xtcian

Semiotic slander! Jesus did NOT wear a hair piece!

Oh, one more recommendation...I don't know if it's been made. The arcades in St Germain. There's an entrance off a main road, maybe St Germain itself or maybe St Michel. I imagine it appears in the walking tours of that area in all guidebooks that have one.

These European photos are wonderful! Did you buy a new camera? I am getting awfully jealous, here in my cubicle. Tell Miss Lucy the Jet Setter that I did not ride a plane until I was 17 and did not visit Europe until I was married at 26. She is living large, at the tender age of 1!

Pardon my franch, but they is more than wun dahawg. I thank Lucy can likesee prawbly find 'em all, STARting with the grand chien #1, France becomes you, father eeee-Ahhn (do it like a European siren, HA!)

BTW, is Lucy gonna sign with an agent or look to stay in college another year? My Emily and I have been stalking you guys on playdates.com
Pencil us in when you return to the time zone.
And is France as kid-friendly as, say, Ithaca?

Happy holiday, Gay Paree, French for 'change the baby' (gotta be a joke in there somewhere) and,er..... Bon apertif. Excuse me.

I believe I became possessed by the spirit of our -not-so-dearly departed JBoog this morning because I found the following tidbit from the University of Oregon:

"A study conducted (Mayer Hillman, Town & Country Planning magazine, September 1996) estimated that a single transatlantic return flight emits almost half the CO2 emissions as from all other sources (lighting, heating, car use, etc.) consumed by an average person yearly."

Just for the sake of argument (and let's keep it civil, people) . . . I know Ian drives cross-country a lot for reasons that are not entirely personal: business, career, etc. But, at what point does an environmentally-aware crowd condemn air travel for apparently no other reason than to attend a wedding and take in some fabulous sites?

Ian, don't get me wrong! Love your blog and your adventures and misadventures. And, before anyone condemns me personally for being a right-wing troublemaker, take a minute to consider my BS in Environmental Policy from UNC.

Let the fur fly!

Obviously, by supporting the French economy Ian is helping to save the global environment from the United States. Flying maximizes his time spending moneying money in France, plus Air France is French-owned but hardly any options for taking a French-owned boatliner, at least for somebody on a tight schedule. Really, it's a no-brainer.

You are so right, Oliver! Now I get it completely. It is only American companies and the American economy that is harming the environment -- not harmful acts in their own right. So, for example, running 25,000 Le Cars for hours on end without a catalytic converter is not to be condemned. Got it. Makes perfect sense to me. Tell you friends at ELF that I said hi.

I am not cultured enough to know that much about fine art. It seems to me, however, based on my cursory review of the painting, that Veronese combined a lot of different themes (borrowing liberally from others) in his painting. He's got Da Vinci's Last Supper and he even added Peter Breughel's dog(s) from "Icarus". But overall, Veronese reminds me of those cheesy knockoffs of Edward Hoppers' NIGHTHAWKS painting where the artist adds in different celebrities like Elvis, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe as patron diners. Basically, what I'm saying is that if Veronese were alive today, we'd be buying his paintings at Spencer gifts.

As for "Dean Boog", funny observations. Somewhere J Boog is smiling.

Did anyone see the exchange on CNN where the reporter interviewed Nicholas Berg's father after the Al-Zarqawi hit? Click on my name to check it out.

GFWD, thanks for posting that interview; it was fascinating. I was shocked when I picked up the New York Times this morning to see the framed "portraits" of al-Zarqawi. I understand why they displayed them, militarily speaking, but I couldn't help being reminded of those who cheered in the streets after the towers fell. It's such a screwed-up world. Thank goodness there are such pleasures as little ones seeing big paintings for the first time.

The French simply know that catalytic converters remove all the flavor from exhaust. They smoke a lot too. You have to look at the big picture.

I like beer.

GFWD:
So many times in this comments section your humor makes me laugh hysterically - so thank you for that. Thanks also for posting the link to the interview with Mr. Berg. I chose not to read that yesterday, but did today because of you. It was incredibly powerful and moving. I think as a parent that it would be hard to feel that way if someone killed my child, but as a human, I know he's right.

PS - about the painting, do you suppose that is one piece of canvas, or was it sewn together? That would have been a really big loom if it's one piece. It had to have been pieced together, right? And how would they have cut the wood to make the interior frame without a table saw?

In addition to being interested in how they got the canvas together, it also amazes me that art like that can survive for almost 500 years. As art classes are quickly disappearing from our public schools, I worry that future generations won't have any appreciation for art.

I hope that Ian will give us all the details of the trip when he returns. The pictures are great, but I miss the commentary!

Rebecca, glad you like my occasional humor on Ian's comments section. Are you a Rebecca that I would know from Carolina?

"I understand why they displayed them, militarily speaking, but I couldn't help being reminded of those who cheered in the streets after the towers fell."

