Greece is the Word - Yassas

I wanted to share a few words about my first trip to the cradle of democracy. I learned all about ostracism in ancient Greece ---

"Ostracism (Greek: ὀστρακισμός, ostrakismos) was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively."

A happy wife makes a happy life

Which is very funny considering some of the things that I found going on in MORE when I returned. Did they have sectarian political parties in Greece? But more of that in future posts.

The trip was fairly brief - a long way to go for 8 days - actually 5 days on the tour and 2 plus in Athens. But we were hoping to get back to do some serious gardening and found it still too cold. We should have added a few days and seen the islands.

Greece was not a nation until the 1820's - in ancient times it was all city-states. The Olympics and other similar events were ways to stopping the fighting and all Greeks to come together. Maybe we can have some relay races between caucuses in the UFT.

But this was a land tour only. We went with Insight Tours, a British based company, which was great. Best tour we've had. We already booked Croatia through Road Scholar for October but next year we may do Ireland and Scotland through Insight.

We left late Saturday night, April 9, and got to Athens at 4 PM on Sunday, Greek Orthodox Easter.  All eateries around our hotel were closed - so we rested at our excellent hotel for an hour and then headed out for a very long walk to the Plaka -- I think we did over 3 miles over all - jet lag and all and ate at the first place we found - not great -- we saw after that if we had walked another block we would have found lots of great places to eat. We passed ancient ruins all over the place - remarkable stuff over 2000 years old.

The Acropolis towers over everything -- and Athens may be the only city with mountains you have to walk around.

Surprised to see a statue of me

And all of Greece was so green - the weather was perfect all week.

Monday was also a holiday - we began with one of the best buffet breakfasts we've had -- and I made at least 4 trips - yes I gained about 6 pounds on this trip-- but some things were open and we covered all parts of key areas of Athens. We learned to use an excellent subway system. We took it to the Syntagma Square near parliament where we saw the changing of the guard and then walked around the ancient Agora -- where the central market was thousands of years ago. Then walked around The Acropolis area - ate some lunch and finally headed back to the hotel for a rest before looking for a place for dinner - which we found a block from the hotel and it was so good - especially when they gave us soup, dessert and a shot on the house.

Tuesday we did the Archeological Museum and some other things that were not on the tour, which began Tuesday night with a meeting at the hotel. It's hard to get your head around how civilization goes back so far - even to 3500 BC. I'm not sure if we have advanced much at all.

We had met the guide on Monday when she called us and said she'd be around the hotel. Lovely lady - born in Scotland, grew up in the maritimes in Canada and married a Greek from Lesbos. She introduced us to an Australian couple and another Aussie traveling solo - they hadn't known each other but lived near each other around Brisbane, which we had visited 25 years ago.

We met everyone else at the Tuesday night meeting, followed by a buffet dinner at the hotel. We had 3 Aussies, Canadians, an English mom with 3 kids, a guy from the Philippines and another man from Hong Kong, now living in Pittsburgh -- and he's 83, and a nurse from California. Some had been on a 4 day cruise of the islands a few days before. Later we were sorry we didn't do that too but we may go back soon.

That is why we love to go on tours - meeting and bonding with so many people we would never have met. One couple we got close to is from Western Canada - they are 3rd generation farmers and I learned how a combine works. I may go out and visit and pick some crops.
The next 5 days were a whirlwind but we still felt fairly rested. Wednesday we met the coach and headed for the Acropolis and the museum for half a day. Hey, the Parthenon - I got a hundred photos from all angles. We had some lunch and then the coach left Athens to take us for a few hours drive to the Meteora monasteries, another world heritage site. We stayed for 2 nights in Kalambaka.

Thursday we did the monasteries --
So high up in the mountains -- that famous "For Your Eyes Only" James Bond/Roger Moore film where he escapes from there. Impossible to get there you would think. We went to 3 of them and then some of us walked down the mountain and back to the hotel and then off to a great lunch the guide, Moraig, took us too. That night she took us to a wonderful town called Trikala and a group dinner outdoors. She always made impeccable choices for us.

Two days and we felt we had been gone for a a long time already and also bonding with our tour mates.

