"We saw a lot of road kill and thought of you." —my sister
For more information on oil prices, click here. Podcasts of My Intro Economics lectures (in .wma format) For my 2005 Radio Economics MP3 podcasts, go to the bottom of the page that lists the lecture podcasts.
I have been invited to attend the Rocky Mountain Economic Summit in Jackson Hole in mid-July. This is not THE big Jackson Hole monetary economics conference (that one is scheduled for August), but it will have a number of well-known, well-informed, bright people whose brains I am looking forward to picking (see below).
Fortunately several sources, including the Department of Economics at The University of Regina, will be supporting my attendance there. In return, I'll be live-blogging the presentations, to the extent possible, blogging the preliminary work, blogging post-summit reactions, and presenting a seminar in August at The University of Regina about the Summit.
Charles Plosser, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Jim Bullard, President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
I am really excited about this opportunity and am grateful to the Summit sponsors and to The University of Regina Economics Department for making my attendance possible.
I hate listening to other people's phone conversations. Too many people seem to think it is okay to have cellphone conversations anytime, anywhere; and they generally seem to think they need to speak more loudly into a cellphone than in person. Ugh.
But what's wrong with texting and checking your email on a flight? Not much unless it distracts you in case of emergencies. Here's an insider's report:
Turning off our electronic devices: How necessary is it, really? Flight attendants everywhere will hate me for this, but ... having your electronic device on below 10,000 feet is not an immediate danger to the flight. How do I know? Pilots are the worst offenders of this rule. Not on purpose, of course, but when we're flying all day, sometimes we forget to turn our phones off. I've received a phone call everywhere from the takeoff roll to 18,000 feet over the Rockies and the airplane has never had an adverse reaction.
That said, it's still important for you to listen to the flight attendants and follow their instructions to turn off your electrical devices. It is their job to enforce the rules, no matter how dumb they are. If you want to give someone an attitude or an earful, please direct your worst to the hypocritical politicians who do not comply with the rule while on their private jets.
I've heard phones go off or text signals as planes are landing. As with the pilot who wrote that statement above, it's never been a problem.
The morning of the day we left Molokai, I went back to Popahaku Beach, partly to linger, partly to hold onto the memories.
And, of course, I couldn't leave without doing some stomp art in the sand.
Our flights home took us via Chicago O'Hare, where it was snowing when we landed. It was a wet snow, and it didn't seem all THAT serious, but I guess it was. When we landed, we had a very smooth landing, but the plane seemed to slide sideways a bit. And once we landed, we had to join a queue just to get to our gate. Meanwhile, we got to watch the snow-removal teams of vehicles at work. I counted 12 of them in a row, ploughing and blowing the snow from the taxi strips.
Because of weather issues and mechanical issues with a plane ahead of us, we waited on the tarmac for nearly two hours before we could disembark. If our other plane was on time, we had 10 minutes to get to it. But the minute we got off the plane we checked the board and saw that our next flight (direct from Chicago to London, Ontario) was delayed an hour, so we relaxed a bit and found our way to the proper gate.
It turned out that about every 15 - 20 minutes, the flight to London was delayed again, just a bit more, "awaiting inbound aircraft" which, it turned out, had never left London to get to Chicago.
During the wait, this sign really tickled me:
The rescheduled departure time was 4:15 CST; the flight was due to arrive in London at 4:24 EST (which is 3:24 CST). And the flight was expected to take an hour and 14 minutes. I assumed that meant we'd be traveling faster than the speed of light.
That flight was eventually cancelled. So we rescheduled for the later flight. Then 20 minutes before it was due to depart, it too was cancelled. So we tried to rebook. It turned out there was no way to get out of Chicago that night to London. Furthermore, every conceivable way of doing it the next day was completely booked up. We were going to have to spend two nights in Chicago.
So I called a number provided by the airline, and they automagically booked us into the Intercontinental Hotel at O'Hare for about $80/night. Ms. Eclectic and I looked at each other and agreed; I pronounced, "hurt me some more." The rack rate of the room we had was $500, and the currently listed internet rate is about $170/night.
We relaxed. We drank. We ate. And we enjoyed ourselves in our corner room with a funky bathroom:
It sort of reminded us of the Old Dominion Hotel in the lower old village in Quebec City.
Finally, after two nights, we boarded a flight from Chicago to Toronto, were pleasantly surprised to see our checked bags were with us, and from Toronto flew home.
Overall, it was a pleasant, relaxing holiday, even with the flight cancellations in Chicago.
The last afternoon we were on Molokai, I decided to hike a few miles north of the complex to a beach (Kawakui Iki) that is generally even more isolated than the others. The walk meant going up and down a couple of hills, following a very rough dirt track that some people attempt with 4x4 vehicles, but that is pretty daunting.
You can see two things from the above photo and the two photos below.
These tracks are not user friendly.
The kiawe trees are everywhere.
How tough is the track? tough enough that this happened and that the shell was left to deteriorate.
