Santa Barbara Pictures

I downloaded the pictures from the digital camera.

Here's the opening reception of the conference...



When I got back to the hotel one night, I saw this truck parked outside with this interesting essay on Mayans, Christianity and mathematics...



Here's my hotel room...



The start of the drive to campus...



Where 101 hits the coast at Gaviota...



Partway to campus...



Here's the beach barbeque from Wednesday night. It wasn't really a barbeque, though. It featured...tri-tip!

Here: A Biography of the New American Continent

I finshed Here: A Biography of the New American Continent. The book has at least three different threads -- the author's experience as bureau chief for the New York Times in both Mexico and Canada, the history of North America over the past 500 years, and the North American experience in the age of NAFTA. These threads come together and provide a thought-provoking narrative of the complex interrelationships that characterize our continent.

I ran many of DePalma's anecdotes about Mexican society past Christina to make sure he wasn't mischaracterizing things, but she found his stories fairly recognizable. The strength of the book is the author's ability to draw on his personal experiences (and as a NYT bureau chief, he got pretty good experiences -- meeting high-ranking policitians, getting private tours, and breaking important stories). Unfortunately, that's also a weakness, as events that happened when DePalma wasn't around (for example, after he left Mexico) get much less attention. Furthermore, after only two years in print, the book is already dated. The election victory of Vicente Fox and the end of PRI dominance in Mexico is relegated to an afterword. And the effect of September 11 on international relations and the importance of borders will have to be left to another book.

Still, I recommend Here. DePalma's a sharp observer, and a thoughtful one. His approach of treating Canada, Mexico and the US as one entity to be studied is a novel one, and the novelty definitely pays off here.

Not Really In Santa Barbara...

The University of California at Santa Barbara is actually in Goleta, 8 miles away. I guess that's OK, since UC San Diego is in La Jolla. The Santa Barbara airport is also in Goleta. That'll come in handy getting from the conference to the airport on Thursday.



The Rancho Santa Barbara Marriott, however, is really not in Santa Barbara. It lists itself as 35 miles north of the airport, so it's even farther from Santa Barbara itself. I was originally booked into the Holiday Inn, but a week before the conference rooms became available at the Marriott -- at a cheaper price, even.

If I can make it to 50 nights with Marriott this year (I'll be at 32 after this week), I reach "gold" status. The primary benefits from that are room upgrades and access to the executive lounge. Nice enough when I'm on the road by myself, but it'll be really cool when Christina travels with me. I had complimentary Hilton Gold access for a while, and she really enjoyed the nicer digs in Sydney and London.

So it seemed worth the drive for that alone, but it's actually turned out even better than I thought. The drive is mostly along the Pacific, and it's been fairly fun. It's not much longer than my usual daily commute. I've gotten to see part of California (the Santa Ynez Valley) I haven't seen before.

When I made my reservation, they couldn't guarantee me a king bed. When I checked in, I asked the clerk if I could be switched from the two queens room I had. She said the only king rooms they had left were "accessible" ones, which I could have if I liked. I asked what the difference was, and she said they had larger bathrooms and a detachable shower head. After being assured they had plenty such rooms (so I wasn't taking one away from someone in a wheelchair), I decided I could handle it. Christina hypothesizes that I gave up some space in the main room for the bigger bathroom. I can live with that.

After checking out the room, I wandered in to the gift shop. I had picked out some toiletries when a woman came in and told me they weren't open yet. I asked when they would open and she said, "Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday." I had to think about that, but she said the hotel had been without a gift shop for several years. It now seems to be open (why else would they stock newspapers?), just in the morning or evening when I walk by.

Seeing America via NTN

Now that I know the NTN rankings at Santa Fe Cafe are on-line, I have a certain amount of motivation to keep my ranking up. So before I travel, I'm now doing an NTN search to find places to eat. I'll be eating out anyway, so it's not like I'm spending extra money (or gaining extra calories) through this method.

