Here is another tip for staying young: being perpetually astonished!
And another one: have younger people visit you now and then.
And here is how to survive them.
In fact, it's been great fun having the nephew around. We told him we didn't have Internet in the house, so he had to make do with all our daily routines, from the grocery store to watching Seinfeld on DVD. We selected episodes of Seinfeld very carefully for him and now he is a fan! The Pony Remark. The Whirlpool. The Soup Nazi. And so on. What other 16-year-old has such life-changing opportunities?
We also watched The Long Way Round with him (Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman around the world on motorcycles). Two episodes at a time (three, eventually), because he became addicted. The slapstick of that series turned out to be perfect entertainment for him (the Mongolian ball soup; Claudio's Russian haircut; the guy who shot a Kalashnikov as a welcome gesture; Ewan the Manimal. And so on, and so on.)
As for going to bed with the chickens? Not a problem. He arrived exhausted from his family vacation and a long trip with his friends. In our place he's had to wake up early in the morning like we do, since he's been sleeping in our living-room, so he stayed tired. He begged to sleep. Problem solved.
We did let him drag us to numerous shoe shops. Shoe shops? Yes, shoe shops. This generation, they are worse than Carrie Whatsername from Shoes and the Clitty. He was on the phone for a half hour the other day, trying to convince his mom that he needed more football shoes. We learned a great deal about the negotiating might of a teenager.
---
And now, your banana moment of zen:
Condoleezza Rice said:
“This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can invade its neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed.” There will be consequences!
A real journalist would have asked:
Can you be more specific, ma'm??
Her Russian colleague Mr Lavrov declared:
“We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States,” he said, “but one day the United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership with Russia.”
What can we say? Indeed, if you can be partners with the real macho, who gives a dime about the shitty little balalaikas in between?
--
Leave of Absence #5
Dear readers, it is time for our long deserved vacation. This bblogg is going to take a long break! We are going to have ourselves baked in Greece, the birthplace of Tentacles the Wise Octopus, as well as his retarded brother Tentacles Tentacles, his cousin Testicles of Sypholos Island, and Icicles and Bicycles the conjoined twins of Mount Colymbos! But don't you worry! Come September we will be back with many silly pictures of Frog Ted in Athens! We'll try to convince Tentacles to pose with him, but we can't promise.
Showing posts with label Leave of Absence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leave of Absence. Show all posts
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Goin West
From Freud to Herr Fritzl, Austria seems to have a very mental mentality. If we were the Austrian authorities, we would promulgate (finally, Bimmy!) monthly Raid Your Neighbor's Basement Days. Just in case. After a couple of months, another 3 million Austrians could be produced! Imagine the logistical nightmare!
What a country. You ask them what is going to happen to the victims of rape-imprisonment-incest next, and all they can think to say is that they will need to get them social security numbers.
--
Yes, our Dear Readers, this will be our Leave of Absence #4.
For almost two weeks, posting is not guaranteed. Forget us not!
Garfield, 080307
What a country. You ask them what is going to happen to the victims of rape-imprisonment-incest next, and all they can think to say is that they will need to get them social security numbers.
--
Yes, our Dear Readers, this will be our Leave of Absence #4.
For almost two weeks, posting is not guaranteed. Forget us not!
Garfield, 080307
Friday, January 11, 2008
Rhinos in Peril
[and our Leave of Absence #2]
It's been almost a year, and we should celebrate it. It's hard to believe it, but up until just one year ago, if you raised the issues of the Environment, Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and so on, you were a quaint curiosity with flowers in your hair. Or a Marxist-Leninist SUV hater - or a science-fiction blockbuster - or Sting - or a scientist about to get grilled. We were none of the above -- just old enough to remember Sting – so even as the summer temperatures in our beloved Mediterranean grew more and more inhumane (not inhumane enough to keep us away), we had to keep our worries to ourselves. It looked hopeless.
