Here’s Looking at You, Creep

1 Sep

We’re on the train headed up to Venice and the last couple days of our trip :( I’ve split the kids into two different cabins, each with six people in them. Little did I know what trouble this would cause.

At the first stop, both cars started to play a game. They did this on their own, not realizing that the other car was doing this. I should also mention that one car had five girls and one guy (I have to keep continually mixing up the cars). How this game worked: It’s actually extremely simple. The entire car would wave at a random person and they would see if the person would respond. Both cars played this game, but with slightly different constraints.

Grace and Sam played version 1

Version 1: Played by the predominately male car.  They would wave at people outside the train and on the platform.  They reported some great successes, including a group of nuns and a five-year-old boy.

Version 2: Played by the mainly female car.  They waved at people both outside and inside the car.  This was fun for a while, but then they waved at a group of three Italian young guys.

The guys thought this was an invitation to come into the car.  So they did.  The people in the car were initially impressed and enjoyed the new company.  Then, they were ready for the guys to leave.  And… they didn’t.  I was hesitant to get involved.  From my point of view, they got themselves into this mess and could work their way out of it.

But it continued and I felt the need to get involved.  As I walked down the train car towards the girls’ car, these guys scrambled off. Their harassment was over.  Everyone learned an important lesson about unintentionally flirting with people on trains.  It was a quiet rest of the trip.

The creeps looked something like this

Links 8/31

31 Aug

What a wild and crazy day for news.

1) Worst Journalist Ever: Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise thought it was a great idea to tweet three pieces of false news yesterday to “test the accuracy of social media reporting.” The bad news: people attributed the news to him.  That prompted sportswriters to all condemn his antics. It’s the Post’s reputation on the line. The paper suspended Wise for the hoax. Ever heard of an ombudsman, Mike? No one will ever look to him for factual information again.

2) Last Surviving Member of First World Cup Team Dies: Francisco Varallo played for Argentina in the 1930 cup.  His team lost 4-2 to Uruguay.

3) Google becomes all-knowing: Well, at least they know what e-mails you want to read.  Today, Google launched Priority Inbox for Gmail, which will catalog your e-mails based on your friends and what e-mails you reply to most.  There was also a bizarre bug that came with the launch.  Apple reportedly plans to double the sample length for songs in iTunes.

4) Proud to be an American?: It’s getting harder to make that claim these days.  Though the controversial mosque by Ground Zero earned the endorsement of one GOP lawmaker today, the news was overshadowed by suspicions of arson on the site of a proposed Tennessee mosque and a hate attack in Seattle.

5) Hip CPR PR Campaign: It looks cool and is fun to play, but how are you supposed to do CPR now?  Directions are in a video at the bottom.

6) Dance: A compilation of movie dance scenes to the classic “Footloose” theme song by Kenny Loggins.

7) Mystery Meat Means Something New: I wrote previously about a miscommunication about cat meat that happened to me in Italy.  Well, a German restaurant has taken it one step farther.  They are actively seeking donations of body parts for a cannibal-themed dining establishment.  Though most suspect a publicity stunt, the restaurant claims inspiration from the Wari people, a Brazilian tribe that practiced cannibalism.

8 ) English Catholic Women Take on the Pope: Catholic Women’s Ordination (CWO) will plaster buses in London with ads for female ordination ahead of the Pope’s visit next month.

9) Fight Loitering Teens: What’s the best way to do that?  Some cities suggest adding lights works.  Others have tried Barry Manilow music.  Still others will try the “Mosquito,” a loud pitch designed to only be heard by young people.

10) Pro-Bullying Stance?: Apparently, the anti-bullying campaigns are a gay front. Yeah, whatever.

Good Music

31 Aug

Thanks to a tweet, I discovered this song. Can’t beat young Brits.

In case you missed it.  The opening to the Emmys was really well-done.

One More Story From Rome

31 Aug

One evening in Rome, we decided to go to a lovely little restaurant near Piazza Navona for dinner. I remembered this area from a past trip. Darcy and I wandered through the area and eventually found a really cute little restaurant. It was really good. I tried to replicate this with the kids.

As we walked through Piazza Navona, a political rally dominated the scene.  A group of journalists were protesting a new law that allowed the government to listen to their phone calls.  Pretty bad.

Piazza Navona: always beautiful

So I took the group a few blocks away from the noise (we couldn’t get across to where I was before) and found this cute restaurant.  This allowed the kids to try some new dishes.  So they got pasta with pesto, tomato sauce and gnocchi.  I was bummed. It was always nearly impossible to get them to try new things.

Walking to dinner; no photo of the waitress exists

Then, the funny conversations began. One of my kids, Caitlen, was enjoying the conversation a lot, chatting and laughing a ton. All good things.  The waitress began to get frustrated though. She accused Caitlen of talking too much and not eating her food. She felt that the food would become cold. They battled for a while. At the end, she claimed she would hit Caitlen if she came back, but then gave her a quick hug when we left.

The battle was over.  No blood.  But… don’t talk to much in Italian restaurants.

The following day we returned.

Links: 8/30

30 Aug

1) The old way of working wasn’t working anymore: Hard times for the perennial favorite in the dictionary war.  Reports are that the Oxford English Dictionary will stop publishing a print version. Sales are down. Google also plans to launch a pay-per-view video watching system, according to The Financial Times.  The venture could use  YouTube and might be ready by the end of 2010.  This as movie rental giant Blockbuster considers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September.

2) Wait, how did that even get published?: Talking Points Memo looks at how one article started a myth that Mexican police officers would be coming to New York City to protect citizens of that country. The article, by freelance writer Jeffrey Smith, appeared in American Free Press.

3) How many people came to Glenn Beck’s rally?: As mentioned before, the estimates vary wildly. CBS News hired “experts” to determine the crowd this. Their estimate was 87,000 people attended. Beck himself estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 attended.  Infamous Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann said:

“We’re not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today – because we were witnesses.”

That’s fine, but upon careful analysis, it seems the CBS estimate wasn’t that bad. Metro later released figures suggesting that traffic was high, more than 500,000 riders, but not nearly as high as inauguration day when more than 1,120,000 people rode the system.

4) Recycled Appliance: A really cool looking sink made from recycled tires. Thanks Boing Boing.

A new design for a recycled sink

5) Cool Experimental Film: Designed in conjunction with Google and the band Arcade Fire, this new project is visually stunning and innovative.  Worth a look.

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