I was pleased to discover Federico's, right next to my hotel offering NTN. After I checked into my hotel yesterday, I went there for a late lunch and played a couple games of Countdown. Since I'm at the conference all day (half an hour from my hotel), I don't know how much I'll get to go back there. (Also, they're closed today.)

Today, it was off to the Old Town Tavern. It's about a 5 minute drive from the conference, in what passes for downtown Goleta. I had a little trouble finding parking, but I eventually parallel parked across the street and went in. It was a nice enough place. The bartender mentioned that they had a "tri-tip" sandwich on special. After enough "what-what"s out of me, she realized I must not be from the West Coast, since I had never heard of "tri-tip". Apparently, it's a cut of beef. It was tasty enough, but I don't know how special I find it. I played one game of Wipeout and then came back to the conference. (And the wireless network in the lecture hall -- a lifesaver during boring talks.)



Update (August 2004): Federico's doesn't seem to exist (or at least have NTN) anymore, according to on-line searches.

Pictures from California

Well, I'm back in California. And I have pictures to share. Of my last trip to California. As you'll recall, I lost the connector cable for the digital camera. I discovered this only after taking pictures on my March trip to Berkeley. Saturday, I finally hooked up the digital camera using a different cable. I can't attach it to the laptop, but I can download pictures at home. Those of you wishing to see pictures of my present location (Santa Barbara) can take a look at pictures from my trip 3 years ago. It hasn't changed all that much. Oh, I'm not staying in the dorm this time. More on that later.

Here's my hotel room in Oakland...



My rental car from Oakland...



Here's a sculpture outside MSRI by my colleague Helaman Ferguson...



Here's a view of the San Francisco Bay from MSRI. Note the Golden Gate Bridge in the background...



Here's a talk I attended on Escher and the Droste Effect.

Philly Pix

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Philadelphia.

Here's us in front of Independence Hall...



And in front of the Liberty Bell...



Here's Christina in front of the Schuylkill River and the lights of Philadelphia...



Here's us with our friends Cheryl and Jon in the lobby of our hotel...

Wow

Dear Redskins Fan:

 

Congratulations!



Your waitlist account number, XXXXXXX, has come up. You are now officially

eligible for 2003 Redskins season tickets. 



As a member of the most exclusive club in Washington, you will have a choice

of locations starting at $YY per game.* You will also have the option of

purchasing on-site parking immediately adjacent to FedExField for $25 per

game.



Your season tickets include both pre-season games as well as eight regular

season games with an option to purchase post-season tickets as well. Your

season tickets are just for 2003. Each season after that, you will have an

option of renewing them. 



As a season ticket holder you also have the right, on Monday mornings, to

tell your friends what really happened at the game, because you were there.



Please have your account number available and call us immediately at (301)

ZZZ-ZZZZ to choose your Redskins Season Tickets location or to let us know

if you want to pass on your tickets for this season.



 

Hail To The Redskins!



 

*Terms and Conditions apply including a one-time, $50 per season ticket,

activation fee.

Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?

I went with some friends to the Santa Fe Cafe Saturday night to watch the Redskins embarass themselves. Hey, it's only preseason, right?

We also played NTN trivia there. If you look at the rankings for Santa Fe, I'm #21 in "Players Plus Points". They're sort of frequent-player points. Originally, you were supposed to be able to redeem them for stuff, but I think they discovered people just preferred collecting them. With some exceptions, I get 2000 points per hour of play. Before you do the math to figure out how much of my life I've spent playing trivia, keep in mind that it's been over most of the past decade. I wouldn't even crack the top 50 at my original site. I moved too far away to keep that as "home base".

The Santa Fe changed hands this summer, and Christina and I were afraid we'd have to find a new place. So far, however, no major changes, and people who have been there in recent weeks tell me they're doing well. Otherwise, I might have to switch to George's home location. (He's #6.)

Our Town

The Washington Post's "Where We Live" for today spotlights our very own University Park.

Christina made it to 33...

