Borowitz Shouts and Murmers on NYC Real-estate

clipped from www.newyorker.com RARELY AVAILABLE corner unit in circular building. Dramatic floor-to-ceiling walls. Breathtaking, massively proportioned mortgage. This one won’t last: moisture-drenched BR was formerly home to one of New York’s oldest families of termites. Original mold throughout. Architect-designed, carpenter-built, and painter-painted, this 400 sq. ft. jewel box has been lovingly overpriced at $2.8M. Specious! ,

Geece Pictures

I just added a new Picasa Web Gallery of what I think are the best of my Greece pictures. Feel free to take a look if the disposition strikes you. I think they're pretty decent for the most part.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aaron8008/Spetses

Comments welcome

Politicial Mudslinging and a nice reader response

Nicely put. I'm a fan of the ending

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com A reader writes: Is it wrong for me to want to smack the shit out of the Clinton advisor who provided that quote?  You would think by the way Hillary barely won in New Hampshire, she'd go the extra mile to make sure that no one in her staff says some asinine comment that can only serve to alienate the very same voters that cost her Iowa.  Oh, I forgot, she's become inevitable again. I'm a 29 year old third generation veteran with plenty of real hip black friends.  I pay out the ass in medical insurance.  My father died from exposure to Agent Orange.  There are plenty of causes for which HRC could latch her boat onto with people like me.  Instead, the vile hubris that flows like a river in her camp from the top down has sickened me beyond belief.  Hey campaign adviser, I support Obama for his real, tangible principles, you pompous dick.

The Spetses Adventure, First Installment

We were on the Flying Dolphin and halfway to the island when she looked over and said, "I should probably call my Mum."

"Mum, hi. Yes, it's Katerina, your daughter. Yes, Mum, I'm coming today. Mum, I have a friend with me and he's staying for Christmas. What should I do?"

Needless to say, this is not exactly the conversation I was expecting to overhear.

"Well," said Margaret, "I suppose you should bring him here and tell your father that he's a friend of yours from school who had no where to go for Christmas. That's what you usually do, isn't it?"

So here I am in the middle of some Greek ocean waters, unspecial--I would come to learn that Katerina always brings someone home with her when she decides to come home because she has a rocky relationship with her father who simply doesn't understand why she insists on running off to live on other land masses when she could just stay on Spetes, take over one of the hotels and lead a happy Greek life like her younger sister Kristiana, who never struck me as being particularly happy--AND unexpected. Surprise! Another stranger will be dining with us on Christmas! Naturally I felt a little uneasy. "I told you I wasn't very organized," she said. I smiled a smile, laughed a confused laugh, and sat nursing my bruised ego while drifting in and out of sleep with the little Greek waves until we arrived at Spetses.


(More to come)

New Year's Eve! (Show 'em how we party in Spain)

Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Prospero año y felicidad

Happy Hanukkah too. Not surprisingly given its embarrassing history, Spain does not have an official Hanukkah song, so we'll go with this....

Feliz Hanukkah
Feliz Hanukkah
Prospero año y felicidadukkah

مرري سهرستمس إن أربس تو! (تهس إس فر يأ أمر)

سعيد عيد الميلا Amir

AND....(newly added to the fragments-of-foreign-languages bank)

καλά Χριστούγεννα!

Okay, well anyway, I just felt like I should put something up for the festivities. Please feel free to send money by check or PayPal in appreciation of our friendship (assuming we are friends) or (if we're not) out of the goodness of your heart, because you can take my word for it, respected person with money; it is going to a good cause. Amen.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Aaron

Navidad

I'm going to Greece for Christmas!!! WOOOOOOOOO!

Finally managed to get my act together and buckle down, so everything's set. I'll be there on some small island for 7 days, come back to Seville so I can spend the New Year with friends (2 of whom happen to be my new "bosses") at their country house. Should be good times. And then, with luck, we'll be going to Amsterdam for a few days to see what the city has to offer.

Belatedly Updated(ly)

New big things. Found a job, found a team, started working, started playing, girl is leaving (she's not staying) but life is good and goes on, the horse continues forward, galloping rapidly and I'm here, by the river, having the time of my life (and protecting my liver--don't worry parents).

I arrived 15 minutes late to my only class today (Anthropology of Development) on account of the damned #5 bus only to find an empty classroom. Then a straggler (one of the older women--late 50s, I would guess) told me that our professor decided that we should go to the bar instead of having class. Naturally, I was disgusted and offended by this suggestion. So I went to the bar, where I found the rest of the 20 of us, and stood outside drinking beer and talking about important things (none of which were actually important), enjoyed the wonderful weather (20 degrees celsius here during the day, in December!) and then came home for lunch.

First semester's been a blast, and though it doesn't really end until the end of January, most of the kids from my program (all but 5 of us) are leaving before Christmas--about a week. I'll especially miss one. Her leaving is not exactly a small thing. Like I said, life goes on. That's what I'm telling myself, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job believing it. For whatever reason, it seems somehow easier to see the upside of things here. Maybe it's a survival instinct--not much in the way of serious emotional support available--but whatever the case, I'm not complaining. Life is good, and hopefully long, and there are ever more and more adventures making themselves known. Speaking of which, I should get myself out of the house. Chelsea's birthday dinner tonight @ a great vegan restaurant in the Alemeda--should be good times and good wine. Always good company.