SOMMER CAMP
The juices are drying up. Heck, Hemingway put a shot gun in his mouth when he couldn’t shake years of writers block. I’m not that disconsolate. But I do need stimuli other than news items or the stock market.
So, I’m thinking I need a time out. Not that I’ve been naughty but that I need a re-set.
I’ll be back soon-ish.
The sky was clear during yesterday’s walk. Airplanes left contrails everywhere.
••••Evidence is growing that men are more susceptible to melanomas than women. Shorter hair and driving positions in autos contributes. This argues for sun block on face, ears and neck….even while in autos.
••••The most senior cleric of Saudi Arabia has decreed that Saudis who use Twitter are giving up their chances for an afterlife. This smacks of similar thinking as those believing in the benefits of rhinoceros horns. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s population is among the fastest growing adopters of Twitter.
It’s becoming hot here, 86 degrees today. After Tuesday’s 72 it comes as a shock. I close up the house at 8am in hopes of trapping the cool evening air. Whatever the temps it’s going to be yet another great day!
••••I could not read the front page article describing the murder conviction of the doctor who performed an abortion. Actually, I did read the first three sentences but when I got to “born alive”, “scissors” and “grisly” I stopped. It’s a given that I’ll never really understand all abortion issues. Well, maybe I do understand the issues, its the emotions I’ll never understand. But I struggle with a woman’s right to chose and with the idea that life begins at conception. I’ll always try to not judge, however. I’ll try.
••••The 3D stocks mentioned yesterday, DDD and SSYS are up 20% over the last three days. Probably not the best entry point now.
••••Meanwhile my Apple curse continues. I’m up about 7% from my latest entry but there is a lingering feeling the stock is shaky.
••••Have you discovered Noosa yoghurt? Wonderful Wendy bought two containers for us last weekend. HH and I devoured them this morning. The package says the yoghurt is an Aussie recipe made in Colorado. Recommendation: buy some. Amazing.
It’s a spectacular day here, bright, warm sun and seventy degrees. Out for a walk.
••••Oh brother. The IRS sure seems guilty of harassing tea party groups. Who ordered this?
••••Then there is the Bloomberg scandal that really isn’t. The ubiquitous Bloomberg terminals are everywhere on Wall Street. (Was that redundant?) When I used one they cost $750 a month, they are probably twice that now and now you know how the Mayor became a billionaire. Without a Bloomberg one is at a real disadvantage so you pay the money. Supposedly some Bloomberg employees used their supercharged terminals to do reverse snooping into accounts at Goldman Sachs. If true this is a severe breach of privacy. But I’m betting this “scandal” will have little meat to it.
••••The movie Gatsby is receiving great word of mouth. Hope it rains one day this week, I’ll go then.
••••A latte at the Oslo airport costs €7. That $9! How can anyone be a tourist in Norway?
••••Do you know anything about 3D printing? You should. Simplistically here is what it does: 3D printing allows almost any user to create plans for almost anything from a gun to tissue. This allows the user to manufacture these items from the plans. Carried to the extreme 3D printing allows these plans to be fed into a manufacturing device, lets say you want to build a handgun, the manufacturing device would extrude the parts for a gun…..all based upon the instructions from 3D printing. Amazon offers many 3D printers right now. The potential for 3D printing is staggering and frightening. There are a dozen public companies selling 3D printers. I own small positions in the two largest; Stratasys (SSYS) and 3D Systems (DDD).
•••• In the past six months the Japan 225 index of stocks is up 68%.
••••Outperforming the indices is becoming a little easier. A little. Last year (remember, the market doesn’t have a calendar) the indexes trounced most managed money. Two things one can do to outperform; 1) buy the heaviest shorted stocks and 2) BTFD. Buy The F…ing Dips.
••••Holy crap. Seventy one kids have been killed by guns since Newtown; 40 unintentional and 31 alleged homicides. Average age: 6. If your representative votes against gun control ask h/her to explain that.
This will go down as one if the great sports photos. Adam Scott has just won the Masters.
••••I try not to post on Facebook. I’ve made mistakes there and don’t want amy more of that. And Facebook strikes me as self serving and smacks of braggadocio. After all, who would post something derogatory about themselves? But I do peek periodically and I am impressed with the layout changes made. The company has had a dickens of a time making their page suitable for smart phones. It seems they have found the key to improving ad revenue.
Love this. Spotted them at a sidewalk cafe in Rome. Luckily the pretty girl is left handed so she could still text while holding hands.
We really did go to Pisa, if only to eat. I took a photo to prove it.
Our waiter in Pisa, who was from Sorrento, posed for this shot
Here the Carabiniere directed a truck operator to remove a car from a tiny square. The next day two cars occupied the same space.
The interior of Antonio’s where we ate twice.
Our loyalty to American Airlines goes back to the 70′s. Their silver planes looked kind of half finished but the silver set them apart. And it saved them a bundle on paint. And American made a point of hiring really cute 20-something’s with more blonds the better. Since flight attendants no longer have to quit when pregnant (can you imagine how backwards we were?) they tend to stay on the job. American’s baggage operation seemed to operate flawlessly but should a bag go missing it would be on your front steps by dawn.
Now they’ve mucked their image by spending too much time in the developmental lab. The new logo looks something like an eagle but the colors glare. The new look is a mess.
