TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

Caught in the Act on Bisbee's Main Street

IF YOU'VE EVER WALKED BISBEE'S MAIN STREET, you've probably stumbled upon one of its main attractions: a rough-looking red-haired guy and his cockatiel standing behind a white mouse perched atop a striped tomcat that is balancing on the back of a big black dog.

The agile animals are Mousie and a friend or two, Kitty and Booger, and the guy, a.k.a. "the dogcat-mouse guy," is Greg Pike, the owner and talent agent who tells their story while gently setting a makeshift donation receptacle near the feet of onlookers interested enough to take a picture. While Pike and his stacked pack have become a favorite area attraction, not everyone has been on board with their streetside act.

In addition to being issued citations in Santa Fe, New Mexico, earlier this year for not carrying pet waste bags and not having proof of vaccinations, Pike, who moved to Arizona from Colorado about three years ago, was arrested in 2006 by Bisbee police for allegedly loitering and for doing business without a license. But it seems that the roaming pet pyramid had more fans than foes. Within hours of his arrest, two groups of Bisbee residents raised the money to post Pike's bond.

Before a court hearing could be conducted, both the city attorney and county prosecutor concluded that Pike had not committed any crime. It seems the balancing act on the streets of Bisbee also performed well on the scales of justice.

Sundial Casts a Long Shadow

TRACKING THE SUN IS NOTHING NEW on the top of Kitt Peak, southwest of Tucson. The largest of its kind in the world, the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope juts out of the mountain in a giant white rectangular box and captures images of the sun on huge mirrors. Now the long shadow of the McMath-Pierce tells time with a little help from John L. Carmichael Jr., master sundial-maker. Carmichael has created a demonstration sundial by marking 5-minute points on the ground where the telescope casts its shadow. The 350-foot perimeter sundial is accurate to within a half-minute. As soon as they can raise the money, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory staff at Kitt Peak will make the tallest sundial in the world a permanent installation. You can see the sundial and the telescopes of Kitt Peak daily from 9 A.M. to 3:45 Ρ.Μ. Information: (520) 318-8163 or www.noao.edu/kpno.

Linda McCartney's Tucson Haven

HOW DID PAUL MCCARTNEY-who never set foot on Arizona soil while a member of The Beatles-become an Arizona landowner? The idea probably came from his first wife, Linda, who attended the University of Arizona in Tucson and studied photography at the former Tucson Art Center. She loved the area, but returned to her native New York after her brief first marriage ended. Gaining notoriety as a rock 'n' roll photographer, Linda met Paul, and the rest is history.

Their escape from the world, a 150-acre ranch near Tucson, afforded privacy for their growing family. There, Linda took in the beauty of the land she loved. She once said, "Arizona opened up my eyes to the wonder of light and color."

Linda died of breast cancer on April 17, 1998, at the family ranch. A friend said, "... the region was among Linda's favorites on Earth."

Goldwater Quote

"THIS LAND OF ARIZONA has had an exciting history, so dramatic and inspiring that it needs no exaggeration or fictional embellishment."

TRIMBLE'S TALL TALES

IN ARIZONA, WE HAVE BIRDS that run faster than they fly, flowers that bloom only at night and more sunshine than the Sunshine State. Arizona holds the largest contiguous stand of ponderosa pine trees in the country and the largest species of cactus in the world. There have been times that the state records both the hottest and coldest temperatures in the nation on the same day. And Arizonans have been known to ski the snowy slopes of the San Francisco Peaks in the morning and drive south for a couple of hours to the Salt River Valley and water-ski on the lakes around Phoenix.

off-ramp Tucson's Olive Trees Stand the Test of Time

WHEN THE SPANISH PADRES founded missions in the Southwest during the 18th century, they planted trees that produce one of the Mediterranean region's most important foods-olives.

A hundred years later, the olive trees caught the eye of chemistry professor and the first director of the University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Robert Forbes, who in the 1890s planted olive groves on the University of Arizona campus. Today, the university's Campus Arboretum Heritage Tree Program ensures the olive trees' future, while faculty, students and visitors enjoy their shady ambience.

Older Tucson neighborhoods are also studded with these droughtand frost-resistant evergreens that boast gnarly, silver-leafed silhouettes. And the trees serve as more than mere landscaping. Each year in late fall, local harvesters scale stepladders to pluck glossy ripe olives, which they cure at home by following time-honored recipes that date back to those Spanish padres.

Walter Reed-a Compassionate Soldier

THE NAME IS FAMILIAR TO ALL because he had a U.S. Army medical center named after him - and because of his important work to determine how yellow fever, malaria and typhoid fever were spread. However, there is more to the story of Reed's military career, including an incident in Arizona that showed him to be a humanitarian. He was assigned to Fort Lowell and Camp Apache (later known as Fort Apache) as an assistant Army surgeon when he performed a rescue of note. In December 1878, a young Apache girl accidentally fell into a campfire and was treated by the soldier-doctor. However, Reed did more than his duty-he took her home to care for her, and she lived with his family until she was 12 years old. When she was fully recovered, he returned her to the tribe.

Pointy Head or Pints of Whiskey?

SEVERAL THEORIES FLOAT AROUND about the origin of the name of the town of Pinetop in the White Mountains, and many involve the liquor license of its first resident.

In 1885, the sale of alcohol on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation was illegal, so John William Phipps settled in a mountain meadow just beyond the reservation boundary and established a saloon and general store to serve Fort Apache soldiers.

Some say when the troops had a hankering for hooch, they'd hike near the top of the Mogollon Rim to "the top of the pines," which simply became "Pinetop." But others claim the name came from Phipps' successor, Walt Rigney. It seems Rigney had a pointed skull and donned an unusual hairdo with spiky tufts atop his head that made it look like a pine tree, prompting soldiers and saloon-goers to call him "Pinetop."