One of the big benefits of working in the field of international education is the diverse and interesting group of people you meet.
Of course, this can happen in any occupation but when you travel and live in foreign lands you meet an extraordinary array of individuals that you would not normally cross if you had stayed at home. Zeren Earls comes to my mind today as the New Year approaches.
Zeren was one of a small group of people to establish the First Night movement in Boston in 1976. She was its Executive Director for many years until just recently. First Night is an artistic and cultural celebration held on the day and evening of December 31st. The First Night celebration has spread from Boston to numerous cities around the world. If you live in an urban area, perhaps you will be attending a First Night event today?
I know her, though, from a completely different world. Zeren graduated from a very good private school in Istanbul years before I become its Director in 1992. She went on to become the first Turkish girl to receive a full scholarship from Duke University. Her education took place in the late 1950s and early sixties. This was an extraordinary, almost unbelievable achievement for a Turkish girl some 50 years ago.
In addition to wearing her very significant First Night hat, Zeren served as the chair of a non-profit Board here in the United States whose purpose is to support several prominent bilingual schools and a hospital in Turkey – all of which continue to flourish today. She never forgot her roots in far off Anatolia.
Although I haven’t seen Zeren in a couple of years, I relate this story because I think of the light that one person can bring to so many.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Seasonal Awards ~~ or a Few Destinations if I'm Asked ~~
Without being completely self-serving –after all, one of the purposes of this blog is to write about travel – here are two particular places I enjoyed in 2007… these were all visited in BB-time (before the blog) so you won’t find reference to them in previous posts.
Nicest surprise ? Medellin, Colombia
The former drug capital of the Americas and the city with perhaps the worst reputation is actually quite pleasant and interesting. Nestled in The Aburrá Valley of the northern Andes – in the Colombian province of Antiquia - Medellin has extensive public parks filled with lush landscaping and a profusion of flowers. Indeed, the Festival of the Flowers, so the tourist brochures say, is the most important festival of the region and it takes place every August. Medellin also claims to be the educational capital of Colombia with some 25 colleges and universities.
It is also much, much safer than at the nadir of its reputation twenty years ago - see Business Week's favorable review of Colombia on May 28, 2007.
The defining physical feature of Medellin (besides its verdant mountainous setting) is its metro : apparently one of the world’s longest (at 15 miles from north to south!), cleanist and most efficient. Each station and every metro car is meticulously spotless and trains run every two minutes. I rode it (with my hosts) to the metro-cable branch which rises up as an aerial tramway above the city. What a marvel !
Medellin is also home of the artist Fernando Botero (he of the fat people fame) and the Plazo Botero, naturally displays a large – no pun - selection of his bronze sculptures.
Central Europe’s Best? Krakow, Poland
I was lucky enough to visit Krakow or Cracow in the spring when the nice weather had arrived in southern Poland. Krakow is the ancient capital of this central European country and is home to several leading universities. Luckily, most of the city, like not so distant Prague, was undamaged in WW II which accounts for its overwhelming “old world” charm. Not much has changed in terms of its physical layout since the 14th century.
The old town is truly lovely with its vast central market square, churches (this was home to John Paul II you’ll recall), shops, restaurants and cafes. Wawel Castle overlooks the meandering Vistula River. The old Jewish quarter, the Kazimierz, is being revitalized – no small miracle in this place of heartbreak for the Jewish people.
Krakow is a good jumping off point to explore the Carpathian Mountains which rise up just to the south of the city.
This city is a gem! Interestingly, though, a Pole I’ve met since then at a workshop claims that Wroclaw, the capital of Lower Silesia, is just as beautiful. Now what’s an excuse to get there?
Nicest surprise ? Medellin, Colombia
The former drug capital of the Americas and the city with perhaps the worst reputation is actually quite pleasant and interesting. Nestled in The Aburrá Valley of the northern Andes – in the Colombian province of Antiquia - Medellin has extensive public parks filled with lush landscaping and a profusion of flowers. Indeed, the Festival of the Flowers, so the tourist brochures say, is the most important festival of the region and it takes place every August. Medellin also claims to be the educational capital of Colombia with some 25 colleges and universities.
