Sorry for not posting sooner, but this was a travel day. Rome to Florence. I took students to a mercato food court for lunch, then we did a walking tour of Florence. Students loved it.
I then met with out hosts to review plans, thrn checked into my room. I took a bath, and soaked. One foot is sore, like when I walk a mini-marathon. Supper tonight with students, and now back.
Life 360 still shows Katie at the Rome airport, but it doesn't update people in flight. So she ought to have landed before now, so i texted her. No jet airline crashes on X, so that's not it.
Students have cheerfully taken up my "Womp, Womp!" comment when there is a mishap. One woman on the trip spilled something on her dress, and everyone at her table went 'Womp, Womp!".
What will students remember of me? bad puns, tech glitches, and Womp, Womp!
PS tomorrow is an all day tour of Bologna, so I won't post until late....
Love it! Maybe that chicken is a capon (rooster that has been castrated before sexual maturity.) I used to live in Decorah IA and they had a Capon chicken factory and all I knew was the chickens were huge. It's been a busy week at the lake house, hosted my parents and aunt and uncle. They left this am, not much downtime. Baby Margo is due in 6 days. I thought I was going to be the mom called to watch Adeline when she goes into labor but apparently now it's the MIL. I might be a little salty about that. It's because she's a 90 min drive and I'm a 3 hr drive. I'M YOUR MOM THOUGH! OK, Angie, get over it.
I remember when we adopted our daughter, Pam's mom got to meet her first. We flew into Chicago, and my BIL (married to Pam's sister) picked us up at the airport. We pulled off on an interstate exit near Pam's family (I-70 exit 115 Knightstown) and my MIl got to hold my daughter before my mom or Katie's mom.
Katie's mom came the next weekend, and gave our daughter her first bath; she screamed in terror when katie tried to bathe her. Katie's mom took her upstairs, half an hour later they both came down and she was freshly washed. Katie cried, asking how she did it, Phyllis winked at her, telling her "I just started with a tiny bit of water that she wouldn't be afraid of, and as she played I added more, and some bubbles/ Our daughter became a water rat.
My Mom visited and fed her, grinning ear to ear. Our daughter wasn't walking yet, but watching how she moved from adult to adult, I remembered reading how in the 1700s a squirrel could move across the entire midwest without ever touching the ground (going tree to tree)....
Horse mucking, grooming, and other work tasks. Her teacher is having a deal for the summer where student who take three shifts of work get an hour's riding free.
We visited Italy two years ago and very much enjoyed those markets, but even more the historical sites. In addition to the Vatican, a most moving site was the Pantheon. It is "an ancient 2nd century Roman temple and, since AD 609, a Catholic church called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs. It is perhaps the most famous, and architecturally most influential, rotunda."
What about it moved me? I think the ancient and sublime architecture emanated a grace and connection to the divine. For me, this was true even more than the Vatican. Even for those of us that know nothing of architecture, standing inside, you feel the perfection. Even after 2000 years, it remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.
Somewhat of a surprise, in a trip to France in the following year, the similarly named Panthéon (built in late 1700s) was also a favorite. The domes there are influenced by it's Roman predecessor. It holds the tombs of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and Rousseau among others. In an unsurprising evolution, the Roman Pantheon was pagan that become Catholic. The French Panthéon was Catholic that became secular.
Our guide today said Del Duomo was until the Astrodome the world's largest dome, and it was built out of bricks without scaffolding. It was in how they laid the bricks. I guess someone in Iran 100 years earlier did the same thing.
I think it's a bit less. A kilo is 2.2 lbs, so it's 2.68 Euros to the Lb. The USD is currently about 0.86 of a Euro, so it's about $3.12 USD. Had Jay visited when Joe Biden was still President, he could have got that bird for USD2.79/Lb.
I think one could infer that Trump's tariffs are giving tourists the bird! 😡
Gas here is 1.72 Euro per litre. There are 3.78541 litres in a gallon, and at .86 to the Euro, that equates to $7.57 a gallon. Interestingly enough, Diesel (the fuel, not the actor) is roughly 10 cents a litre cheaper than gas.
