Answer to the 1st CROOKED CUCUMBER CONTEST!
What is happening on the cover of this book? What is Suzuki-roshi looking at?
Sorry--Nobody guessed it. How could they have?
DC Note years later: And this is all
wrong. He's not looking at a dancer. I asked Pat McFarlin, the photographer, what's he
looking at and he said it was a dancer. But Pat wasn't thinking of that
photo. He was thinking about what Suzuki was doing in the courtyard.
That's just
what
it looks like - a minaret or whatever on a building. I realized this
when I was looking at a proof sheet for many photos taken by Pat that
day and there were some in which that edifice was clearly visible. Thus did I once
again lead numerous poor souls astray. - DC]
And the [WRONG] answer is:
He's looking at a human being, a dancer. On the left side of the cover is a column in the courtyard of the San Francisco Zen Center's City Center. The form to the right of that column and to the left of Suzuki's head that appears to be a building, a tower, or minaret, is that dancer.
1st I talked to Pat McFarlin, the photographer who shot this photo, to check on the details of the answer. I'd thought it was an Indian dancer, from India, but he said no, it was a contemporary dancer doing some sort of modern dance. She had her hands over her head and is way out of focus which helped to give her image the look of minaret. We figured it was taken some time in 1970.--DC