Above: My first view of the bay. Do you see any vehicle tracks here? Neither do I.
But if you stare intently at this next photo, of the beach, you can see a pickup truck parked over there, under the trees. I'm sure that wasn't a smooth ride getting there.
I love seeing these flowers growing out of the rocks near the beach:
The rocks around the beach were from several different types of geological formations. Some appeared to be sandstone (or something?), holding forth against the standard lava base of the island.
Sunsets, sunrises. Both left us feeling grateful for the opportunity to be there, enjoying the splendour and colours. Here's a cloud, after the sun had set. We loved all the shades and colours.
Down the hill from the swimming pool and the abandoned bar/restaurant, the beach is very rocky. This particular clump of rocks intrigued me. It reminded me of the gap in the rock formations at the Gaspe or of some of the natural rock bridges that one can see lots of places. But it's a lot smaller than those.
In previous postings I've mentioned the abandoned hotel. It hasn't even been boarded up entirely, but many of the roofs look as if they are in need of repair, and there might be some serious leaking in some of the units. It was a large hotel complex. Here is just a portion of it:
All those buildings have been abandoned (though probably not abandoned legally). The part of the lawn that has clearly been tended to is on the northern edge of the condo complex.
Much of the neglected ground was once part of the fairways of the golf course that surrounded the complex. Quite frankly, Ms. Eclectic and I were just as happy to have no golfing there. It was more open, less crowded, safer, and quieter. But there's no doubt that the abandonment of the golf course (and hotel) had a serious negative impact on the resale values of the condos.
One morning, our friends drove us to Kalaupapa Lookout. From there, we could see the imposing steep cliffs. Also, down on the peninsula is the Kalaupapa National Historical Site, where the leprosy colony was established and where a succession of priests and nuns worked tirelessly, self-sacrificingly to ease the lives of the people who had been condemned to living there.
On one of the information signs, there was a cute little green beetle, about a half-centimetre in diameter, crawling along (again, I used the macro lens here).
That evening, our friends took us to a fund-raiser for a hula school. Apparently the hula began on Molokai (a source of pride for the island residents), and the dancers from this school perform all over the world.
It turned out that the people running the fund-raiser had no objection to people bringing their own wine, so two of us walked three blocks into downtown and bought some wine. My choice: Flip-Flop Merlot for $5.39. Fortunately we bought three bottles of wine, cuz we drank 'em all!
The next few photos are from that event. They're not very crisp, but they capture the essence of the show.
The opening dance:
Notice the dancers were wearing red and yellow. Most (but not all) of the costumes were based on these two colours, which were the royal colours of King Kamehameha. There is a cape of red and yellow feathers that belonged to the king in the Kamehameha museum in Honolulu.
A recently written dance about the history of fishing:
And a dance about the extremely, wonderfully aromatic plumeria flower:
One morning we decided to go look for a geocache along Popahaku Beach, which is south of the condo complex. It is a beautiful, long, sandy beach which has very few visitors. This is one end of it.
Next is a photo showing the full length of the beach. Locals call it "Three-mile Beach" but my guess is that it's noticeably less than three miles long. Nevertheless, given the difficulties of walking in that type of sand, I expect walking the full length of the beach would be quite a workout.
Farther along, there were two people fishing at the edge of the water, and we saw them catch a good-sized fish while we were ambling along.
Later we walked up a road and gully to the top of KaiAka, a rocky hill/point sticking out into the ocean near the condo. Here's a photo, looking back eastward. You can see the rain clouds in the distance.
And here's the same view, just a minute or so later, as the rains arrived.
Unfortunately, some raindrops made blurry spots on the next photo, taken of the beach in front of our condo.
The geocache was a little too close to the cliff edge for my taste, but I found it.
And a travelogue from me wouldn't be complete without some roadkill (and flies):
One evening, as a few of us were standing around one of the communal barbecues, we started talking about the "green flash" that some people say they see at sunset. I took a lot of photos of this sunset, but I never saw anything green aside from the grass and palm leaves.
On one of our walks, we came to this isolated cove/bay. Absolute aloneness here, and not at all far from the condos. Someone told us this beach is where people come who want to bathe and sunbathe nude. None there when we were there, though.
Just after I posed for this next photo, a large wave broke and soaked me up to my calves.
On the way back from that beach, we saw this Egret, walking across the patio of the abandoned bar. What an unusual place to have so much deteriorating real estate.
Another of our walks took us a bit south of the condo complex, past storage areas where things from the past have been left to deteriorate... old equipment from the hotel, bar, restaurant, golf club, etc. Amazing that nothing was done with it. Here are some old umbrella frames:
and a bunch of other stuff:
And, of course, the ever-present kiawe trees. I called this one "Ichobod Kiawe".
The beach in front of our condo was just over a bit of a rise. Here's a photo taken from the rise, looking back at the condo complex. The path in the red dirt runs across what used to be fairways on the now-abandoned golf course.
