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Happy Mardi Gras!!!
We are wishing the best to all in NOLA & hope the flux of partygoers keeps the economy going upwards. We love New Orleans and want it to recover. We just watched Anthony Bourdain last night. He did an epi on NOLA & we were pretty depressed after. Please try to patronize as many local spots as you can!
Here’s a video from the Orpheus parade from Lundi Gras 2010. It’s nice not to see snow anywhere since being in Charm City, there is much white all around. The only white we want to see these days is white rice with our red beans!
Laissez les bons temps roulez!
http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2010/02/orpheus_rolls_down_uptown_para.html
Helping Haiti
This is entirely copied from the San Francisco Chronicle:
This is an update of an earlier report on Help for Haiti after the 7.0 Earthquake.
The organization list was updated such that new information was placed in alphabetical order.
Haiti’s an impoverished nation that is asking for fiscal help in the wake of the terrible destruction from the 7.0 Earthquake, the largest ever in that region of the World. Moreover the nation’s being battered with aftershocks.
Power is out everywhere and people are in the dark and need help. The capital city of Port-Au-Prince has been catastrophically damaged.
Fortunately, legitimate online help efforts are being established. Here are some of them as of this writing:
American Red Cross (Reportedly has contributed $200,000 to Haiti relief.)
AmeriCares Help For Haiti. Goes to their International Disaster Relief Fund.
Chuck Simmins also has this blog – http://northshorejournal.org/haiti-earthquake-aid – of coverage of the Haiti Earthquake Disaster and where to donate, including any organizations that may not be listed here.
Doctors without Boarders – not a Haiti Specific page as of this writing.
HaitiArise – HaitiArise has provided education and relief for the past six years. It’s a registered Canadian charity and reports that 100 percent of donated funds go directly to Haiti.
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund – by Vanguard Public Foundation in San Francisco. Established for Haiti before the Earthquake.
Mercy Corps – Mercy Corps’ website is devoted to the Haiti Earthquake Disaster; they’re deploying a team bound for Haiti now.
Partners In Heath – You can use the drop-down menu to specify donations to Haiti.
Yele Haiti – Wyclef Jean’s Haiti initiative to assist his native Haiti.
UNICEF – UNICEF has set up a special page for donations for the children of Haiti. In an email, UNICEF’s Alissa Pinck reports: “UNICEF’s country office in Haiti and the regional office located in Panama is on the ground and have already deployed emergency teams to assess the situation and determine what the additional emergency needs are for the people of Haiti.”
If there are any Haiti-specific efforts not listed here, please send an email to zennie@zennie62.com and this entry will be updated.
Here is the link to the site we copied from: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=55157
Andrea Bocelli’s Christmas CD
Andrea Bocelli: My Christmas
This is my favorite gift to myself this year! Bocelli’s Christmas CD is really a joy to listen to! His beautiful tenor vocals put this CD high on my holiday gift list. His duets with Mary J. Blige & Reba McEntire are incredible. I also love his version of “Jingle Bells” with the Muppets. Try to catch him this month on PBS network. I believe the CD is $12.99@Target or you can buy it online. Check out his website www.andreabocelli.com. He is also in Vegas on December 12th at the MGM then he is off to Canada.
My Airlines Rant!! Can The Airlines Get Any Pissier?
My Airlines Rant!! Can The Airlines Get Any Pissier?
Isn’t it bad enough that the airlines stopped paying commissions to all travel agents but now they are nickel-and-diming the consumer. This is an excerpt of what I just read in the New York Times (by Barbara Peterson):
As airlines continue to reduce the number of seats they offer on domestic routes, flights are getting fuller. For travelers whose companies insist they fly in coach, that means finding a more comfortable seat on an aisle or in an exit row is becoming harder.
And just as surely, industry experts say, airlines are finding new ways to charge for the privilege of escaping a dreaded middle seat in the back of a crowded economy cabin. There are rows with more legroom near the front, roomier exit rows in the middle, and aisle seats. All have a price, it seems, but what you pay can vary widely by airline and by your status on a particular carrier.
