trinacriabob

It's all over the place ... it's more MAWA than MAGA, as in Make America White Again. I can do a sampling ... that usually works well. Look at John Edwards (D), the expensive haircut and some good ole boy speak told me he was smarmy, and he was.

Q: What's the difference between an Italian mother and a Jewish mother? A: An Italian mother says (Brooklyn accent): "If you don't eat your vegetables, I'll kill you." A Jewish mother says (Long Island accent): "If you don't eat your vegetables, I'll kill myself."

I am not the biggest fan and follower of politics. I sort of woke up in 2016. However, I did find one short video with Kirk saying, 'If I'm getting on a plane and the pilot is Black, I hope he's had the proper training.' That's all I needed to hear. That might be something an insult comic would have had in their skit in 2005. That is not at all suitable for a political spokesperson and a world away from anything Christian ... and certainly not a person that should fill up a stadium in Arizona to be mourned.

Don't be jealous. Just kidding. Just do it. Easier said than done, but I recommend it. And you nailed it. It is considered a crossing in that it's New York to Southampton, or vice versa. Those who know and love this voyage would bristle at it being called a cruise. It follows the traditional historic route of its Cunard predecessors. This is my third crossing and fourth time on QM2. I cut out a lot of things in life. I hit up BK on Whopper Wednesday, for example! Say you're heading to Europe and staying a while. Compare a nice enough cabin to outlays for one-way airfare, lodging for 7 nights, your daily meals, and that you don't have rental car costs and utilities. It's not that much more. You'll have to get an internet package. I also participate in the tipping package and give extra to the stateroom attendant and the dinner waiter and second person. I don't buy alcoholic drinks and I don't go into the casino. I bought a mug and a t-shirt this time ... usually stuff like that. I do have some CCL stock I bought a few years ago. The 7 day crossing gets you $100 in credit. This crossing runs deep in my family. I made 2 round trips on then active Italian Line as a kid. My parents and some of my relatives did it more often than that. Italian Line still called it a transatlantic crossing, but they had stops. Often, from NYC, it was (1) Portugal: Lisbon, (2) Spain: Algeciras/Gibraltar, Barcelona, OR Palma de Mallorca, (3) France: Cannes, and finally (4) Genoa and Naples. They did drop off and pick up passengers at these ports, so people from 4 Southern European countries used their ships to immigrate or repatriate. In port, we usually took the 4 hour motorcoach tours. Lisbon was my favorite port. My parents said the food on Italian Line was top notch, but it was definitely Italian-centric and only somewhat international. The cabin attendants made us these delicious panini with prosciutto, cheese, etc. when we kids asked for them as snacks. You will never forget crossing an ocean as a child.

Here's a depiction of where a school age kid is smarter than a teacher! Also, such a teacher would need to meet up with some discipline because these sorts of things happen more so than we think. I once heard a comment about a grade school kid sitting in a car being driven by his parents on the Las Vegas Strip. He asked how, if casinos were supposedly paying out all this money to customers, they could afford to put up these big fancy buildings. If you're thinking like that at 10 or 11, you've probably got a Harvard or Stanford MBA in your future. When I was his age, I just marveled at cool buildings ... and didn't do much further analysis.

I had to look up the Feast of San Gennaro in NYC ... courtesy of Neapolitan immigrants since 1926. This crusty dude is of local vintage ... not from the motherland. He can't pronounce "cacio" correctly because he was probably brought up with a dialect. It's "ca-cheeo," not "ca-gee-uh." Love all the blondies who want to culturally appropriate themselves to being Italian. I've seen these types in language courses in h.s. and college and they can be pretty dumb. I should make it a point to be in NYC during San Gennaro. The official day in Naples is September 19. The NYC festival runs about 10 days. I could get lunch or dinner in Little Italy on a daily basis. But, take note that a la carte street food + NYC prices can make for a dent. The a la carte pricing at Greek festivals in secondary cities adds up, so imagine how so in NYC.

Good morning ...

It's amazing how a leather wrapped steering wheel changes the experience at the wheel for the better (it seems to make for an almost different car from the model with a urethane steering wheel).

Speaking of rail, I hope that California completes high-speed rail. Southwest Airlines certainly doesn't like it, but it's better for the state. And DC doesn't support it, which is no surprise. The Big 3 (one reportedly more so) pushed streetcars and fixed route urban transit off the streets of the Los Angeles area decades ago, with a subway type system not coming back until the freakin' '90s.

I'd like to think that the U.S. is capable of a Renaissance of sorts. It involves both a change in leadership and some of the negative mindsets and qualities of people living in this country, which is harder to do.

The UK may drive down the wrong side of the street, but ... https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bCAcdqdqTxQ&feature=shared

Join me in wishing @A Horse With No Name a "slightly" belated birthday. (I'm in another space or another place if I miss these announcements.) I hope you had a great birthday.

