First Full Day in Egypt

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bio, Egypt, Trips

Thursday, April 29, 2010 was the first full day in Egypt. First we saw the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.

If you can handle looking at lots and lots of pictures of pyramids click here.

Next those who had legs left went off to view the Cheops boat.

Naturally I’ve got lots of pictures of the reconstructed boat here taken as I walked through the boat museum.

Later in the day when our guide determined we were not tired enough we were bussed to the National Museum.

We weren’t allowed to bring our cameras inside (I did get a couple of shots in front with my phone) but this person was able to bring a camera.

Finally we didn’t need a ticket to visit Old Cairo that many of us had been looking forward to all day, especially since we would be able to wander through the old bazaar.

Appholes

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Economy, Entertainment, Humor

Arrived in Egypt

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bio, Egypt, Trips

Arrived in Egypt by EgyptAir and was whisked off to the Oasis Hotel near the Giza pyramids by an Escapade Bus under contract to Gate! Travel.  There were no plans for the day, just rest and recuperate from jetlag.

From the bus as we neared the hotel I saw a glimpse of the pyramids that I was able to capture over the top of a passing truck.

Unreal

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bio, Egypt, Trips

I’m sitting at tbe airport waiting for boarding and feeling the trip is rather unreal. It’s hard to imagine I will be seeing the Egypt I read about as a child. I still remember the first adult book I was allowed to have — “The Egyptian” by Mika Waltari. I remember the protagonist’s name: Sinuhe, Sinuhe the physician who spent all his money on a prostitute and even the money saved for his father’s embalming.

LAPD Responded Quickly

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bio, Stories

My Loratadine was running low and I wanted to have more for my trip to Egypt. My usual source is one of the pharmacies at Kaiser, Woodland Hills, so I went there this morning. After making my purchase, when I returned to the garage my car was gone! I walked up and down the roadway and aisles to make sure I was at the same spot where I had left the car; I was sure I was. There was nothing to do but to make my first 911 call on my Droid.

As the police dispatcher took down my information she said they would have a helicopter check the area for my car. Within 5 minutes I heard the helicopter overhead and could see it as it scoured the area.

The dispatcher arranged for me to meet the uniformed officers she was sending outside the entrance to the Northside Pharmacy — I knew there were benches there.

As I walked toward the vehicle entrance everything looked basically as I remembered it had looked, when I originally went to the pharmacy, but when I neared the roadway I noticed the stairs on my right. I remembered I had climbed one flight of stairs to get to the level of the pharmacy entrance yet I was already on the pharmacy entrance level.  Ugh! A terrible feeling!

My best choice seemed to be to descend the stairs. When I had, and I stepped into the garage driveway I saw what looked like my car in the distance.  I began clicking my door opener, but I was too far.  As I got closer and continued clicking the tail lights turned on.

The LAPD dispatcher was very kind, only thanking me for calling back to say that my car had not been stolen after all. We didn’t get into who it might have been driving the car I thought was mine leaving the garage. She also assured me that my car was no longer listed as stolen and there was no chance I would be stopped by police.

Jon Stewart Responds to Fox

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Entertainment, Humor, United States

In case you’re one of the five people in the Western Hemisphere who have not yet seen this:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Bernie Goldberg Fires Back
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Anthony Wiener Setting Bill O’Reilly Straight

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Humor, Uncategorized, United States

If that’s possible:


Saw Spencer Day Last Night

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Entertainment, Spencer Day, Wisdom I Have Learned

Years ago when I first saw Clint Eastwood playing Rowdy Yates on Rawhide I predicted he was “going to be big.” I said the same the first time I saw Barbara Streisand on The Tonight Show. I also said the same about Richard Chamberlain playing Doctor Kildare. Oh well, two out of three is not bad for such large predictions. I’ve got to add one though: Spencer Day is the “real deal” (as I told him while shaking his hand after a performance last night). He’s going to be big.

Jon Stewart on Bill O’Reilly Complete Interview

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United States

Stopping Terrorist Attacks Econ 1

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Economy, Thoughts, United States

Since the Christmas Eve fiasco the United States is going to add hardware to peek inside passengers’ undies, add – and God-f0rbid train –  more TSA inspectors and more intelligence gatherers and analysts, hit targets in bad places (read Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Yemen) harder, and in general spend what is fast becoming significant money. Forget for a minute what this will do to the United States Treasury and think of how it will discourage business travel (think longer lines and longer airport delays). Isn’t this playing into Al Quaeda’s hands — actually their playbook where the goal is to break the U.S.A. financially? Will it really make us safer? I know it will make me even crankier at the airport. I’ve started to think of cross-country car trips as an alternative to taking airplane flights.

What if we spent one-tenth of the amounts budgeted for the above endeavors in information campaigns to Islamic countries to counter the misimpression people have of Al Quaeda,