Friday we headed for Delphi- after another buffet breakfast. Urp! - lox, lox, lox. Spent the day touring and moving and eating. Crossed the bridge over the Sea of Corinth -- and entered the Peloponesus -- basically a giant island that is half of Greece. We stopped at another seaside town - Napfpaklos -- wow - I could live there. Too busy a day to write everything.

Saturday - A half day at Olympia where it all began -- 776 BC - imagine - the Olympics basically went on for a 1000 years until they were ended when the Christians became ascendant around 350 AD -- there was the actual track they used. So much interesting stuff. I was taking a zillion photos. This is where they light the torch for all current games. We had lunch and some went back to the hotel while a few of us stayed in the town of Olympia to check it out for a few hours. A couple of guys went to an interesting little museum devoted to Archimedes and his inventions. Astounding stuff - we were in Syracuse on Sicily a few years ago and I bought an Archimedes tee shirt.  Then we went for a beer - I loved the Greek beer - until we caught the coach back to the hotel where we went for a swim in the pool. Moraig had a trainee - a woman originally from South Africa and her boss, Feona, who was from Scotland and married a Greek too - along on the entire trip. They took us to an outdoor restaurant where we learned to cook and then 2 lovely ladies led us in Greek dancing -- Feona took some video of me dancing and cooking -- I hope they never see the light of day.

Sunday -- our last full day -- unbelievable how fast it's gone but we were also felt we had done so much. Another buffet breakfast.  Headed to Mycenae - but  stopped at another seaside town - Nafplio - another place I could live -- I bought a pipe -- and then to meet the Mycenians - well not really, since they were a thousand years - 1600BC before the Greek heydays of 500-400 BC. Really hard to wrap out heads around all this - think of a thousand years ago for us - so Greeks in 500 BC were tourists to visit the ruins of Mycenae.
The main thing about Mycenae is that it is the supposed site of The Iliad -- now we have to go Troy in Turkey. 

Then crossing back into mainland over the Corinth Canal -- a narrow slip of a thing that in effect turns the Peloponnesus into an island. It was proposed 2000 years ago but not built until 1893 -- sort of like the 2nd Ave subway.

Farewell dinner that night at a local restaurant -- another great choice. Back at hotel we all hugged our new friends and went to our room. A knock at the door and our new Canadian friends -- the farmers asked us to help them finish off some ouzo. He is a Toronto Blue Jays fan and will be catching a game there in July. We may meet them and hope they come to NYC and stay with us.

Monday -- plane leaves at 4:30 PM and we are being picked up at 1:45. A final buffet breakfast - lox, lox, lox and more -- we run into the Aussies and say another good bye.  The guy traveling alone has a few months more to go -- an amazing guy who is in almost permanent travel mode. I told him I would check his itinerary and jump in some time -- the farmer from Canada even said he might be interested. A boys' trip.

We had a few hours. Most museums are closed Mondays but one was open and we walked over to the Museum of Cycladic Art - the Cyclades are islands between Greece and Turkey and had some remarkable civilizations 3200-2000 BC -- finally something older than me.

We got back to NYC around 9:30 PM at Newark and got home around 11. We signed up for Global Travel and got whisked through passport and customs control -- worth the $100 for 5 years.

Our cats were well -- we have an awesome 16 year old young man as a sitter and feel totally comfortable - he's a HS junior at Midwood and we hope he goes to Brooklyn College so we have him for another 5 years.

Tuesday I was back at hot yoga and all the stiffness from the trip was gone. And Weds I went to the delegate assembly and caught up on the MORE wars and all the tenseness that was gone on the trip came back.


One of the things I learned from the trip was that it is time to think about pulling back from blogging and UFT and MORE stuff. It's like a disease I can't get rid of.

Had a long noontime conversation with newly retired James Eterno who is so happy. We are both addicts to UFT politics.

We need a 12-step program.

Don't Cry for Me Portugal

Just because I returned Friday night from a 2 -week visit to Portugal, don't blame me for this NY Times story on Monday: Austerity Protests Are Rude Awakening in Portugal with reports of a possible general strike on November 14.

Portugal has long been regarded a role model in the grinding euro zone crisis. In return for an international bailout, its government cut services and raised taxes while its citizens patiently endured with little of the popular outcry seen elsewhere in southern Europe.

That is, until now. 

