April 2006

Barcelona: Parc Güell

April 30, 2006

Part 6, continued from part 5 We hopped back on the tourist bus and rode to the other Gaudí house that we hadn’t yet seen, only to find a long line for it. So we rode the other bus line to Parc Güell, the “English-style” park that Gaudí had designed for his patrons, the Güells. [...]

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To Barcelona, Part 5

April 29, 2006

Part 5, continued from part 4 After the disappointment of lunch, for dinner Enrico had armed himself with recommendations from our friends. We had a hard time finding the place – the street number he had was somehow wrong, and after we finally found it we had to kill an hour and a half because [...]

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To Barcelona, Part 4

April 28, 2006

Part 4, continued from part 3 Enrico left us to go back to the university for a meeting, and Ross and I struck out on foot for the Barri Gotico, seeing many beautiful buildings along the “Modernist Route”, including what is probably the world’s most beautiful Starbucks. We wandered for a while, eventually ending up [...]

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To Barcelona, Part 3

April 27, 2006

Part 3, continued from part 2 Between that and my cold, I got a very poor night’s rest. After breakfast I went back to sleep until it was time to check out and move on. We reached our destination around 2 pm. Javier met us and let us into the apartment where Enrico will be [...]

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To Barcelona, Part 2

April 26, 2006

Part 2, continued from part 1 We stayed that night at a chain hotel in the suburbs of Nîmes. I was amused to note that French suburbs look exactly like American ones, with strip malls, motels, and fast-food joints (and many more MacDonald’s than we have in Italy). The main difference is that the signs [...]

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To Barcelona

April 25, 2006

Enrico is spending a month at the University of Barcelona, doing mathematical research with a colleague there. Since Ross had a long Easter break, we decided to accompany him there and see a bit of the city. We left Lecco on Good Friday afternoon and reached Cannes for a late dinner with the family of [...]

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Reflections on Travelling in Italy

April 25, 2006

One impression I had of both France and Spain, at least the parts we were in, is that many commercial districts look somewhat seedier than similar areas in Italy. I can’t quite put my finger on why. Shop signs seem more garish, and sometimes worse maintained (fading paint, etc.), and shop windows often look cluttered [...]

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The Nose Knows: Gut-Level Attraction and Repulsion

April 25, 2006

Kerry Bailey wrote in his blog recently: …for some reason I can’t quite pin down I hate morbidly obese people. Just something about them fills me with this unexplainable anger. It’s like this weird sort of intolerance or racism that I’m not quite sure how to squelch. … It’s somewhat ironic that I, as a [...]

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comment on/add to “American Gas”

April 20, 2006

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Rosie’s Funeral

April 11, 2006

^ My father’s eulogy for his sister Rosie, read by me. The Giving Tree ~15 minutes, 23 mb Casey (Rosie’s daughter), Sarah (granddaughter) and Dot (cousin) talk about Rosie. above: What I said at Rosie’s funeral. Processional Recessional – Per New Orleans tradition: “When the Saints Go Marching In.” New Orleans Jazz Band of Austin [...]

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Paint It Black

April 5, 2006

The weekend didn’t turn out as planned. Shortly after I sent my brief newsletter last Friday, my dad called to say that he and Ruth both had a bad flu and I shouldn’t come for the planned visit to them in England, lest I catch it. Not a dead loss – the weather at home [...]

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comment on/add to “Italian Accents”

April 5, 2006

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Rosie

April 1, 2006

~ age 16 with 4th husband Jack with Rossella, 1989 with 5th and final husband Bill February, 2006 – Home from the hospital (again, and for the last time).

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