by Jack N. Levy

I found this stone about thirty years ago.  I was driving along Highway 58 in Kern County, California, and passing some fallow fields. In one such field, I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, what appeared to be a cantaloupe. As I continued down the highway, I realized that cantaloupes were not grown in that area, and my curiosity got the better of me. I turned the car around, returned about a mile, and parked. The "cantaloupe" proved to be a stone. Thinking that my mother, an artist, might like this stone, I took it with me and later gave it to her.  She also initially mistook it for a cantaloupe. When my mother died in 2001, I inherited the stone. 

Recently, I was working on a series of contemporary displays for several found stones that were nearly spherical. The displays have a "mid-century modern" theme, and I call the series "Mid Century Modern Lithospheres" or MCML (which, of course, is the Roman numeral equivalent of 1950). When I envisioned the base that I wanted for this stone, I realized that it would have a cant (slope) next to a loop (circle), hence the name for this display. So, the stone and base, and the series of displays, all seemed to fit together in phonetic ways I hadn't initially anticipated. I like it when that happens.