Friday, December 03, 2004
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Happy Birthday, From Baghdad...
As usual, Bush won't budge an inch, despite pleas from all corners of Iraqi society... He confirmed this morning "Iraqi elections will be held on schedule on January 30. This is the birthday of Aaron Holsberg, a prominent New York liberal democrat."At left, "Hands Of Victory," among Baghdad's most famous monuments, which commemorates "victory" in the pointless 1980-1988 war with Iran, which cost a million lives, most of them teenagers. From a site on Baghdad and its attractions:
"The colossal Hands of Victory monument has dominated Baghdad's skyline since the end of the Iran-Iraq war. . The triumphal arch is shaped as two pairs of crossed swords, made from the guns of dead Iraqi soldiers that were melted and recast as the 24-ton blades of the swords. Captured Iranian helmets are in a net held between the swords. And surrounding the base of the arms are another 5,000 Iranian helmets taken from the battle field. The fists that hold the swords aloft are replicas of Saddam Hussein’s own hands. The German company that built the monument, H+H Metalform, said it was given a photograph of Saddam's own forearms to use as a model.
When Saddam inaugurated these triumphal arches, he rode under them on a white horse —an allusion to the steed of Hussein, the Shi'ite Muslim hero martyred at nearby Kerbala. The day before the first bombing run on Bhagdad during the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi TV showed a mass of Iraqi soldiers marching beneath the huge crossed swords of the Victory Arch, to the theme music from 'Star Wars'."
Cartoon:
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Wednesday, December 01, 2004
She's Always A Woman...
Busy Busy... Believe the hype: "Da Vinci Code" is the gripping, stimulating, intelligent, edge-of-your-seat ride it promised to be. History, esoterica, symbology, and, yes, Jesus (pictured left) swirl around a speeding juggernaut of a plot that keeps many balls in the air seamlessly. I'm halfway through the 13-disc unabridged Audio CD version. Last night I switched internet providers and installed Verizon DSL (phone-based internet) to replace Time Warner RoadRunner (cable internet). It's working much faster, but music streaming still isn't free of skipping. I will pursue this further with both Verizon and Rhapsody, my music streaming service. Oh, The Merriam-Webster Dictionary as chosen 'blog' as Word Of The Year.That's about it for now. Cartoon follows below.
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Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Marlina's Gift
Marlina is the 10 year old Indonesian child I sponsor through Christian Children's Fund. I've been a CCF sponsor for over 15 years now, and am usually assigned a new child every two years. This is a bookmark Marlina made for me - very sweet of her. CCF not only provides school materials for Marlina, but tries to develop her village by improving education and health and promoting its economy (crafts?). I don't think I've ever actually written one of my beneficiary children - unlike Jack Nicholson's character in About Schmidt (Dear Ndugu..), I'm a rather passive sponsor. But I think I will definitely write her and thank her for this gift.this entry's permalink
Monday, November 29, 2004
Shooting Across
My delayed flight from Arizona touched down just past midnight after shooting across the continent in an impressive 3 1/2 hours, boosted by unusually high (180mph) tail winds. I crawled into bed at around 1:30am, and feel quite sleep-deprived at the moment. Just found out my Miami trip is postponed, and as much as I was looking forward to it, a restful weekend at home doesn't sound too bad ahead of next week's grueling mid-week hop to London to meet with my bosses.At left: the Saguaro cactus (pronounced sah-WAH-row), symbol of the American southwest desert to anyone raised on TV cartoons. : - ) Did you know most Arizonans never see their state flower, the saguaro blossom, a tiny blub that appears at the top of these 15-20 foot monsters once a year, and can only be seen from an aerial standpoing. Cartoon follows:
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Sunday, November 28, 2004
Truth Booth?
Last month in Park Slope, Brooklyn, while seeing Sondre Lerche at Southpaw (see Oct 20 post), I ventured into an apparently malfunctioning ye olde fashioned photo booth. Printed in smudged ink, with a poor focus, the four snapshots did manage to capture some spontaneity and playfulness. The hand in the third frame belongs to Kelly AuCoin, Brian's brother-in-law, who lives in Park Slope with Carolyn, Brian's sister. Carolyn, a longtime modern dancer, just began studying liminology, the freshwater equivalent of oceanography.
So today I wrap up three days with my family in Arizona. I arrive in Newark at a quarter to ten. Cabs to Newark are, excuse the expression, highway robbery - it comes to $65 when you add in two-way tolls and the tip. I've got to re-discover the airport bus when time is not of the absolute essence. The de-yuppification of Aaron S. Holsberg. : - )
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