I suspect that taxes play a pretty significant role there. Italy has an excise tax on gasoline of around €0.73/litre and then levies VAT on top of that, so close to half of that total price is taxes.
Morning, all. Heading off to the stable momentarily: Daughter D has another shift of manure-shoveling and other horsey hijinks. I'm taking a lawn chair and a book.
Good morning. 71 and sunny, with highs in the 80s and no rain (or so they say).
The mothership is covering Muslim attacks on Christians in Nigeria, an ongoing issue recently exacerbated. The FP’s TGIF contains a mini-rant, which I highly endorse, against the TSA. Our security overlords are graciously allowing us to keep our shoes on as we progress through the kabuki theater called airport security.
I read something about that somewhere that cribbed and summarized the piece from FP, and found myself nodding in agreement at every point. Then, in my incessant cynicism, I kept asking myself "Well, OK, then what should we do that is better and actually insures safety and security?"
It's easy to write a hit piece on something we all hate.
The main things that have increased security since 9/11 are the locked and secured cockpit doors which ensure terrorists can't take over the flight controls; and the increased awareness among passengers that, unless they stop an attempted hijacking, they will die.
As to the second point, it's noteworthy that the "shoe bomber" (the reason we had to take off our shoes for security) and the "underwear bomber" (the reason for the invasive full body scanners that make us empty our pockets) were both stopped by passengers.
The biggest gripe, besides the body scanners and removing shoes, I would ahve with airport security, is the ID requirement. That predated 9/11, starting after the TWA 800 explosion in 1996. That was initially thought to be a bombing, but was later determined to be an accidental explosion in a fuel tank. But the ID requirement remained, and that means that the government has a database of when and where you fly, which is linked to commercial databases, including but not limited to, credit reports, all of which they use to determine if the airlines can allow you to fly. (Not generally known, but airlines have to get TSA approval to issue you a boarding pass).
Big Brother is alive and well, with the initials "TSA".
Did you know you need to show a passport to buy a sim card in italy? And I had to show mine to check in students to our hotel, even though it was booked third party with a provider they work with regularly.
I've got a decent list of things I hate about the TSA, but I got over my dislike of having my personal information splattered all over the interwebs ages ago.
I have a close acquaintance, did time at both agencies then at a few of those independent security contractors providing "security" for major corporations and low level government....explain to me that all our data and channels of accessing that data were out there before I had even the vaguest comprehension that my data existed, spread out over so many different platforms and operators, we don't even wanna know what they are.
I'm for the scans. I have no problem with guns, but I don't want anyone armed on any flight. No weapons means passengers can intercept loonies.
I never had a problem with checking for guns. That's gone on since the '70s. The main concern I have with the scans is that you have to remove your wallet out of your pocket and put it in the bin, letting it (and your cash/cards) out of your sight for at least a short period of time before you get it back. I heard stories about sticky-finger TSA agents. I don't like to have to trust them.
Fortunately, I have rarely had to fly in the last several years. With retirement vacation, that might change. I may have to do it, but I don't have to like it.
As "out there" as my data may be, I still push back on any requests to give out identifying information, especially my SSN. BTW, my credit info is locked at the Big 3 agencies.
Agree on that period of extreme tension when my wallet and personals are in a bin where I can’t see them. It’s the primary humiliation. That, and the belt removal.
I was about to say the same. I haven't read it for months probably, but did today. Nellie is undeniably funny. Sure, there's a good bit of polished cherry picking for sport. But then some of the segments....
I did a complimentary trial of the FP and thought it was good, with Nellie leading the pack for gaining my attention. That said, the signal to noise ratio is still imbalanced. Too much noise expanding into several paragraphs what could be contained in a bullet point...not enough signal. And, I'm extremely frugal. Not cheap. Frugal. Media expenditures are at the top of my chopping block list for maintaining frugality.