Christina has a new post about her birthday weekend in Philly. Hopefully we'll take the pictures in soon, and I'll post some. I'm very happy that I was able to help put together a fun weekend -- Christina was initially somewhat skeptical just how great the City of Brotherly Love would be.



Independence Hall is my 19th World Heritage site, so I updated the list. UNESCO just added 24 more sites, so I fall further behind. Well, on a percentage basis, last time this year, I had visited 12 out of 730 (1.6%), and now I'm up to 19 out of 754 (2.5%). We'll add 1 or 2 in October on our honeymoon...

American Gods

I finished reading American Gods over the weekend. I'd have to say it's been my most disappointing Hugo read so far. Not that it was bad. Overall, it was enjoyable. But it didn't entirely work for me. It's an interesting premise...various immigrants to America bring their gods with them, then forget about them. The old gods grow weak without worship and are finally drawn into a battle with the "new gods" -- of television, of cars, of media... It's an interesting premise, but it drags in places. Such an interesting premise deserves more development, even if it's at the expense of the "flavor" of the tale Gaiman is presenting. It's a very ambitious work that doesn't, in the end, live up to its ambition. In retrospect, I'm somewhat surprised that it won for Best Novel, but then again, I didn't read any of the other nominees.

I have a number of other books piling up to read, so I probably won't pick up any more Hugos until the 2003 awards are announced at the end of the month.

"Hawk-Eyed Reader"

I've been a fan of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo site for a couple of years. He writes thoughtful, thought-provoking stuff about subjects ranging from Chandra Levy to redistricting. Anyway, today something bugged me about a reader e-mail he was dicussing, so I fired off a response and found myself quoted. Cool.

Who Is Chad Mulligan?

I'm currently reading American Gods, last year's Hugo winner. One of the characters, a police officer, is named "Chad Mulligan". What is odd about that is that there is also a character in Stand on Zanzibar, the 1969 Hugo winner, with the same name. The characters don't seem to have much in common. What's going on here?

A Google Search turns up a a police officer in Arkansas named "Chad Mulligan". At first I thought this was a joking reference to one of the books, but the site appears legit.

For what it's worth, according to Census data, 0.004% of Americans have the last name "Mulligan" and 0.165% of American men have the name "Chad". The 2000 male US population was 138.1 million. If the "Chad"s and "Mulligan"s are distributed evenly among the population, there should be about 9 "Chad Mulligan"s. Yahoo! People Search gives three. (None in Arkansas.)

I have no conclusion here. It's just a thing that makes me go "hmm".

The Lost Roll of Film

I recently found an unidentified roll of film in a camera bag. Christina had it developed, and it turned out to be the last roll of film we took with my old camera. These pictures were taken on Lady Elliott Island during our trip to Australia last summer.



I can't believe we flew in on this tiny plane.







I'm glad I got rid of those clip-on shades.

Bill Bryson's African Diary

I got this book out of the library and spent, at most, an hour total reading it. For the cover price, it's not a good bargain to buy, unless you desparately need to have it on your shelf. The high cover price is justified by the proceeds from the book going to CARE. But donating the cover price directly to them gets you the tax deduction and saves them the cost of producing the book. So if you're thinking of getting it to "help out", do that and check the book out of the library.

That aside, the content was interesting. Instead of Bryson's usual solo traveler tales, we get to see Bryson the VIP tour some decidedly dangerous areas in Kenya. He also gets to see some very beautiful areas, but the focus of the book is on the crushing poverty of Kenya and CARE's attempts to make a difference. The book makes a good case for their work without hitting you over the head with it, while still retaining some of Bryson's light touch.

Reading & Writing

Christina posted last week about what she's been reading and hinted at what she's writing.

What Ever Happened to "Baby Shaq"?

For some reason, the other day I started thinking about Charles Claxton, who played basketball at Georgia a decade ago. During my first two years at Georgia, I got cheap basketball tickets ($1/game, and they threw in a free t-shirt). Claxton played center and was nicknamed "Baby Shaq". Unfortunately, as far as we in the stands could determine, he only shared two attributes with Shaquille O'Neal. Both are 7'1", and neither could shoot free throws.