The sand on the beach itself is very different from the sand I'm used to around the Great Lakes or on Oahu. Great Lakes sand is silica; Oahu sand is mostly pulverized coral (especially at Kailua, where we lived in 1986-7). But the sand here on the west coast of Molokai is pulverized shells. And you sink in it, even if it's wet. There's no hope of running rapidly and exhilaratingly on firm sand along the water's edge here because you sink all the time.
There are two reasons there are no footprints in the sand:
Very few people walk along the beach here. Despite the appearance of its being a heavily populated area, judging from those condos, it isn't; and those who do visit here don't spend much time on the beach.
The wind is generally pretty strong and fairly constant. Footprints don't last long. I have a kite which usually flies very well in strong wind, but it was a struggle flying it here (sorry, no photos; I couldn't relax enough to take any photos).
People don't swim at this beach, especially not in winter when the waves and cross currents can be strong and unpredictable. We were warned that a young man had been killed surfing just up the beach a ways from this spot when he lost control of his surfboard and crashed on the rocks.
The rocks are all along the beach. Here are some of the rocks that I liked. I call these rocks "The Cliffs of Molokai" since they remind me of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland (okay, in a very micro sense maybe).
Another photo of the beach.
Walking back to the condo with Ms. Eclectic, we came across some particularly captivating little lavender flowers. I'm not sure these photos do them justice (They are tiny! I used the macro lens to take these photos). I call the first one "Ethereal Transluscence".
As I said before, I love the windswept openness of the hills everywhere I go. This scene reminds me so much of so many of the places I've loved walking.
Farther up in the hills, at one point I glanced in through the kiawe and saw this old truck.
The truck looks like an abandoned vehicle, but I'm not so sure. In Hawaii, vehicles are kept a looonnnnggg time, even those that look as if they belong at the junkyard. It makes sense, given the high shipping costs for new cars, that people would keep old ones on the road a long time.
As a less extreme example, our friends in Molokai share a 1984 Mercedes. There is duct tape around the moon roof to keep the water out, and the emblem has been replaced by a hand-fashioned set of shells.
On the way back down from the hills to the condo complex, I saw a man trimming a palm tree. Some of the palms look pretty shaggy if the dead fronds aren't trimmed.
And here's the condo we stayed in. We were in the upper unit on the near corner. It was very comfortable and very well-supplied.
As I said before, I absolutely love windswept openness. And the west end of Molokai has LOTS of it.
The short, scrubby trees you see in the above two photos are kiawe. More about them later.
The dirt on most Hawaiian islands is red, presumably from the iron in the magma and lava (though I'm not sure). We all remember the red mud we encountered many years ago when our family climbed Olomana on Oahu, and it is abundant here, too. The dust is red, too, and it gets on everything, including inside the condo and on the roadside guardrails.
There were a number of imports to the islands that didn't work out very well. The Japanese emperor donated some small deer. These have thrived on Molokai, but during dry periods they go down into the condo complex, looking for edible vegetation.
Another import was the mongoose. Reportedly Mongeese (?) were brought to the islands to hunt the rats, but that didn't work out very well because they are active at different times of the night and day. But the mongoose holes can be serious and dangerous.
A third import, and one that is really horrid now, was the kiawe tree. I'm told it was originally imported to be raised as a source of firewood. And that might have been successful in the days when wood was the only source of carbon fuel. But the trees have spread and have nasty thorns. Several times I had thorns from downed twigs or branches stick into my shoes or sandals (fortunately, they didn't go through, but they certainly do go through flip-flops). Nevertheless, kiawe are beautiful, gnarly trees.
One morning, I decided to take a loop walk up into the hills overlooking the ocean. Overall it was only about 5 miles with an elevation change of maybe 500m. As I left the condo area, I took these photos of some of the flower hedges.
The condos in the above photo are quite a distance from the ocean and are quite different from the one we stayed in.
Later, I passed a number of trees with flowers like this one, a bit smaller than a golf ball.
Most of the western half of Molokai was (is still?) owned by "The Ranch". At one point, the Ranch decided to try to develop the west by putting in serviced lots (with underground provision of water, sewers, electricity, etc.) for high-end resort homes. They never sold many of the lots, and the hills remain a type of windswept emptiness (which reminded me of the same wonderful feelings I had when walking on the South Downs, Yorkshire Dales, or Saskatchewan coulees). Meanwhile the signs of attempted development remain.
A depreciating sign for Kaiaka Road:
Part of the development included putting fire hydrants all along the roads. There are very often no homes or other places to be protected by all the fire hydrants, but I gather they come in handy for fighting brush fires.
The condo we rented for the week was near the oceanfront, with a gorgeous view of the ocean.
And the morning sunrises made attractive pastel patterns in the sky.
On really clear days, it is possible to see Oahu across this channel. And every once in awhile we saw whale spouts out there. At one time there had been a splendid golf course and an upscale hotel here, too, but for reasons I never fully understood, those things changed hands a couple of times and were abandoned. That's the former 9th (closest) and 1st fairways between us and the ocean.
