"Excuse me, I thought you were a suitcase!"

Canzone per mio marito

Parigi è una bella città
dove si beve e l'amore si fa.

Hai incontrato mio marito? [Si!]
Di che colore era vestito? [Rosso!]

Rosso è un bel colore,
vuoi uscire per favore?

Lines and Squares

Whenever I walk in a London street,
I'm ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street,
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, "Bears,
Just look how I'm walking in all the squares!"

And the little bears growl to each other, "He's mine,
As soon as he's silly and steps on a line."

And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk in the lines or the squares.

But only the sillies believe their talk;
It's ever so portant how you walk,
And it's ever so jolly to call out, "Bears,
Just watch me walking in all the squares!"

– A.A. Milne

The kitty and I noticed an odd quiet noise this morning, a faint ringing of some sort. I assumed was some sort of construction noise in the distance. Kitty gave up his investigation. We went about our respective businesses.

A bit later I went into the kitchen and noticed the ringing got a bit louder. I stared at the cabinet in front of me for a while until I made sense of the fact that the noise was coming from within. I opened the door. For no apparent reason (seriously, I can think of none), the glasses were shaking. I rearranged them and it stopped. 

This is probably some everyday type of occurrence easily explainable by sound waves or nanosheets or something, but I have to say I enjoyed the brief mystery and the thought, just for a moment, that I might have a ghost in the house. Yes, a friendly ghost with a subtle sense of humor – the best kind.

Be nice to foreigners

"For being a foreigner... is sort of lifelong pregnancy – a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that the previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner... is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect."

–Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

God save us from the imbeciles

I was recently reading through a summary of the responses and congratulations sent to Barack Obama by various European leaders after Tuesday's election. They were saying things like "it was a brilliant victory" (Sarkozy), offering "sincere congratulations" (Brown), and expressing desire "to work together in search of opportunities and solutions to address common challenges" (Zapatero). Prime Minister Berlusconi rounded them out: "I can give him advice because I am older," a sentiment only slightly improved by its conclusion, "but I'll give the advice while I embrace him."

Later this week he told President Medvedev of Russia that Barack Obama "has all the qualities to get along well with you: he’s young, handsome and suntanned, so I think you can develop a good working relationship" (video at Corriere della Sera, via NYTimes). Berlusconi, himself not one to miss a tanning session, responded to criticism of his remark, "Are there really people who don’t understand it was a cute thing to say? God save us from the imbeciles. How can you take such a great compliment negatively?"

I imagine the tanned joke did not go over so well in Russia, either.

Get your vote on!

"That ballot looks really complicated. I didn't think Americans were smart enough to have such a complex ballot."

“If I sleep for three hours, I still have enough energy to make love for another three. I hope that when you hit 70, you’re in as good shape as I am.”

–Silvio Berlusconi

Q: Which country outside of Italy do Italians like the most?
A: Italy.

Lugano ghetto tour

In what turns out to be a nice tour of Lugano at night, the Metro Stars have produced a music video to accompany the scathing social commentary attempted in their local hit "Lugano Remix."  Unfortunately, the starving Ecuadorians were unavailable for participation.

Some of the more substantive lyrics: 

You will see locals that are too much the same, too rich [while] scattered Ecuadorians are walking around without food. You will see the porn palaces in Paradiso, the tags, the rap....  

This city is a ghost city, suffers from asthma, has the anxiety of people who share the same plasma. Lugano is expert at judging others.

You will see tie-wearing employees throw a whole paycheck away on two grams of joy, this city's like a Trojan horse. 

We take you to the places the tourists don't go. Come take a walk with us. Welcome to the city where we are, tonight we destroy Lugano.

"You know what's great about our cat? He doesn't understand sarcastic petting."

Aria & Acqua

Overheard on a Chicago bus last August
College student 1: I think I'm going to a concert on the lakefront this weekend.
College student 2: Oh really, which one?
College student 1: It's this band called "Air and Water" - should be really good.
College student 2: Air and Water - are you sure you're not thinking of the Air and Water show?
College student 1: What's that?

Until a month or two ago, I'd assumed Switzerland didn't have a standing army. Someone set me straight on that -- it's small and shrinking, but it exists. And any lingering doubts I may have had were eliminated by all the army guys packed onto our trains last weekend.

Though famously neutral, I gather Switzerland is actually impressively armed, trained, and prepared. Rumors of self-destructing bridges and secret mountainside caves from which aircraft can slip at a moment's notice, not to mention that fancy red knife, make the Swiss military pretty intriguing. It must be hard to be secretive in such a small country.

We had the opportunity to be further impressed by the Swiss military force this weekend during Lugano's Air and Water show, complete with army boats, helicopters, and fighter planes. Even from far away, the formations and maneuvering around the mountains and down near the lake was impressive. We couldn't stop watching from our post on the bridge (even knowing that every single person driving by was obnoxiously gaping at our running shorts). Lest we get the wrong idea, the fake bombs the planes dropped (over Italy, it should be noted) were followed by the formation of a giant heart in the sky.