The last sighting I could find of him was as in 2000-01 as an All-Star for the Brighton Bears, a British basketball team. Not exactly the Phoenix Suns (who drafted him before his final year at Georgia in a weird arrangment).



Since I couldn't remember Claxton's name off the bat, I had to resort to a Google search. The search was somewhat complicated by:

• Kendrick "Baby Shaq" Perkins (drafted this year by the Celtics)
  
• Sofoklis "Baby Shaq" Schortsianitis (drafted this year by the Clippers)
  
• Kenny "Baby Shaq" Harris (off to play for Valparaiso)
  
• Hugh "Baby Shaq" Jones (a 6'3" street ball player from DC)
  
• A horse named "Baby Shaq"
  
• John "Baby Shaq" Henderson (entering his second year with the NFL's Jaguars)
  
• Eddy "Baby Shaq" Curry (entering his third year in the NBA with the Bulls)
  
• Robert "Baby Shaq" Traylor (now with the NBA's Hornets)
  
• Auri "Baby Shaq" Allen (a 6'9" 12-year-old)
  
• Jennifer "Baby Shaq" Gardner (now playing at Western Carolina)
  

The list goes on...

Books, books, books

I usually do most of my reading when traveling, but with July free from travel, I've found some time to do some reading around the house.

Harry Potter

I reserved the new Harry Potter book from the library months ago and picked it up the day it was released. I found it to be really enjoyable. I was particularly impressed that Rowling was able to increase the maturity level of the series as the characters (and readers) mature. Christina pointed out that this progression was part of Rowling's original plan from the book, but I was impressed that she was able to pull it off. I look forward to Book Six.

Atlantic Telegraph

In an age when news zips around the world in the blink of an eye, it's interesting to look back to a time when information traveled at a relative snail's pace. I think it was reading about the Battle of New Orleans, fought after a peace treaty had been signed in the War of 1812 that first got me interested in the transition to the Information Age. That transformation happened with the development of the telegraph. The Victorian Internet was a good read (though poorly titled) on that subject, and A Thread Across the Ocean joins it in filling in my knowledge of how the telegraph shrunk the world. The book gives an idea of both the massive technical challenges that faced the transatlantic cable, as well as the social and political effects of the connection.

My Civil War Ancestor

I got e-mail the other day from Dale Jones, my mother's fourth cousin. He and I corresponded a few years back about our common ancestor, William Cooley. Dale is descended from William's son, Robert, and has information about that family on his web pages. I was happy to link to Dale's pages for that branch of the family, and Dale e-mailed me to give me his new web address.

My mother's great-great-grandfather was Robert's brother Reuben. Despite the fact that all of my ancestors made it to the US by the end of the 19th century, Reuben appears to be the only one who fought in the Civil War. Years back, I ordered Reuben's pension records, and I took this opportunity to add an excerpt from his application to my web pages. I learned from the pages that his disability resulted from the fact that in "Jan'y, 1864, he contracted "Rheumatism," also at Columbus Ky in summer of 1863 he contracted Chronic Diarrhaea and resulting "Piles". Ah, glory.

Exchange Program

Christina has a post up about To Say Nothing of The Dog, which I read last fall. She mentions our "exchange program" where she is reading a Hugo-award winning novel, and I read a Pulitzer-winning novel. I'm not sure when I'll read another Pulitzer-winning novel, as I think I'll pretend for a while that I learned everything I needed to know about serious fiction by reading one book.



That book would be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I enjoyed it quite a bit and particularly enjoyed the author's deft touches. One example was his writing style, which seemed to me overly punchy, until I realized it was evocative of the style of the Golden Age (late 30s, early 40s) comic books the two protoganists created.

It looks like since last fall I've read two other Hugo-award winning novels The Doomsday Book and A Fire Upon The Deep. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a sequel, in a loose sense, to The Doomsday book -- they share some minor characters and the setting. I didn't find it as enjoyable -- I don't think the author did as good of a job with the medieval setting as she did with the Victorian one.