Between our condo and the shore was something that reminded us of our recent stomp art.
At first I thought those were hunks of coral, carefully arranged. It turns out there is very little coral in this part of Molokai. Those are coconuts painted white. I guess it has been there for a few years.
During the week we were there (Kaluakoi), life was very calm. There's almost a kind of natural selection process at work. It turns out that lots of seniors like a quiet, relaxed holiday. We met a few people at the community bbq, we spent time with our friends, and overall it was a pleasant stay.
In 1986-87, I was on sabbatical at The University of Hawaii, where I did research and taught. While there, I read about but never visited the island of Molokai. That island had a reputation for having had an isolated sanctuary/colony for sufferers of leprosy, but other than that, the general impression was that Molokai was not very exciting or even interesting.
Last fall our friends were telling us about how they and some other people we know spend months, every year, on Molokai. I was surprised and asked them about what the attraction was. They told us that where they spend their time is in a condo complex on the west coast of the island. It is isolated, relaxed, peaceful, calm, and it has wonderful views of sunsets.
We were later told that Molokai has NO stoplights, NO elevators, NO escalators, and no buildings taller than a moderate-sized palm tree. The nearest grocery store to the condo complex is 21 miles away. These facts capture an important aspect of the island. They are proud of their slow-paced lifestyle, and they fiercely defend it.
When our friends suggested we should visit them, we hesitated, partly due to the expense and partly because I'm involved in several shows in London. Fitting a trip in between shows looked possible, though, so I conferred with the director/producer of Cabaret in which I have a couple of minor roles (March 21-31, McManus Theatre, London Ontario), and obtained approval to miss rehearsals for the week we would be gone.
It's a long flight. It could be uncomfortable being cooped up for 9 hours, and we're old. So we booked first-class tickets. The flight from Chicago's O'Hare to Honolulu was on a United Boeing 777. I was surprised at how poorly equipt it was in the first class section: no plug-ins for recharging phones or laptops, no seat-back screens for watching movies, the red wine they served was ice cold, limited music selection. But there was one amazing redeeming feature: serviettes (napkins) with a buttonhole in the corner.
I had seen these a number of years ago on a flight, and over the past few years I've sewn buttonholes into many of our cloth serviettes here at home. Here is why:
Serviettes with buttonholes are SO sensible, I'm surprised restaurants don't provide them.
Our friends greeted us and took photos as we disembarked from the plane.
My older son, David Ricardo Palmer, wondered whether we'd flown Islay airlines and had gone to Islay (home of several of his and my favourite scotch distilleries). Nope. That was Island Air.
One reason so many people oppose big gubmnt is that politicians, like everyone else, respond to incentives. This means that many politicians, or at least enough that it's a problem, are susceptible to some sort of influence.
Electric cars might well be one of many examples*. From the Washington Post:
An electric car start-up and its sister company sued the Energy
Department on Thursday, claiming Secretary Steven Chu and his agency
awarded money to politically favored firms and strung along their firms
and others in a “fixed” race for federal funds.
In addition to complaints of cronyism, XP Vehicles and Limnia
said they have evidence suggesting the Energy Department improperly
shared their patented technology with competing companies that won
federal funding.
*Other examples might include bailing out the banks and sacrificing bondholders to bolster labour union support in the auto industry.
According to many different news sources, Serbians are stocking up on garlic to ward off the threat of vampires. [see, e.g., this or this, h/t MA].
Get your garlic, crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the loose.
Or so say villagers in the tiny western Serbian hamlet of Zarozje,
nestled between lush green mountain slopes and spooky thick forests.
They say that rumors that a legendary vampire ghost has awakened are
spreading fear -- and a potential tourist opportunity -- through the
remote village.
A local council warned villagers to put garlic in their pockets and
placing wooden crosses in their rooms to ward off vampires, although it
appeared designed more to attract visitors to the impoverished region
bordering Bosnia.
Is it okay to use garlic from one's inventory and then put it back after the threat passes? I mean, can you take some out of the pantry, carry it around in your pockets for a few weeks, and then put it back into the pantry? If so, this vampire scare won't do much to increase the overall demand for garlic, other than from tourists possibly. But even in the case of tourists, I can imagine budding entrepreneurs either buying the garlic from them at cut prices as the tourists leave, or possibly even setting up "donation" bins for tourists to leave their garlic in for those who might be less fortunate and hence more vulnerable.
Sounds like a good paper topic for someone. I'd need a SSHRC travel grant to go collect the data, though.
If somehow a shortage emerges that isn't cleared with the price system, people can perhaps order garlic from Amazon!
Ms Eclectic and I first stayed at SkyDome Hotel to watch a baseball game over 20 years ago when we took adjoining rooms with her parents to celebrate their wedding anniversary. We've been back several times since then and enjoyed our stays every time.
