Random Thoughts Thread

[trinacriabob]

I had to look up the Feast of San Gennaro in NYC ... courtesy of Neapolitan immigrants since 1926.

This crusty dude is of local vintage ... not from the motherland.  He can't pronounce "cacio" correctly because he was probably brought up with a dialect.  It's "ca-cheeo," not "ca-gee-uh." 

Love all the blondies who want to culturally appropriate themselves to being Italian.  I've seen these types in language courses in h.s. and college and they can be pretty dumb.

I should make it a point to be in NYC during San Gennaro.  The official day in Naples is September 19.  The NYC festival runs about 10 days.  I could get lunch or dinner in Little Italy on a daily basis.  But, take note that a la carte street food + NYC prices can make for a dent.  The a la carte pricing at Greek festivals in secondary cities adds up, so imagine how so in NYC.

[Drew Dowdell]

On 9/14/2025 at 4:39 PM, trinacriabob said:

When I saw this, I thought of you guys and how much most of you love Tesla.  This is obviously where they unload these nasty cars.

This is what I saw walking from the marine terminal in Southampton to the train station to fly out to warm weather that same afternoon.

I was following some Europeans with luggage across the street and a green turning lane was still in effect.  A local started yelling at us from his car in that working class brand of UK talk, including all "you 'effin' idiots."  At least I could understand it.  I need a translator for heavy-duty Scottish talk.

The crossing was good.  The ship stayed close to Canada all the way up to Newfoundland and then crossed.  There was only one day of light chop.  There were 2 poolside days in the beginning.  That meant indoor jacuzzis under the glass roof for the rest of the crossing.

Of four trips, the cabin was the best I've had.  The composition of the table was marginal compared to previous trips.  I won't go into it or I wouldn't be P.C.  I reverted to the open seating option on a few nights.

With all that, I didn't want to get off.  A few others said the same thing.  If the seas are good, it's incredibly relaxing.  You're just lulled into another state and it's mostly a good one.

Sooooo jealous! A crossing on the Queen Mary 2 is definitely on my bucket list. 

That reminds me that I need to start accumulating Carnival stock. If you are a shareholder with at least 100 shares, you get onboard credits up to $250 depending on the length of the cruise.  The stock is only about $30/share right now.

[Drew Dowdell]

On 9/17/2025 at 11:49 AM, trinacriabob said:

It's amazing how a leather wrapped steering wheel changes the experience at the wheel for the better (it seems to make for an almost different car from the model with a urethane steering wheel).

It really does, though some non-wrapped are better than others, and I do like wood on the wheel as well, we have that in the 300. 

Honda non-wrapped wheels tend to be good. Chrysler, GM and Ford non-wrapped wheels are awful. VW and Toyota are tolerable but nothing special. 

[Robert Hall]

On 9/18/2025 at 10:55 AM, G. David Felt said:

I will say that my Escalade Steering wheel with the built in knobs on the underside of the steering wheel are just a great comfortable grip for long road trips and confidence that it will not just slip in the hand when turning also on top of leather and heat.

My CT6 has these thumb rest bumps at 10 and 2 that I use often.  But when I’m doing a straight line cruise on the freeway I often hook my thumbs at 5 and 7 so I can rest my elbows on the armrests.  

Edited yesterday at 02:59 PM by Robert Hall

[trinacriabob]

9 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Sooooo jealous! A crossing on the Queen Mary 2 is definitely on my bucket list. 

That reminds me that I need to start accumulating Carnival stock. If you are a shareholder with at least 100 shares, you get onboard credits up to $250 depending on the length of the cruise.  The stock is only about $30/share right now.

Don't be jealous.  Just kidding.  Just do it.  Easier said than done, but I recommend it.

And you nailed it.  It is considered a crossing in that it's New York to Southampton, or vice versa.  Those who know and love this voyage would bristle at it being called a cruise.  It follows the traditional historic route of its Cunard predecessors. This is my third crossing and fourth time on QM2. 

I cut out a lot of things in life.  I hit up BK on Whopper Wednesday, for example!  

Say you're heading to Europe and staying a while.  Compare a nice enough cabin to outlays for one-way airfare, lodging for 7 nights, your daily meals, and that you don't have rental car costs and utilities.  It's not that much more.  You'll have to get an internet package.  I also participate in the tipping package and give extra to the stateroom attendant and the dinner waiter and second person.  I don't buy drinks and I don't go into the casino.  I bought a mug and a t-shirt ... stuff like that.

I do have some CCL stock I bought a few years ago.  The 7 day crossing gets you $100 in credit.