That is, until my wife and I spent the last two weeks visiting Porto, Portugal's 2nd largest city, cruising the Douro River valley, and finishing up with a few days in Lisbon, my new favorite European city. What did we do wrong? Or right? I did my best to leave the spirit of teacher union activism along the streets of Lisbon, like dropping bread crumbs, by wearing my red MORE tee-shirt. And Viola, it worked:

Suddenly, the Portuguese, too, have joined the swelling ranks of Europe’s discontented, following Greece and Spain, after the government tried to take another step up the austerity path last month. For many here, it was one step too far, driving tens of thousands into the streets in the largest protest of Portugal’s crisis. Taking a page from the playbook of their Spanish neighbors, Portuguese protesters are planning to encircle the Parliament building here in the capital for the budget announcement. For their part, Portugal’s powerful trade unions are preparing a general strike for Nov. 14. Arménio Carlos, the leader of the CGTP union, compared Mr. Passos Coelho to Pinocchio, accusing him of constantly changing his austerity message. 

Now, I did have some warning from tweets from Lisbon-based Paulo Maurício ‏@ActionAndWords who was kind enough to fill me in with some of the background as I traveled. I was interested in left politics in Portugal. Paulo sent me an email with some background when I asked him why protests seemed so different  than Greece and Spain. He responded Oct. 7:

In Portugal protest and struggles are much more organic: we have one great Union ( CGTP-IN) with strong roots in workers; a Communist Party (PCP) that have great influence in that Union and in society, and BE (left-Block) another party that result from a coalition of left organization some 12 yr ago and organize much of the left-wing people that do not what to commit either to PCP and to Socialist Party. The Socialist Party (PS) have been [around] for long years, with the party now in the coalition in government PSD and CDS (two right wing parties), responsible for right wing policies.

CGTP convened a General Strike for November 14. In October 13 the March Again't Unemployment that begun... October 3 will end with the encounter of the column that come from North and that one from South in Lisbon. Later this week the Government will present the Parliament the new budget. It is expected that its presentation leads to some new wave of what I could call 'inorganic' protests and reinforce the wave to the General Strike.

I contacted Paulo because I wanted to get a left view. Helena, our wonderful tour guide, not a leftist, had touched on these issues. She told us that the Trotsky parties had 12 seats but lost half of them in the last election. I was interested because of the connections I have here with people who are members of Trotsky parties.

Helena seemed to take the position that Portugal had overspent and had to take its punishment from the IMF. I argued for the Paul Krugman position (I'm reading his new book, "End this Depression Now,"that the austerity plans pushed down the throats of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal would shrink the economies so much a depression would follow. The answer Krugman says is MORE government spending, not less. Strictly Keynesian and I am a fan.

Germany, which one Lisbon Apple store employee told me while I was charging my laptop (long story) was using slightly different tactics than Hitler used to gain the same dominance of Europe, lent the money in the first place and all the results of the austerity will go to the pockets of the banks. All Portugal and the other nations have to do is threaten to blow up the Euro (though I still have a 100 left over and better spend it fast) unless the interest rates are reduced.

One of the scary ideas Helena, who is not only a tour guide but a teacher and a literary and historical scholar, presented was that she is hearing a growing number of Portuguese people saying, "Maybe democracy is not such a good idea," looking to a strongman or the military as a "solution." Exactly what they were saying in Germany c. 1932.

Helena, in one of her lectures on the history of Portugal, reminded us that the nation was the last in Western Europe to emerge from dictatorship as recently as 1975 when the 50-year Salazar regime came to an end in a military coup. One generation and hit by severe economic times, people are ready to head back to the 30's.

Helena, who while not identifying her politics seemed centrist-slightly right. She is a free-lancer with that mentality. But one interesting thing she said was that in Portugal (and probably most of Europe) there is absolutely no difference between left and right when it comes to a single-payer health care system, a major difference from here.

Let's not underestimate where we may be headed and Krugman makes it clear ---- we may still not have hit the big one that might even top the Great Depression. Imagine the European economy totally deteriorating, Mitt Romney and the tea party in control of all branches of the government squeezing the economy into oblivion which will accelerate a worldwide crash that will bring an end to even the tiny vestiges of democracy that exist.

Some on the left see a Romney win as a long-term good thing in that there will rise a counter movement with a much expanded Occupy movement, an idea I have toyed with -- like at least we might get a Roosevelt following on a Herbert Hoover scenario. I no longer think so. Look how easily the Occupy encampments were destroyed. Mitt or Obama will bring the troops home to suppress the revolts that might take place here and we will drift even more to the right than the left.

