Random Thoughts Thread

[Robert Hall]

15 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Sadly, I think both are bad and good, really depends on where you are going and the people as I have had both ends of the experience spectrum with these two services.

Yeah, my sister has done Airbnb several times w/ condos in Miami Beach and Myrtle Beach...mixed results. She's had places with bad lighting, very uncomfortable beds, leaking ceilings, failed furnaces...others have been spotless and very clean and tidy, with comfortable beds. 

Edited Saturday at 04:14 PM by Robert Hall

[Drew Dowdell]

19 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I have not had such great experiences with Airbnb.  I never quite settle in.  One experience in Italy was rotten and I had to report it.  So did another person.  This person lost "guest favorite" status.

That said, Turo also makes me apprehensive.  I've heard it can also be awkward for the renter/guest.  Reviews are more bad than good.

I have used both. I have a couple of favorites on AirBnB that I return to.  Turo needs to be the right situation. There's a guy who rents out his Model-3 near me who I've used because renting his car is cheaper than fueling my truck. 

[A Horse With No Name]

3 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

Yeah, my sister has done Airbnb several times w/ condos in Miami Beach and Myrtle Beach...mixed results. She's had places with bad lighting, very uncomfortable beds, leaking ceilings, failed furnaces...others have been spotless and very clean and tidy, with comfortable beds. 

In general I have had excellent luck. 

 

Olds content for Drew...

[trinacriabob]

I had a good and a mixed Airbnb experience in Sicily and East Central Italy, respectively, lately.  In Sicily, they were just cool people.  In East Central, they were nice but a little stiffer.  The condo was sort of a loft where a curved standard staircase went up to the sleeping area.  Grand total about 600 s.f., but the floor to ceiling windows kept me in an upbeat mood.  The mom of the owner would bring stuff weekly and, when I extended, she quipped that I was getting it for a steal of a price.  Considering that it was spring and not summer, it did not command the summer price.  All she needed to do is take my nightly price and multiply by 30 to see they didn't do so bad and how that looks vis-a-vis the debt service, if any.  I also did okay, so win-win.  She didn't understand the common sense concept of market equilibrium, which is intuitive but studied in school.  I think the unit would have gone for 125 to 150 K Euro if for sale.  Italy may not have white trash as we know it in the States (sorry), but when you explain our social systems, educational systems, etc. to give nuances as to how they differ, reasonably educated people there can be just as obtuse as our basket of deplorables.

Also, when I read reviews, many hosts give foreign guests a ride to the train station.  It was 2 to 3 miles away.  They saw I had beaucoup luggage and did not offer.  The bus line serving the train station was luckily there in 5 minutes and I had a pass.  Different region from Sicily and a little more insular, too.

I have friend who has an Airbnb in San Diego and he says hosts love it when guests don't cook in the Airbnbs.  Well, I don't cook.  Beyond breakfast, I eat out.  She shouldn't have looked a gift horse in the mouth.

Bleh.

[Paolino]

Ok, a few things to address, but I agree with most if not all you've said.

My only Air B&B experience in Italy was in July 2023, in Bari (southeastern on the boot; top of the heel). The only caveat of the whole thing was an elevator issue, which was rectified (it was on the top floor, and one day it wasn't working so we had to walk down all the stairs, and it was 115F outside, and you know the interior of the building doesn't have a/c). Since I broke my leg falling down a flight of stairs during lockdown, I still get anxiety on them today.

Everything else about the experience was perfect.

My only experiences not in the south are limited to 25 years ago... I've spent a few trips on the bottom of the heel at my in-laws homes, and the south in general, is opposite of the south of the US in terms of being progressive. When it comes to more liberal topics such as homosexuality, the south is surprisingly friendly. Even the town priest walked up to me and was very welcoming. The places you may come across more right-leaning ideologies are in central Italy and the north. Of course it's not everyone, but in general, you'll see more bigoted people in central/northern Italy. 

It's tricky for me to give an accurate, unbiased reaction to the country though because when I go there, I am fluent enough to be confused as a native, and they always peg my accent as southern (which has to be from my late fiance's and my grandmother's/father's influence). You will still get the reaction from northerners that are against the south... just like southerners who are against the north, but I'll save that history lesson for class.