Pretty much. I saw a homepage blip about him years ago, read up on his background, and decided I didn't like him. Then I heard this happened from across the pond. I was looking at some videos with reporters and such to obtain information and the status of the situation. I thought I wouldn't have to see the actual event. One news video flipped over to it quickly and it was more powerful and more disturbing than I would have imagined. I backed up to see some past videos where he is on. Yeah, I've tossed out a fair bit of stereotyping in my life, but he tossed out so much racism and dislike toward anyone who is not white, religious, conservative, and has a picket fence existence. And its delivery was consistently vile and condescending. He was yet another podcaster who made his living this way. He had quite the motor mouth, so he could have gone to law school, taken the bar, and gone to work. That would have been too much work, given that he only did a year of college and dropped out. This new way people are making a living doesn't make for much value-added.

When I saw this, I thought of you guys and how much most of you love Tesla. This is obviously where they unload these nasty cars. This is what I saw walking from the marine terminal in Southampton to the train station to fly out to warm weather that same afternoon. I was following some Europeans with luggage across the street and a green turning lane was still in effect. A local started yelling at us from his car in that working class brand of UK talk, including all "you 'effin' idiots." At least I could understand it. I need a translator for heavy-duty Scottish talk. The crossing was good. The ship stayed close to Canada all the way up to Newfoundland and then crossed. There was only one day of light chop. There were 2 poolside days in the beginning. That meant indoor jacuzzis under the glass roof for the rest of the crossing. Of four trips, the cabin was the best I've had. The composition of the table was marginal compared to previous trips. I won't go into it or I wouldn't be P.C. I reverted to the open seating option on a few nights. With all that, I didn't want to get off. A few others said the same thing. If the seas are good, it's incredibly relaxing. You're just lulled into another state and it's mostly a good one.

Indeed

The problem is that all 3 big NYC airports are complicated and expensive to get to. I don't like Chicago all that much (blame that on experiencing Champaign-Urbana and its connectedness to Chicago), but both O'Hare and Midway are accessible by regular CTA subway car rides from the city.

This is a challenging one. For me, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin are a big "no," as would be other smaller metro areas. For some reason, I have some affinity for the Houston area. Part of it is that the tree canopy is similar to that of the Atlanta area. I love Southern pine. People are super nice for a big metro area but, proporionately, not the sharpest tools in the shed. There are some ugly industrial areas and unchecked sprawl. While people may be nice, they are wickedly aggressive on the road. I like that it has Galveston. Whether it's the pier, the small dowtown with NOLA French Quarter* style covered sidewalks, or watching big cruise ships come and go, it can be a good time. * "Fillet of Soul" ... that is beyond hilarious ... it was a front for drug laundering or something like that New Orleans's motto as they might state in French would be (~) "laissez les bon temps rouler"

Dallas-Fort Worth of course. Haha

Yesterday would have been Pussy Galore's 100th birthday. Not exactly, but that of Honor Blackman. I was surfing Bond trivia and clicked on this actress's bio. Feminists who have an axe to grind go as far as to waste their time in decrying Bond's seduction of her, as in lacking consent. From what I recall, she gave in rather easily.

Good morning ...

Interesting that this was in an Escape. The mid-2010s Focus and Fiesta, which I have enjoyed as econobox rentals, were vilified for their dual clutch automatic transmissions. None of mine in rental cars acted up, except for one. And it acted up in a big way. I took it from Portland to Seattle to Vancouver BC and back. On the return trip, there were serious shudders in the automatic 1 to 2 shift, which is typical of one on the fritz. It's too bad. Dual clutch automatic is sort of standard for the VW umbrella overseas. They quote crazy prices to replace transmissions. I had a leaflet for GM Mr. Goodwrench factory rebuilt R&R units laying around. This was for 4-speed THM 460 (E) transaxles, just to know my options. The prices were palatable. Fortunately, I never had to fix a transmission. I did fluid changes every 30,000 miles. These cars trans' remained in the pink for their entire service lives.

Their situation has improved. Twenty years ago, it was bad like Venezuela is today. I have a friend who is married to a woman from here. I bet he regrets it because he also "married" her very large overbearing Colombian family with very poor boundaries.

A very unique car ... best in white. What could be a (Grand) Le Mans BUT with a funky front end, vaned triangular "opera" window, and the squashed down rear trunk. Thankfully, the great dashboard is the one shared with the GP. (Located in soulless Chicagoland suburbs that go on forever.) We had a neighborhood family with this car in white. They were never friendly to us. I don't think they liked foreigners (like my parents). They were transplants from Iowa ... the dad was a blue collar guy and the mom was the customer service desk lady at a nearby supermarket. I'd laugh ... the kids in our family have more than one sheepskin to their names and look and act Americanized. How about their kids? Maybe some token community college courses? I would never bring up this sort of stuff except that they were borderline white trash and a-holes. They were the only people I ever knew with a first-gen Grand Am. Condolences on the loss of this good friend ... he was taken from us way too soon. He was apparently a brilliant and impressive individual.

Our gruff German villainess had no idea she was giving a lift to a major horndog who wanted to boink all those girls residing at that clinic-institute.

When movies were stellar: I love this scene ... I've put it up before ... it totally plays in to stereotypes about Germans ... not only that, the scenery, the plot, the music