So what next? It's probably time for another Hugo winner. I could read American Gods, last year's winner, about which I've heard good things. And I look forward to seeing which of this year's nominees gets the nod.

Fair Isle

Christina's parents now have a web site for their furniture company, Fair Isle, Inc..

Sweepstakes Winner

My father won a year's supply of golf balls from the Golf Channel.

Phone Book

A picture my father took made it on the cover of his local phone book...



...or at least I'm assuming that's why he sent it to me.

Jury Duty

Hey, if I get enough content from family members, I'll never have to come up with anything original myself.

Christina posted a new entry on her jury duty experience.

Tucson Goodtime Singers

Our high-speed connection to the Internet is down, which limits my ability to post. (Well, technically, my patience at uploading this over the modem is what limits it, but you know...)

My mother e-mailed me to tell me about the new web site for the Tucson Goodtime Singers, a group she sings in. She can be spotted in some of the pictures, looking surprisingly dignified.

Aspen Fire Last Night

From my father,

"This was taken from our front gate. I used a tripod this time."

SnoCoach

Last month, Christina and I drove north of Banff to the Columbia Icefield. There's a set-up where you can take these specially equipped "Snocoaches" out onto the glacier and walk around. So we did.

---

Evening View of the Aspen Fire

My father writes,

"I took this from our front yard. Should have used a tripod. The fire seems to be creeping down the mountain.

More fire pictures

---

"Here's one taken from our garage."

Fire!

My father sends this picture of the recent Arizona wildfire.



He writes,

"I took this picture this morning from the road that leads into SaddleBrooke. We can now see flames in addition to smoke. The flames in this pic are in the dark smoke."

Moo!

Great, just as I'm headed to a conference in Alberta, they find mad cow disease in...Alberta. And I had been so looking forward to the steaks.

Sooner or Later, It Starts to Add Up to Real Money...

Prince George's County's $1.8 million budget for 2004, scheduled to be adopted by the County Council tomorrow, could face deep cuts later this year -- perhaps as much as $20 million -- if Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. vetoes a package of corporate taxes passed by the General Assembly, county officials say.

--"Pr. George's Fears Veto Of Tax Bill By Ehrlich", The Washington Post, May 21, 2003, B05.

I don't know how you're going to cut $20 million from a $1.8 million budget. Maybe by tapping the $1.2 billion snow removal fund...

Tennis Elbow

Christina has posted a medical update at her site.

Five-Star Service

Well, I've just about recovered from the jetlag. I suspect my ailment last week was more contagious than food-related, as Christina has taken ill with similar symptoms. Sigh.

I just thought I'd post a little bit about the hotel I stayed at last week -- the Sofitel Victoria Warsaw.



When I travel, I have to keep within certain limits on hotel rates -- the hotel per diem. These rates can be fairly generous, but they generally constrain me from living the high life in a city's poshest digs.

When I got a list of the hotels for the Warsaw conference, I compared the rates to the per diem and discovered that I could stay at one of the four-star hotels. I was relatively happy with that -- I've stayed in three-star hotels in London, and I'd do it again, but they were a little bit sketchy. Sketchy is not something I was looking forward to in Warsaw.

I double-checked before making the hotel reservation, and lo and behold, the per diem rate had gone up by around $40. I could afford the five-star hotel (the Sofitel Victoria). I'd be staying in the lap of luxury.

Well, not really. In many ways, it was comparable to the four-star Hilton Metropole we stayed at in London last month. The Internet access in the room was a definite plus for keeping me in touch when I retreated back to my room, ill.

But somehow it didn't seem as nice. It seemed a little...dreary. I probably could have done better trying to fit under the per diem at one of the newer hotels not on the conference list.

