Word: alcatraz
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...snack bar on the second deck. For cyclists there are bike racks below. From the sunny afterdeck, commuters can stare at some of the handsomest scenery in the world-the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito's tiny houses clinging like mussels to the surrounding green-brown hills, deserted Alcatraz with wildflowers growing on its rocky sides, and the San Francisco hills covered with white and pastel buildings. In the evenings, passengers see the same splendors in a different light, their perceptions sharpened by tasty 750 martinis, fine Scotch or champagne...
...star? No, it was 1947, the year of Burt Force with Brute Lancaster. Or was it Brute Force with Burt Lancaster? Hood and hero, buccaneer and intellectual, Lancaster played them all, sometimes simultaneously. His characterizations were usually as delicate as his incisors, but in such films as Birdman of Alcatraz and Elmer Gantry he was restrained and acute...
...invasion force became a thoroughly disorganized society. Perhaps even more debilitating was the threat, real or imagined, of a Government bust. A sort of Castroesque paranoia set in; the "Alcatraz Security Force,"complete with special jackets and a "training" room off limits to outsiders, for a time was rude and overweening even to sympathizers sincerely trying to help. Though supposedly prohibited, drugs and alcohol became staples of island life. Petty jealousies simmered and bloody brawls exploded. One Indian artist tried to set up a studio only to be burned out by several of his estranged comrades...
Such infighting has caused most of the original invasion leaders to leave Alcatraz. They have been replaced by homeless, apolitical young Indians more concerned with finding a pad where they can "get their heads together" than in sustaining any kind of significant political statement. Says Dennis Hastings, a former member of the island's seven-man council: "The important thing about Alcatraz is spiritual rebirth. We're here to let our minds heal. Here we can escape from the limbo culture that we have lived in for too long. We just want to be left alone...
...hope to win a 99-year lease from the Government. They are somewhat at a loss as to how to deal with their recalcitrant brothers. The occupants' militant stance is defiantly summed up by Hastings: "The white snakes have eaten everything from the earth. We will never give Alcatraz back to them. And if they try to force us, we will fight to the death to keep our land...