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Post by lagatta on May 10, 2020 0:34:55 GMT
Well, I have a close friend who is Brazilian (but lives in Paris - and his wife is Greek). You can see similarities with NOLA and Caribbean celebrations though.
While obviously people are mortal, these losses seem very poignant now. And I can certainly see Elton John channelling Little Richard, look at that wild pomadour!!!
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 23:24:27 GMT
I suspect that it is easier to have (partly) vegetarian dogs than vegetarian cats. While they are more carnivorous than omnivores, they aren't as madly so as cats. Fortunate that Livia is very tiny.
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 22:29:19 GMT
I think it is simply because you speak different varieties of it, both of which I understand, idem en français. No merit, just a day's work.
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 21:12:59 GMT
shag carpet was the unfortunate name of a high-pile, rather rough carpet - think it was popular in the 1960s and 70s? Pets loved to pee in it. Fortunately I've always hated it.
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 21:10:02 GMT
htmb didn't say didn't drink, just didn't drink a lot.
The people I knew who died of drink were also heavy (cigarette) smokers so it was a combination of the two. Or the three, as I worked with some people (mostly men, who combined the above with cocaine, speed etc). I have never known anyone who has died of cannabis alone, though anything is possible.
I do probably have a Bible and probably a Qoran around, but that is due to history studies. Many people, even atheists, have a copy of a family Bible or Qoran. Often there is family historical stuff in the margins. Oh, useless degrees! I have 8 bookcases in a 3 1/2 flat. That means a kitchen, "bedroom" and what would be a living room if it weren't a home office/art studio. Fortunately Québec kitchens, even in working-class flats, are usually fairly large in relation to the size of the dwelling, like many in rural France. I entertain(ed) friends in the kitchen. Will this ever happen again?
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 20:20:11 GMT
Dutch English is a bit strange. In some ways it is utterly excellent, but there were notices such as telling the men at the urinals not to all pull on the knob at the same time.
I also googled "manhood - three-piece set" - and got pics of a three-piece LUGGAGE set! Does this send us back to the sporran?
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 19:37:54 GMT
I'd definitely queue to report on the Papal mass for my aunt who is approaching 100. Moreover, though she is discreet about such matters, she obviously much prefers Frankie to Benny. She has long been involved in this: www.devp.org/en
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 18:00:47 GMT
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2020 10:12:46 GMT
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Post by lagatta on May 8, 2020 11:32:45 GMT
I'm also fond of Indonesian coffee, but the place where I usually buy it is closed because it is also a café. I did finish a nice Spanish rosé yesterday - Borsao seleccion.
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Post by lagatta on May 8, 2020 1:04:18 GMT
On the other hand, my little black cat Livia is the sweetest thing.And I love her far more than any human.
I had friends who had a vicious cat. She would cross the room, purring, and sink her teeth in our arms.
Oddly, these friends thought their cat's anti-social antics were "mignons".
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Post by lagatta on May 8, 2020 0:03:15 GMT
Of course, the other point for Perugia is that due to the two universities - the horribly fascist named Univeristà Stranieri and the local one, where many foreign students stay on - it is one of the most cosmopolitan smallish Italian cities.
I certainly enjoyed visiting Assisi, but one is better off getting there early in the morning. We were fairly lucky with our lunch there (on my birthday long ago) but that kind of town can have horrible food unless locals tell you where to go. There is some crap food in Perugia too, but some far better choices. I also know locals there.
Even arriving by bus or train, one must climb the hill.
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Post by lagatta on May 7, 2020 0:04:51 GMT
True, but it can also be dangerous if people actually aren't allowed to shop. I'm in one of those weird bits where I thought it was very early in the morning and it is actually still the evening - just hope I can get back to sleep. I have very little appetite. I have a wee bit of dry white Portuguese wine left and am nursing it slowly and hoping I can stay asleep overnight.
Very quiet outside. Usually there is loud music from somewhere in tropical South America at this hour. Colombia? Venezuela? There is nobody outside, though it isn't quite 8 pm/20h. The small bit of dry white Portuguese is delicious and I'm hoping it will ensure a decent sleep at a time when I thought it would be getting up and dark coffee! Now Livia is playing with her mouse and I checked to be sure it was a toy one! The idea of not a sound this time in the early evening (and not frigid) is very strange indeed. No pedestrians, no joggers, no cyclists, no motorists... No laughing lovers or weaving pub-goers... Where the fuck am I? Going to bed, trying to sleep.
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 14:01:04 GMT
Are those things legal on streets and roads?
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 13:50:14 GMT
Perhaps the founder came from your Lee Valley? It is a Canadian chain of large hardware/gardening/cookware etc shops, with a well-known catalogue.
As for Mick, we can only wish! Jagger bought that château 40 years ago.
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 12:23:34 GMT
The documentary is chilling, but it fails to explain why Albania's leadership took such an extremely authoritarian path, unlike its neighbour Yugoslavia. Tito stood up to Hitler, but later also to Stalin, and while there was repression and political prisoners, it was nothing like Albania.
Albania still has serious problems, but now mostly with so-called "non-state actors", the human rights organisations' name for criminal gangs, involved in such horrors as human trafficking. But it has made progress.
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 12:22:45 GMT
The documentary is chilling, but it fails to explain why Albania's leadership took such an extremely authoritarian path, unlike its neighbour Yugoslavia. Tito stood up to Hitler, but later also to Stalin, and while there was repression and political prisoners, it was nothing like Albania.
