Folks, I’ve been wanting to write about the events of the past week, namely, the shooting in El Paso and its aftermath, but, alas, I’ve been neglecting this blog almost as much as I have the weed-choked “flower bed” in the backyard. We started with a killer and his “manifesto” full of ramblings on immigration as well as environmentalism and what-not, and with the anti-immigrant hatred demonstrated in the act of travelling specifically to that border town in order to... Read more
Some years ago, we tried to take the train from our suburb into Chicago for a Tall Ships festival, and the train was so packed that we not only couldn’t get on (especially with a stroller at the time) but we threw in the towel altogether, figuring it would be a madhouse at the other end and/or on the return trip. So we were delighted to see the tall ships just across the state line in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Yes, there... Read more
By “the Bee,” I mean, for those for whom it’s escaped their notice, the Babylon Bee, a satirical site which, according to Wikipedia, was launched in 2016. It’s has it its sights items related to evangelical Christianity, targeting Prosperity Gospel hucksters such as Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copland, and Creflo Dollar (“Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn To Speak At First Annual HeresyCon“, “Creflo Dollar Debuts New Pulpit Made Entirely Of Hundred Dollar Bills“, etc.), denim-skirt-wearing Independent Baptists (“Nike Releases Floor-Length Denim Basketball... Read more
Here’s a “scandal” reported by ProPublica Illinois yesterday: “Parents Are Giving Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid,” with the subtitle/excerpt, “First, parents turn over guardianship of their teenagers to a friend or relative. Then the student declares financial independence to qualify for tuition aid and scholarships.” Some excerpts: Dozens of suburban Chicago families, perhaps many more, have been exploiting a legal loophole to win their children need-based college financial aid and scholarships they would not... Read more
So the time since our return from vacation has been taken up by a lot of unpleasant and non-bloggable family stuff, here’s a little bit of something I wanted to share: Back a week or two ago, the question floating around twitter, as tends to reappear every now and again, was, “what’s the first news event you remember?” and I began to feel really old when the response of so many people was the space shuttle disaster. (Me, I’m a... Read more
Day 14: back to Rome So I had been surprised that we needed to get our suitcases ready the night before and I was further surprised that the last morning was so rushed as well. I suppose it makes sense that if embarkation for the next cruise starts at noon, they need to get those rooms ready and the passengers off the boat, but we were obliged to leave the room at 8:30 (we had breakfast just before then), and... Read more
Day 13: Livorno. This is a strange sort of stop — the port of Livorno is itself nothing to write home about, but provides access with a reasonable drive time to destinations as far as Florence and, in fact, the cruise-sponsored tour buses lined up and waiting for their passengers seemed far more numerous than the prior days, though, at the same time, the prices charged by the ship even for something as simple as “X on your own” were... Read more
Day 12: Naples So the original plan was to go to Pompeii, and the only undecided aspect of that plan was whether we find an “unofficial” shore excursion bus to take us there, from among those waving their signs at us as we exited the ship, or whether we take the commuter train, which, on the one hand, was cheap and offered more flexibility (stay as long as you want without being trapped by the bus company schedule), but, on... Read more
Day 10: Valetta. This was the other half-day, as we didn’t dock until 1:00. Annoyingly, even though the official Cruise Port was just outside the Old Town, due to the number of cruise ships in town, our ship docked on the other side of the harbor, at the industrial port, and it was necessary (if you weren’t taking an official shore excursion) to take a ferry-boat over to the other side — a process that took an hour of waiting... Read more
Day 8: Mykonos. It’s all about expectations, in the end. I had low expectations for Myknonos, which was described as over-touristed every bit as much as Santorini, and full of rich people. But it was nice, and the streets were not nearly so jammed as I had expected, and once you leave the main thoroughfares they were rather quiet. Despite the description of it as an enormous resort (which was likely more true of the actual resorts and beaches, which... Read more
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