Hiking in the heat of a Roman summer is hard. Been there, done that. But I never saw that market. The highlights of my time in Rome was an audience with Pope John Paul II, just me and a few thousand of his closest friends. (Then there was the time my car was impounded in Rome, but I’ll leave that story for another time. 🙂)
Last year, we got a few traffic tix in Rome, mostly in areas where you are not allowed to drive, but which have no signs telling you not to drive there. Since it was a rental car, Hertz got the original ticket notification and then sent it on to us. It said that the matter had been referred to "competent authorities." Its been a year. Haven't heard a word since.
I had my personal car, having driven down from my duty post in Germany. Parking near my hotel, I made the mistake of not checking the parking signs in the area. The next morning, all the cars on that street, including mine, were gone. I had to enlist someone from the hotel to assist me in getting my car back from the police impound garage (which cost me some lira).
I was in Rome on March 28, 1969. How do I know the date? It was the day Ike died. The Italian papers had headlines 3 inches tall. He was revered there.
What great fun! Sounds like a wonderful adventure. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.
Hi all:
Sorry for not posting sooner, but this was a travel day. Rome to Florence. I took students to a mercato food court for lunch, then we did a walking tour of Florence. Students loved it.
I then met with out hosts to review plans, thrn checked into my room. I took a bath, and soaked. One foot is sore, like when I walk a mini-marathon. Supper tonight with students, and now back.
Life 360 still shows Katie at the Rome airport, but it doesn't update people in flight. So she ought to have landed before now, so i texted her. No jet airline crashes on X, so that's not it.
Students have cheerfully taken up my "Womp, Womp!" comment when there is a mishap. One woman on the trip spilled something on her dress, and everyone at her table went 'Womp, Womp!".
What will students remember of me? bad puns, tech glitches, and Womp, Womp!
PS tomorrow is an all day tour of Bologna, so I won't post until late....
I hope you have a smashing time in Bologna!
Love it! Maybe that chicken is a capon (rooster that has been castrated before sexual maturity.) I used to live in Decorah IA and they had a Capon chicken factory and all I knew was the chickens were huge. It's been a busy week at the lake house, hosted my parents and aunt and uncle. They left this am, not much downtime. Baby Margo is due in 6 days. I thought I was going to be the mom called to watch Adeline when she goes into labor but apparently now it's the MIL. I might be a little salty about that. It's because she's a 90 min drive and I'm a 3 hr drive. I'M YOUR MOM THOUGH! OK, Angie, get over it.
Good luck with baby Margo!
I remember when we adopted our daughter, Pam's mom got to meet her first. We flew into Chicago, and my BIL (married to Pam's sister) picked us up at the airport. We pulled off on an interstate exit near Pam's family (I-70 exit 115 Knightstown) and my MIl got to hold my daughter before my mom or Katie's mom.
Katie's mom came the next weekend, and gave our daughter her first bath; she screamed in terror when katie tried to bathe her. Katie's mom took her upstairs, half an hour later they both came down and she was freshly washed. Katie cried, asking how she did it, Phyllis winked at her, telling her "I just started with a tiny bit of water that she wouldn't be afraid of, and as she played I added more, and some bubbles/ Our daughter became a water rat.
My Mom visited and fed her, grinning ear to ear. Our daughter wasn't walking yet, but watching how she moved from adult to adult, I remembered reading how in the 1700s a squirrel could move across the entire midwest without ever touching the ground (going tree to tree)....
Sounds like things are going well there. I hope baby arrives promptly with no complications.
This is fabulous Jay!
Italians have the world's best cheeses!
and meats of course
I love the goat cheese varieties!
Ahem....not as good as WI!!
:-)
In deference dear departed Dad, Hortonville, WI, I defer!
Horsey hijinks completed. Teengirl is filthy, so it was a success. My husband seems to have knocked over a plant in his private room.
I missed this, horse competition? Horse mucking?
Horse mucking, grooming, and other work tasks. Her teacher is having a deal for the summer where student who take three shifts of work get an hour's riding free.
We visited Italy two years ago and very much enjoyed those markets, but even more the historical sites. In addition to the Vatican, a most moving site was the Pantheon. It is "an ancient 2nd century Roman temple and, since AD 609, a Catholic church called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs. It is perhaps the most famous, and architecturally most influential, rotunda."