My repeated encounters with the gift shop woman seemed to exemplify the staleness of the place. At one point, I asked for stamps to mail postcards back to the US. She asked me how many, and I counted out nine postcards I had filled out. She started tearing off the stamps, and I remembered four more postcards I had yet to fill out. Since I would need stamps for those, I said, "No, thirteen." She sighed audibly and shot me a look that seem to say, "I can't believe communism lost to you." She hadn't even finished tearing out nine stamps!

I shouldn't generalize, though. The morning I checked out, I had a few more postcards to mail. A different woman helped me out, and she even got out a sponge to moisten the stamps for me. She also gave me "priority" stickers to put on the cards, which apparently you need -- so those of you who get your postcards via steamer two months from now, you'll know who to blame (and where she works).

Melrose Place

Christina has written a review of the Melrose Hotel, where we stayed on our wedding night.

Viva Poland!

Well, at yesterday's lunch, the Qvo Vadis staff was dressed in sombreros. Odd enough. They also served something that appeared to be enchiladas. I don't generally eat enchiladas, so I didn't risk it.

Perhaps that is what put me in mind of Mexican food, though, and that evening I ended up at El Popo for dinner. The food was...interesting. Good, but unusual. The quesadillas seemed more like cheese turnovers. The flautas were served with a side of potatos and sausage...Christina assures me that this can be autentically Mexican, but I didn't sample the sausage to find out if it was chorizo.

Dinner was accompanied by a mariachi band, who seemed quite good. During their break, they wandered over to the bar and started trying to figure out how to transfer photos from one person's cell phone to another's Palm Pilot. Judging by the amount of swearing that was going on, I don't think it went well.

When it came time to depart, I ran into the small problem of not remembering where the entrance/exit was. (I eschewed the margaritas, so that wasn't the problem.) Fortunately, one of the mariachis came up to help me. Unfortunately, he started trying to help me in Polish. We settled on Spanish, and I ended up back on my way to the hotel.

Reconstruction

OK, I feel better today. I had a little food at lunch, which was the first real meal I had since Monday dinner. Still not sure if it was food poisoning or what. By the way, the restaurant's name is actually Qvo Vadis...the fact that the first thing that jumps out at you from their web site is the phrase "Mix-Erotix" is somewhat disconcerting. And yesterday and today, nobody was wearing togas...oddly disappointing.

Other than feeling incredibly sick, yesterday wasn't a total loss. It was the conference afternoon off, and I had signed up for an organized tour of Warsaw. It suffered from some of the usual downsides of bus tours...why did we get out of the bus here, but drive by there, but all in all, it wasn't bad. For some reason, only a small fraction of the conference attendees signed up, so we were actually in a Mercedes mini-bus.

Anyway, here's my impression of our tour guide:

"The Nazis destroyed that...The Nazis destroyed that...The Russians desroyed that...The Nazis destroyed that...OK, that we just didn't build right to begin with...The Nazis destroyed that..."

Seriously, though, that's unfair of me. It leaves out the most astounding part of the city, which was that after the war, they decided to built it right back again. As a result, you can stroll down streets that look hundreds of years old, but are less than 60. And it's not like a Disneyland version...everything was done for authenticity, not tourism. It displays a certain amount of stubornness..."OK, we don't really need a castle any more, but we're not going to let some jerks come into our country and burn it down."



As the World Heritage page says,

During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, more than 85% of Warsaw's historic centre was destroyed by Nazi troops. After the war, a five-year reconstruction campaign by its citizens resulted in today's meticulous restoration of the Old Town, with its churches, palaces and market-place. It is an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century.

Actually, the castle was not restored until the 1980s. One of the odd sights in the castle were busts of Washington and Jefferson, which were donated by Bush I. They were displayed like wedding gifts that a couple didn't really want, but have to leave out for fear of offending someone. (Note: we didn't get anything like that. It was all great. You shold be getting your thank you notes soon.)

Maybe it wasn't the sleep...

