? firefighter dining

Queen Nefertiti

BERLIN, Germany -- Behold, the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti at the Altes Museum.

parking woes

after finding a parking spot in the center of the old city part of nurenberg we noticed that the parking lot closed at 830pm. but also noting that there was an automated machine to pay the parking fee i assumed that it meant that there was no attendant and one had to pay at the machine........uh uh.
at 1030 when we returned--the parking lot was shut tighter than a drum. gates closed.no entry.
no exit. it was time to read the notice more carefully!
hmmmmm.parking lot CLOSES at 830. mega-fine for opening lot............but, a number to call.
nurembergers are pretty much done with the day at 1030 pm---the streets are verrry quiet.
we call the number and are reprimanded but told that a colleague of the voice is on his way.
20 minutes later a none too pleased young man shows up with a bunch of keys and a big log book to record the details of miscreants and of course a money purse to make change for the fine.
we are all foreigners so it seemed worth a try to claim ignorance,stupidity or some combination.
he is quite impatient with all this and asks if we need an atm to get money for the fine.
no no no we want to get out ; we want to pay the fine.
but this is germany: before we can pay the fine he wants details--name, address ,licence etc.
we give him the information and only then is he willing to accept the fine--so it's over ,right?
uh uh......we haven't paid the parking fee itself. ok we'll pay , we need to get back to wurtzburg.
uh uh ....we can't pay him .we need to pay the money in the proper machine.
ok where is the machine---in another locked area of the parking garage.
reluctantly he takes us to this area and unlocks the door.
no problem we have credit cards---but the machine doesn't take our credit cards and it's out of change.
among the four of us we come up with the exact change.
he is very pleased. everything is in order. every box has been checked.
auf wieder sehen. tschus. bye bye.

X-rays discovered in Würzburg

WURZBURG, Germany -- Here is where Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays (or Röntgen rays) in 1895.

Local time

QUITO, Ecuador -- I went to the local tourist office at 9 a.m. to sign up for a walking tour. They informed me quite formally that tours began only at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

 

No other tours were available, she said.

 

But she added that if I really wanted to, the tour could start at 9 a.m.

 

How sweet.

From the LAL archive

Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 10:17:01 -0500 (CDT)
From: *******@Waisman.Wisc.Edu
Subject: !holafrom spain!

hi so i was interviewed on spanish television
for my scholarship you say
uhuh
not
i was on my way to the real madrid-olympiakis game
at estadio bernabeu-----106000 screaming meshugoyim
about 40000 of whom are in standing room
with flags the size of our living room and constantly
cheering clapping and dancing---they even have a clap
that is exactly like the muskie jaw clap ----except they say
puto de 7$%$7!
listen up sections o and p --they make you seem comatose)

so anyway
here i am and the madrid tv show --interviewing the man on the
streetabout news of the day
grabs me and asks me whos going to win the BIG gane next week
real madrid or barcelona
---now at this time im surrounded by a jillion real madrid hooligans
dancing and singing the real madrid cheer---
so whaddamigonna say? RRRRRReal madriddd!
so the crowd loves me they try to pick me up(one guy also tries to relieve me
of my wallet but the sound man gives him a shove and the crowd gtes on his case majorly --hes lucky to be around )

then the ballooon gets punctured the interviewer (who by the way is
movie-star beautiful) asks me who my favorite real madrid player is
---ooooops I HAVE NO IDEA who is on the team !!!
so i say er well i actually dont know anything about the team
the crowd does NOt like this
murmers of !joder ! and worse aruse
---how soon they forget
i was then lucky to get out of there
more later
hope all is well
love
dad

vive le communisme

vive le communisme

Young communists

festival of l'humanite

i went to the communist party be-in held in paris and it was quite a scene.
there was a crowd of thousands to take in the offerings of 3 days of  discussion, debate, music and this is france after all---food,food,food.

i was surprised by the number of young people who were there as young communists handing out literature and proselytizing for
leftist causes----of course many youth were there for cruising,eating,drinking and hip-hop (not much rock and roll)
there was a tent city for hippy nomads who seemed to be having a good time.

what was very appealing was that each local communist organization had a tent featuring food from their native region
--and of course a local band to sing songs of revolutions gone by.
there was a tent for the friends of the paris commune of 1871----these guys were not quite like our own civil war enactors____they
are serious about the lessons and ideals of the paris commune.

there were many oldsters who are still fighting the battles of trotsky et al
and aficionados of the spanish civil war.

the iconic pictures of che were much in evidence but what blew me away was that
mumia abu-jamal had quasi rock star status---there was a load of literature on the amerikan
so called justice system and the trials of mumia as well as hagiographic references to him
as the latest sacco/vanzetti or rosenberg.
meetings on mumia abu jamal are scheduled well into the fall.

not withstanding michael moore i went to a discussion of health care and found that many seniors were very worried about
sarkozy taking away some of their heqlth cqre benefits.

indeed whenever an audience seemed restless there was nothing better than referring to sarko-fascism to
get a big response from the crowd-----much more than an anti-amerikan remark--which is both because sarko is local and also anti-amerikan
remarks so commonplace they begin to lose their valence.

most people spoke of the amerikan parties as tweedledee and tweedledum.
hollande is not much liked by the communists and their response to socialist party
desires for a united front is the sound of one hand clapping.

Eat kosher in France