Christmas is Almost Here

My friend from DC sent me this modern technological take on the Nativity.  Someone went to some trouble putting this together.  I enjoyed it and I hope you will.  


Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA&feature=player_embedded   Córdoba, Argentina.

.

Essays to Blogging - Reading to Forget

Todays New York Times had an interesting article about a women, Sara Bakewell,  who wrote a book titled "How to Life" which is a biography tying things back to the essayist Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.  He is considered the first essayist and the article talks about how he inspired a significant number of writers and in some ways could be the inspiration for blogging even though he was from the 16th century.

        http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/books/18montaigne.html

What I found most interesting about the article though was one of her favorite of her 20 items on how to live.  It was "Read a log, forget most of what you read and be slow-witted".

That definitely resonated with me since I love to read but forget most of it.

Bakewell writes that Montaigne always complained about his "monstrously deficient memory and that reading and forgetting "let him follow his own thoughts wherever they led".

Perhaps why I love to read.

Through the Portholes in Sienna

Lost Detroit

Lost Detroit is the theme of at least one of two recent photo books of some of the ruins of Detroit.  This Friday I decided to go down to the Boston Edison district to an estate sale.  The area has some beautiful houses but many of these large houses are under serious disrepair.  This house was advertised as being under three generations of hoarders.   I am sure their were many treasures there but it was so crowded with people and books that it was hard to look.  I did buy an old ring they said was from Italy and a plaster lion that is on my porch.  The people who lived there were readers, loved movies and were amateur  painters.  But it was very sad to see a house that had fallen into such disrepair.

The first picture is of the house next door, the second is what used to be the gutters on the house, the third the walls up to the attic and the fourth the basement window,

Vacation Book #1

One of the things I love about vacations - is spending the time in the plane or in the evenings reading.

The first of the books I read in Italy this month was "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway.   I thought the book was very good.  I do believe you can learn allot from novels.  Premise was how people stay human in inhumane circumstances.   You can read a review at this link http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=hardcover:sale:9781594489860:15.36

I was taken by a quote since I am a pessimist and at work they say they only want optimists.  I say that there is nothing wrong with pessimism as long as you have drive for results.  Pessimists tend to be realists and address how to make things better.

"Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?...A pessimist says "O dear, things can't possibly get any worse.  And an optimist says "Don't be so sad.  Things can always get worse".

Maybe it is better to be a pessimist - you tend to do things about the situation.

Sunday in Florence

Since it is Sunday - I thought I would share one of the MANY pictures of the cathedral in Florence (which we visited last Saturday).  Very impressive.  Many of the facades of the churches in that part of the country are multi-colored.  This picture doesn't show that as well as others I took since it was a grey, misty day.

Under the Tuscan Rain

Just got back last night from a week long tour of the Tuscany region in Italy.  All the tour guides laughed and welcomed us to the "Tuscan Sun".  November is their rainy session and we had rain most days.  But it was still one of the best vacations I have had.  I loved the area.  I really felt like I belonged there.

I am still sorting though pictures but the one here is from region around San Gimignano.   Some very subtle fall colors.