here and what the night watchman does here is this: When people jump out of nowhere and grab me, the surprise I get is often a pleasant one.
This past couple of weeks, for instance, several local writers have tapped me on the shoulder in hopes I'd take a look at their latest projects.And I've noticed something rather curious.
Writers are becoming obsessed with water. They're writing about water as if it were a precious jewel unearthed by some explorer and brought back to dazzle the people at home.
Even I've been on that wavelength - writing columns and features about irrigation turns and river towns.
Writers these days apparently have water on the brain.
Along with the reissue of Edward Hoagland's "The Tugman's Passage" and the page proofs of Kathleen Dean Moore's new book of essays, "Riverwalking," I got a call from Elaine Peterson to see if I'd review the new book by Barry Ellsworth, "Little Stream" (Bonneville Books, $19.95).
It's a children's picture book with superb paintings by Steve Day (they're watercolors, of course). The story is a takeoff on the children's song "Give Said the Little Stream," with Ellsworth fleshing out the song into a narrative about a good-natured mountain brook. It's sweet. But it's an honest sweetness.
After reading "Little Stream" I phoned Bill Kittredge, a Montana writer and one of the West's best voices. I asked him if my run-in with water was real, or just a mirage. Was I seeing things?
"It's interesting you'd ask," he said. "I'm on my way to Corvallis, where I plan to give a talk about water. I'm going to use water as a metaphor for flow, for our beginning to understand the world as flow. In fact, the whole conference is about water. What water books have you been reading?"
I told him. He shared some water thoughts with me. We splashed around for awhile.
Then today, when I came to work, I found a manila folder. The folder had a small, self-published manuscript in it, a fresh piece of work from one of my friends, Thora Watson.
I didn't need to look at the title to know what it was about.
Thora's book is called "The Stream That Built a City," a history of City Creek and Memory Grove.
I bought myself a can of pop, sat down and read away.
I learned that Pioneer Day is July 24, but on July 23 the advance scouts had already set up a camp on City Creek. That same day Orson Pratt dammed City Creek and planted potatoes. Five acres of spuds were in by the time Brigham Young came down Emigration Canyon. And City Creek water was ready to irrigate them.
Through the years mills came and went on City Creek. So did reservoirs, screening tanks and chlorination plants. Today - not unlike the "Little Stream" in Barry Ellsworth's book - the "creek that could" keeps giving. Soon, like a hard worker finally getting a pension, the creek will be the site of a new park.
Thora Watson's book will be part of the time capsule that goes into the cornerstone when City Creek Park becomes a reality.
Her book brought to a close a full week of watery reading. Perhaps next week will bring another flood of water tomes. For now, however, I'm tired of reading. I'm going to a movie - maybe that new Kevin Costner film.
What is it called?
"Waterworld," I think.