We're going to the hotel again today (Monday), this time for a two-night, two-game stay. We're taking the train there later this morning and returning home Wednesday morning. While there, we are also going up the CN Tower for lunch on Tuesday; neither of us has been up the tower. We are SO looking forward to this outing.
The Trono Blue Jays have just lost three straight games in Texas and will be hosting the division-leading Baltimore Orioles while we are there. It would be nice to see a couple of wins after that disastrous road trip.
Despite pronouncements by politicians in both Canada and the US to the contrary, J.D.Powers has recently announced that even with the various gubmnt subsidies, electric cars are going to be priced waaayyyy out of line with the prices of other cars for the next decade or so. See this and see Mark Collins' Canadian take on it, too. It sounds as if the electric car is yet another example of gubmnt failure overwhelming any hint of market failure.
Maybe it was karma, but the Volt’s launch coincided with publication of a 72-page report by J.D. Power and Associates that confirmed, in devastating detail, what many other experts have found: Electric cars still cost too much, even with substantial federal subsidies for both manufacturers and consumers, to attract more than a handful of wealthy buyers – and this will be true for at least another decade.
What little gasoline savings the vehicles achieve could be had through cheaper alternative means. And electrics don’t reliably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since, as often as not, the electricity to charge their batteries will come from coal-fired plants.
The Obama Energy Department has suggested that, with the help of federal money, manufacturers can ramp up mass production and bring the price of electric-car battery packs down 70 percent by 2014 – thus rendering the cars more affordable.
If it will eventually be profitable for firms to increase production, and if there is a reasonable chance that the prices of battery packs will drop by 70%, they why on earth is the gubmnt involved? Why isn't private capital being invested in the production of electric cars? If you think the answer is that doing so is too risky for the private sector, then it is also too risky for taxpayer investment, too. Gubmnt intervention in this market will distort capital markets even more, attracting scarce capital away from other, more efficient uses.
What is worse, the intervention of the gubmnt in a portion of the market means that others will be very reluctant to enter this sector the auto industry. Who knows how much subsidy will be available for different producers, and who knows whether or how much favouritism will be shown toward GM with gubmnt programmes?
At Saskatchewan Roughriders football games, the crowd has a great time singing along with a song about pirates in Saskatchewan. When I first heard the song, I was both amused and confused. Pirates? in Saskatchewan? Huh?
The song is about a prairie farmer who lost his farm to the banks and can't find a job anywhere, so he decides to become a pirate on the Saskatchewan River. No matter that Saskatchewan has the booming-est economy in Canada; no matter that there is no branch of the Saskatchewan River going through Regina, home of the Roughriders; fans here love the song. Here's the chorus:
And it's a heave-ho, hi-ho, comin' down the plains Stealin' wheat and barley and all the other grains It's a ho-hey, hi-hey farmers bar yer doors When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores
Regina's mighty shores??? In the city itself there's Wascana River/creek, but it's pretty hard to think of that as mighty (except maybe where it's dammed up to form a bit of a lake). But who cares? It's fun.
Our four-and-a-half-year-old Canadian passports will expire in less than 6 months. Hence, as many of you know, we will have trouble using them to fly internationally. So we looked into renewing them, only to find:
The Simplified Renewal Application Process allows Canadians to renew their passports without resubmitting proof of Canadian citizenship or supplementary identification and guarantor information. Some conditions apply.
Canadians who meet the following eligibility criteria are now able to benefit from this process:
Their most recent passport:
Must have been valid for five years;
The most recent passport must have been valid for five years but we have to renew them after 4 1/2 years. So just how does anyone qualify for the simplified renewal process?
addendum: Despite the confusion, I went to their website and there was informed that we can use the simplified passport renewal process if the passport I am renewing is
no more than six years old and
is/was valid for at least five years.
Okay. That works. But that past perfect tense in the opening page sure left me scratching my head. I understand now that the minute the old passports were issued, they were valid for five years, but I sure was confused; quite frankly, I had no idea that Canada issued passports with anything other than five-year validity.
wading through the sea of green outside the stadium before the game, selling souvenirs. What a mass of happy people!
entering the stadium and seeing almost nothing but green and white (the team's colours). Mostly green with a bit of white, but with some people wearing black shirts with Rider logos, too. There were a few pockets of fans supporting the Winnipeg BlueBombers, but not many.
the feeling of belonging one has when being a part of a large group of 40-50 thousand people. I know it can be dangerous, but it also generates a type of euphoria, too.
playing in a band at a football game. What fun. What memories from high school and from my few years with the UWO marching band.
The flags, the watermelon hats (and bras!), the other amusing hats and signs. Sorry, no photos.
Other observations:
Concession prices. I understand but I'm stunned every time.
the noise! Wow! I'm taking earplugs to future games. An old friend called my cell phone during the game, but I couldn't have taken the call even if I'd heard the ring.
