Globetrotter Day 4

Today I walked to a nearby church (Notre Dame1) and caught the last few minutes of the noon Mass before they kicked out everyone (about twenty-five people).

The park next to the church had nice benches and a whole slew of Parisians biding their time. As the African woman next to me napped, I read my magazine ("The New Oxford Review").



Some observations in the "people watching" category:

1. I see no laptops. And I don't mean fewer laptops. I mean I've seen none - nada - zero. Not in any parks, not in any cafes.
2. There is a similar lack of people thumbing away at their cell phones. Surprising to me, since I thought that the text-message craze came from Europe...well, England at least.
3. In the park, people are actually READING BOOKS. It's crazy.

I went back to the Hotel about 2pm to meet back up with Breon, who had been out looking at more books. After fighting with the fraud department of his credit card (who found it hard to believe that anyone could be simultaneously buying high-dollar items in Canada and Paris), he was off for yet another go at it while I lounged in the room.

Now (7:45pm) we are back from dinner and in for the night (unless, having napped for a couple hours, we get all restless and decide to paint the town red sometime after 10pm).



1By the way, since "Notre Dame" means "Our Lady", there are a BUNCH of "Notre Dame"s in Paris. This was NOT the famous one.

Globetrotter Days 2 and 3

We arrived in Paris about 10am Tuesday, having flown about 8 hours from the Cincinnati airport (which is not only *not* in Cincinnati, it's not even in OHIO). As you can see from this photo at the Gate in cinci, it's easy to tell the difference between "native" Parisians and immigrant Parisians:



After checking into our hotel, we ate lunch at an (apparently famous) restaurant called "Le Dome"; just across the street from our Hotel. Dragging ourselves back to our room, we collapsed for an eight-hour nap.



Waking up about 10pm, we had a late dinner a few blocks away. We decided *not* to eat at the "Indiana".



Back to the hotel and back to bed for a good night's sleep.

Day three, and jet lag has been conquered! We go down to the hotel lobby for an all-you-can-eat breakfast; paid for as part of the price of the room.

Breon, having been told by a book dealer that morning that he "assumes you are in Paris for the book fair starting today"; decides we'd better go find it (at Place St. Sulpice, which is a group of permanent booths around a beautiful fountain in front of a huge church about four blocks from our hotel). We walk there and Breon systematically scours each booth for books while I sit in a nearby cafe catching up on my internet duties (facebook comments, mostly).



On the way there we see a Smartcar advertising the Sims3. I can't resist a picture (every time I take one, I feel like an offending tourist/rube...so I take much fewer than I otherwise would).



One thing I notice about Paris is that everyone is dressed just a bit nicer than I would expect a typical American to be dressed. It's very unusual to see someone in a T-Shirt and jeans (which is what I wore to Le Dome on the first night...imagine my charin when I looked around at everyone else in jackets and the waiters in black ties!). This guy was just doing some painting:



One cool thing is that you can somehow "share" bicycles. I was wondering what was going on when I saw a bunch of people riding what looked like very well-maintained bikes. I figure, after seeing the line-up of bikes pictured below, that it's one of those deals where you pay for the equivalent of *one* bike, and then you can always have one out. When you check one in, then you can take a different one later, or just leave it.

Papal Prayer Intention for March: the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world.

That the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world.

The Culture is Sliding into the Crapper

When I first had children, I had this idea that I wouldn't take them to McDonald's (since it isn't really the healthiest of foods, and it just reminds me of the more-tattoos-than-teeth crowd letting their children drink coke from a baby bottle). I held out for about a week-and-a-half, and then we were feeding a smilingbabymaddie french fries.

My next bastion of virtue was cell phones. There was NO WAY my pre-teen was going to trundle about with a cell phone. You know that one fell. I now have a ten-year-old with a cell phone. WHY DOES A TEN-YEAR-OLD NEED A CELL PHONE??

I guess I should be asking MYSELF that question, since I was intimately involved with the decision.

These things just seem to slip in...and slip by. They seem like the right decision at the time. But stepping back and looking at it from a high level; something is amiss. I mean, I didn't even fight very hard. I guess it isn't important.

I think that's part of the reason the culture is sliding into the crapper. No one individual decision "is very important". Taken as a whole, however...where does it end?

News on TV is not News

Just watched fifteen minutes of news on the TV. It's nice to do that every once in awhile to remind myself why I generally don't.

Topics:

1. Sugar free red bull can be fatal (no details) : you know my feelings on that: what are the chances? My guess: > 50 million units sold, < 5 deaths. I'll get details and post them here later. [edit: BILLIONS SOLD in 2006 ALONE, three deaths in 2001 only]
   
2. Obama vs. Cain running mates guessing. Note this is not an announcement, just guessing...
3. Should teachers be armed in Texas (this was the most interesting, and perhaps even helpful, but it's really just a left-field (or should I say, right-field) type of thing that won't even pass in Texas, much less anywhere else, so better if they just tell me once 5-10 schools have passed it...not just one CONSIDERING it)?
4. A killing somewhere (guy was caught and sentenced, I think). The only reason I could figure that it made the "news" is that the abduction was on tape, so we could be entertained by watching it.
5. Finally, a news story on the number of hours in a lifetime that men vs. women spend "getting ready" (3000 vs. 1000 hours), followed by a detailed discussion of each newscaster's personal routine.

Oh, and I forgot that we got to hear the newscasters opinions about each story (all the way from VP to Redbull).

From now on, I'm going to put "news" in quotes, and when I talk about it, I'm going to use air-quotes.

Are Newspapers as bad?

Do the Math

I went through the McDonalds' drive through this eve, and there was a sign saying that they have stopped serving sliced tomatoes NATIONWIDE due to some problems in Texas and New Mexico.

There have been no problems w/ McDonald's tomatoes, "But with an abundance of caution, we want to make sure our food items containing tomatoes are absolutely safe," says McDonalds.

Specifically, as of June 9th one out of every ten MILLION (10,000,000) Americans have been hospitalized due to a rotten tomato (23 people). No deaths. You are TEN TIMES more likely to WIN THE LOTTERY then to have had this problem.

Give me my tomato! Or at least, give me a choice.

Apgar on Apples, Undercooked meat, bad spinach. This is just the latest in a long line of problems blown out of proportion due, I think, to people's desire to feel more in control of their lives. Give up. You're not in control.

I'm not saying we should take unnecessary risks. I'm just saying, let's do the math.

P.S. I'm sure McDonald's has done the math. If I were them, I'd stop serving tomatoes nationwide at the drop of a hat too (without charging less for my product)!

[EDIT: 6/28 Ate at Micky D's today, and had a sliced tomato...]

California county clerk to cut marriage ceremonies in wake of same-sex marriage decision

California county clerk to cut marriage ceremonies in wake of same-sex marriage decision: "Bakersfield, CA, Jun 10, 2008 / 03:20 am (CNA).- The county clerk of Kern County, California has announced that her office will perform no civil marriages at all because of the state Supreme Court’s decision not to stay its mandate legalizing same-sex marriages."

She considered resigning, but when she found out she wasn't legally obligated to do what she didn't believe in, she decided to make a stand. Way to go! Here's a link if you want to send her your thoughts.