Here is the old:
Here is the new:
•••• is there such a thing as over-communicating? Italians have a problem with language. No, thats not it. Italians have a problem with speaking. They love to talk and they love their language. Perhaps not as much as the French love their’s but Italians do like to talk and it gets in their way. Commerce, governing and politics slow down because they talk too much instead of making decisions.
•••• The FBI and Senate have begun hearings about expanding wire tap usage into the Internet. This will be a complex hearing as it involves encryption and a company’s right to make code changes freely. Evidently telephone wire taps have gone “dark” as bad guys use the Internet. I just keep thinking this feels like an expansion of the comically entitled Freedom Act. Which is anything but.
•••• The Pentagon released a survey suggesting there were 26,000 unwanted sexual conducts last year. That’s much higher than the 3,400 reported cases last year.
Back in the States and fading fast from six hour time change.
Exhaustion
HH has a way of describing travel exhaustion: the museum shuffle. That’s when you walk three steps, pause, walk three steps, pause, repeat. Funny isn’t it that you can walk several miles easily but in an hour of the the museum shuffle you find ourselves aching everywhere?
We took the Metro out to Ostia Antica. After a cab to the Colosseum we caught the train which took thirty minutes due west, towards the Mediterranean. Ostia was the port of Ancient Rome and was once home to 50,000. As the Tiber River silted up the the city lost importance and by the sixth century, or so it was abandoned. During the Medieval era it sprang to life for a while. It is now about 3km from the ocean and is a laboratory of how Romans of the 1st century lived. Most sides of the buildings are preserved and some terrific mosaic floors are in tact.
Here is a fragment of a mosaic, note the tiny marble chips.
The museum at Ostia has some wonderful marble busts.
This is everyone’s favorite.
Of course, everyone Roman city had a theater.
Last night we returned to Antonio’s. here one of the cooks is retrieving artichokes from an outside display.
A peek at our meal. Grilled vegetables, artichokes boiled and deep fried, veal and pasta with garlic, oil and pepper acini. Again.
Yesterday as HH napped I came upon these two guys. I tipped them a euro which they deserved.
I went looking for a pharmacy and stumbled upon this 100 year old, tiny, farmacia. The owner, a lady in her 80′s told me this fountain has been operating since the opening. Water pours out continually. Romans are proud of their water ever since the aqueduct system brought water from the mountains. They encourage you to drink tap water, something we won’t do.
Headed home in the morning. We are really looking forward to it. Wonderful Wendy is bringing four of her Housewives of Evanston to our house and the beach for a long weekend. That’ll be great.
Talk soon?
Rome Dinner
Dinner was modest but scrumptious.
We ducked around the corner to a tourist alley lined with tiny restaurants. We used Trip Advisor to locate a better than average one, Antonio’s. These places are not haute cuisine but offer wide choices and if you order simply you’ll do fine. Antonio bussed tables while his charming daughter ran everything in four languages. We had found the right place. We ordered a salad with barrata mozzarella again, as we had for lunch. Then an order of stuffed zucchini flowers; mozzarella and anchovies. These are deep fried and a speciality of Rome. Her Highness liked them better than I (me?). But I was feeling punk and was drinking Coke while HH helped herself to red. We then both had a peasant ‘s bowl of pasta faggioli. This was a great combination of white beans and pappardelle pasta in a thick broth over which we both poured a bit of EVOO. Just what the doctor ordered. It was great if a bit too salty for my taste. Of course, we had over-ordered and couldn’t finish the soup. As the soup was delivered Antonio felt he had put in a long enough day and selected a bottle of red and a sparkling white wine from his larder. He put these in a plastic sack, put in his coat and with a brief wave to his daughter went home, upstairs, to mamma.
So here is why I felt poorly. The last night on the ship I had my teeth whitened for the first time. The results were OK, not great, but a definite improvement. I couldn’t have coffee for 24-hours and this produced a caffeine withdrawal headache of massive proportions. It really didn’t subside until 2am today. The morning found me well and we are off to the Vatican.
It’s raining buckets in Rome.
Our disembarkation was painless but we got off so early our car wasn’t there. Monday morning traffic was fierce but heh it’s Rome.
Our hotel is in Pantheon Square, twenty feet from this third century edifice that boggles the mind. No one knows the architect but everyone knows him to be a genius.
We wandered a bit, HH bought an umbrella from one of the thousand sellers from Ghana. Then we stopped for lunch. What a find. What appeared to be a pizzeria or panini shop turned out to specialize in mozzarella. This beautiful cheese marries so well with everything. You can have it in any of four consistencies. We went for barrata, which is the beginning of the mozzarella. I had mine with grilled vegetables while HH went for salumi or mixed meats. We each had a glass of wine and a full bottle of acqua minerali con gas or soda water. A slice of tarta di ricotta was desert—amazing. By the time we left the restaurant was packed.
To reorient ourselves I asked a beautifully dressed woman for directions back to the Pantheon. In her beautiful Roman Italian and full smile she repeated the directions, with elaborate hand gestures, of course. She spoke so plainly to us that both Her Highness and I understood easily.
Before returning to our hotel HH wanted to see Piazza Novona. A short walk got us there and HH regaled me with its 2000 year history and some of the famous people who have lived on the piazza.
