I know a little about the Mayan “calendar round,” and have an amateur-archeologist interest in Pre-Colombian cultures. I’ve had conversations with people who actually believe the movie and book hype, promulgated by people who’ve taken a distorted view of Mayan texts in order to sell more books or movie tickets. The Mayans believed that time was organized like a set of nested, revolving rings; they were trying to keep both lunar and solar time, and they were such keen astronomers that they worked out the cyclic nature of how the two sets of rings synced up in 52-year “short count”…
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Just another elk jam down at the Estes Park Conoco station…
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We stayed one night at the Holiday Inn Seattle-SeaTac International Airport. It was a really late check-in as our flight on United (boo) was late, but David had paid to get us Economy Plus seats so we were one of the first people off the plane (yay). Getting to the hotel was the hardest part of the evening, no small feat with brains partly shut down with travel stress and legs still getting used to working again after 4 hours in the air. Seatac has changed somewhat since my days of living in Seattle and flying in and out of…
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The Very Revd Colin Slee, Dean of Southwark Cathedral in London, died last week and his funeral service was today in the cathedral. The sermon was given by Dr Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, who was formerly the Theologian at Southwark, was nominated as Bishop, and in a scandalous turn, the nomination was rescinded because conservatives objected to John’s homosexuality. He noted that Slee said to him in the weeks before his death how “surprisingly un-scared” he was. I wish I’d known him; on my recent visit to London with David we actually walked past his house, where I…
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In my ongoing love affair with all things British, I sometimes come up against things that are less loveable, such as the crankypants insularity that is a hallmark of the English national personality. I do understand, really I do; references to our popular culture, fast-food cuisine and security-theater politics are everywhere in the UK where there’s a TV, a McDonalds, or an international airport. I chuckled at this story, which quotes several peevish readers complaining about the use of American idiom and slang in the Guardian, a left-leaning newspaper. For the record, “clatch” is the German word “klatsch,” we currently…
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We don’t eat in these sorts of places, but I imagine it wasnt difficult to catch a man full of good food and undoubtedly very good wine. We just got back from dinner with friends at a very nice Italian restaurant near Sloan Square called Caraffini. Lovely time, fabulous food, we did dine well but definitely did not dash away. I had the chicken with chestnuts; it was memorable. For our return journey we re-enacted the “car scene” from Notting Hill; hope the doorman was amused as we extricated ourselves. LONDON (Reuters) – An unemployed man has been charged with…
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Because the Christian Science Monitor is not that into it, frankly. I’ve visited AA.com a number of times recently, and here we are at the gate waiting to board the London flight. In coach, because I didnt have elite mileage status (and being a travel agent is actually negative status mojo these days). I agree that AA.com is ugly, hard to navigate, and nearly impossible to use. And I also agree that RyanAir has them beat for ugly, diffuculty of use, and likelihood that it’ll time out while you’re reading terms and accepting policies. Ugh. On the other hand, WE’RE…
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This is really, really, really cool… but about the time this was going on, there was a bit of a security flap on. And yes, it’s for T-Mobile. If David and I get serenaded by a flashmob like this, though, we’d be totally amazed!
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This is really, really, really cool… but about the time this was going on, there was a bit of a security flap on. And yes, it’s for T-Mobile. If David and I get serenaded by a flashmob like this, though, we’d be totally amazed!
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Need to work on a packing list, we always start gathering stuff, and then laying it out, and THEN making verbal lists. And we always forget something. It’s not possible to overstate the importance of actually creating a personal packing list, and using it regularly. Such a list serves two principal purposes. First (and foremost), it’s a sort of contract you make with yourself, an agreement (and ongoing reminder) that if it’s not on your list, it shouldn’t be in your bag (because all the necessary items are on your list); this defends against last-minute attacks of “I might need…