I'm continuing to feel iffy this morning. (I'll spare you the details.) I thought maybe it was the room service I ordered last night. But I just talked to a colleague who said that he thought he had gotten food poisoning from lunch at the conference yesterday. Great... He described the choices as "unidentifiable meat, unidentifiable meat, unidentifiable meat, unidentifiable meat..." That pretty much sums it up. The restaurant is called "Quo Vadis", and it features weird decor and a bunch of people standing around in togas -- it has this weird Caesar's Palace vibe going on.

I think I'll try to stay away from the unidentifiable meat today.

To sleep...

A year and a half ago, I said,

In my early 20s, I could stay up all night w/ no consequence beyond sleepiness the next day. Now, as I near the end of my 20s, I find myself unable to cut into my 8 hours of sleep much w/o getting headaches and upset stomachs. Blech.

Well, on the other side of 30, I can report that the upset stomachs still reign, though I find myself mercifully headache-free this morning. Thank goodness for small favors.

I just sort wish my sleep pattern corresponded to either Maryland or Warsaw. I'm sleeping like 8pm-1am and 4am-7am Warsaw time, which is 2pm-7pm and 10pm-1am back home. I guess that is 8 hours, though you wouldn't know it from the signals my body is giving me right now.

Anyway, you'll excuse me if I lack charming comments about my trip right now. In the mean time, enjoy Christina's weblog update.

Apology for Eating at McDonald's

I feel like I should start this out with an apology for eating at McDonald's yesterday. I'm not entirely sure of the basis for this feeling, but it's been nagging at me. Maybe I should start with a defense instead. I was hungry. My other options seemed to be room service and various hole-in-the-wall kebab places. And I wanted something cheap and quick to eat before the conference reception last night. I managed to communicate my order with the McDonalds worker, mostly because she knew some English. I got the Cordon Bleu meal, which suggested to me some lines for "Pulp Fiction II":

Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a McChicken in Warsaw?
Jules: They don't call it a McChicken?
...
Vincent: They call it a "Cordon Bleu".

Anyway, that picture above, from the McDonald's web site is the first McDonald's to open in Poland, and the one I went to yesterday. So at least I went to a historical site. And it's the first McDonald's I've seen where they serve Red Bull.

Taxi!

The guidebook warned against hiring a taxi driver who solicited me in the Warsaw airport. No problem. Well, except for the fact that as soon as I left the terminal, I had taxi drivers swarming around me asking if I needed a taxi. I said "no", which wasn't all that convincing, since I kept standing there.

I like to look around and get my bearings on a situation before taking action. I was hoping there was something else around I could feign interest in, but there wasn't much to the area in the front of the airport. An attempt to examine the exchange rates to see how I did at the exchange near passport control led to offers of help with that. I finally just walked up to the taxi desk (as advised by the guidebook and various signs around the airport) and said "Sofitel Victoria?"

The woman behind the counter confirmed that I in fact wanted a taxi there and led me to a waiting one from one of the more reputable companies (according to the guidebook). I asked how much it would be -- she told me around 35 zloty. It ended up being 26 zloty (about 7 bucks). Plus, I got to hear One Night in Bangkok on the radio on the way.

Later, when I went out to get the GPS coordinates of the hotel (52^o 14.396' N, 21^o 00.757' E), a taxi driver stopped and asked if I needed a ride. (OK, he asked me something. I make assumptions.) I guess they have pretty agressive taxi drivers here for some reason.

More Hotel Reviews

Christina has written up a review based on our stay last month at the Hilton London Metropole. She also has a review of the Hampton Inn and Suites Providence from her visit to Rhode Island.

Hampton Inn, Clemson SC

Christina and I went to Clemson last weekend and stayed at the Hampton Inn Clemson. Read her review.

Update

One of my first posts on this weblog was about the book Bears Discover Fire. In it, I said,

OK, I admit it; I bought this book in large part for the title, and the cover (sadly not available at Amazon), which shows bears with torches.

A large version of the cover is now available here.