It is also much, much safer than at the nadir of its reputation twenty years ago - see Business Week's favorable review of Colombia on May 28, 2007.
The defining physical feature of Medellin (besides its verdant mountainous setting) is its metro : apparently one of the world’s longest (at 15 miles from north to south!), cleanist and most efficient. Each station and every metro car is meticulously spotless and trains run every two minutes. I rode it (with my hosts) to the metro-cable branch which rises up as an aerial tramway above the city. What a marvel !
Medellin is also home of the artist Fernando Botero (he of the fat people fame) and the Plazo Botero, naturally displays a large – no pun - selection of his bronze sculptures.
Central Europe’s Best? Krakow, Poland
I was lucky enough to visit Krakow or Cracow in the spring when the nice weather had arrived in southern Poland. Krakow is the ancient capital of this central European country and is home to several leading universities. Luckily, most of the city, like not so distant Prague, was undamaged in WW II which accounts for its overwhelming “old world” charm. Not much has changed in terms of its physical layout since the 14th century.
The old town is truly lovely with its vast central market square, churches (this was home to John Paul II you’ll recall), shops, restaurants and cafes. Wawel Castle overlooks the meandering Vistula River. The old Jewish quarter, the Kazimierz, is being revitalized – no small miracle in this place of heartbreak for the Jewish people.
Krakow is a good jumping off point to explore the Carpathian Mountains which rise up just to the south of the city.
This city is a gem! Interestingly, though, a Pole I’ve met since then at a workshop claims that Wroclaw, the capital of Lower Silesia, is just as beautiful. Now what’s an excuse to get there?
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Seasonal Awards ~~ a Short List ~~
Everyone is giving out awards this time of year or making lists. Here’s a sampling of what you see when you walk past the magazines:
208 places to visit in 2008 – 15 tax tricks your advisor won’t advise – 10 quick meals for granny – 3 poems you wish you had memorized. You get it.
Luckily for you, dear Reader, I’ve misplaced my full list. I was assiduously recording various impressions during the year getting ready for this very moment.
Alas, I think the list is on the back of a hotel bill that I submitted as an expense a few weeks ago. Imagine! My own cherished tally now filed away in an accountant’s office.
I do remember a few – nothing comprehensive here - so let’s get them recorded for posterity:
In the area of travel I’m a contrarian but hats off to the airlines. That’s what you just read. Kudos airlineos. The Clermont Blogger flew 32 flight segments between September and December and with only one delay (Brussels to Madrid, fog over Iberia). Zero lost or delayed bags. No disrespectful flight attendants or rude gate agents.
I know I’m pressing my luck here but a zillion people fly each week and most get to their destination on time. Stop fussing everyone and get over it. And thank you NW, KL and CO.
For the foodies out there - on the fly - try the Oysters Baton Rouge with a glass of white wine at Pappadeaux inside of Houston’s George Bush International Airport. It’s the one place I’d welcome a long delay.
Best hotel meal - the Bavarian plate at the Movenpick Airport Hotel, Munich. On Saturday evenings it’s the roast pork, white sausages, potato dumplings and heaps of sauerkraut. I didn’t say healthiest.
Most un-agreeable breakfast choice- herring in pickle sauce or was it pickles in herring sauce? at 6:35 a.m. in drizzly Antwerp.
Oddest menu translation – dimmed sea bass ... dimmed? – Hotel Principe Felipe, Madrid. Did they mean trimmed? slimmed? damned? Very tasty, though and I assume healthy, too.
Later this week, a few destinations I’d vote for if anyone asked me to make up a list.
208 places to visit in 2008 – 15 tax tricks your advisor won’t advise – 10 quick meals for granny – 3 poems you wish you had memorized. You get it.
Luckily for you, dear Reader, I’ve misplaced my full list. I was assiduously recording various impressions during the year getting ready for this very moment.
Alas, I think the list is on the back of a hotel bill that I submitted as an expense a few weeks ago. Imagine! My own cherished tally now filed away in an accountant’s office.