Quality of play: I strongly suspect that any top-twenty NCAA team could beat any CFL team more often than not. It's hard to tell, though, because Canadian football is different: 3 downs, not four; wider and longer field, the backfield is always in motion; no yards rule; one point for a touchback, etc. Or maybe (I hope I am not ejected from the pep band for this) it's just that the two teams I watched on Sunday weren't very good that day.
It may not seem possible, but it seems to me that last two minutes in Canadian football take longer to play than the last two minutes in either the NFL or the NBA. I think 3-down football, with its more frequent possession changes (and the resulting clock stoppages), contributes to this sense.
Living in Regina, Saskatchewan, reminds me in several ways of a very brief visit I once inadvertently made to Lincoln, Nebraska, on an autumn game day. In both places, everyone wears the team colours, especially on game day. In Lincoln, all we saw was red and white; in Regina, everyone was wearing green, mostly Roughriders shirts, hats, flags draped around them as capes, and other paraphernalia. In Lincoln, people were loud and boistrous, waving and honking their horns. Pretty much the same thing in Regina .... perhaps a bit more subdued (not much, though).
After the game, I changed out of my pep band uniform before Ms. Eclectic and I went out for dinner. I didn't think about it until we were in the restaurant, but I was wearing a pale blue shirt, and Ms. Eclectic was wearing a dark blue sweater over a pale blue shirt. Nearly everyone else in the restaurant was wearing Roughrider green shirts or jerseys; I'm sure some of them must have thought we were from Winnipeg (whose colours are dark blue and gold). I wonder if that contributed to the mediocre service we had.....
I'll have a chance to play during at least four more home games for the Roughriders this fall. And then the pep band regularly puts in an appearance at the Grey Cup (non-stop playing at different venues for several days, I'm told) no matter what teams are playing in it.
Update: In the comments, Steve asks about the ticket prices, so here are some further thoughts:
The games are all pretty much sold out. It looked to me the last time I checked as if the prices were much higher than I would have thought, but given that they sell out at those prices (people drive in from all over Saskatchewan to watch the games), maybe the prices aren't high enough! Next home game, if I get a chance, I'll ask some of the quasi scalpers what tickets are going for.
The stadium here in Regina isn't much smaller than SkyDome, and the population base is MUCH smaller. You'd think, then, the Argos should sell out in Trono, too. I guess the Argos don't sell out because they aren't very good. After all, one of the important determinants of the demand for tickets to sporting events is fans' expectations about whether the home team will win.
Also there is an immense sense of both belonging and stakeholdership (if that's a word) among the people in Saskatchewan. That must contribute immensely to their willingness to buy tickets, attend rallies, buy jerseys, etc.
No, the pep band doesn't pay for its tickets. But if all I wanted was to attend and watch the game, given where the pep band seats are (low in the endzone), maybe I should quit the band and try for a media pass instead. 8-)
This is clearly a measure of which airport is comparatively best and which airport is comparatively worst [h/t Jack]. In my experience over the past 75 years, all airports are worse now than they used to be, primarily because of the long line-ups for the security checks. I would gladly pay $25 more just to be able to breeze through these checks.
But according to this article, in the US, these are the (comparatively) best airports:
Houston
Orland
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Portland OR
Providence RI
I have been through Houston a number of times over the past few years. I must agree, all things considered it is a pretty okay airport. But it didn't have "free" wifi (as does Ottawa) the last time I was there, which would have made it even better.
Recently I have had an opportunity to use the Flint, Michigan, airport. It's pretty okay, too. I especially enjoyed having a beer for breakfast there on a recent trip.
Worst airport? I'm not a big-time world traveler, but I'd say both Gatwick and Islay compete. Gatwick because it is SO busy and confused and frustrating. Islay because the security guards have so little to do that they take every opportunity to explore every conceivable (and inconceivable) security threat.
According to this article, the worst airports in the US are:
New York City (the article lumps all of the airports there together)
LAX
St. Louis (I guess things have changed since the last time I was there... 15 years ago)
During our recent journey to Regina, Saskatchewan, from Clinton, Ontario, Ms. Eclectic and I stayed in a number of different upper-middle to high-end hotel suites (she is NOT a cheap date!). My memory may be failing me, but it seems to me that the quality of the toilet paper in these establishments has deteriorated over time. Every one of the places we stayed (Hampton Suites, Shoreline, Country Inns and Suites, Hyatt Suites, and Staybridge Inns and Suites*) provided what I would consider mediocre single-ply toilet paper. [recall that I prefer thick, strong, two-ply tissue].
Why would the somewhat higher-end hotels provide such mediocre toilet paper? They provide all sorts of amenities, including shampoos, newspapers, complimentary breakfasts, toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, etc. if you want them. I would think that higher quality toilet paper would be a part of the overall upscale package they offer.
Two explanations have occurred to me, but neither is entirely satisfactory:
Not many other people care about the quality, strength, thickness, or feel of hotel toilet paper. The stuff provided is certainly better than that provided in many public institutions and is at the very least adequate. In other words, I'm an outlier with my own preferences, and the extra expense for the hotels would not be justified in increased demand for the hotel services.