Small towns in the south are incredible.. I stayed in this tiny hotel... 40€ a night, air-conditioned, breakfast included (granted in Italy that's just a cornetto and a cappuccino, but that's all I eat anyway), WiFi, so clean you could eat off the bidè, and the hotel owner's wife treated me like her child. I came home one night and she washed and folded my dirty laundry (seriously). I approached her about it, which, I understand most might find this a huge invasion of their privacy, but when a man is traveling alone (and she knew I was a widower), the "mother" in them comes out. In fact, she didn't think I was taking good-enough care of myself, so she'd tell me to go into the kitchen and help myself to peach juice, taralli (for those who don't know, they're the Italian versions of pretzels but have a texture of like a cracker), cookies, etc.

Southern Italy has become more like home to me (aside from my fiance being buried there, it reminds me of my own family). My only hatred is for the blistering sun and summer heat.

[A Horse With No Name]

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Interesting how badly the Ford Expedition does in this test. You would think for a flagship model they would get it right. 

 

Mustang did not faire well either. 

[Drew Dowdell]

15 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Interesting how badly the Ford Expedition does in this test. You would think for a flagship model they would get it right. 

 

Mustang did not faire well either. 

The tests get harder regularly.

[trinacriabob]

I wouldn't say I feel concerned, but I wonder about the topic because I tend to analyze most things in practical and tangible terms.

State and local governments are trying to balance budgets.  For states who don't charge income tax or sales tax, I wonder how the other sources pencil out.  I know that California gas prices are absurd principally because of the gas taxes to pay for a good and extensive road network with not much in the way of tolling.

One thing that makes me feel less "sorry" for them are the hotel charges and guest taxes that people pay.  These are often in the 14% to 18% range.  A lot of people fill up hotels, whether motels, airport hotels, or fancy downtown hotels.  Think of all the revenue that brings in and how it can pay for stuff.

[trinacriabob]

On 6/7/2025 at 5:33 PM, Paolino said:

It's tricky for me to give an accurate, unbiased reaction to the country though because when I go there, I am fluent enough to be confused as a native, and they always peg my accent as southern (which has to be from my late fiance's and my grandmother's/father's influence). You will still get the reaction from northerners that are against the south... just like southerners who are against the north, but I'll save that history lesson for class.

I read the whole post with a lot of interesting situations, but this stood out.

First, to be fair, my not so great experience was in and around Pescara, which is Abruzzo.  Except that Dean Martin and Madonna have their ancestral roots there, not many people talk about it.  It's shielded by the mountain range, which is very high, but only 2.75 hours directly across from Rome and on the sea.  My parents have never said anything negative about this region.  They sure have about other regions! In fact, because my dad was at work, some Abruzzese family friends came over to pick up my mom when her water broke to have me.  My dad joined up a few hours later.

I already mentioned the normal Airbnb.  As for the really negative Airbnb, it was a problem with the water.  In a week, hot water arrived in 15 minutes on 3 days, didn't come at all on 2 days, and would run hot and cold while I was in the shower.  I had gotten a temporary fitness center membership and there were a couple Airbnbs near it.  I didn't like her face and I was right.  She was attractive but there was something pathological about her, in addition to looking like a "lipstick," even though she was married.  I took her unit because it was on an upper floor.  A very normal looking guy had an Airbnb, but with too many floor to ceiling doors at ground level, with bars.  With all my stuff and documents, I didn't want that.  Studying faces is something that people should do with their gut.  My friend in San Diego told me to turn her in to Airbnb.  I did and she had to cough up a partial refund.  I then looked at reviews on both ends, and she only had problems with guys and it was about the utilities.  She was trying to pin the blame on the solar roof panels.  In a building built in the '80s or '90s, those are now reliable technology.  The reality is that I've had a lot of problems with hotels, gyms, etc. with climate control.  They are the cheapest bastards when it comes to utilities.  The warm season may come on very early in June and they don't turn on the central air throughout an entire hotel or they don't turn it up as high as would be optimal for comfort at a gym.  My father would say that they are "morti di fame" or "pezzenti."  It's ubiquitous. 