What about it moved me? I think the ancient and sublime architecture emanated a grace and connection to the divine. For me, this was true even more than the Vatican. Even for those of us that know nothing of architecture, standing inside, you feel the perfection. Even after 2000 years, it remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.
Somewhat of a surprise, in a trip to France in the following year, the similarly named Panthéon (built in late 1700s) was also a favorite. The domes there are influenced by it's Roman predecessor. It holds the tombs of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and Rousseau among others. In an unsurprising evolution, the Roman Pantheon was pagan that become Catholic. The French Panthéon was Catholic that became secular.
Our guide today said Del Duomo was until the Astrodome the world's largest dome, and it was built out of bricks without scaffolding. It was in how they laid the bricks. I guess someone in Iran 100 years earlier did the same thing.
You described it beautifully. I remember when we went in '06 we ate at a little cafe with a view of the Pantheon. It was very memorable.
I came up with approximately $3.50 USD a pound on that chicken. Someone check my conversion math (I was using Euros) and accuracy, please.
I think it's a bit less. A kilo is 2.2 lbs, so it's 2.68 Euros to the Lb. The USD is currently about 0.86 of a Euro, so it's about $3.12 USD. Had Jay visited when Joe Biden was still President, he could have got that bird for USD2.79/Lb.
Just sayin' 😀
I think one could infer that Trump's tariffs are giving tourists the bird! 😡
Gas here is 1.72 Euro per litre. There are 3.78541 litres in a gallon, and at .86 to the Euro, that equates to $7.57 a gallon. Interestingly enough, Diesel (the fuel, not the actor) is roughly 10 cents a litre cheaper than gas.
I suspect that taxes play a pretty significant role there. Italy has an excise tax on gasoline of around €0.73/litre and then levies VAT on top of that, so close to half of that total price is taxes.
I think you’re right. I was lazy and just rounded everything up.
This is hilarious! Great job!
Maybe Jay can get a selfie with the Pope—or PM Meloni. 🤩🤩🤩
I'm working on it!
Morning, all. Heading off to the stable momentarily: Daughter D has another shift of manure-shoveling and other horsey hijinks. I'm taking a lawn chair and a book.
OK, I have my answer...it is mucking.
Thanks for the description, Jay. But unfortunately, for that fishy pun, I have to show you la porta (that is, the 🚪).
Good morning. 71 and sunny, with highs in the 80s and no rain (or so they say).
The mothership is covering Muslim attacks on Christians in Nigeria, an ongoing issue recently exacerbated. The FP’s TGIF contains a mini-rant, which I highly endorse, against the TSA. Our security overlords are graciously allowing us to keep our shoes on as we progress through the kabuki theater called airport security.
I read something about that somewhere that cribbed and summarized the piece from FP, and found myself nodding in agreement at every point. Then, in my incessant cynicism, I kept asking myself "Well, OK, then what should we do that is better and actually insures safety and security?"
It's easy to write a hit piece on something we all hate.
Any answers?
Sure. Essentially, STFU, stand in line, submit to the humiliations, and get on the plane. I got better things to get upset about.
Straight and to the point.
I tend to merely accept it without commenting to the airport prison guards.
The main things that have increased security since 9/11 are the locked and secured cockpit doors which ensure terrorists can't take over the flight controls; and the increased awareness among passengers that, unless they stop an attempted hijacking, they will die.
As to the second point, it's noteworthy that the "shoe bomber" (the reason we had to take off our shoes for security) and the "underwear bomber" (the reason for the invasive full body scanners that make us empty our pockets) were both stopped by passengers.
The biggest gripe, besides the body scanners and removing shoes, I would ahve with airport security, is the ID requirement. That predated 9/11, starting after the TWA 800 explosion in 1996. That was initially thought to be a bombing, but was later determined to be an accidental explosion in a fuel tank. But the ID requirement remained, and that means that the government has a database of when and where you fly, which is linked to commercial databases, including but not limited to, credit reports, all of which they use to determine if the airlines can allow you to fly. (Not generally known, but airlines have to get TSA approval to issue you a boarding pass).