Books I've Read Lately

The English: A Portrait of a People

I had been meaning to read The English: A Portrait of a People before one of my trips to the UK. I finally got around to reading it during our trip there last month. I don't know that I learned anything particularly profound out of the book, but it was an entertaining companion with some interesting trivia facts.

The book centers on the question of English (as oppposed to British) national identity. The author traces a strain of anti-intellectualism and tries to tie it, along with other traits, to a concept of Englishness. I'm not sure I buy that, but some of the insights are worth thinking about, especially for a foreigner like me.

The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?

This is another book I'd been meaning to read for a while. It has a fairly provocative thesis -- that rather than trying to protect our privacy, we should demand openness from others. So if a company gets our address, we should have the right to know exactly what they are doing with it. And the home address of anyone on their board of directors.

There's a lot interesting there -- like the contrast between American fear of Big Brother and European fears of corporate privacy invasions. Brin admits that he is not an absolutist -- he wrote the book in part to counter-act what he saw as people too concerned with "how do I keep my personal information secret" and less willing to consider regulation about how the information is used.

The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future

This book might as well have been subtitled "Ice Cores, Ice Cores and More Ice Cores". The author spends the first part of the book explaining how ice cores (specifically, drilling two miles deep in Greenland) can tell us about climate history. It's fairly dry stuff, but I followed along on the promise that he would use this set-up to help explain possible future climate changes.

Unfortunately, when he gets to that stuff, he doesn't go into much detail, and instead returns to the details of the ice core experiments. It's always amusing to see how someone's obessions creep in despite their best efforts, but in this case, it makes for an unsatisfying book.

Completely Off Base

My father had a letter published in the Arizona Daily Star.

Upcoming Talk

Hey, I'm giving a talk at Clemson next Friday.

Guess I'd better go write the talk.

World Heritage List

I've created a web page listing the World Heritage sites I've been to. I link to the official UNESCO page for each site, as well as to a description of my trip there, if available. I'm hoping to go back and provide descriptions of trips where not available.

While we were in England earlier this month, Christina and I visited three more sites: Bath, Stonehenge and Westminster Abbey. I've now been to 16 sites, which only leaves 714 to go! (Ha ha.)

Given how much I travel, I'd like to update and expand the travel section of my web site. I have a travel page that needs freshening.

Uh-huh, please share some more insights...

Since I had only sporadic Internet access last week, I've been catching up on my e-mail. I get e-mailed alerts of Slate's article postings. I've made it up to April 1 now, and I'm reading this analysis:

On the other hand, as the war drags on, any stifled sympathy for the American invasion will tend to evaporate. As more civilians die and more Iraqis see their "resistance" hailed across the Arab world as a watershed in the struggle against Western imperialism, the traditionally despised Saddam could gain appreciable support among his people.

--Robert Wright, The War and the Peace

Well, at least he said "could". And I'm not saying I'm a better prognosticator. But it's interesting how little value this analysis contains only eight days later. I mean, the fighting's not over, but Saddam's regime isn't exactly showing its tenacity.

Beer and Skittles

Tuesday night was spent at the Little Owl Pub for dinner. We participated in a game of skittles. No, not the candy.


When I asked what skittles were, I was told that it was like tenpin bowling, but with nine pins that were differently shaped and further apart. You get three throws to attempt to knock them down. I suppose if you knocked them all down with one of your first two balls, the pins would be reset. Between the 30-40 people we played with and the four frames bowled, this was never an issue. One time, someone did knock all nine down, but that was with ball three.

I had the most fun setting up the pins. This was certainly not automated -- the pins weren't even regular. Though they were supposed to be symmetrical, some wouldn't stand up on one side.

And yes, Christina did out-skittle me. Left handed.

Not Back to the Belgian Monk

I mentioned visits to The Belgian Monk in Cheltenham last year and in 2000. After less than superb dining experiences, I decided to skip the food and only go there for the Belgian beer. Well, they've moved, changed the name, are "under new ownership" and have a new menu. They don't open until today, so I didn't get a chance to go there, but at some point, you're not really talking about the same restaurant, are you?