As for their personalities, the people of Abruzzo are very flat.  They exhibit very little voice modulation.  They are not too interested in anyone who is not from there, and ask, "How is it that you're in our region?"  Sicilians never ask that.  They've had 6 major ancestral groups occupy them and they know they have a beautiful island.  The other thing some Abruzzese do is speak to you in their crappy English if they notice the slightest inflection.   Most other Italians in big population centers don't do that.  In the hospitality industry in a more economically advanced area, it would be considered rude, almost as if correcting you, and they know better.  I had this one waiter at a hotel restaurant where I had already ordered with the main waiter and was eating my pasta.  He had also seen me at breakfast.  He looked like Mr. Clean, but with a mustache.  I'm sitting here eating dinner and he came over and asked in his awful vowel-rich English:  "Would you like a glass of wine?"  I went off!  The other thing is that, what if the person is French, Dutch, Polish ... then what?  You start up in English?  They have a Union Jack rammed right up their asses.  They have this thing with "Inghilterra," as if that's the only place that produces Anglophones.

There was a coffeehouse I really liked in Abruzzo where I would take my laptop.  The slogan attributed to the people of this region is "forte e cortese," which they probably are, but, except for this one girl who worked there and was always happy to see me and addressed me by name, the other employees were dull.  You would see the typical turtlenecked 40 something women with young kids in there and even younger people with not much voice modulation who all seemed as boring as watching paint dry.  I asked a few people outside the region about this.  One guy in Rome who owned a pizzeria said, "They've been there forever, have never moved around, and everyone is related and knows everyone."  One Sicilian guy who lives there and is married to a local woman started talking about the locals and looked to the heavens and rolled his eyes.  Yet, I barely went into this local bar in Southeastern Sicily to get a snack, a granita, and mess with my phone and, within about 3 visits, the people behind the counter would recognize me and kid with me.  I got a haircut at a place in Sicily I found on Google and they were all goofy ... in a good way.  The same was true at a Conad supermarket in Sicily where they had a lunch cafeteria I'd patronize. But I also told them my parents were from the area.

I agree with your observation but it's hit and miss in the north.  Across the top, all the regions are hard on outsiders living there, but those from the Veneto (more than just Venice, as you know) have always been more friendlier than the others.  People from the Veneto have always been great to me.  In north-central, Emilia-Romagna has a stellar reputation for being the most welcoming and is like an island that regard.  Maybe having the University of Bologna there causes that open mindedness.  My cousins who live in pissy Florence which, beyond the historic places, is not at all nice and they were born and raised there.  They said that a newcomer to Florence would have a hard time being absorbed yet 1 hour north, in Bologna (obviously Emilia-Romagna) they could work their way into being absorbed by the area and feel pretty good about living there.

A lot of more insular Italians keep foreigners at bay, even if from a EU country.  I don't think that happens if a Spaniard or Frenchman has a professional position in a multi-national firm in Milan or Turin.

If you are raised in America, your accent may be fairly close, but not enough to broadcast the news.  I was in Catania and had accidentally taped myself conversing with a local lady by not shutting off the video.  The accent is a hair off only on certain words, but not like that of someone from a country where they would not speak a Romance language.  With southerners, it's usually more of a cadence than it is an accent.  A Roman waiter said, 'yeah, you look "American," but you speak well and the Sicilian cadence can be heard.'  I thanked him for that comment.

I have been to Puglia once, in 2022.  I wanted to see Bari, Polignano al Mare, and Alberobello.  The people were nice and I had no problems.  Bari once had a bad "port city" reputation and it has now been cleaned up.

As for the expats, there are some funky ones.  The ones who have the background, such as parents and grandparents, and go back and forth and are now living there tend to be normal.  Some of the other ones who have no Italian roots are weird AF.  Some have left the workforce too early and are trying to sell their services like translating and being bird dogs for realtors and car rental places.  Others are living in the most rural communities up in the hills or mountains and trying to be artists or writers, growing their own food, driving beaters, and having babies delivered by a midwife ... and, even if they speak English, I could not relate to them.