Big Brother is alive and well, with the initials "TSA".
Did you know you need to show a passport to buy a sim card in italy? And I had to show mine to check in students to our hotel, even though it was booked third party with a provider they work with regularly.
What can you do? You hand it over and accept it.
European nations tend both to require ID more often and have better privacy laws than the US.
I've got a decent list of things I hate about the TSA, but I got over my dislike of having my personal information splattered all over the interwebs ages ago.
I have a close acquaintance, did time at both agencies then at a few of those independent security contractors providing "security" for major corporations and low level government....explain to me that all our data and channels of accessing that data were out there before I had even the vaguest comprehension that my data existed, spread out over so many different platforms and operators, we don't even wanna know what they are.
I'm for the scans. I have no problem with guns, but I don't want anyone armed on any flight. No weapons means passengers can intercept loonies.
I never had a problem with checking for guns. That's gone on since the '70s. The main concern I have with the scans is that you have to remove your wallet out of your pocket and put it in the bin, letting it (and your cash/cards) out of your sight for at least a short period of time before you get it back. I heard stories about sticky-finger TSA agents. I don't like to have to trust them.
Fortunately, I have rarely had to fly in the last several years. With retirement vacation, that might change. I may have to do it, but I don't have to like it.
As "out there" as my data may be, I still push back on any requests to give out identifying information, especially my SSN. BTW, my credit info is locked at the Big 3 agencies.
Agree on that period of extreme tension when my wallet and personals are in a bin where I can’t see them. It’s the primary humiliation. That, and the belt removal.
TGIF was good today.
I was about to say the same. I haven't read it for months probably, but did today. Nellie is undeniably funny. Sure, there's a good bit of polished cherry picking for sport. But then some of the segments....
She is funny. I only get to read a couple paragraphs, the one's they send as a teaser every Friday. Someday, maybe I'll subscribe....nah....
I just cancelled my subscription effective a month from now. I'm trying to cut back on newsletters, and TGIF is pretty much all I read at TFP.
I did a complimentary trial of the FP and thought it was good, with Nellie leading the pack for gaining my attention. That said, the signal to noise ratio is still imbalanced. Too much noise expanding into several paragraphs what could be contained in a bullet point...not enough signal. And, I'm extremely frugal. Not cheap. Frugal. Media expenditures are at the top of my chopping block list for maintaining frugality.
Frugality with time as much as dollars I think.
You may have the balance right.
By contemporary standards for media engagement, I'm wildly deficient. The signal to noise ratio...I working for 99% signal, and only extraneous noise.
Excellent descriptions, Jay. I'm sorry Katie is feeling poorly. Hiking in the heat is a strain, for sure.
Hiking in the heat of a Roman summer is hard. Been there, done that. But I never saw that market. The highlights of my time in Rome was an audience with Pope John Paul II, just me and a few thousand of his closest friends. (Then there was the time my car was impounded in Rome, but I’ll leave that story for another time. 🙂)
Last year, we got a few traffic tix in Rome, mostly in areas where you are not allowed to drive, but which have no signs telling you not to drive there. Since it was a rental car, Hertz got the original ticket notification and then sent it on to us. It said that the matter had been referred to "competent authorities." Its been a year. Haven't heard a word since.
I had my personal car, having driven down from my duty post in Germany. Parking near my hotel, I made the mistake of not checking the parking signs in the area. The next morning, all the cars on that street, including mine, were gone. I had to enlist someone from the hotel to assist me in getting my car back from the police impound garage (which cost me some lira).
My parents saw Pope John Paul II when the USS Eisenhower was in Italy. There's a photo of him wearing a "We Like Ike, CVN-69" cap.
I was in Rome on March 28, 1969. How do I know the date? It was the day Ike died. The Italian papers had headlines 3 inches tall. He was revered there.
Meaning Ike, not JPII (who died in 2005).
JPII was also revered in Italy, but not contemporaneously with President Eisenhower.
I'm glad to hear that. I'm an Ike appreciator.