People, including hotel staff, would steal the better stuff but theft is much less of a problem with lower-quality toilet tissue. Some people have told me that this explanation applies to the facial tissue provided in most places, too. I'm not convinced, though; if this explanation is correct, there should be rampant theft of hotel-provided shampoo, soap, etc.
*I have excluded our stay at "Perfect Inns and Suites" in Estevan, Saskatchewan. It isn't in the same category as the others. Nevertheless, its toilet paper quality was just about the same.
As I have posted several times before, the best bagels in the universe are made at Carmelli's in Golder's Green in NW London, England. They have a dense, chewy texture that is tasty and substantial (see here and here for two of my previous postings about their bagels). The fact that this is at least my third posting about Carmelli's reveals how much I like their bagels.
In the summer of 2009, I made two trips to Carmelli's: the initial exploration and a final expedition, just before returning to Canada.
This summer, I made three trips to Carmelli's. The first one is described here. The second one occurred while Peggy was visiting me. We caught a field trip bus from the castle up to London, then took the tube to Golder's Green, where we bought a half dozen cheese, two salmon (for Peggy), a dozen plain, and a dozen poppy seed. We were on our way to a cricket-match field trip to Lord's Cricket Ground, and I planned to share the bagels with my students, whom we were meeting there.
We met the students at 11am and after all the greetings and introductions, I passed out the bagels. They all agreed the bagels were the best they had ever tasted. They raved about them so much that the students who had passed on the initial offering asked if they could have one, too. Those who were lucky enough to claim a bagel early got the ones with creamed cheese; those who received bagels later got their choice of plain or poppy seed (both were still warm from the bakery, in my shoulder bag!). As I said, they all loved them. I must say, I had a poppy seed bagel and because it was so warm and fresh I really enjoyed it even though I still prefer the plain bagels from Carmelli's.
I had maybe a dozen bagles left when I boarded a castle minibus that afternoon to return to Herstmonceux. I passed out most of these to people on the bus, who gratefully received them and thoroughly enjoyed them. As you might imagine, the few bagels that were left by the time I was back at my residence disappeared quickly.
But that was not my last visit to Carmelli's this summer. My third trip came en route to Heathrow airport. I bought some plain bagels with cheese for the journey and a couple of salmon bagels for Ms. Eclectic, along with two dozen plain bagels for home. The plain bagels with creamed cheese saw me through a long journey home (lucky thing the customs officials don't have salmon-sniffing dogs!). And the two dozen plain bagels were divided into small groups and frozen. We now have four plain bagels left. We have totally enjoyed them in part, thanks to information provided in the comments by MA here.
If you are ever anywhere near London, England, budget enough time for a visit to Carmelli's. You will not regret it.
During my last weekend in England, I visited with several different friends in Yorkshire to go hiking/walking in the Dales. I had been preparing for these hikes for the past several months, hoping I would be able to keep up with my friends who are much younger and much fitter than I am.
On Friday, after collecting me from the train station in Skipton, Stuart and I walked to the daycare centre to pick up his delightful daughter. That walk alone was about 38 miles uphill both ways, or so it seemed. After making that walk, I had my doubts about what was to come.
Saturday morning, Stuart and I took the train from Skipton to Dent. As we emerged from the train, we felt a mist. I burst out laughing because last year, when we hiked up Ingleborough, we went through a driving mist much of the time. This year, we were planning to "conquer" Whernside, the third (for me) of the three peaks challenge.
To meet the challenge, one is supposed to complete the hike around all three peaks, a total elevation change of 5000', total distance of 25 miles, in under 12 hours. Friends Duncan and Gaynor have done the challenge several times, raising money for charity, and Stuart has been up and down each of the peaks many times from many different directions.
My own plan was more modest: One peak per year. Maybe about 8 hours per peak. Photos from our hike up Whernside are available here, from the publicly accessible photo album on my FaceBook page. The third photo shows the driving rain we went through to get to the top (Stuart and I described it as "walking into a hurricane"). The last few show us in a fairly giddy mood on the train after the hike. Total distance was about 11 miles, elevation change about 2100 feet, time about 6 hours. We made it to the train station in time to have a pint at the pub before returning to Skipton. We sure had fun.
On Sunday, Duncan and Gaynor picked me up for a day of hiking at Malham Cove, up to Malham Tarn (small lake) and then down to (not through!) Gordale Scar (small canyon) and Janet's Foss (waterfall). We had a wonderful time, and it was great spending time with them again, but I was really tired by the end of the two days....so tired I fell asleep in front of a tv before the World Cup final ended. Here are some photos from Sunday's hike.
It has taken me quite awhile to organize my photos from various travels this summer. Over the long weekend of June 25-28, I flew from Gatwick to Glasgow to Port Ellen (on Islay) in Scotland, mostly to make a pilgrimage to the distilleries of some of my favourite scotch whiskies, but also to do some hiking.