Some of the most insular Italians live along the Adriatic and in the Golfo di Taranto north of the touristic places in Puglia and south of Ancona. 

In other places in the north, they're not dumb, but snobbish.  In Valle d'Aosta and Sud-Tyrol up at the top, respectively, they associate with France and Austria, and downplay being Italian. 

For being 2/3 the size of California, it's a big head trip.  My dad was super proud of both Italy and Sicily but, after living in the U.S. for so long, said that Italians in Italy can be "una massa di pavoni."  A friend from Madrid acknowledges that the Iberians also see Italians as having an annoying "pavo real" problem.  I wasn't planning on responding in so much detail, but I got rolling.

[A Horse With No Name]

20 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The tests get harder regularly.

This is a good thing, actually. 

13 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I read the whole post with a lot of interesting situations, but this stood out.

First, to be fair, my not so great experience was in and around Pescara, which is Abruzzo.  Except that Dean Martin and Madonna have their ancestral roots there, not many people talk about it.  It's shielded by the mountain range, which is very high, but only 2.75 hours directly across from Rome and on the sea.  My parents have never said anything negative about this region.  They sure have about other regions! In fact, because my dad was at work, some Abruzzese family friends came over to pick up my mom when her water broke to have me.  My dad joined up a few hours later.

I already mentioned the normal Airbnb.  As for the really negative Airbnb, it was a problem with the water.  In a week, hot water arrived in 15 minutes on 3 days, didn't come at all on 2 days, and would run hot and cold while I was in the shower.  I had gotten a temporary fitness center membership and there were a couple Airbnbs near it.  I didn't like her face and I was right.  She was attractive but there was something pathological about her, in addition to looking like a "lipstick," even though she was married.  I took her unit because it was on an upper floor.  A very normal looking guy had an Airbnb, but with too many floor to ceiling doors at ground level, with bars.  With all my stuff and documents, I didn't want that.  Studying faces is something that people should do with their gut.  My friend in San Diego told me to turn her in to Airbnb.  I did and she had to cough up a partial refund.  I then looked at reviews on both ends, and she only had problems with guys and it was about the utilities.  She was trying to pin the blame on the solar roof panels.  In a building built in the '80s or '90s, those are now reliable technology.  The reality is that I've had a lot of problems with hotels, gyms, etc. with climate control.  They are the cheapest bastards when it comes to utilities.  The warm season may come on very early in June and they don't turn on the central air throughout an entire hotel or they don't turn it up as high as would be optimal for comfort at a gym.  My father would say "morti di fame" or "pezzenti."  It's ubiquitous. 

As for their personalities, the people of Abruzzo are very flat.  They exhibit very little voice modulation.  They are not too interested in anyone who is not from there, and ask, "How is it that you're in our region?"  Sicilians never ask that.  They've had 6 major ancestral groups occupy them and they know they have a beautiful island.  The other thing some Abruzzese do is speak to you in their crappy English if they notice the slightest inflection.   Most other Italians in big population centers don't do that.  In the hospitality industry in a more economically advanced area, it would be considered rude, almost as if correcting you, and they know better.  I had this one waiter at a hotel restaurant where I had already ordered with the main waiter and was eating my pasta.  He had also seen me at breakfast.  He looked like Mr. Clean, but with a mustache.  I'm sitting here eating dinner and he came over and asked in his awful vowel-rich English:  "Would you like a glass of wine?"  I went off!  The other thing is that, what if the person is French, Dutch, Polish ... then what?  You start up in English?  They have a Union Jack rammed right up their asses.  They have this thing with "Inghilterra," as if that's the only place that produces Anglophones.

