In the news

So here I am sitting in a Naples hotel room, reading the news from home and thinking of the many curious things I have seen here in the city by the bay. 

1. Nepal is a republic!  Will even they notice? 

2. The lawyers of the Democratic Party have decreed that half the delegates from the great states of Florida and Michigan should be allowed to vote at the convention, which is a 19th century archaism of no relevance in the age of eternal campaigning.  The Times thinks this will hurt Hillary (article secretly co-authored by the mildly anti-Hil Maureen Dowd?); CNN thinks it will help.  As the Kinks sang, "It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world."

3. Scott McClellan has written a book declaring that the Bush administration, led by the Crony of All Cronies, is a corrupt, incompetent, seething mass of misdirected hormonal aggression and self-exculpating douchebags.  Simply shocking.  Question for Scottso: How did you manage to delude yourself for so very long?  I'm thinking he was the right man for the job all along.  His "Christian" values helped him to see the light.  They always do, when it's opportune.

4. I saw a news segment on BBC which chronicled the efforts of a British doctor to bring free/ultra-low cost health care to hundreds of lower-income Americans.  I saw it on the tube in America several weeks ago, I think on NBC or something.  The people had driven for hours and slept in their cars to get this healthcare -- dentistry and eye-glasses included -- because news travels fast even when you're dispossessed.  "We've been cast aside," one man said.  Unbelievably, this may be news to some.

5. British tourists are fatter than Americans!  The ones I've seen here are.  They're huge.  They dress just as badly too.  Is this result of good living or too many fry-ups with sides of Heinz baked beans? 

6. Naples seems to have a weird collection of the handsomest and ugliest people in Italy.  Why??

7. I'm in a pickle.  I really want to go home.  But I hate to leave Italy.  The solution may be to drink more Italian wine.  The kind that has a gout de terroir, anyway.  Who's with me?

Comments

[gianpaolo]

You didn't comment on the size of sunglasses of some people on the street (I'm not sure if they belong to the handsome or to the ugly side).
I'm with you, for the wine I mean.

[amico tuo]

what's the latest on the rom camps down there?

si dice "gusto del territorio"

heard about the shoot out in harlem the other day...why go home?

[terence]

I used French to class up da joint.

Rom camps? They aren't at the Excelsior, mon vieux.

Btw -- got upgraded to Business. Living laaaaaaaarge.

[tracie b]

answer to number 6: because there's mo middle ground to anything in southern italy. troppo, o troppo poco. incazzattissimo or felicissimo. frrrrredo o caaaaaldo.

brutto (ma brutto davvero) o bello (mamma mia!).

hai capito?

[th]

capito...verissimo.

btw, I was wearing the biggest sunglasses in town, gp, so that of course means that the handsomest wear them.

[amico tuo]

any rubbish in the streets at the Excelsior? now there would be some real gout de terrior for you

[th]

Only rubbish was the 2 Americans wearing mad big shades.

[Edward]

Re: #4 I think I saw the program on US TV you are talking about on 60 Minutes. It's a group called Remote Area Medical. They originally formed to take medical care to third world countries and now do some work in the US. People line up for days ahead of their arrivial and sleep in their cars. It's a sad state of affairs in this country when people have to drive many hours and sleep in their cars to get basic medical care. Hopefully, that will change after November.

[th]

Amen, brother.

[amico tuo]

big shades are like big neck ties, they come in and go out of fashion
good wines on the other hand are timeless!