Islay is difficult to reach by someone who has limited time and doesn't drive. The flight connections were not great and bus/ferry connections are difficult, too.
Arranging a guide was a good plan. She was knowledgeable and pleasant (and relieved that my goal wasn't just to drink as much as possible).
When it comes to hiking, trust the ordnance survey maps. If they don't show a trail, there probably isn't one there.
The trip confirmed my preferences for scotch whisky that is peated during the malting process. And it confirmed which ones I seem to have drifted toward: I especially like Lagavulin (16-year-old) and Caol Ila. LaPhroaig and Ardbeg are okay, and I don't care at all for Bruichladdich.
It is amazing how small the major world-class distilleries are.
Peat harvesting is common on the island and a fascinating process.
The population of Islay is about the same as the population of Clinton, Ontario!
Seven-mile beach is spectacular! If you go to Islay, make time to visit it. My favourite time during the visit was walking alone on the beach, facing into the wind, flying my kite.
It's the truth. A customs officer led a cute little dog on a leash through the line-ups as we waited to clear customs and immigration. She had the dog sniff all the carry on bags, and when he got to the area where I was, he was quite confused. He started sniffing my bag and the bag of the woman behind me in the lineup.
Well, I wasn't worried, since I knew I had no illegal drugs with me, but I wondered if some of the aromas I might have picked up while hiking in Yorkshire might have confused the dog. And the young couple behind me didn't seem at all concerned either.
They don't allow photos there, but I wish I could post a photo of the dog. It was small, cute, and was wearing a thing over its back that identified it as an official customs dog.
It turned out that the dog correctly identified that I had an uneaten apple with me and the woman had an uneaten banana. Both were illegal and were confiscated on the spot. Fortunately, we were not imprisoned or fined.
side note: That was a truly dumb routing. I should have been more careful in planning the trip, but flying from London (Heathrow) to London (Ontario) via Chicago means having to clear customs and immigration twice, having to collect your bags in Chicago, and re-clearing security there. The wait to clear customs and immigration took over an hour, all so I could connect to a flight to Canada. Fortunately, I had a long lay-over so it didn't bother me all that much. I had almost enough time to go into Chicago for pizza, but I didn't have to because Pizza Uno is available at the airport.
There are three peaks near each other in the western portion of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The three-peak challenge is to follow a fairly set trail, up and down a total elevation change of more than 5000 feet, reaching each summit, over a distance of about 25 miles. And do it all in under 12 hours.
My first year in the Dales. I went up Pen-y-Ghent (one of the three peaks). It was on that hike that I met Duncan and Gaynor, who, indirectly introduced me to Stuart. Last year, Stuart and I went up Ingleborough (another of the peaks). This year (actually, today) he and I will be going up Whernside. I figure I will have taken about 8 hours for EACH peak over the three visits. I guess that means I don't quite meet the conditions set for the Three-Peak Challenge.
You can see all three peaks in this photo, taken last year when Gerard and I hiked up Rye Loaf Hill. Pen-y-Ghent is on the right, Ingleborough is farther away on the left, and Whernside is the farthest away, near the middle.
Fortunately the main social events on the peaks today seem to be focused on Pen-y-Ghent, so I won't be embarrassed by all the young folks passing me. Stuart, bless his soul, has planned the route for our walk so that we have a climb of "only" 2013 feet over a distance of 10 miles. He also planned it so we end at a pub!
Tomorrow, if I can still walk, Duncan, Gaynor, and I will do some more walking around Malham Cove. Since I met them three years ago, Duncan and Gaynor have walked the three-peak challenge twice!
It's sunny now, as I prepare for today's hike. But the weather forecast is gloomy with alternating heavy rain and sun, which means we'll be layering and unlayering quite a bit.
The mountain/hill,Kapuzinerberg in Salzburg, Austria, is a very nice place to walk and hike. There are old fortifications in some places, a monastery, and beautiful views of Salzburg. I have been told that some people rent Segways to take up there, but I'm not sure I would want to count on their making it up some of the hills; also, they might detract from some of the pleasure of ambling and enjoying the sights. Kapuzinerberg is on the north side of the river, and here is just one of the views of the Fortress, on Monchsberg on the south side of the river:
And, I was told, this is THE abbey from the Sound of Music:
The above photo was taken with a 12x zoom lens. Here it is, wider angle, with Untersberg in the background (recall that Untersberg is the mountain down which I hope never to descend again).
Shortly after I took those photos, I chanced upon achamois, grazing along the edge of the trail:
Yes, that is a real, genuine chamois, not a Sham-Wow!
After wandering along the southern side of Kapuzinerberg to the east and following some old fortress walls, I turned north and returned along the northern side of the mountain/hill. Here I was able to enjoy the views of the "newer" portions of Salzburg, including this intriguing building that I had seen near the train station when I arrived.
I liked it, even though the bright colours clash terribly with the typical architecture of the city.
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