Beth, surely you can see the difference between the rejoice that comes from the fact that a murdering fascist thug has drawn his last breath, unable to continue his killing spree, which slaughtered a lot more Muslims than Americans, I might add, and the cheering seen in the streets of Palestine after 3,000 innocent people were burned, incinerated and crushed to death.

I don't care what anyone says, this was a good week for civilization.

And I don't often get the chance to defend Ian, so let me say that I don't begrudge anyone who avails himself to the wonderful benefits of modern transportation. Of course there's a certain aspect of hypocrisy involved on the part of "environmentalists" like Babs Streisand, who recently announced a 20 city, nationwide tour to combat "climate change," a phrase I adore -- as if climates on Earth don't often change. Maybe she'll buy carbon credits or some such, like Al Gore. It's the new elitism. They can afford to jet around the world leaving a great big stomping footprint everywhere, but the rest of us poorer souls who may not be able to afford such smug self-satisfaction should stay home and throw another piece of dung in the fire.

Oops, did I forget the quotation marks around "Palestine"?

Greg:
Oh, probably not. Class of 92, senior class marshall, Avery Dorm, Women's Glee club, those were the things I was most active with. I dated a guy named Bill for most of my time there, but married his roommate, Matt. Then I introduced Bill to his wife, and both our families now have 3 kids each, and we go skiing together almost every year! Okay, sorry for nonrelated info. but I think it's funny how life works out sometimes...

No, Matt, I don't get it, and I'm not even trying to make a political point, or a moral one; I just completely fail to understand the whole notion of humans killing other humans to make the world a better place. Does not compute.

Rebecca,

I do know you and I have a picture of you with me, Lisa Underwood and Ruffin Hall on our Senior Class Marshall trip to the mountains and sliding rock. I figured that was you. I'll email you personally to catch up some more.

You would know me better as Greg Parent.

Rebecca got outed!

Back from Paris, arms tired, etc.

Then there will be no bridging this gap, Beth, because I completely fail to understand how allowing a mass murderer like Zarqawi to continue killing thousands of innocent people (beheading civilians snatched off the street, bombing wedding parties in Amman hotels, etc.), makes the world a better place. And don't kid yourself, that's the very real moral consequence of your objection, whether you wish to recognize it or not.

Welcome back, Ian.

Matt, my (liberal) husband feels the same way you do, and these postings inspired a lively dialogue here at home. (Don't despair, because that's how bridging a gap begins--in making an effort to understand the other side's point of view, even when you ultimately can't. I'll always give your reasonable arguments the time of day, even when I can't give them credence.) Here's the thing: I get confused when I try to make it all square, war and the death penalty and sanctioned killings and the like, because the line between what's right and what's wrong shifts from country to country and culture to culture and epoch to epoch. Who's to say that Americans are ultimately in the right? We think we are, but who made us the world's moral arbiters? And though I can say with conviction that I believe certain ways of conducting a life are wrong, I have trouble carrying that a step further and declaring that somebody should be murdered for it, even when they "deserve" it. I just fail to see how it helps. Maybe al-Zarqawi can't go out and kill people anymore, but our killing him just perpetuates the cycle. And then--what disgusted me and prompted my initial post--we frame a picture of his dead body to show the world? Like I said, I understand that the U.S. did that to prove to potential naysayers that he was indeed a corpus, but damn: that's just plain barbaric. It doesn't do much to convince me that we're the ethical sophisticates (aka the good guys) here.

Ian, ditto what Matt said--welcome home, your loyal readers missed you and appreciated your taking the time to post on your vacation. And here we are having political scraps even when your post didn't spawn them.

Beth, thanks for the taking the time to respond and further explain your view. The gap remains wide, however, as I can no more fathom the moral relativism present in your argument that "what's right and what's wrong shifts from country to country and culture to culture" in the present context than I can your apparent rejection of the use of deadly force on those who kill innocents by the score.

Zarqawi's own tribe, after all, his country and culture of Jordan, denounced him for bombing the wedding party in Amman, which killed 60. Most Iraqis, who share an Arab culture with Zarqawi, also have little trouble seeing the evil inherent in his deeds, not least because they bore the brunt of his terrorism.

So while I don't think judging the rightness and wrongness of Zarqawi's targeted killing of civilians is at all difficult or "confusing", I do think I understand your philosophical point. And I'm reminded of Sir Charles Napier's response to the complaints of natives in India who objected to the British authority's prohibition on the Hindu practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands.

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks, and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

Outed, indeed! Imagine my surprise this morning when my old friend Greg called me to thank me for my comments here. It crossed my mind that it might be him so I threw out a few bones just to see. Tomorrow I will get out my old photo albums and post a 14 or 15 year old picture of us that I think I have. God, has it been that long?

Greg, it was great catching up today. Thanks so much for the call.

Ian and Tessa, glad you're back safely.