You know how Nixon now looks more liberal than Obama? And Regan looks left compared to the gang running the Republican Party? Will we one day look at Romney the same way? Maybe not.

Romney Appeals to White Tribalism in Ohio

The Progressive, Monday, 15 October 2012

Here are some excerpts:

Author Thomas Frank calls this brand of politics "Pity
the Billionaire ... a revival crusade preaching the
old-time religion of the free market." Frank argues the
post-Obama resurgence of the right is not about racism
or culture wars, but a populist politics of resentment.
The right, he explains, has effectively defined the
economic crisis as "a conspiracy of the big guys
against the little," and their solution is "to work
even more energetically for the laissez-faire utopia."

It's not either-or as Frank contends, however. The
right is invoking "producerism," telling Americans
bruised by the downturn that your pain is due to social
factors, which are presented as coded racial
categories.

Political Research Associates, a group of scholars who
study right-wing movements, defines producerism as a
call to "rally the virtuous 'producing classes' against
evil 'parasites' at both the top and bottom of
society." The concept stretches back to the Andrew
Jackson era, and weaves "together intra-elite
factionalism and lower-class whites' double-edged
resentments." Today, the parasites at the top are
liberals, bureaucrats, bankers, and union "bosses"; the
ones below are "welfare queens," teachers, Muslims, and
"illegal aliens." They are all taking money from the
hard-working Americans in the middle.

By historical standards Romney should be a Walter
Mondale, a candidate who has lost even before the race
begins. But he is effectively utilizing the politics of
white resentment because of Obama's dismal economic
record. Tens of millions of low-wage workers feel their
world is coming apart and they don't know whom to
blame. To them, change may mean lower wages, fewer
hours, no health care, or a lost home. Romney plays on
fear by linking it to Obama. In Sidney he said, "The
president seems to be changing America in ways we don't
recognize," which elicited chants of "USA! USA! USA!"

It's not that the United States is inherently right
wing, as many commentators claim. In Ohio, autoworkers
say there is almost universal support among their
co-workers for Obama because the auto bailout saved
their jobs. But the bailout affected less than 1
percent of all U.S. jobs. In a recent poll the
president has the support of only 35 percent of white
working-class voters compared to Romney's 48 percent.

The Romney rally was stunningly white. Among the
estimated 9,000 people, it was hard to find more than a
handful who looked to be Black, Latino or Asian.
Attendees complained about welfare and high taxes
destroying the country. Romney fed the resentment by
claiming Obama was going to "raise the tax on savings,"
"put in place a more expensive death tax," and raise
taxes on "a million" small businesses.

Democrats dismiss Romney as a snake-oil salesman. Joe
Biden pointed out in the debate against Paul Ryan that
the GOP counts billion-dollar hedge funds as small
businesses. That's true, but it doesn't account for the
popularity of their ideas. You see, the Republicans
have turned small business into a catch-all group the
way "working class" once served that function for the
left.

....

The Democrats
mimic the right even when they control all of
Washington. Obama says he will make business more
competitive, cut taxes, sign trade deals, bomb the
world into democracy and drill, frack and mine for
energy. The Democrats' dilemma is they are in the
pocket of Wall Street, but need votes from groups that
want the economic pie to be sliced more evenly. The
result is liberals worship the same free-market god as
conservatives, but have no conviction about it.

Absent an alternative, many voters veer right because
they are reaching for the only lifeline they see.
"Energy independence" and "a military second to none"
are not just catch phrases. They provide millions of
decent-paying jobs for the white working class.

I have more to say about the really great trip with Road Scholar (formerly Elder Hostel). Their tours are not just touristy but educational. Helena gave us a number of lectures and we came home with a deeper knowledge of Portugal and a yearning to go back, especially to Lisbon. Here are a few pics. I have hundreds and am encouraging my wife to take on the job of filtering through them and creating a slide show. But first she has to get to the New Zealand pics from last year.

Helena tells us about the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon

Oh, what views of Lisbon.