I do remember a few – nothing comprehensive here - so let’s get them recorded for posterity:
In the area of travel I’m a contrarian but hats off to the airlines. That’s what you just read. Kudos airlineos. The Clermont Blogger flew 32 flight segments between September and December and with only one delay (Brussels to Madrid, fog over Iberia). Zero lost or delayed bags. No disrespectful flight attendants or rude gate agents.
I know I’m pressing my luck here but a zillion people fly each week and most get to their destination on time. Stop fussing everyone and get over it. And thank you NW, KL and CO.
For the foodies out there - on the fly - try the Oysters Baton Rouge with a glass of white wine at Pappadeaux inside of Houston’s George Bush International Airport. It’s the one place I’d welcome a long delay.
Best hotel meal - the Bavarian plate at the Movenpick Airport Hotel, Munich. On Saturday evenings it’s the roast pork, white sausages, potato dumplings and heaps of sauerkraut. I didn’t say healthiest.
Most un-agreeable breakfast choice- herring in pickle sauce or was it pickles in herring sauce? at 6:35 a.m. in drizzly Antwerp.
Oddest menu translation – dimmed sea bass ... dimmed? – Hotel Principe Felipe, Madrid. Did they mean trimmed? slimmed? damned? Very tasty, though and I assume healthy, too.
Later this week, a few destinations I’d vote for if anyone asked me to make up a list.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Winter Soul-stice
It’s been a busy few weeks for those caught up in the business of inspiration, reflection and general navel gazing:
We gave thanks at Thanksgiving.
There followed Hanukkah and the Pearl Harbor Remembrance.
We attended a wedding two weeks ago. My birthday was a few days later.
Our friends in Turkey are celebrating Kurban Bayrami this week (“Eid” for the rest of the Middle East) as they observe the end of Ramadan.
Christmas and New Year’s Day are just around the corner.
Kwanzaa, the pan-African celebration falls in the middle.
Lord (so to speak). How much religious, civic, cultural and personal contemplation can one take in a short period? Wait…. There’s more!
Today is the winter solstice – a celestial celebration marking the passing of autumn and our arrival in Deepest Winter. This is shortest day of the year. In theory a general gloom has descended across the land. Scientists refer to wide spread seasonal affective disorder or SAD where people withdraw into a deep social hole.
Perhaps I should be writing this from northern Alaska? Or better yet on a remote and misty moor in Scotland watching old Macbeth deal with his ugly witches (you do remember this scene, dear Reader?). It’s one of my favorites:
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and caldron, bubble.
Cover your heads and hide.
But hold on, dear Reader. The check, please. The reality check. I’m in Florida and the sun is shinning. It’s a near perfect day.
The weather guy on TV made a point of saying twice that there will be a full moon soon – on Christmas Eve no less – a positive omen if there was one.
We have turned the corner on the calendar and light, spring, warmth and hope are ahead.
Ah. One minor problem. I haven’t done any holiday shopping yet. The dreaded mall calls. The crowds, the choices, the frenzy!
Now there’s a blow for optimism.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Write or Wrong*
Funny, how things come your way.
When you create a blog you invariably think about writing. After all, the blog is your personal on-line diary ready for the world to read. You try to get the writing “right” – so to speak.
But sometimes the ideas dry up. Where’s the muse you say?
Then something comes your way.
Two weeks ago, while sipping a bowl of squash soup in a small café in Stowe, Vermont - awaiting a Currier and Ives wedding on a snowy afternoon- I find myself coveting the sports section from the guy next to me, a classic grilled cheese sandwich type. The man is big and burly, wears a hunting jacket and a moose-type flap cap. He has a tiny radio thingy in his ear. Maybe he’s the fire chief?
I have to settle for the paper’s coffee-stained Section D: Living with its headline: Memory garlands and wreaths honor love ones who are absent this holiday. Now that’s an attention getter … how interesting.
Hold on! the slim column on the left hand side - which is easy to miss with the huge green and red wreath drawing in the middle of the page – is about writing.
Am I write or wrong? posits the Burlington Free Press columnist Debbie Salomon.
Ms. Salomon traces her early introduction to writing – no surprise here – through the influence of her mother, a math teacher. Her mom placed 10 new vocabulary words each week on the family fridge which caught Debbie’s eye and young mind. Debbie goes on in the column, “the mathematics of writing involve sentence structure, timing, cadence, repetition, variety and other nuances that add up to style”. Now there’s a lovely turn of words.