It seems that airline is doing its own thing, and the rules keep on changing. Frontier Airlines is the latest airline to create what is effectively a subclass within coach. In November, Frontier reconfigured its layouts to give those sitting in the first four rows 36 inches of seat pitch (the distance from one point on a seat to the identical spot on the seat in front), up from 33 inches. It charges $15 to $25 for the so-called stretch rows. But since the airline did not change the total number of seats in coach, that means that fliers sitting in the rest of the cabin are getting less legroom — as little as 31 or 30 inches, according to some reports.
Road warriors tend to have their own strategies for seeking out, or avoiding, a particular location. The most avid ones study a particular airline’s layout on sites like seatguru.com. Mr. Derchin, whose specialty is airlines, said the seat fees seemed to be gaining acceptance. “Consumers understand that when you go to the theater or a concert, you pay for location; there’s one price for sitting in the orchestra, another for the back of the mezzanine.
iPhone must have travel app
It’s that time of the year when a lot of us are boarding flights and what better app to include on your iPhone then FlightTrack. This app is on everyone’s must list including the NY Times resident techie, David Pogue. It’s a $5 app. Once you put in your flights, it takes care of everything for you. It sends “push” alerts when need be. It shows you everything you need to know about your flight, including gates, terminals, aircraft type and more.
If you try it out, let us know what you think. We hope it takes some of the worry out of your travel plans
Italian Churches Install Holy Water Dispensers
Swine flu fears have swept all the way to church. An Italian inventor from the town of Fornaci di Briosco has decided to combat flu fears and contamination by installing holy water dispensers that are similar to soap dispensers that are activated by motion.
Luciano Marabese invented the dispenser to keep the Catholic tradition alive. In the Catholic religion, it is tradition when one enters and leaves the church to dip their fingers in and bless themselves with the sign of the cross. More and more Catholics were eschewing the practice out of fear for contacting the H1N1 virus.
Thanks to this invention, people can resume their practice in the near future without fears of catching the flu.
Apple Vacations have begun their SuperSale
Please check out Apple Vacation’s SuperSale. There are some wonderful bargains going on. It’s their biggest sale of the year. Whether you want to visit Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe or Hawaii, nothing compares to the Apple Vacations SuperSale! Don’t wait until the last minute, grab it while the best flights and hotels are still available!
Three weeks only – Book by Nov. 26!
Volterra lures Twilight fans…. Brace yourself, Toscana
The tourist population just got a little younger for the Tuscan town, Volterra. Volterra has 3,000 years of history, from the Etruscans and including the Medicis. There are also 3 musuems of note: The Guarnacci Museum, the Art Gallery and the Museum of Sacred Art.
Now Volterra has something else: Twilight fans. The city is represented in the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer as the place where the elite vampire coven, the Volturi, lives. Unfortunately for Volterra, the scenes in the film, “New Moon,” were filmed in Montepuliciano. According to Italymag.com none of this has stopped Volterra from cashing in. You can you can book Vampire Tours, New Moon weekends and a tour called “Hot on the trail of Bella and Edward”. You can buy “New Moon” mugs, calendars and even soaps! So go ahead and take a bite out of Volterra…..
Venice “Funeral” November 14, 2009
Yes, you read correctly. Venice is holding a ceremony of sorts. There will be a coffin which will represent the death of the city. It will be carried in a procession of three boats along the Grand Canal. Its final resting place will be in front of the town hall.
Canal in Venice
Why? The city has become too expensive with high property and rental costs for its local residents. With an aging population (only 60,000 residents left) still residing, they figure it will be a “ghost” of itself in 40 years, if things keep up in the current state. Without its locals, they fear their traditions and artisanal crafts will also disappear.
What can we do about it? Please try to seek out the local businesses and support them. This is one funeral we do not want to attend.
Attention Jane Austen Fans!
If you are an Austen-ite, it’s time to make plans to get to NYC before March 19th. There’s a major exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum. It’s called A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy (November 6, 2009 through March 14, 2010), This exhibition explores the life, work, and legacy of Jane Austen (1775–1817), regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. There’s more than 100 items from manuscripts to letters for you to devour. It is said to be one of the largest collections of Austen’s with her modern ways on full display.
Personally I am a huge William Blake fan & there is also an exhibition going on for him too: William Blake’s World: “A New Heaven Is Begun” which is from now through January 3, 2010.