Straddling Fault Lines in New Zealand

Monday evening, Dec. 12, we returned from two weeks in New Zealand. I'm still a bit jet-lagged and not sure if it's yesterday or tomorrow. I slept over 8 hours last night and have been over the last week and I NEVER sleep much more than 6. All I know is we left on a Sunday, Nov. 27 and arrived on Tuesday, skipping Monday, Nov. 28. If you traveled that way and missed your birthday would you never get older? Then on the way home we left Wellington (the capital) on Monday at noon and got back to NYC on Monday at 6 after 28 hours of travel.

You would really have a hard time going much further than New Zealand from here. Just look at a globe and realize just how far south it is - the tip of the south island points right at Antarctica. Brrrr. Even Australia seems closer. (We have been there twice so skipped it this time.)

I really didn't do much homework for this trip, expecting to rely on the tour guide(s). And they certainly came through. I have a much greater understanding of NZ, a country I knew little about. We went with Overseas Adventure Tours (OAT), a branch of Grand Circle. These are small tours - we had 14 people - all roughly our age. Two couples from Wisconsin (not happy about the attempt to recall that putz), and couples from Baltimore and LA and a few singles from California.

NZ is basically on one big fault line with earthquakes threatening every part of both islands.

Bob Wilkerson, the tour guide, a rigorous typically active Kiwi, is close to 70 - a true outdoorsman and a passionate defender of New Zealand's social welfare system. He was not happy at the recent victory by conservatives, who actually took office on the day we left. We had a tour of Parliment the day before - an earthquake proof building that rests on flexible concrete pillars - probably one of the safest buildings in the world - even though Wellington is on a major earthquake fault. As a matter of fact, pretty much all of NZ is on a fault.

I can write about this trip in so many ways: the scenery, the meeting with Maori guides who gave us so much insight. I was surprised at how political the tour was. Bob said OAT tours don't hold anything back and give the full range of the good, bad and ugly. Bob is a strict environmentalist and was so proud of the rigid laws protecting and preserving and restoring the environment. He showed us trees thousands of years old that if they were cut down could fetch a hundred grand each. But they are never touched. Imagine where they would be in this nation. You'd see FOX News railing about how cutting them down could contribute to the economy.

We covered areas of both the north and south islands but spent more time in the south where the southern tip points right at Antarctica. Bob was from Christ Church which suffered 2 devastating earthquakes last year with the 2nd one in Feb. basically dropping all of the downtown into one big hole - just about every single historical building lost. (There was another one just the other day.) SO we only got to the city's airport to take off for Wellington.

We stared in Auckland on the north island  - the largest city with 1.4 million of the 4 millions people in the entire nation, where I connected up with the Occupy Auckland crew and actually filmed an important General Assembly and since I was the only one filming they were excited to have that footage. And also to have someone from NYC stop by. (I connected one of their tech guys to Justin from OWS here in NY.) There are probably more sheep. They hate possums which were imported and wrecked the environment but did discover they could be used for more than road kill - the fur fibers retain warmth and they mix them with merino sheep. I now have a possum/wool scarf to wear.

The treatment of the indigenous population has improved tremendously over the past 30 years and Bob was very proud of that - though as my dermatologist said after I told him that - "yeah, after they killed most of them off."

I took hundreds of photos and hours of film and will blog more about what is happening with education there another time. Happy holidays and here are just a few pics.

We'll Always Have Whatchamacallit

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 9am

There are advantages to getting old and having brain cells abandoning the sinking ship in droves. When you travel to places you've been to in the past, it feels like the first time. We returned from a week in Paris May 3, our 6th time there over 43 years, a celebration of our 40th anniversary. Of course our actual anniversary is June 6 - the invasion of Norman - but we often don't do things in ways that make sense.We wanted to be here for the heavy part of the gardening season, so we went to Paris at a perfect weather time.

We like urban trips and we pretty much stay in one city for a week. We swore before we left that this time we would take some day trips outside the city. But we just couldn't leave Paris, even for a few hours. I can't even say what we did every day, other than make sure to eat three meals. Or more.

Now I am more of a two-a-day meal guy while my wife is committed to three meals, so as usual there was a tug of war going on. I want to walk all day, everywhere - if you use the Paris diagonal streets properly, you can cover large distances and pretty much walk the entire city.