She adds this: “writing has assumed a new importance now that the SAT exams include an essay. Suddenly, everybody is organizing words into clear, action-packed sentences that develop a thought from beginning to middle to end.”
So I finish her article and the tasty soup and see the sports section left abandoned by the fire chief. But I’m no longer interested in last night’s basketball scores or the weekend’s football line. The muse has returned in Debbie Salomon and her thoughtful thoughts about writing.
* Am I Write or Wrong by Debbie Salomon
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/
When you create a blog you invariably think about writing. After all, the blog is your personal on-line diary ready for the world to read. You try to get the writing “right” – so to speak.
But sometimes the ideas dry up. Where’s the muse you say?
Then something comes your way.
Two weeks ago, while sipping a bowl of squash soup in a small café in Stowe, Vermont - awaiting a Currier and Ives wedding on a snowy afternoon- I find myself coveting the sports section from the guy next to me, a classic grilled cheese sandwich type. The man is big and burly, wears a hunting jacket and a moose-type flap cap. He has a tiny radio thingy in his ear. Maybe he’s the fire chief?
I have to settle for the paper’s coffee-stained Section D: Living with its headline: Memory garlands and wreaths honor love ones who are absent this holiday. Now that’s an attention getter … how interesting.
Hold on! the slim column on the left hand side - which is easy to miss with the huge green and red wreath drawing in the middle of the page – is about writing.
Am I write or wrong? posits the Burlington Free Press columnist Debbie Salomon.
Ms. Salomon traces her early introduction to writing – no surprise here – through the influence of her mother, a math teacher. Her mom placed 10 new vocabulary words each week on the family fridge which caught Debbie’s eye and young mind. Debbie goes on in the column, “the mathematics of writing involve sentence structure, timing, cadence, repetition, variety and other nuances that add up to style”. Now there’s a lovely turn of words.
She adds this: “writing has assumed a new importance now that the SAT exams include an essay. Suddenly, everybody is organizing words into clear, action-packed sentences that develop a thought from beginning to middle to end.”
So I finish her article and the tasty soup and see the sports section left abandoned by the fire chief. But I’m no longer interested in last night’s basketball scores or the weekend’s football line. The muse has returned in Debbie Salomon and her thoughtful thoughts about writing.
* Am I Write or Wrong by Debbie Salomon
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/
Monday, December 17, 2007
Bye, Bye Belgium (revisted)!
The Clermont Blog is one step ahead!
If you revisit the November 24, 2007 post Bye, Bye Belgium you'll remember that we commented upon the maladies affecting Europe "capital state" including political, social and linguistic factors.
So - somewhat satisfactorily - we read in this morning's Yahoo! News the following:
New Miss Belgium gets Flemish tongues wagging
2 hours, 43 minutes ago, December 17, 2007
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgium's political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch.
Alizee Poulicek, who comes from the country's French-speaking region, was booed by some of the 4,000 audience when she admitted that she could not understand a question put to her in Dutch at the contest on Saturday night in the main Flemish city of Antwerp.
Poulicek, a 20-year-old language student, speaks French, Czech and English, but Flemish tabloid daily Het Laatste Niuews headlined its Monday edition with: "Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch".
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071217/od_afp/belgiumpoliticspeopleoffbeat
Alas, dear Reader. You knew this already from your Clermont Blog
If you revisit the November 24, 2007 post Bye, Bye Belgium you'll remember that we commented upon the maladies affecting Europe "capital state" including political, social and linguistic factors.
So - somewhat satisfactorily - we read in this morning's Yahoo! News the following:
New Miss Belgium gets Flemish tongues wagging
2 hours, 43 minutes ago, December 17, 2007
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgium's political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch.
Alizee Poulicek, who comes from the country's French-speaking region, was booed by some of the 4,000 audience when she admitted that she could not understand a question put to her in Dutch at the contest on Saturday night in the main Flemish city of Antwerp.
Poulicek, a 20-year-old language student, speaks French, Czech and English, but Flemish tabloid daily Het Laatste Niuews headlined its Monday edition with: "Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch".
