trinacriabob

I just talked to a Filipino named Fabio in financial services customer service. These can't be their real names. Remember "the" Fabio? Obnoxious.

Yes ... dry area, too. For one, the evergreens look very different from the ones in the PacNW.

Love LH for keeping a fleet of 747s. The -400s are slated for retirement in 2027. BA employees sort of grumble that they wish they had gotten 747-8s instead of the A380. The Comfort doesn't change the 2-3-2 abreast in the 767. I think it's a hair more legroom. Maybe more food. If it's a 767-400, that's their best version. Now, if only 787s went 2-4-2 ...

Ok, Sentra ... one up from Versa. I once had a Century 3300 V6 there! One day: Boulder, Estes Park, Idaho Springs on I-70, back down to Denver. Another day: Ken Caryl Ranch, Evergreen, Conifer. The 3300 had a quieter purr than the 3800 and was fuel efficient ... same basic "architecture." I like the eeriness and dry yet cool ambiance of the higher elevations on the Front Range.

Something interesting is happening ... at least to me. We know ITA Airways is going from Sky Team (Delta) to Star Alliance (United). That's because Lufthansa acquired that big stake in them. When you go scout out redemption options on United, there is very little crossing of the pond on Lufthansa's if you are going to Italy ... slim to none. United carts you on the over-the-water segment and ITA takes care of the rest from the Italian gateway. It's almost as if they picked up ITA to be a low-cost workhorse for them. Between the mileage redemption flyers and conventional paying passengers, the ITA planes are sure to be (close to) full. However, I'd much rather be on Lufthansa than domestic United for the longest leg. Because they haven't still disengaged, ITA segments are still being offered up on the Sky Team (Delta, specifically) website. There will be that overlap for about 2 to 3 more months, I believe. Fleets change, alliances change, etc. Many times, change sucks.

Not me. I have a decent kitty in my GM Card and I can't think of anything I'd buy from them. I feel both ripped off and heartbroken. I had a little Nissan Versa sedan at the beginning of September. A school friend put me up in NYC prior to sailing out so I bought all the meals and drove her around in a $50 a day Versa rented at La Guardia. Bear Mtn. and Westchester County one day. Long Island and Queens the next. Zipped around NYC with ease, including parking it, it sipped fuel, it has good sight lines, and it's so damn logical - dash, trunk, etc. I'd baby the CVT with frequent fluid changes and thought, 'I could do this.'

Here is a Pan Am 747 wearing its last livery. This is at Rio de Janeiro. I like that the last liveries for both Pan Am and TWA got rid of the stripe/ribbon along the windows. It looked cleaner and more modern.

Very nice. Count your blessings that you have a free of charge or low cost happy place. It's tough to come to the conclusion that the pinnacle of happy places for me might be being aboard an ocean liner. LOL. It makes for a "kaching" problem.

Anyway, autumn is here (either today or yesterday) and I've got just another day of beach time in the south of Portugal before heading back ... routine and brief orthopedic type operation ... blech, or I would have been hanging my hat in Italy for a while. Thought I'd share this stunning photo from a Quebec calendar I picked up at a pharmacy in Montreal last year. This is the October 2025 photo. Makes me actually like colder weather and a good cup of hot tea.

That's not what I meant - his white picket fence rhetoric isn't necessarily about candidates, but just about what the highest collective tier of "shoulds" in society are. He said he liked LDS folks and how they align with what he thinks. They spell it out fairly clearly that eternal blessings in the afterlife are achieved by having children through a temple sealed marriage and that's just another one of those "shoulds." That, too, is not for everyone and also judgmental. Kirk's delivery had a great deal of snideness in it. I went back and checked out 5 to 10 vids. I'm not a liberal, but I know what's right. And, comparatively speaking, we should all kiss the ground if elected Republicans in office were more like Liz Cheney and Kinzinger who have been sidelined. They'd get my vote.

It's all over the place ... it's more MAWA than MAGA, as in Make America White Again. I can do a sampling ... that usually works well. Look at John Edwards (D), the expensive haircut and some good ole boy speak told me he was smarmy, and he was.

Q: What's the difference between an Italian mother and a Jewish mother? A: An Italian mother says (Brooklyn accent): "If you don't eat your vegetables, I'll kill you." A Jewish mother says (Long Island accent): "If you don't eat your vegetables, I'll kill myself."

I am not the biggest fan and follower of politics. I sort of woke up in 2016. However, I did find one short video with Kirk saying, 'If I'm getting on a plane and the pilot is Black, I hope he's had the proper training.' That's all I needed to hear. That might be something an insult comic would have had in their skit in 2005. That is not at all suitable for a political spokesperson and a world away from anything Christian ... and certainly not a person that should fill up a stadium in Arizona to be mourned.

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 alcoholic drinks and I don't go into the casino. I bought a mug and a t-shirt this time ... usually 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 often 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, so people from 4 Southern European countries used their ships to immigrate or repatriate. In port, we usually took the 4 hour motorcoach tours. Lisbon was my favorite port. My parents said the food on Italian Line 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.

Here's a depiction of where a school age kid is smarter than a teacher! Also, such a teacher would need to meet up with some discipline because these sorts of things happen more so than we think. I once heard a comment about a grade school kid sitting in a car being driven by his parents on the Las Vegas Strip. He asked how, if casinos were supposedly paying out all this money to customers, they could afford to put up these big fancy buildings. If you're thinking like that at 10 or 11, you've probably got a Harvard or Stanford MBA in your future. When I was his age, I just marveled at cool buildings ... and didn't do much further analysis.

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.

Good morning ...

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).

Speaking of rail, I hope that California completes high-speed rail. Southwest Airlines certainly doesn't like it, but it's better for the state. And DC doesn't support it, which is no surprise. The Big 3 (one reportedly more so) pushed streetcars and fixed route urban transit off the streets of the Los Angeles area decades ago, with a subway type system not coming back until the freakin' '90s.

I'd like to think that the U.S. is capable of a Renaissance of sorts. It involves both a change in leadership and some of the negative mindsets and qualities of people living in this country, which is harder to do.

The UK may drive down the wrong side of the street, but ... https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bCAcdqdqTxQ&feature=shared

Join me in wishing @A Horse With No Name a "slightly" belated birthday. (I'm in another space or another place if I miss these announcements.) I hope you had a great birthday.

Pretty much. I saw a homepage blip about him years ago, read up on his background, and decided I didn't like him. Then I heard this happened from across the pond. I was looking at some videos with reporters and such to obtain information and the status of the situation. I thought I wouldn't have to see the actual event. One news video flipped over to it quickly and it was more powerful and more disturbing than I would have imagined. I backed up to see some past videos where he is on. Yeah, I've tossed out a fair bit of stereotyping in my life, but he tossed out so much racism and dislike toward anyone who is not white, religious, conservative, and has a picket fence existence. And its delivery was consistently vile and condescending. He was yet another podcaster who made his living this way. He had quite the motor mouth, so he could have gone to law school, taken the bar, and gone to work. That would have been too much work, given that he only did a year of college and dropped out. This new way people are making a living doesn't make for much value-added.

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.

Indeed