There was a coffeehouse I really liked in Abruzzo where I would take my laptop.  The nickname attributed to the people of this region is "forte e cortese," which they probably are, but, except for this one girl who worked there and was always happy to see me and addressed me by name, the other employees were dull.  You would see the typical turtlenecked 40 something women with young kids in there and even younger people with not much voice modulation who all seemed as boring as watching paint dry.  I asked a few people outside the region about this.  One guy in Rome who owned a pizzeria said, "They've been there forever, have never moved around, and everyone is related and knows everyone."  One Sicilian guy who lives there and is married to a local woman started talking about the locals and looked to the heavens and rolled his eyes.  Yet, I barely went into this local bar in Southeastern Sicily to get a snack, a granita, and mess with my phone and, within about 3 visits, the people behind the counter would recognize me and kid with me.  I got a haircut at a place in Sicily I found on Google and they were all goofy ... in a good way.  The same was true at a Conad in Sicily where they had a lunch cafeteria I'd patronize. But I also told them my parents were from the area.

I agree with your observation but it's hit and miss in the north.  Across the top, all the regions are hard on outsiders living there, but those from the Veneto (more than just Venice, as you know) have always been more friendlier than the others.  People from the Veneto have always been great with me.  In north-central, Emilia-Romagna has a stellar reputation for being the most welcoming and is like an island this way.  Maybe having the University of Bologna there caused that open mindedness.  My cousins who live in pissy Florence which, beyond the historic places, is not at all nice were born and raised there.  They said that a newcomer to Florence would have a hard time being absorbed yet 1 hour north, in Bologna (obviously Emilia-Romagna) they could work their way into being absorbed by the area and feeling pretty good about living there.

A lot of more insular Italians keep foreigners at bay, even if from a EU country.  I don't think that happens if a Spaniard or Frenchman has a professional position in a multi-national in Milan or Turin.

If you are raised in America, your accent may be fairly close, but not enough to broadcast the news.  I was in Catania and had accidentally taped myself conversing with a local lady by not shutting off the video.  The accent is a hair off only on certain words, but not like that of someone from a country where they would not speak a Romance language.  With southerners, it's usually more of a cadence than it is an accent.  A Roman waiter said, 'yeah, you look "American," but you speak well and the Sicilian cadence can be heard.'  I thanked him for that comment.

I have been to Puglia once, in 2022.  I wanted to see Bari, Polignano, and Alberobello.  The people were nice and I had no problems.  Bari once had a bad port city reputation and it has now been cleaned up.

As for the expats, there are some funky ones.  The ones who have the background, such as parents and grandparents, and go back and forth and are now living there tend to be normal.  Some of the other ones who have no Italian roots are weird AF.  Some have left the workforce too early and are trying to sell their services like translating and being bird dogs for realtors and car rental places.  Others are living in the most rural communities up in the hills or mountains and trying to be artists or writers, growing their own food, driving beaters, and having babies delivered by a midwife ... and, even if they speak English, I could not relate to them.

Some of the most insular Italians live along the Adriatic and in the Golfo di Taranto north of the touristic places in Puglia and south of Ancona. 

In other places in the north, they're not dumb, but snobbish.  In Valle d'Aosta and Sud-Tyrol up at the top, respectively, they associate with France and Austria, and downplay being Italian. 

For being 2/3 the size of California, it's a big head trip.  My dad was super proud of both Italy and Sicily but, after living in the U.S. for so long, said that Italians in Italy can be "una massa di pavoni."  A friend from Madrid acknowledges that the Iberians also see Italians as having an annoying "pavo real" problem.  I wasn't planning on responding in so much detail, but I got rolling.

For both you and Paulino, I want to visit Italy but I want to go right after I retire, while I am still young enough to hike and walk a lot, and also while I am able to afford to spend 6-8 weeks exploring the country. 

14 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I wouldn't say I feel concerned, but I wonder about the topic because I tend to analyze most things in practical and tangible terms.

State and local governments are trying to balance budgets.  For states who don't charge income tax or sales tax, I wonder how the other sources pencil out.  I know that California gas prices are absurd principally because of the gas taxes to pay for a good and extensive road network with not much in the way of tolling.

One thing that makes me feel less "sorry" for them are the hotel charges and guest taxes that people pay.  These are often in the 14% to 18% range.  A lot of people fill up hotels, whether motels, airport hotels, or fancy downtown hotels.  Think of all the revenue that brings in and how it can pay for stuff.

