[integrity] arnie would never go opportunistic

This is so unfair to Arnie, who would never ever cut a deal or do anything remotely ambitious:

But instead, when asked, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to suggest he would have no qualms about joining an administration run bysomeone called Barack Obama -- who, if memory serves, is the Democrat actuallyopposing the Republican man the Republican Schwarzenegger endorsed for president.

Nah - it's just another blogger speculating.

Isn't it?

[earthquakes] and other fun happenings

Cheated here - this isn't Sicily at all - it's America.

There was an article in La Sicilia yesterday [the dead wood version ]about Mt. Etna and how tourists are determined to climb it, knowing full well the dangers.

Actually, that is my reading of it in my very limited Italian – I was scouring it for meaning yesterday morning over the cappuccino and croissant at Vecchia Caffe, a counterpoint to the news that yet another tourist had been lost to the dreaded Etna.

We actually live further down the coast from there and so the question is not so much rapid lava flow but earthquakes. I was asking Welshcakes and she said there had been a bad one up north in the late 80s and various tremors all over Sicily since then.

I asked if she had experienced one and she said that yes, the walls seemed to move like the beginning of a dream sequence in a film. Wow. When I asked if she thought the Big One was therefore coming, she gave a nervous laugh and said, “I hope not.”

She continued:

“When the sky is a funny colour, not dark, not grey, perhaps ashy and it seems sort of lower than usual – that’s when the Sicilians start to panic. Raffaele apparently said to all within listening distance about him: ‘Hope we don’t all die.’ ”

Hey, I can live with that.

Welshcakes continued: “They’re very philosophical about it here. If it’s got your number on it, they say, then it’s your turn.”

Hey, I can really live with that – makes life a bit more interesting, don’t you think?

So here I sit, typing to you and waiting for the Big One. There are 100 bells in this town which will peal in a Hemming sort of way and we can all ask one another in our mad, frenetic helter skelter flight:

“Did the earth move for you?”

For those who are a little worried about us down this end, I’ll put a helpful link in the right sidebar where you can check out our earthquake or volcano danger on any given day. Actually, the chances are fairly low and from what I can gather, these are our main dangers in southern Sicily:

1. Coffee poisoning;

2. Being run over by a Vespa or Lambretta;

3. Dehydration;

4. Getting closer than 200 metres to local politics;

5. Old age;

6. Volcano;

7. Earthquake.

Touch wood.

[july 14th] not forgetting july 4th

It's the French National Day and I urge everyone, if you haven't already done so, to go down into your local village and partake of petit pain or croissants and coffee. You might even get wicked and toast Bastille Day with a fine cognac [but not before 11 a.m.]

To the Americans, I apologize for July 4th but I ... er ... didn't have a blog at the time and so thought I'd wait until today. May your sovereignty and constitution remain intact in the next few years, despite the severe assault on it from within and from outside. Stand firm, America.

[thought for the day] sunday evening

A loo with a difference

WARNING: TOILET TALK AHEAD

Definition of an excursion:

Fearful and fraught foray far from a loo

Whilst not yet exactly incontinent, nevertheless, the thought of an excursion, a day trip, fills me with dread for these reasons:

1. Inaccessibility of a Little Room;

2. Inaccessibility of water;

3. Tedium and tiredness.

It would have to be a mighty interesting and well-equipped expedition which would draw the Higham from his hermit-like existence.

And you?



Mobility GTS – the only way to go

[the idyll] and the hidden serpent

The picture above is the Caffe Consorzia where we went for lunch.

It was balmy and idyllic, not to mention the quality of the food itself. Sitting under the giant olive tree with those leaves so easy on the eyes, one could be envied - see Welshcakes' post for details of the meal we ate.

So to come home, try to set up a new Yahoo account for Bloghounds, to go through the usual first page of filling in details, press the button and then be confronted with a second page asking to provide credit card details so they can confirm our age - that was beyond the pale.

Exactly what the heck are Yahoo up to? Have you too had any problems? Try setting up a new Yahoo account.

Meanwhile, back to the coffee and croissants.

[britain] will there be one left to return to

We were watching Skynews and BBC and had the same thought simultaneously - the way Britain is portrayed there now, if it can be believed,well - what sane person would want to live there with all its PC, ethnic issues, ASBOs, stabbings everywhere, druggies, crying bereaved families and so on?