Some highlights: great food at every meal, an awesome Metro system where every station had timers letting you know wait times – we never waited for a train for more than 3 minutes – shame on the NY MTA, almost perfect weather, a city in bloom, a short walk on the Paris version of the High Line (one of the only rainy days), a serendipitous visit to the awesome Petit Palais which was closed for renovation on our last trip in 2001.

I won't bore you with a travelogue but there were some other highlights. And lowlights. On our first day my wife wanted to go to the Musee Marmottan-Monet, not far from the Bois de Bologne, a massive park on the western edge of the city.  With our hotel being centrally located on Blvd Raspail just off Blvd St. Germain, I suggested a route - walk to Pl. de la Concorde, then up the Champs Elysee, follow a direct line to the Bois along one of the 12 spokes coming out of the Arc de Triomphe. (Talk about traffic circles.)

Almost three hours later we got to the museum. Someone did more than a bit of bitching - and it wasn't me. After an hour there, I suggested a walk into the Bois where we could find the well-known Garden Bagatelle. Well, the walk became endless - they certainly don't spend much on signs or directions. We stopped for coffee at a roadside stand. A couple of  ladies sitting at a nearby table certainly stood out. A truck pulled up with a couple of young working guys. One of them sidled up to me and pointed to the ladies and winked. Oh, I was starting to get it. Let me digress for a second.

We had been driven though the Bois one night on our 1983 trip to Paris by friends who were living there. They pointed out the well-known action as our headlights picked up the under dressed prostitutes on the side of the roads - and the traffic jam of Johns.

It seems the action also takes place during the day. As we walked deeper into the park, we saw more and more ladies of the day, scantily dressed, some with their own vans.

Yes, we finally found the Garden Bagatelle. which while having a spectacular display of roses (interesting how roses were blooming all over Paris, a month earlier than NYC), was so much less of a garden than we have here at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. But the overriding theme of our first day in Paris – my wife branded it:  The Whore Tour.

The rest of the trip was more conventional. Out of the way museums - we avoided the lines at the Musee d'Dorsay - maybe the best museum in the world - and the Louvre where you could spend the entire vacation. Besides, since our last trip in 2001 was packed with rainy days, we wanted to be outside. So we hit the famous Paris Pere-Lachaise cemetary where so many famous people are buried - the Ghoul Tour - check below the fold for some pics – you will not see the conventional Eiffel Tower. But don't expect pics of the "Whore Tour" - though we were sorely tempted to get that show documented.

We had free tickets for the Seine tour on the Bateaux Mouches, which I always avoided because it is such a touristy thing to do. But our family motto is "free is better than anything" so we headed over on Sunday morning and ended up waiting an hour. But it was worth it. I had argued for the nighttime cruise but the time frame didn't work. Funny, but when we got home and my wife checked her notes from our 1978 trip, it turned out we had done the evening cruise that year. Oh, those dying brain cells.

We stopped at the famous cafe Les Deux Magots on our last night - you know, one of the thousands of cafes that Hemingway, Picasso, etc. supposedly hung out at. That gives them the right to charge $15 for two cafe au laits. I was afraid to order a cookie. And yes, my wife's notes from our 1978 trip shows that we stopped there on our last night. We really are stuck in our own version of Groundhog Day.

Well, I'm not quite back to normal - if that word can ever be used in reference to me. I fell asleep the other night at 8PM and woke at 4AM.

Oh, and the dollar vs. the Euro really sucks. The trip ended up costing way more than we expected as at the end of the week it hit $1.48.

But as Humphrey Bogart said to Ingrid Bergman in that famous Casablanca scene - exactly what did he say again?

A small selection out of 300 pictures- mostly grave sites-  below the fold

London Blitzed...

...or, how I managed to gain weight on British food.

Just got back last night from a week in London. We went last year in March but in 5 days never got to see enough. There's lots more to see and do and we'll be back. And they actually speak English there, sort of, so navigating that aspect of traveling abroad is one thing off the table. And after last year's horrible dollar to pound 2 for 1 deal, the drop in the pound to about $1.50 made things much more reasonable.

And the food really was good and the beer was even cold - sometimes. We finished the week with a fish 'n chips dinner at Rock 'n Sole Plaice in the West End. (Our young Albanian waiter was not easy to understand, but he thinks it will be the next in place to go in a few years.) Despite miles of walking every day, I am a blimp. We didn't realize the London marathon was taking place on Sunday, the biggest marathon in the world. But as crazy gardeners and with rain expected the next few days, we opted for Kew Gardens on a beautiful day. But if I thought I could lose some blimpiness just by watching, I would have been there.

