Google as lifesaver

And I'm not talking about those difficult reference questions. This morning, a Canadian journalist kidnapped in Iraq talked about having his identity confirmed when his captors Googled him.

I don't mean to make light of a serious situation: the guy did get tortured, but how many journalists do you think are now running searches on themselves hoping not to find anything too jingoistic.

Off the road again

Arrived home early yesterday. There's so much to tell about the trip--for now I'll just say that there's not much that could have made it more perfect. Our hosts and hostesses were beyond generous.

Much of the upcoming posts will be about the art that we saw. It was incredibly motivating, and some of the contemporary art we saw was probably the highlight of the trip. It's probably a toss-up between PS 1 and the Berlin Art Forum.

It has apparently been raining here. We now have a lawn again. And weeds. Today I started the 'clean slate' program in the back yard. With an axe from Dell (L seemed to get a little excited about me wielding an axe) I eliminated a mis-shapen lilac and a wonky bush. We'll be filling in a gap in our laurel hedge, giving us complete privacy. Now that we have sun, I'd like to put in two or three raised beds for vegetables. L wants a sitting area. I'm not sure if we'll salvage any of the existing shrubs or not. Still not sure if we'll till over the whole yard or not.

Before jumping in to the art, I'm going to adjust templates here. Please stand by in case there's any trouble.

Spreekt u engels?

The answer to this question always seems to be an embarrassed 'only a little,' but the person then waxes elequantly about whatever topic is at hand.

We're about to set off on an overnight to the south of the country. Thus far, there is much to tell about Den Haag, Amsertdam, Rotterdam, and our home base of Leiden, but that will have to wait. L has been very patient with the constant museumgoing, while I have resisted sitting around in bars. It's a good mix.

Hebrew Hillbillies

A couple other New York highhlights:

Saw a klezmer/bluegrass band last night. We had no idea about the venue, Makor. It turned out to be a branch of the 96th Street Y with a kosher cafe and lounge. The Klezmer Mountain Boys were really cool.
We also stumbled on the Gelato Laboratory. Get this: L had mango (great mouth feel) and honey lavender (which I wanted to bathe in). Jon had the lavender, as well as a scoop of tarragon black pepper. Yum. Savory gelato has a certain something.

New York is New York. It makes me miss living in a city.

Give us your huddled masses. Keep your claustrophobes.

Went to the Statue of Liberty for the first time. I'm not sure what the security was like before, but now it's all 'new and improved.' I don't think I necessarily have a problem with chemical sniffers, x-rays, and thumbprints, but I do think they need a big sign that says "No toilets past this point." If you have a 'look up her skirt' tour pass, you're basically kidnapped by the rangers for at least 2 hours. Also, you're put in a lot of confined spaces with crowds of people. Maybe that's just an Ellis Island re-creation.