Attribution

I do not want to deprive a deceased historian of his justified recognition.  My reference in the last post to Marx and Smith is not an original thought.  I read it years ago in a little essay, where it was presented much more intelligently.  Of course I forget the name of the essay and who wrote it.  But I do know for sure the author was a three-name historian.  We used to have those.  Frederick Jackson Turner, Samuel Eliot Morrison, Henry Steele Comager, John Kenneth Galbraith (okay, more economist than historian, but a lot of both).  We're now in a two-name historian rut, like Stephen Ambrose, Barbara Tuchman, Winston Churchill.  

I think the essay was called something like "Short Essay in American History" but I'm probably woefully mistaken.  It may have even been a four-name historian, like A.J.P. Taylor.  

I just don't want to plaguerize, (sp) even with Joe Biden near the White House.

Dell, Repairs, and the March of History

Taylor's new Dell laptop made it back to Tirana after Christmas and lasted about a week before the screen went kaput.  The following is a condensed version of the events, but suffice it to say that I spent a lot of time with emails and phone calls to Dell to arrange to have it repaired.  I talked to their local repairman in DC, Bill, and we made arrangements for me to bring the computer with me and take it to our friend Joey's law firm, where Bill could go and change out the screen.

I called Bill to tell him Joey had the computer, and Bill told me that Dell had canceled the repair order, I had to call Dell again.  So I started over, listened to the same "on hold" ads, including one that said for a certain amount of money I could "upgrade" my technical support to a North American location.  I assume they thought I would be interested in this offer because I would then be the beneficiary of getting to talk to technicians who spoke and understood English, but I turned down the offer.  Anyway, the upshot of this call, which lasted an hour and during which I talked to one guy and then his boss, was that I had to go back to Joey's office and call them back again so that I could do a test.  They were not satisfied when I told them I had done this test before; it just would not do unless I did it again.  So last night I went back to Bingham McCutcheon on K Street NW in Washington, DC, and got the computer from Joey and spent one hour -- another one hour consult!-- on my cell phone (Cost:  $5.50) doing the test, which accomplished nothing other than to convince the fellow I needed a new screen.  So maybe they'll come and fix it now.

The whole episode reminded me of Tom Friedman's book, "The World Is Flat," in which he rhapsodized about the new global economy, including a chapter extolling the virtues of call centers in Bangalore, India being harbingers of a new world economic order.  It was an interesting book, but like a lot of "new world order" books, not quite timely.  Or to be more precise, maybe a bit premature.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto (1848) and later Das Kapital, are both political/economic treatments of the same event  (with many detours, especially in Marx's case), the Industrial Revolution, one written early on when the benefits seemed to be ushering in a new glorious age (the Friedman take), and the others written later, when some of the malevolent side-effects of industrialization on societies were evident.  A little pre-Einstein relativity, if you will.  So we'll see what the anti-Friedman has to say in 50 years, and then 100 years from now we can start arguing over it.  

I'm betting, though, that Tom never had a problem with his computer that necessitated him spending hours on the phone calling India.    

Inauguration Day

I arrived in DC Monday afternoon and made it to my apartment by five o'clock.  Because of the six-hour time change, I went to bed early and woke up early, like 4:30.  I turned on the TV about 5:30 or so, and CNN was already doing live coverage from the Mall.  Or really from Pennsylvania Ave., close to the Mall.  I was really surprised at the number of people already on the Mall that early in the morning, in the dark, at about 18 degrees.  In fairness, I forget if this was temp or wind chill.

My first task for the day was to go buy a gophone from Radio Shack and get it going and then switch the SIM card to my phone.  (I didn't want to spend the day figuring out a new combination of buttons to push to do various things.)  There is a Radio Shack at the Pentagon City Mall, one Metro stop from my stop at Crystal City.  I went down there, but the line was coming all the way out of the station, so I decided to walk.  I took off and made it about half a block, when I decided I was dangerously underdressed for the trip, and came back and got my overcoat and scarf and hat with ear flaps.  I'm sure I looked very stylish.  I got the phone and went to the Pentagon City Metro to come home.  When I got to the southbound platform there were two other people waiting for the train.  The DC-bound platform was packed -- SRO.  Their train came first, and the cars were already packed, SRO.  It left and the platform was still packed.  My train was empty, the way I like them.

I have since read on the Metro site that they did over 1.2 million rides Tuesday, eclipsing their old record of 8 million, set the previous day.  (There were lots of happy Obama people in town.)  

If you watched the inauguration on TV you had an idea of the numbers of people.  It is a long way from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol,  24 blocks, to be exact.  The street numbering system starts at the Capitol, Capitol Street, then 1, 2, etc.  The Lincoln Memorial is at 23rd St.  So that's over two miles of people just on the Mall.

On my walk to the mall I passed lots of people walking up to cross the bridge at the Jefferson Memorial.  The bridges were all closed to vehicles.  Everyone was in a festive mood.

