So, I know you are real and not a pollen chucker trying to profit off of someone else’s hard work.
I dive deeper into your site and the next name I see is Mel Frank. WTF?? This guy works with NL Seattle Greg _and_ Mel Frank? Holy shit, I bought Frank and Rosenthal’s Grower’s Guide back in 1978 when I bought my first house, so I had a place to grow indoors. You can see the resulting plants here:
http://southeastlights.org/about_2.html
Their book was like the fucking 10 Commandments to me. Holy shit, this guy Todd is pretty plugged into the cannabis “scene”. Deeper into your site I go and I see the name Bill Drake. This cannot be possible, is this the same William Daniel Blake, Jr. who wrote Connoisseur's Handbook that I bought when I was in high school in 1971? Hell yeah it is! That book resulted in my first successful seed to seedling to veg plants (ripped off before they could flower) and proved to me that I could actually grow a cannabis plant. What the actual fuck! What’s next, am I going to see Jack S. Margolis and Richard Clorfene from a Child’s Garden of Grass on your site too?
Time to do a deep, general Google search on Todd McCormick because I can’t believe this guy is that plugged into what’s happened with cannabis. I shouldn’t have been surprised but holy fuck, here’s pics of you with Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Bill Maher, etc. Farther down the rabbit hole I go and now I read about you in the Netherlands with Nevil, then about you and Jack Herer and then something about a bust in CA with Peter McWilliams. I thoroughly explore that portion of the rabbit hole and discover the CA legalization/cultivation bust and the fact that you did not fucking rat on Peter. Now this absolutely cannot be real, not the Peter McWilliams from The Personal Computer Book I bought back in 1981? This cannot be. That book quite literally changed my life and moved/motivated me to go into another career that utilized computers. That book opened up the world of what computers could do for those of us who absolutely, positively hated mathematics and had no need or desire to code/program.
Man, I don’t know but you must have some absolutely amazing fucking karma or something to be associated with so many people who have been so influential in my life. I halfway expect to read about you and Owsley Stanley or Ram Dass now. Which brings me to another point in this long ass saga, I recently took a 5 gram cubensis journey, in complete, total darkness, silence and isolation, during which the phrase “Attitude of Gratitude” became a central theme in my reality. I realized it was time for me to say thanks to the people who had helped make my life so meaningful. You are in direct contact with two who are still alive, Greg and Mel, and maybe you're still friends with the family of Peter, who knows, I’ve learned not to make assumptions about you.
Now we finally get to what I’m gonna ask you to do and that is to contact Bill, Greg and Mel to let them know about
southeastlights.org and feel free to give them my email address in case they have any corrections or questions about what I’ve written about them. Please communicate the following (either by cut and paste or just forward this email if it’s easier) :
“Thank you all so much for the lifetime of work you put into the development of cannabis. Bill, your book taught a 16 year old kid in 71 how to properly plant a cannabis seed and what to do after it sprouted. Mel, in vast and extensive ways I used the info in your and Ed's book to grow much better cannabis. Your writing and especially your phenomenal photography was key to my understanding of cannabis. Greg with great specificity you helped me tremendously by creating Northern Lights, because it dramatically helped in treating my PTSD. Your alls hard work has made my life so much better. I stand on the shoulders of fucking giants!”
If they explore the website, they’ll see themselves mentioned with the great respect and reverence they have earned.
Now since I never ask anyone to do anything for me unless I absolutely, positively have to and then only when I can provide something of value in return, here’s an idea I have for you given your extraordinary access to verifiable, classic genetics. Because of a trip I took to Denver to buy legal cannabis after Trump was elected, I was able to consume cannabis other than my variation of Northern Lights for the first time in almost 20 years. I wanted as pure a Type I/Sativa as I could get and the best choice at that time was Durban Poison. It was damn fine cannabis and did, in fact, make me feel different than my variation of Northern Lights. I thought, you know, if I had the space and could get the genetics paranoia free (I’m in a strongly Prohibition state) it’d be great to develop a pairing of these two. Did a little research and there really wasn’t anything special already done with NL and DP that I could find but didn’t give it any more thought because I just don’t have the room necessary to grow the volume of plants to do a project of that size justice.
Then I read your website.
You have access to Greg’s Northern Lights #2 and Mel’s Durban Poison, what a_ fire_ of a combo that should be. The only pairing of any relevance I could find now is Urban Poison (a backcross) and Mt. Hood Magic. Hardly known cannabis brands and God knows what version of NL or Durban they actually had/used. You’ve got the real, honest to God versions of NL2 and Durban, from the fucking originators. The massive “fly in the ointment” for me is the “feminized” portion of the Durban. Anything with the word feminized, STS, GA, etc. is dead to me. I just do not believe in any chemical manipulation of cannabis genetics. You may feel differently, and that’s fine by me. I learn more from those who disagree with me than those who agree with me. I’d talk with Ed and see if you can get any access to standard DP seeds, if any are available, just to keep it pure but again, you may feel different. The NL2 is going to provide the structure, internode spacing, resin, etc. while the DP will donate height, length of bud and give overall balance to the final product. Work that combo for 4-5 generations to standardize and provide phenotypic consistency and I'll bet you will end up with something quite special.
Hope you think that idea is worth the epic read this email entailed!
Take Care And Thanks,
Chuck U. Farley (my online nym)