A rainy Monday was spent indoors, first at the Imperial War Museum and then at the Tate Britain. The Holocaust exhibit at the War Museum is spectacular. I almost hate to go there, but the films of Nazi propaganda and how effective they were in developing those tools, with the big lie as a major operative, I was reminded of certain things back home, like the BloomKlein mayoral control blitz. But I won't go there – for now.

A day trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury on a beautiful day, was fabulous. No one seems to know what Stonehenge was really all about. I think they were used to hold straw polls for school Community Education Councils.*

We loved the Oyster card for transit and The Tube puts NYC transit to shame. We used it many times a day and never waited more than 2-3 minutes for a train and even late in the evening, on the fringes of the city, the longest wait was 5 minutes. There's lots more to talk about, but that's for another time and another blog.

And yes, we caught another Zombies concert like we did in London last March and in NYC in July. One of their most famous songs, She's Not There, was clearly written with Randi Weingarten in mind. I discovered the original lyrics in a dusty Zombie archive in the British Museum.

Well, no one told me about her
The way she lied [about the 2005 contract]
Well, no one told me about her
How many people [ATRs, in the rubber room, and in Washington DC] cried
Well, it’s too late to say you’re sorry [for agreeing to merit pay, longer days and year, potty duty, etc.]
How would I know, why should I care [hell, I'm retired]
Please don’t bother trying to find her
She’s not there [and we don't mean physically]....

We'll post later about Randi missing in action in Washington DC as reported by Washington Teacher Candi Peterson. NYC Educator has a guest column today by Peterson, who closes with:

While it pains me to post negative information about my union local, I am more pained about the inaction from the American Federation of Teachers especially given that our parent organization has a contract with us. Several members of the Washington Teachers’ Union recently appealed to AFT President Randi Weingarten for assistance in getting our general vice president back to work representing teachers. Several members even recommended that mediation was necessary in a series of emails. Randi did report that while she did inquire about what was happening with Saunders leave of absence, presently she is preoccupied dealing with cases involving the swine flu virus.

Let's see now, there are exactly how many cases in NYC involving swine flu? Randi is probably working on a cure.

While in England, I never got to check out our anti-testing colleagues in Britain Chanting teachers welcome vote to boycott primary tests

I had a loaner Blackberry from Verizon so I could keep up with email but the Morgan Hotel (great location with reasonable price near the British Museum) computer barely crawled, so I couldn't do any updating on the blog. And there was so much to update. My inbox is loaded and the only way to get all of it out is to post the materials on Norms Notes over the next few days and put up links on Ed Notes.

Off to the gym to try to get less blimpy.

*Related:
Some NYC School Officials Are NOT Happy Campers

Nearly one-third of “grassroots” organizations for mayoral control received no-bid contracts

Tokyo Bound

Well, I'm heading over to Tokyo for the Asian Open FIRST LEGO League tournament so I will be posting sporadically for a few days. Updates on the robotics aspect at the Norms Robotics blog. I'll post any interesting ed news I come across on this blog. I wonder if they are addressing issues such as school choice, teacher quality, achievement gaps, etc over there? Think they have rubber rooms? Probably, but not where you think.

I registered for the Ed Bloggers Summit in Washington May 14/15. The keynote speaker is Newt Gingrich - now you know all you need to know what this is all about. I'm going disguised as Eduwonkette.

Puerto Rico, My Heart's Devotion

I was singing "America" from West Side Story all week while on my first trip to Puerto Rico, most of the time spent at a resort lounging at the beach, snorkeling, reading book after book and eating (a lot). One of the great things about retirement is the ability to travel whenever.

Color War
There were many corporate groups meeting there and we got to see first hand the "business" model of team building - expensive retreats and competitions with loud speakers and annoying noisemaking. One group wore tee-shirts that said their goal this year was $75,000,000.
This is the aspect that has been missing from BloomKlein's attempt to bring the business model to the schools (except maybe at KIPP where spending $70,000 on retreats to the Caribbean is acceptable.) It looked like one of those old camp Color War games where learned all about competition. I was such a lousy hitter when I was 10 years old, my teammates told me to go into the woods and pee when my turn at bat came. (My hitting didn't get much better over the years but I can pee on demand now.)