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071217/od_afp/belgiumpoliticspeopleoffbeat
Alas, dear Reader. You knew this already from your Clermont Blog
Friday, December 14, 2007
A Tale of Two Airports
Here’s the scene at Atlanta’s busy airport one afternoon a few weeks ago (and just slightly exaggerated):
To everyone: 3 lines, folks. Not 2! Not 4! 3 lines only for security,
To everyone: laptops out, folks. Jackets and coats come off. No water bottles. Plastics, meds etc. must be in a one quart bag,
To everyone: belts off before you get to the X-ray machine. The big fella there – off with your belt or back to the end of the line,
To the boy with baggy, saggy pants: take those ear-rings off,
To the teenage girl with her headphones plugged in (and can’t hear): your braces will set off the x-ray machine,
To the elderly man with a hearing aid (and can’t hear): take those metal flags off your shirt,
To the guy with the B-for-Boston Red Sox cap: both shoes come off – are you Irish?
To the big, muscular ex-Marine-type carrying several huge bowling balls in a travel bag -supervisor! supervisor!
To everyone – 3 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines!
Here’s the scene at Munich’s busy airport one morning a few weeks ago:
Mostly silence. Some background noise but not much.
Arriving passengers queue up behind the person in front of them (logical, it seems). The security people nod and gesture but do not speak. There are three large TV screens above the lines showing animated characters removing jackets and belts. Several signs with the red diagonal warning symbol are placed along the security area: no weapons, no liquids, no electronic devices.
Everything is so simple. Everyone knows what to do – wordlessly.
To everyone: 3 lines, folks. Not 2! Not 4! 3 lines only for security,
To everyone: laptops out, folks. Jackets and coats come off. No water bottles. Plastics, meds etc. must be in a one quart bag,
To everyone: belts off before you get to the X-ray machine. The big fella there – off with your belt or back to the end of the line,
To the boy with baggy, saggy pants: take those ear-rings off,
To the teenage girl with her headphones plugged in (and can’t hear): your braces will set off the x-ray machine,
To the elderly man with a hearing aid (and can’t hear): take those metal flags off your shirt,
To the guy with the B-for-Boston Red Sox cap: both shoes come off – are you Irish?
To the big, muscular ex-Marine-type carrying several huge bowling balls in a travel bag -supervisor! supervisor!
To everyone – 3 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines!
Here’s the scene at Munich’s busy airport one morning a few weeks ago:
Mostly silence. Some background noise but not much.
Arriving passengers queue up behind the person in front of them (logical, it seems). The security people nod and gesture but do not speak. There are three large TV screens above the lines showing animated characters removing jackets and belts. Several signs with the red diagonal warning symbol are placed along the security area: no weapons, no liquids, no electronic devices.
Everything is so simple. Everyone knows what to do – wordlessly.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Bats, Balls and Goals #3
My mind meanders.
A few weeks ago I wrote with enthusiasm about the Euro-Cup 2008 draw. I was in Europe then and it was all the news although the championship itself won't be played until June.
Now I’m back in the Land of the Bowls – American college football’s long farewell to its autumn season. Why I just read today in the Daily Splash that this coming Bowl Season has 32 games. Growing up in the 1960s it seemed that there were just a few marquee games played between Christmas and New Year's Day. 32!
Anyway, here is the Euro-Cup 2008 draw in its tidy 4 team, 4 division format:
Group A: Swiss, Czech, Portugal and Turkey
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany and Poland
Group C: Netherlands, Italy, Romania and France
Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain and Russia
You don’t have to be a big-time football (soccer) aficionado to see that Group C is the power block. You’ll also note that no team from the British Isles made the cut which is nothing short of scandalous across the big pond. The Greeks won the title in 2004. Can they repeat in 2008? Is it conceivable - how enticing - that they would play Turkey (probably not)? Can little Austria and Switzerland (co-hosts) advance? Probably not.
Here’s what I think. Watch Portugal, Croatia, Romania and Spain.
See you in June.
A few weeks ago I wrote with enthusiasm about the Euro-Cup 2008 draw. I was in Europe then and it was all the news although the championship itself won't be played until June.
