Uruguay In Three Words

by | Dec 8, 2007 | 0 comments

Punte del Este.  There’s not much else and what there is looks pretty white bread to me.  Everyone knows PdE.  It’s Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard, South Beach, and St. Tropez all in one.  On weekends during the season, globetrotters of all stripes settle in on their yachts, condo’s, villas, or hotel suites for a weekend or several weeks of luxurious fun in the sun.  Wealthy Argintines and Portenos from Rio swarm the place much like the French on the Cote d’Azure in August.  Lot’s of bodies glistening with oils and ungents, cold whites from Mendoza and caviar from god knows where.  You get the idea.  It was logistically out of reach for us this trip, but the reports...

Rio, City with a Soul

by | Dec 2, 2007 | 0 comments

It’s said that Sao Paulo is the brain of Brazil while Rio is its soul.  They’ve even invented a word for it…..Carioca.  Which is how people in Rio describe themselves.  It loosely translates as the spirit or life style consistent with life in a sun drenched city ringed by miles of beaches and punctuated by the mother of all parties…Carnival.  Perhaps, otherwise said,  a combination of joie de vivre, fun in the sun, and a forgiving attitude coupled with a healthy dose of a manana philosophy. Much has been said about crime in the city, but I’d say there’s more than a little hyperbole in the nay sayers.  Much like Sex in the City.  Not that...

Trafego in Rio

by | Nov 27, 2007 | 0 comments

It’s good to start at a low point, because, ipso facto, everything after that has to be up.  And we started from a really low point.  The flight wasn’t too bad.  Delta hit on one out of three.  The service was slightly north of tolerable, the food was atrocious, and the environment (seats et al) were abysmal. Worse, I was thinking of my son’s forecast when I saw the three rows in front of us occupied by three octagenarian couples obviously bound for a cruise.  I thought, “Ohmagod, what if they and their fellow travelers are our shipmates for the next eight days.  Now, understand, I’m not an age discriminator.  Hells bells, I’m pretty far round the bend...

I Caucus Too

by | Nov 23, 2007 | 0 comments

As usual the Iowa caucus is receiving an inordinate amount of attention in the form of media coverage, political money, contender visits, pundit prognostications and political rhetoric in general.  Unlike most of you who will read this, I have actually participated in the Iowa caucus, but even so, it may be hard to say anything about the subject that hasn’t already been said and said again. Indeed my participation in the Iowa political process dates back to 1960 and my senior year in high school in Ames, Iowa.  Perhaps by virtue of the fact that I had received some local notoriety as the student body and student council president I was asked to run the youth...

What Makes a Veterans Day?

by | Nov 14, 2007 | 0 comments

There’s always more than meets the eye.  As many of you intrepid readers will know, Veterans Day did not start out as Veterans Day, but as Armistice Day which was intended to commemorate the end of WWI, but didn’t.  OK, let me explain. WWI was officially ended by the Treaty of Versailles which was signed by the previously warring parties on June 28, 1919, but hostilities had terminated (I guess they just stopped pulling the triggers) on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  Many of our European friends and some of our enemies had the good sense to recognize November 11 as Armistice Day well before it occurred to us.  It was designated a...