I think the slow fall of the dollar, the decline of empathy for our fellow Americans, the decline in common sense, the propensity for California to over extend itself, the desertification of the southwest, the continued industrial decline of the US, a ton of negative factors will kind of eff California over. 

Interesting your comments on Expats, because I damn sure intend to become one. 

[A Horse With No Name]

One more place I want to go. Our Debate team hosted Students from Rwanda once, it was a great event. I would love to visit the country. 

[trinacriabob]

4 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

 For both you and Paulino, I want to visit Italy but I want to go right after I retire, while I am still young enough to hike and walk a lot, and also while I am able to afford to spend 6-8 weeks exploring the country. 

I think the slow fall of the dollar, the decline of empathy for our fellow Americans, the decline in common sense, the propensity for California to over extend itself, the desertification of the southwest, the continued industrial decline of the US, a ton of negative factors will kind of eff California over. 

Interesting your comments on Expats, because I damn sure intend to become one. 

Another thing:  Italy does not swap out driver's licenses for U.S. and Canada.  You have to go to driving school ... about $750.  Portugal swaps them out.  Spain is teetering on how they're going to go with this.

The decline of the dollar is concerning for being an expat anywhere if what you have is denominated in dollars.

With an eroding middle class, California ain't so great.  As an 18 year old, I thought I would never leave.  It's expensive and not worth it.

[Drew Dowdell]

16 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

One thing that makes me feel less "sorry" for them are the hotel charges and guest taxes that people pay.  These are often in the 14% to 18% range.  A lot of people fill up hotels, whether motels, airport hotels, or fancy downtown hotels.  Think of all the revenue that brings in and how it can pay for stuff.

Hotel and other travel related taxes are popular in destination states because "other people" pay them and largely can't vote against them.  Florida does the same thing with hotels, rental cars, and theme park tickets. It works in Florida and California, but not so much in Iowa.

Tolling roads doesn't necessarily mean lower gas taxes. Illinois and PA routinely compete for second highest gas taxes in the country and here in PA we have the highest cost per mile toll road in the world. Part of that is because the turnpike was privatized and the money squandered, so now the state probably will be bailing them out. 

[trinacriabob]

2 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Hotel and other travel related taxes are popular in destination states because "other people" pay them and largely can't vote against them.  Florida does the same thing with hotels, rental cars, and theme park tickets. It works in Florida and California, but not so much in Iowa.

Right.  I remember when the Seattle area once had exorbitant rental car taxes.  When I asked what they were for, they were for the new stadium(s) going up.

2 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Tolling roads doesn't necessarily mean lower gas taxes. Illinois and PA routinely compete for second highest gas taxes in the country and here in PA we have the highest cost per mile toll road in the world. Part of that is because the turnpike was privatized and the money squandered, so now the state probably will be bailing them out. 

Right.  I know.  But California has good roads throughout, for the most part, whether it's the freeways or even local streets with nice landscaping and features.  Not only that, I'm sure they're taxing for some type of environmental offset and to defray other "stuff."  The toll for the PA Turnpike the whole way across is absurd.  To that, add fuel for the car.  It's cheaper to fly to NYC than cross Pennsylvania by car in most cases.

[trinacriabob]

4 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Interesting your comments on Expats, because I damn sure intend to become one. 

You have put across that you are intent on doing it.

I'd look at a LOT of YouTubes and even forums.  To distill it to its basics - it's a wash, almost a complete balance of positives and negatives.  But it's your personal weighting of these that allow you to break that tie.

On Jan. 31, the $ bought .96 of a Euro.  Today, it buys .88 of a Euro.  That's a big drop in a short time.

Even thought .88 is "bad," what I saw in 2007 or thereabouts was far worse and it was the W to Obama transition years.

[G. David Felt]

Having fun with https://deepimg.ai/ai-image-generator/

I told it the following:

Modern EV using a 1971 Buick Riviera GT and 1986 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Areo GT

It gave me this:

🤣

Modern EV pickup using the Kia EV9 and GMC Hummer EV

[Drew Dowdell]

These are fun! Maybe we should make an AI Carspotters thread.