And then, at the end of January 2007, in Davos, Switzerland, the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum took place. We remember watching the TV reports in amazement. Had we missed something? Certainly those were not Marxist-Leninists with flowers in their hair, not any more anyway, but on and on they went about Climate Change. Obviously, the world's VIPs had decided they were finally ready for the Environment to go mainstream!
And so we were beamed to a miraculous new world of urgency. We got bombarded with commercials of hybrid cars, showered with heart-warming messages promising clean energy – from oil companies! The C- students – that's TV journalists -- discovered a new playground. Out they went in armies, bear spotting, taking mud baths with elephants!
CO2 emissions became the new calories!
We welcome and celebrate this wonderful development, not only for our holidays' sake, but also because we would be very sad, were rhinoceroses to go extinct. Especially Roufa! Rhinos are Roufa's favorite animals! Their extinction is not directly related to Climate Change, but all this Awareness could save them anyway, as a collateral benefit.
--
The next Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum is coming up, 23-27 January in Davos. What will it be this time? Could it be the colossal business opportunities of developing Africa, or has that happened already? We are very excited, that's for sure!
Creatures of the Emerging Markets, unite and take over!
If you have time in your hands and delusions of grandeur, or if you'd simply like to hang out in the same virtual room with a good-looking brunette, you can give the Davos Question a try:
Davos Conversation
Official Google Blog: The Davos Question
--
Leave of Absence? Yes, it's true, we will be unable to blog for a while. Not for long, about ten days only. Mimi will be away for work. Roufa will stay home and spend his days in denial, watching two movies every evening to forget.
See you when we are back together.
It's been almost a year, and we should celebrate it. It's hard to believe it, but up until just one year ago, if you raised the issues of the Environment, Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and so on, you were a quaint curiosity with flowers in your hair. Or a Marxist-Leninist SUV hater - or a science-fiction blockbuster - or Sting - or a scientist about to get grilled. We were none of the above -- just old enough to remember Sting – so even as the summer temperatures in our beloved Mediterranean grew more and more inhumane (not inhumane enough to keep us away), we had to keep our worries to ourselves. It looked hopeless.
And then, at the end of January 2007, in Davos, Switzerland, the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum took place. We remember watching the TV reports in amazement. Had we missed something? Certainly those were not Marxist-Leninists with flowers in their hair, not any more anyway, but on and on they went about Climate Change. Obviously, the world's VIPs had decided they were finally ready for the Environment to go mainstream!
And so we were beamed to a miraculous new world of urgency. We got bombarded with commercials of hybrid cars, showered with heart-warming messages promising clean energy – from oil companies! The C- students – that's TV journalists -- discovered a new playground. Out they went in armies, bear spotting, taking mud baths with elephants!
CO2 emissions became the new calories!
We welcome and celebrate this wonderful development, not only for our holidays' sake, but also because we would be very sad, were rhinoceroses to go extinct. Especially Roufa! Rhinos are Roufa's favorite animals! Their extinction is not directly related to Climate Change, but all this Awareness could save them anyway, as a collateral benefit.
--
The next Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum is coming up, 23-27 January in Davos. What will it be this time? Could it be the colossal business opportunities of developing Africa, or has that happened already? We are very excited, that's for sure!
Creatures of the Emerging Markets, unite and take over!
If you have time in your hands and delusions of grandeur, or if you'd simply like to hang out in the same virtual room with a good-looking brunette, you can give the Davos Question a try:
Davos Conversation
Official Google Blog: The Davos Question
--
Leave of Absence? Yes, it's true, we will be unable to blog for a while. Not for long, about ten days only. Mimi will be away for work. Roufa will stay home and spend his days in denial, watching two movies every evening to forget.
See you when we are back together.
Friday, December 7, 2007
A Leaden Cucumber for Us?
We were planning to just say a sweet goodbye-and-see-you-soon before our upcoming
Leave of Absence #1,
that's a 7 to 10-day period, during which we will be on the road and possibly not in a position to post... and then it hit us again. You may think you're done with the blog, but the blog is not done with you.
