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10246. OhioSTOPAS - 7/10/2004 9:32:43 PM Hello, everyone! The Ohios are back from our Boston-Connecticut-New York road trip. I'm glad to be home, and my sore butt is glad to be out of the car. (You know you're out of shape when your BUTT is out of shape . . .)
So did I miss anything? Is Kerry ever going to pick a VP?
10247. PelleNilsson - 7/11/2004 12:40:23 AM What kind of car do you have Ohio? One with metal seats? 10248. OhioSTOPAS - 7/11/2004 1:18:42 AM Ha! You'd think so, watching me creak out of the car after a long drive. But it's just a Saturn "VUE" (a somewhat compact SUV). 10249. Magoseph - 7/11/2004 2:24:36 AM How was your trip, Ohio? If you took pictures, can we see them in Escapes? 10250. OhioSTOPAS - 7/11/2004 9:14:49 AM Magoseph: We visited my son (grad student in Boston), daughter (college student in New York, working this summer) and my mother (in Connecticut). The touristing highlights were watching the July 4 fireworks from the banks of the Charles River and taking a boat ride to the Boston harbor islands. We also saw "Assassins" in New York, an odd, original musical that we enjoyed very much.
But now, back in boring Ohio! 10251. Macnas - 7/11/2004 4:48:04 PM Boring?....but..you have Cleveland! 10252. Absensia - 7/11/2004 10:50:12 PM Morning all. There is a ball of fire in the sky today and the sky is blue, not white and gray! Forecasters claim it's going to be 85f/29c...what's with that?
Ms. No, have you moved yet? 10253. Magoseph - 7/12/2004 1:48:21 AM Hello, Ohio, Mac, Abs, and everyone.. Have you ever spilled a beverage on your keyboard? Have you ever done that twice? Saturday morning, I had to replace my keyboard with one on another machine. It was fine until this morning when I suddenly found myself again with coffee dripping onto my legs and this time, very keyboardless, a state, which I equate with not having a car available at all times. 10254. judithathome - 7/12/2004 2:28:52 AM You need one of those tip-free mugs, the ones with the fat bottoms.
Did your keyboard crackle and smoke when the coffee hit? They always do in the movies. 10255. Magoseph - 7/12/2004 2:46:48 AM No, Juds, both keyboards died without a peep. Where do you find those mugs with flat bottoms? 10256. judithathome - 7/12/2004 3:51:53 AM They used to be called travel mugs but this was a few years ago. I'll check around and see if I can find a link to one... 10257. Magoseph - 7/12/2004 4:13:11 AM Thanks, Juds. 10258. judithathome - 7/12/2004 5:16:40 AM I sent you the link in an e-mail.
A wide bottomed cup because you are ready for some steady coffee! 10259. Magoseph - 7/12/2004 5:36:59 AM 
That'll do.
10260. judithathome - 7/12/2004 5:40:03 AM ;-) 10261. Macnas - 7/12/2004 4:22:33 PM A fellow who used to work with me, an awful fool if truth be told, spilt a tin of coke on his keyboard. Thinking that it might be alright once it dried out, he propped it between the top of a desk and a space heater.
The keyboard did dry out, and in fact then began to warp and eventually melt. The resulting fumes were enough to make somebody trip the fire alarm which caused an evacuation, during which the same fool damaged his kneecap after falling on the concrete steps that served as a fire escape route from the office. 10262. PelleNilsson - 7/12/2004 4:59:55 PM Nice story, Macnas.
Once, in Jordan, my keyboard started to behave erratically so I took it to my friend Malik who asked somebody to look at it while we had coffee and chatted about IBM-clones, a hot subject at the time. After a while the guy appeared and said something in Arabic to Malik who laughed and said "come and look at your keyboard", which I did. It was full of cigarette ash.
I spoke to Malik yesterday. He is in Gothenburg for the eighth year running as tour leader for two football teams from the American school in Amman. They take part in Gothia Cup, a youth tournament with some 1,500 teams from 60 countries.
We spoke to Malik's wife too. She is affectionately known as The Mother of the Prophets because their four sons all have names from the old testament (no, they are not christian). Their oldest will start university in Germany this fall. I was surprised because Malek has a PhD from Texas University and usd to be a frequent visitor the the US. I suppose the post-911 visa hassle is discouraging. 10263. Macnas - 7/12/2004 5:47:58 PM Ah yes, back in the days when I could smoke in my office, my old office in particular, which had no air conditioning or fresh air supply or windows for that matter, it being a concrete box located at the back of the engineering stores. By 12.00 there would be a thick haze of smoke with about 2 foot of clear space between it and the floor. 10264. PelleNilsson - 7/12/2004 6:54:10 PM I remember an office like that. It was in Poland, in late winter, cold and damp. The meeting started at nine but I was early because there was something I needed to do. I found my counterpart in his office. It was deep but narrow with raw concrete walls and a small window at the far end. He was joined there by the guy who would interpret at the meeting. They sat at a small table, overcoats on, drinking coffee and something else and smoking. A secretary brought a cup for me (a glass actually, the Poles like their horrible coffe in a glass). This was one of the first missions, we were still on formal terms, so the interpreter said "do you want a little something, Mr Nilsson?" I hesitated for an instant, booze in the morning has never been my cup of tea, but then I thought that this was a chance to get closer to these guys. Drinking brandy together in an office at 8.30 in the morning joins you in a cosy little fellowship. So I nodded and he poured.
Besides, the Poles like to say that a man who doesn't drink cannot be a good man. Maybe they are right. The economist on the World Bank team was an Irish teetotaller and he was pretty obnoxiuos. 10265. Macnas - 7/12/2004 7:05:01 PM Polish coffee! I was only talking about coffee last night with one of my brothers, home from Holland after 10 years or so. He had made me a very nice cup of coffee using a little convection kettle, and told me about horrible Polish coffee, black and cloudy, such that you had to wait for it to settle before you dared to drink it.
That Irish teetotaller reminds me of a particular diplomat to the US, who, when asked by a waitress in Washington what he would like with his whiskey, replied " another one ".
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