Coming soon:
Get those scores and grad rates up trips and tee-shirts with logos - 80% grad rates or bust.

I felt real comfortable in PR - lots of good feelings connected to working with mostly Puerto Rican kids in Williamsburg - and we hope to return. Maybe drive around the entire island stopping at beaches.

Next trip is to London in March for the 40th anniversary concert of The Zombies - (INSIDE JOKE FOR ZOMBIE FANS - I hope they're there. Or not there. Or maybe she won't be there.) And then on to Japan in April for the Asian Invitational FIRST LEGO League tournament. And maybe Iceland in June. Phew! I'm tired already.

In the meantime, I haven't been too active in local ed politics recently, with the Privatization Forum the week before last and the big FLL tournament coming up next Saturday (check the norms robotics blog for robotics in NYC for news) and my working for the past month on the FLL program guide (modeled on the old Ed Notes format - see, they were worth more than just using as ballast under the tires when it snowed) which, thank goodness, was just sent to the printer (a pdf is available for those interested, here.)

Last week's Delegate Assembly was the first I missed in a long time and I hear my buddies from ICE actually got something passed. We had a pretty good ICE meeting on Jan. 11 with a lot of people attending and discussed some strategy behind making amendments to a UFT resolution on school leadership teams.

I wouldn't attach too much significance to the fact that Leo Casey supported it, but you can read all about it at the ICE blog. I'll have some comments on the Hillary call later.

Ellen Raider from ICOPE did a presentation at the ICE meeting on their governance plan and we had a rousing discussion that ranged from "Their bottom-up governance plan is just pie in the sky" to "We need to start somewhere and work from that place." I personally support the bottom up concept where the school is the basic unit of power and urge people to take a look at the ICOPE model.

No one other than ICOPE seems to have come up with much of an alternative. Leonie Haimson always points to the "Who controls the money" argument whenever we talk about decentralized plans. But in reality, I feel we will still have some form of mayoral control because the UFT and just about every politician supports it. The UFT is doing its phony baloney Governance road show (tomorrow, Tuesday, at Martin Luther King HS in Manhattan at 6 if you are interested) to make it look like they don't really know what they'll do. They will issue a report to give venting to what people have to say and then do what's in the best interests of the leadership - which guess what, is mayoral control with a few tweaks since they are expecting to get Bill Thompson (who also called into the DA to show Blacks support Hillary) as the next mayor.

Smoke on your pipe and put that in.

When in Rome....

Just back from a week in a city where buildings were extensively renovated - in 100 AD when they were already a couple of hundred years old. And here, we can't even keep Shea Stadium after only a little over 40 years. They managed to do all that building thousands of years ago most likely using slave labor. Or maybe Joelus Kleinus had negotiated a sweetheart contract with labor boss Randius Weingartenus.

And no, that wasn't me trying to jump into the Popemobile. We were in the Vatican on Monday just a few days before and missed out on seeing that event. The Pope was making a guest appearance at the Santa Maria Maggiore across from our hotel this past Thurs. evening and our rooftop had a bird's eye view. Supposedly we missed having 50,000 people outside our hotel, but we had to get on a plane earlier in the day, which was the late lamented Brooklyn-Queens Day, so eloquently laid to rest by NYC Educator. I try not to fly on that day and usually fast in lament but it couldn't be helped.

Just catching up with stuff and I see I missed a lot of goodies while I was gone. Maybe that was a good thing. Nausea and jet lag don't go well together.

The view from the roof before we left. They're setting up for the Pope's visit that evening.

Praha Go Bragh-ha

Prague (Praha in Czech) and Budapest have developed reputations as hot places to go. So I went. Since the late 80’s, Eastern Europe is in the midst of massive redevelopment. The idea is to get there and see a touch of old Europe as it was before the entire continent gets turned into a giant strip mall.... My favorite Czech expression: “Strc prst skrz krk.” Translation: “Stick your finger through your throat.”


Read about my recent trip to Prague at the LostWriters web site in the Wanderlust section. If you are over 30, bring your passport. While there, check out the weekly (Saturday) postings of Holly Hagen, one of my fiction writing group buddies, who is also the editor of the travel section.


Prague building after drinking a few tons of beer, the Czech national drink.