It was such a heart-warming message that the French Minister of Agriculture was conveying through our very TV set. So they do know it's Christmas after all! He was going to loosen certain restrictions and allow French farmers to cultivate a larger portion of their land, because there are people in the world who starve. They're all waiting for the French grapes to arrive!
It just so happens that a couple of days ago we read how they solved their famine problem in Malawi. After one more disastrous corn harvest two years ago, they were indeed facing serious starvation problems over there. And then the new president Bingu wa Mutharika decided to henceforth ignore the suggestions and free-market preachings of the EU, the US -- and perhaps other U's we may be forgetting and the World Bank of course -- and subsidize fertilizers, which farmers there could absolutely not afford otherwise. Alas, no more free market in Malawi, they could go straight to hell! Well, they are now exporting corn to Zimbabwe. And the food aid that arrives there is being forwarded to Uganda.
The aforementioned U's do subsidize their own farmers. They just wanted Malawi to continue to export, say, tobacco and use the money to import their food. In that way U's would get the tobacco and the money U's would have paid for it. Hypocrites? U's?
This is not a Golden Banana anymore, this calls for a Leaden Cucumber up U's.
Aaaaanyways!
Dear Very Honorable Readers, as we said already, we'll be gone for several days. Posting is not guaranteed. Have a nice time this weekend, and let us remind you that you should air yourselves sufficiently -- physically and mentally.
By the way, as all Reading Heroes know, reading is a good way to air your mind, and helping Santa is another great one too! Dancing is highly recommended as well - it seems to keep Ms Quarks sane, sometimes. If you'd fancy some brain jogging, try and memorize the name of the Malawian President, see above. If you're German, you know what to do, we call it hiking.
In any case, be sure to enjoy whatever money you're making. If you absolutely can't, at least let somebody else enjoy it.
Leave of Absence #1,
that's a 7 to 10-day period, during which we will be on the road and possibly not in a position to post... and then it hit us again. You may think you're done with the blog, but the blog is not done with you.
It was such a heart-warming message that the French Minister of Agriculture was conveying through our very TV set. So they do know it's Christmas after all! He was going to loosen certain restrictions and allow French farmers to cultivate a larger portion of their land, because there are people in the world who starve. They're all waiting for the French grapes to arrive!
It just so happens that a couple of days ago we read how they solved their famine problem in Malawi. After one more disastrous corn harvest two years ago, they were indeed facing serious starvation problems over there. And then the new president Bingu wa Mutharika decided to henceforth ignore the suggestions and free-market preachings of the EU, the US -- and perhaps other U's we may be forgetting and the World Bank of course -- and subsidize fertilizers, which farmers there could absolutely not afford otherwise. Alas, no more free market in Malawi, they could go straight to hell! Well, they are now exporting corn to Zimbabwe. And the food aid that arrives there is being forwarded to Uganda.
The aforementioned U's do subsidize their own farmers. They just wanted Malawi to continue to export, say, tobacco and use the money to import their food. In that way U's would get the tobacco and the money U's would have paid for it. Hypocrites? U's?
This is not a Golden Banana anymore, this calls for a Leaden Cucumber up U's.
Aaaaanyways!
Dear Very Honorable Readers, as we said already, we'll be gone for several days. Posting is not guaranteed. Have a nice time this weekend, and let us remind you that you should air yourselves sufficiently -- physically and mentally.
By the way, as all Reading Heroes know, reading is a good way to air your mind, and helping Santa is another great one too! Dancing is highly recommended as well - it seems to keep Ms Quarks sane, sometimes. If you'd fancy some brain jogging, try and memorize the name of the Malawian President, see above. If you're German, you know what to do, we call it hiking.
In any case, be sure to enjoy whatever money you're making. If you absolutely can't, at least let somebody else enjoy it.
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