I have been watching cable news in the evenings -- when one doesn't watch it, and then comes back and is immersed in it, one can truly see how bad it is.  "Anchor people" who evidently don't know or don't care about American history and/or politics are pontificating about whether Obama is doing good, bad or indifferent and how long the "honeymoon" is going to last.  I wish I could call them up and say "Give it a rest -- he's been president 4 days!"  But that sentiment seems not to be the guiding principle for the news media.

I'm off this morning to Johns Hopkins to have my eyes peered at.  Hopefully by tonight I'll have info to report.

Barcelona II/Tirana

It rained every day in Barcelona, so I ended up not taking many pictures.  The top two are from our hotel room balcony.  Top one is down Carrer Casp, and the second is of Plaza Catalunya.

These bottom three pictures are of the restaurant at the Hotel Espana, where we ate lunch one day.  Lots of enamels and glass, from the late 1800s.  The food was pretty good, too.  It was not from the late 1800s.

The weather was so bad that we mostly stayed inside.  We went to the Miro Foundation Museum and the Picasso Museum, walked down La Rambla to the statue of Christopher Columbus.  There were a lot of after-Christmas sales, and since it was raining, we probably spent more time shopping than usual.  Ditto for museums and churches.  We went to the Barcelona Cathedral, which is a genuine Gothic cathedral, started in 1298. 

We flew back to Tirana Dec. 30, arriving around midnight.  New Year's Eve got pretty loud -- fireworks are pretty popular.  The first few days back at work were a struggle, but I think we're back in the grove.  Taylor got home about an hour ago.  Cindy leaves Monday for Budapest for a conference, gets back Thursday.  Taylor starts back to school Monday.  I leave for DC a week from Monday.  I just got an email yesterday that my class wouldn't start until Wednesday, since Tuesday is inauguration day.  So I guess I'll explore my new neighborhood and see if I can find a grocery store and stock up.

Sagrada Familia

Construction is ongoing, with an estimated completion date of 2030.  This building is different from anything I've ever seen.  The day we were there it was raining very hard and it was not a good day for pictures.  The tall columns are designed to look like tree trunks, with the branches spreading out across the top. 

Barcelona I

Palau de Musica Catalana, Palace of Catalan Music, is privately owned by the Palau.  Originally built by and for the Orfeo Catala, a choral society which still exists and performs in the building.  Building started in 1905 and finished in 1908.  The concert hall itself has a huge stained glass ceiling and stained glass windows.

 Street in the Gothic Quarter.

This skateboard mural is made of a whole bunch of skateboards.  

From the Train

This one is getting closer to Barcelona.  The bottom four are between Madrid and Zaragosa.

This apparently is not the plain in Spain upon which the rain mainly falls.

Ave Train, Madrid to Barcelona

Electronic display inside our Car No. 5 keeps up with time and velocity (186.411 mph).  300Km/h was pretty close to top speed, and it was smoother than the DC metro.  The displays cycled through this one and outside temperature and next destination screens.  This train stopped only at Zaragosa and Barcelona.

These three are from the train, between Madrid and Zaragosa.  I had no idea it was so arid.  Looks like New Mexico.  

 

This is Madrid from the train window.

Madrid

These are all Madrid after dark.  The Christmas tree in the bottom photo is metal and glass with lights in the middle.  Pretty neat.  It's in the Plaza del Sol, about a block from our hotel.  We were within a mile of the Palacio Real, Cathedral, Plaza Mayor, Prado -- we just walked around town.  These pictures are Christmas Eve.  We went to the Prado Christmas Eve, but the other two museums I wanted to go to were closed, so I guess we have to go back.  I wanted to see the Picasso painting "Guernica" and also the Thyssen museum which has a lot of modern art.  Maybe our next trip.  Spain didn't seem to be as expensive as Italy,  at least for food and lodging.

Around Madrid

Santa Claus climbing up an apartment building, near the Prado.

At the botanical garden, which is in a big park which surrounds the Prado.  This is in the outdoor bonzai garden.  The bonzai were pretty neat, some of them obviously very old.

The Prado, one of Europe's great museums.  We were lucky because they were also having a Rembrandt exhibition, on loan from another museum.  I am happy to report that the Reubens ladies are still as well fed as ever.  I got to see the two paintings I really wanted to see, the 3rd of May and 5th of May in Madrid paintings of Goya.   They are displayed side by side in a smaller room at the end of the museum.  Seeing paintings in a book, of course, is a poor substitute for seeing them in person, if for no other reason than appreciating the size.  These paintings are bigger than I thought, probably 10 or 12 feet wide and 8 or so feet tall.  

Cindy on the terrace at the Palacio Real.

Palacio Real, residence of Spanish king, built in the mid-1700s.  It was very lavish.  

Cathedral, Madrid

All of these photos are of the Cathedral in Madrid.  In the fourth picture, the one with the data-loss white square, to the far right is the Royal Palace, Palacio Real.  The cathedral is gothic on the inside and neoclassical outside, started in 1879 and finished not very long ago.

Kruje

This was taken from the airport before we got on the plane to Munich.  In the distance on the side of the mountain is the old town of Kruje.  It is about halfway up the mountain.
This is on the way to the airport.  Also of Kruje.
Same.
Cindy and I before we left for the Marine Ball.  We had a good time.  Cindy danced.