Of course, I don't trust Sky or the BBC as far as I could kick them and probably, out of the dangerous urban areas, it's quite OK but still - are you worried about living there, British readers of this blog?

And what of your economic situation? House prices, credit and mobile phone debt? Mortgages? The surveillance society? The vastly increased chance of arrest on technicalities? The situation in schools and with lost national data files left by people on trains? Is all OK with you in that green and pleasant land?

Because if not, then it seems to me it's a bit like, say, Welshcakes, Guthrum and myself zipping off years ago, on our respective starships and meeting up one day on Alpha Centauri, where the news has just come through to the big screen that the earth has blown itself up.

Oops - we're now permanent expats for the remainder of our lifetime. Even Grendel seems worried, opting to detour to Russia instead of immdeiately returning.

Just how bad is it over there now?

[doping] does sport have a chance

You have to wonder what chance sport has:

Manuel Beltrán, who rides for the Liquigas team of Italy and who is a former teammate of Lance Armstrong’s on the Discovery Channel team, tested positive for EPO after the first stage of the race. Beltrán was withdrawn under the terms of a contract that all of the teams signed with the Tour organizer.

This is not just a bleat about "oh how bad everything is these days" but a question every sportsman faces.

When weight training in Russia, one learnt who the steroids boys were [a high profile gym down the road where they were all Adonises with not an ounce of fat] and the "clean" trainers such as one at our place who always carried a certain "lining", shall we say.

He and I were chatting about competition and how he had to give it away because he just couldn't compete against the stoked up bodies in that field. No point competing if you're not going to win, they'd say. Ben Johnson would understand.

This blogger is most certainly not ant-sport - quite the opposite, in fact - and yet there doesn't seem a solution to this thing.

[bloghounds are go] and taking members

Delighted to be able to report that August 11th is the day we launch officially.

There has been considerable discussion and questions have been mulled over concerning the setting up; there have been some teething troubles too and yet here we are.

The site itself is a combined website/forum/mailing list and comes complete with bar, swimming pool and jacuzzi. We hope the user login thingy is not too offputting and that you enjoy your visits there.

During the establishment process we noted some negativity from parts of the sphere but this was quite overwhelmed by the positive feedback and the well wishes - so we're a happy bunch today who feel we have a worthwhile group, Bloghounds whose humble aim is to associate with the best in the blogosphere, the up and comers and even the shy and reticent, with a view to mutual support, encouragement and assistance.

You might like to take a look.

[sarko and mandy] love and mutual understanding

Had to chuckle - from the latest Private Eye [N1214]:

Sarko: Idiot! Cochon! Rosabif! Vous etes un
laughing stock.

Mandy: Vous can talk, matey, avec votre oo-la-la avec Mlle Bruni
et votre platform shoes.

Sarko: Watch votre step, Matelot ...

[self promotion] how to lose readers fast

Routes of the internet, according to Wiki

This post is for the inexperienced blogger. All the rest of you, forgive it please.

There's a lady who is doing the rounds of our part of the sphere and though she means well, she is doing wrong. I am not guoiltless myself of having done this from time to time but I try not to as far as possible.

In short, this lady is going to people's blogposts and commenting along the lines of "Please visit my site." There are a number of things wrong with this and it shows her inexperience as a blogger.

1. It is against generally accepted blog etiquette to go round actively promoting yourself.

2. It has a negative effect on those who visit and more will decide not to go to that "newbie" site than will decide to go there. There's a bloodymindedness factor here.

3. There are alternatives:

a. Your name itself in most comments is a hyperlink and so if you have written a witty or pertinent comment, people are likely, in their own time and way, to wander over to you and see what you have. If you push them or appear to be trying to, they'll be irritated.

b. If you were to actually read that blogger's post and get into the discussion on it [the thing almost all of us want], then put a link to his-her post inside your own post on the issue, you've helped him-her and helped yourself through the backlink system.

Many blogs have the system that if you link to someone's post, it shows up in that comments section and other bloggers see it and might click on your own post link displayed there.

That is the way to go.

c. The only other way is the hard grind - get round to other sites and show an interest. Only then will they come to yours. To keep them coming to yours, you have to write interesting posts on a regular basis. There's no other way out of it.

For an interesting article on the blogosphere and MSM, Ian Appleby has this piece, hat tip Tiberius.