This crossing runs deep in my family.  I made 2 round trips on then active Italian Line as a kid.  My parents and some of my relatives did it more than that.  Italian Line still called it a transatlantic crossing, but they had stops.  Often, from NYC, it was (1) Portugal: Lisbon, (2) Spain: Algeciras/Gibraltar, Barcelona, OR Palma de Mallorca, (3) France: Cannes, and finally (4) Genoa and Naples.  They did drop off and pick up passengers at these ports.  In port, we usually took the 4 hour motorcoach tours.  Lisbon was my favorite port.  My parents said the food was top notch, but it was definitely Italian-centric and only somewhat international.  The cabin attendants made us these delicious panini with prosciutto, cheese, etc. when we kids asked for them as snacks.  You will never forget crossing an ocean as a child.

[oldshurst442]

 

 

 

[oldshurst442]

 

[ccap41]

On 9/13/2025 at 10:25 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

One can acknowledge that it is a horrible and uncalled for thing to happen while simultaneously not mourning the loss and acknowledge that the world is a slight slightly better place today.

I don't agree with him on everything, I doubt most completely agree with any politician 100%. But, one of the guys biggest points was to keep talking to each other. Keep the dialogue going. We can have opposing views, but we need to keep talking and not building these walls between each other. A lot of people here would rather build the divide rather than have good conversations where both parties learn a thing from the other.

[G. David Felt]

6 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I don't agree with him on everything, I doubt most completely agree with any politician 100%. But, one of the guys biggest points was to keep talking to each other. Keep the dialogue going. We can have opposing views, but we need to keep talking and not building these walls between each other. A lot of people here would rather build the divide rather than have good conversations where both parties learn a thing from the other.

I have always believed in Education is the great equalizer that allows people of very different viewpoints to at least communicate, live next door to each other and be respectful that we all want to live a quiet, free life.

Death of anyone before their natural time is just WRONG!!!

I agree that communication is a very important point and needs to continue in a respectful manner to work out joint agreements to get the bigger picture done. Respect for ALL HUMANITY is a MUST in my book and in this regard, some fall low on the ladder of respect.

The biggest question that is very hard to answer is HOW can another human clearly not have respect for others regardless of their choices in life. Regardless of one's choice of spouse, when one does not pay another's bills, what they do in the privacy of one's home on top of a desire for religion or lack of one, should not reduce that human at all.

We have far more honorable Transgender, Gay and Lesbian folks as well as folks that choose to be non-binary serving our great country than the weak, ignorant administration we have today.

Looking at the companies that are having to go bankrupt, close, sending manufacturing out of the country, the Tariff war is a FAILURE, Idiot47 is a FAILURE, the world sees it, half of this country sees it and as such, America has gone backwards almost 100 years due to the incompetence in DC.

Those that think America is getting stronger, are a horse with blinders on, in this case a Human with Blinders on to the reality of the current situation.

[G. David Felt]

This pretty much is a very well calculated statement of the current administration has FAILED our country and economy.

 

[Drew Dowdell]

9 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I don't agree with him on everything, I doubt most completely agree with any politician 100%. But, one of the guys biggest points was to keep talking to each other. Keep the dialogue going. We can have opposing views, but we need to keep talking and not building these walls between each other. A lot of people here would rather build the divide rather than have good conversations where both parties learn a thing from the other.

 

I think you need to look deeper at this. He made his money, millions of it, by talking, so he has a natural desire to keep the conversation going. He was also incredibly disingenuous about it. It's all well and good to say we shouldn't build walls, but he was responsible for building or reinforcing most of them. 

This tweet is just rage bait designed to get the right wing angry at the gays, many of whom serve in the military.  May is Military Appreciation month. So not only is he spreading bigotry, he's also spreading misinformation.... and he did that All. The. Time.  When he got shot, he was in the process of trying to blame mass shootings on trans people. I frequently see people say that he was taken out of context, but when you go look up the entire context, what he's saying is even worse. You know what dead guy you don't have to ever explain context about? Mr. Rogers. 

Did you know he also kept a public list of professors who taught on subjects like feminism, LGBT issues, or even just American history that he didn't like? He posted these professors pictures and contact information on his website and turned his supporters loose on them flooding them with death threats, sending barrages of e-mail and phone calls to universities to get these professors fired, some of them even having to uproot their lives and move.  Doesn't sound very in the spirit of "just keep talking" does it?  Imagine having 100,000 people e-mail your boss saying you need to be fired in the worst terms possible. That's not very freedom of speechy of him.

He spread Covid misinformation too, something which conservatives have been 100% wrong about on every angle of the subject for over 5 years now. 

His entire operation was grift. Getting people angry in order to extract money from them. Heck, his memorial service yesterday was selling Merch! His wife set up a gofundme even though they've been bringing in millions for years. 

So, while you feel you may have some alignment on his views, I would highly encourage you to find out what he was really about and the positions he took specifically to build the very walls he was claiming to want to pull down.  But feel free to post a position he had that you agree with and I'll take a wack at it.