Now I’m back in the Land of the Bowls – American college football’s long farewell to its autumn season. Why I just read today in the Daily Splash that this coming Bowl Season has 32 games. Growing up in the 1960s it seemed that there were just a few marquee games played between Christmas and New Year's Day. 32!
Anyway, here is the Euro-Cup 2008 draw in its tidy 4 team, 4 division format:
Group A: Swiss, Czech, Portugal and Turkey
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany and Poland
Group C: Netherlands, Italy, Romania and France
Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain and Russia
You don’t have to be a big-time football (soccer) aficionado to see that Group C is the power block. You’ll also note that no team from the British Isles made the cut which is nothing short of scandalous across the big pond. The Greeks won the title in 2004. Can they repeat in 2008? Is it conceivable - how enticing - that they would play Turkey (probably not)? Can little Austria and Switzerland (co-hosts) advance? Probably not.
Here’s what I think. Watch Portugal, Croatia, Romania and Spain.
See you in June.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
River of Grass
There are several reasons why I like using Ft. Lauderdale airport (FLL).
The airport itself is compact: not 5 minutes from airside to the parking garage. Secondly, the highway to the west coast (and home) begins right at the airport entrance. You literally cannot get lost unless you back out of the rental car space and onto the runway – and then you have another problem.
Here’s the real reason why I like using FLL – not twenty minutes distant the local road gives way to I-75 and ahead as far as you can see is Florida’s vast “River of Grass” - the Everglades. It’s really quite a sight – especially on a clear and cool December afternoon.
The Everglades covers some 2,000 square miles on the lower third of the peninsula down to the Gulf of Mexico. It is a natural fresh-water ecosystem where water moves very slowly through the vast marshes.
Crossing “alligator alley” as it is known locally takes about 2 hours. The highway planners have given drivers ample rest areas to stop and view the open water sloughs and vast sawgrass prairie which extends to the horizon. Look carefully and you can see the beady eyes of alligators. In the steamy summer months you don’t have to look carefully – the big reptiles are everywhere along the (fenced) road.
All is not perfect, though. The Everglades have been badly damaged by Big Agriculture, relentless drainage and poor urban planning. The estimated price tag to repair all this, including the restoration of the Kissimmee River to its natural, meandering state (it was mistakenly straightened years ago by the Army Corp of Engineers) is around $10 - $15 billion. Now there’s an error for the record books.
In the meantime, if you are ever down this way, seeing the River of Grass is a good excuse for using FLL.
The airport itself is compact: not 5 minutes from airside to the parking garage. Secondly, the highway to the west coast (and home) begins right at the airport entrance. You literally cannot get lost unless you back out of the rental car space and onto the runway – and then you have another problem.
Here’s the real reason why I like using FLL – not twenty minutes distant the local road gives way to I-75 and ahead as far as you can see is Florida’s vast “River of Grass” - the Everglades. It’s really quite a sight – especially on a clear and cool December afternoon.
The Everglades covers some 2,000 square miles on the lower third of the peninsula down to the Gulf of Mexico. It is a natural fresh-water ecosystem where water moves very slowly through the vast marshes.
Crossing “alligator alley” as it is known locally takes about 2 hours. The highway planners have given drivers ample rest areas to stop and view the open water sloughs and vast sawgrass prairie which extends to the horizon. Look carefully and you can see the beady eyes of alligators. In the steamy summer months you don’t have to look carefully – the big reptiles are everywhere along the (fenced) road.
All is not perfect, though. The Everglades have been badly damaged by Big Agriculture, relentless drainage and poor urban planning. The estimated price tag to repair all this, including the restoration of the Kissimmee River to its natural, meandering state (it was mistakenly straightened years ago by the Army Corp of Engineers) is around $10 - $15 billion. Now there’s an error for the record books.
In the meantime, if you are ever down this way, seeing the River of Grass is a good excuse for using FLL.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Bahamas in 3.6 Hours
I’m sure there is little sympathy out there in the blogosphere for these postings that begin with “ ___ in 3.6 hours”
That quick visit to Napa in October and now the Bahamas on the hop prompted the title.