Albania still has serious problems, but now mostly with so-called "non-state actors", the human rights organisations' name for criminal gangs, involved in such horrors as human trafficking. But it has made progress.
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 12:12:05 GMT
Yes, but you have a very different climate! For the moment, I'm poring over online Lee Valley catalogues. They have free delivery for the moment (but not abroad).
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 11:28:06 GMT
We have a Lac Megantic in Québec, not far from the Maine border. There was a terrible runaway train accident in the town that killed many people a few years ago. Such names adapted from site descriptions by the native Abenaki people are common in the area. Megantic indicated a good fishing ground.
Mooselook seems to be a mishearing of an Abenaki name, according to Wiki, "Moose feeding place" (many such Indigenous names designate places with useful natural resources such as game, fish, native plants etc).
Sounds to me that the bear hadn't been properly cooked. Bear are omnivores, like pigs ... and humans, so perhaps more likely to carry the parasites.
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 11:15:36 GMT
It is obviously far safer to shop in the smaller one that isn't as crowded. I certainly understand why they don't want congestion, but sometimes the law is a bit of an arse...
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 10:56:02 GMT
Fit seniors like Mick are very annoyed about being cooped up. Not such a problem at his estate in France... fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Fourchette (Sorry, no English version). I'm also glad he has a moggy, though of course he might also have purebreds.
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Post by lagatta on May 5, 2020 23:09:08 GMT
I went to the market today and there are wire grilles everywhere and few people, obviously no cafés even for takeaway, and not enough toilets. It is a very cool spring, so I won't be buying herbs and other plants for another two weeks.
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Post by lagatta on May 5, 2020 22:54:26 GMT
I was just very average. only Mark, other than Muslims and Mormons I don't think I know anyone who was always teatotal. Most experimented a bit as teens or young adults. Another exception was children who had a severely alcoholic parent or other family member; I feel the same about tobacco because my dad died of a litany of tobacco-caused diseases when I was 15. That also put a damper on my cannabis use as it was often mixed with tobacco in joints.
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Post by lagatta on May 5, 2020 22:43:15 GMT
Finally, I binned it. Usually I'd take the chance - it had a whiff of ammonia, not a stench, but these days I have nightmares of going to hospital for very benign things and wind up infected with Covid-19. Eating a tapas-dish of tilapia, which is almost tasteless despite red onions, dilute tomato sauce and cilantro. I have little appetite anyway. Will have it for breakfast tomorrow if I don't finish this little portion. I love fish, but have been eating little fresh of late; mostly just frozen or tinned. With the lockdown, not even much evidence of the snow crab season (in Gaspésie and Acadia). That will also have serious economic consequences for those small communities. Crab and lobster mean kitchen parties... www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/snow-crab-fishing-in-gulf-of-st-lawrence-postponed-due-to-covid-19-crisis-1.5528188
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Post by lagatta on May 5, 2020 13:53:27 GMT
Monkfish (lotte) tail left out of fridge for a few hours. Household heat no longer on; kitchen quite cool. But it has a faint ammonia odour. I'm marinating it in some lime juice, but want to be sure it is safe to eat.
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Post by lagatta on May 5, 2020 10:49:47 GMT
bjd, I was just thinking that before your comment. But there were also many French-educated figures in the Indochinese liberation struggles who never became monsters like Pol Pot.
I'll look at your documentary later on, as now I'm listening to the Radio-Canada morning show. Albania was the last Stalinist country, if one excepts North Korea, which is in some ways a new form of what, Dynastic Stalinism?
But unlike some former Eastern Bloc countries, Albania conserved some positives such as the national health system and the public education system, rather than passing from senile Stalinism to cowboy capitalism with few social protections. Albania was the only country that actually outlawed religion, and closed all churches and mosques.
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Post by lagatta on May 4, 2020 22:11:07 GMT
I certainly set a lot of sort of pantheistic Catholic memorabilia to relatives back home when studying in Perugia. It is funny to think of Perugia and Assisi of waging a sort of very ritualistic war against each other, mostly involving young men of the upper classes: the aristocracy, and wealthy bourgeois such as Francesco's family. It is not a difficult day's march, and nowadays there is an annual peace march between the two Umbrian towns. While there are still farms, the area between the two towns is quite built up nowadays. Fumobici would have more to say.
My aunt is very old now, but I'm sure she still has my Canticle of the Creatures, and Frankie with both the birdies and the wolf.
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Post by lagatta on May 4, 2020 8:03:02 GMT
He also found himself in Cornwall; the Cornish and Breton languages are very close.
Lots of Bretons here; also lots of Normands.
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Post by lagatta on May 3, 2020 23:11:26 GMT
Yes, I've been to Puglia (love interest, long dead, but Lecce is lovely). Of course I have to know if there are trains after the ferry. Even if they are slow - I've taken some very slow trains in southern Italy. I'm sure I'd like the food though I doubt there is much fine dining. Mediterranean/Balkan peasant food with cheese I can safely eat and rustic wines are fine with me.
You were wise, far too many travellers spread themselves too thin.
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Post by lagatta on May 3, 2020 16:50:18 GMT
Has anyone here visited Albania, formerly one of the most closed-off countries in the world? I think of this simply because I'm on a cat care forum and we got a query from a young woman in Albania who had adopted a tiny black kitten (named Hades!)
Years ago, my colleagues and I had a visit from Claude Julien of Le Monde diplomatique and Mme Julien, and they had visited Albania. Obviously they didn't agree with post-Stalinist dictatorship, but did praise the small country for its self-determination.
Would you visit there now?
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