This is what I wrote two months ago to refresh your memory, dear Reader:
Here’s the good news about my job: I get to travel extensively. Here’s the bad news: often I don’t have time to see anything. Do you know the New York Times travel column “36 Hours”? – a lucky correspondent has a weekend days to visit a place. Well, my version of that would be a column called 3.6 Hours.
Alas, even if I had the time --- one doesn’t “do” the Bahamas so quickly. The brochure in my room attempts to correct some common misconceptions:
1) The Bahamas is an independent country of some 250,000 residents,
2) The Bahamas geographically is comprised of 700 islands and cays in 40 “family” groupings.
It would take weeks to do the archipelago properly and that yacht (there are more boats in Freeport than cars) just outside by the dock would do nicely, thank you. Several million you say?
I’ll pass. Back to work.
That quick visit to Napa in October and now the Bahamas on the hop prompted the title.
This is what I wrote two months ago to refresh your memory, dear Reader:
Here’s the good news about my job: I get to travel extensively. Here’s the bad news: often I don’t have time to see anything. Do you know the New York Times travel column “36 Hours”? – a lucky correspondent has a weekend days to visit a place. Well, my version of that would be a column called 3.6 Hours.
Alas, even if I had the time --- one doesn’t “do” the Bahamas so quickly. The brochure in my room attempts to correct some common misconceptions:
1) The Bahamas is an independent country of some 250,000 residents,
2) The Bahamas geographically is comprised of 700 islands and cays in 40 “family” groupings.
It would take weeks to do the archipelago properly and that yacht (there are more boats in Freeport than cars) just outside by the dock would do nicely, thank you. Several million you say?
I’ll pass. Back to work.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Hurricane Season drifts away (thankfully)
Yesterday marked the official end of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, an event much noted here in Florida.
I can’t confirm this but I assume they’ve packed up the red and black warning flags at the National Hurricane Center in Miami and have placed the “gone fishing” sign on the radar screens.
Bars were reportedly full of imbibing Floridians last night celebrating this news (an alternate theory is they were sulking due to the absence of a state team in either the SEC or ACC championship games today).
Luckily we missed the Big Zap this season. Most Floridians are still paying dearly (higher insurance premiums) for the grim 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons when seven major storms crossed the state.
Hurricanes have an odd fascination (my opinion). Unlike other disasters – earthquakes, tornados or lightning strikes – hurricanes give ample notice of their pending arrival. Many of these big storms hang out in the western Atlantic or Caribbean for days lingering, trying to make up their minds, as though there were some type of nautical “stop” sign holding them back. Think of the music to JAWS being played relentlessly at shopping centers here from June to November …. It’s enough to put anyone on edge.
Hurricane Wilma did a perfect head-fake over Cancun two years ago, looked west... turned east ... and bashed us just as we had become complacent and bored with the 12 day saga of her meandering track. Go figure.
Anyway, amen to the Hurricane Gods and that big Bermuda high-pressure area that kept us safe this season.
I can’t confirm this but I assume they’ve packed up the red and black warning flags at the National Hurricane Center in Miami and have placed the “gone fishing” sign on the radar screens.
Bars were reportedly full of imbibing Floridians last night celebrating this news (an alternate theory is they were sulking due to the absence of a state team in either the SEC or ACC championship games today).
Luckily we missed the Big Zap this season. Most Floridians are still paying dearly (higher insurance premiums) for the grim 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons when seven major storms crossed the state.
Hurricanes have an odd fascination (my opinion). Unlike other disasters – earthquakes, tornados or lightning strikes – hurricanes give ample notice of their pending arrival. Many of these big storms hang out in the western Atlantic or Caribbean for days lingering, trying to make up their minds, as though there were some type of nautical “stop” sign holding them back. Think of the music to JAWS being played relentlessly at shopping centers here from June to November …. It’s enough to put anyone on edge.
Hurricane Wilma did a perfect head-fake over Cancun two years ago, looked west... turned east ... and bashed us just as we had become complacent and bored with the 12 day saga of her meandering track. Go figure.
Anyway, amen to the Hurricane Gods and that big Bermuda high-pressure area that kept us safe this season.
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