Posts Tagged With: Michelle Pfeiffer

This and that from re Thai r ment, by 3Th. June 23, 2011


Please see the blog:


I have no idea what this chart is supposed to tell us. If you do please let me know.



The following morning we left for LAX and our flight to Italy.

The depressing state of the American airline industry is additional evidence that the terrorists won. It was not the taking down of buildings, the killing of Americans or airplanes falling from the sky that was the goal of their attacks, but the subtle certainty of their understanding of the American psyche was their actual weapon. Their focus was to destroy the American economy by knowing precisely the reaction of America’s conservative elite’s thirst for power and profit. And we fell into the trap. Instead of making ourselves even stronger economically at home we wasted American treasure and dollars in unnecessary wars in the deserts of the middle east until we rewarded our attackers their victory, destruction of our economy. I consider the architects of our response nothing less than cynical traitors who wrapped themselves in the flag for personal benefit and power.

The American sad state of Airline travel is small but significant evidence of the extent of the terrorists success.

Anyway, following an especially uncomfortable flight, I arrived at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport with swollen legs, aching back and a foul temper. We were met by Nikki, who had arrived from Chicago a few hours earlier.

After about two hours of trying to secure a rent-a-car for our trip to Milan during which we experienced the full fury of Italian efficiency, we set off.

Within minutes it became obvious that we were not going to make the 4 or so hour drive to Milan that evening as both SWAC and I began to complain to Nikki of our various discomforts. At my suggestion we agreed to spend the night in Orvieto a small hilltop city not far off the Autostrada.

As we entered the town, SWAC became quite excited as she thought she recognized the town as the site of George Clooney’s escapades in the movie “The American” or some such.

We located a pleasant B&B called “Las Palmas,” dropped off out luggage and set off in search of dinner which we found at an attractive restaurant a few doors away. Following a very enjoyable meal and the downing of two liters of local red and white wines among the three of us, we stumbled back to our respective rooms and to sleep.

The next morning we checked out of the B & B and set off in search of the Duomo and locations of scenes in the film that SWAC thought that she remembered.

Orvieto’s Duomo is an interesting church with a large romanesque interior and Italian gothic façade striped with green and white marble. Attached to the façade in a band about 30 feet wide and stretching across the entire front of the church is a series of Bas-reliefs that along with the view from the city walls are the towns glory.

Orvieto like many of the hill towns in this part of Italy specialize in a type of pottery called Faience. Each town promotes in a slightly different design on the pottery and ever since Faience pottery became beloved of collectors, each town has developed its own pottery “artist”. In Orvieto the renowned artist is the daughter of the owner of a pottery shop on the Plaza del Duomo called Giacomini.

For those with knowledge and experience with the California Coastal Commission, yes they are the relatives of the beloved suspender wearing, rotund, ex-Marin County Supervisor and Coastal Commissioner, Gary Giacomini sometimes also referred to as “Farmer Brown”.

Gary was an ardent environmentalist as long as it did not interfere with his and his family’s economic and political ambitions.

I spent about a half an hour swapping “Gary” stories with the family before we departed to search for the supposed locations of scenes from the movie, take photographs and return to the Autostrada to complete our journey to Milan. (To be continued…)



Chapter whatever:

Vince took into the office washroom the overnight suitcase he always kept available in his office in case he had to make sudden short business trips or pulled and all-nighter like this one. He washed as best he could, shaved, changed his clothing and returned to his office just as Ray arrived to accompany him to the San Mateo County office. Ray had obviously been called by Ike and was dressed in what for him passed for business attire, pearl button earrings, a military style camouflage jacket, matching camouflage pants and neon green Crocs on his feet.

When they arrived at the San Mateo and were immediately ushered into the office of Sheriff Megan (Megs) Polan, former beauty queen, body building champion and rising star in local Republican politics. Vince and Ray sat in chairs across the hygienically clean desk behind which Megs sat enthroned like a medieval duchess. Her still super toned body filled out her tan uniform so that it looked painted on. She had curly auburn hair that hung down to her shoulders and the steely blue eyes of either a stone cold killer or paranoid schizophrenic. She did not rise to greet them or speak but leaned across her desk and pushed a transparent evidence bag containing a small piece of paper towards them. As she bent forward Vince caught a glimpse of cleavage struggling to escape the casually unbuttoned shirt. He also noticed the large black pistol riding high on her hip. Vince disconcerted that he found himself turned on, in order to cover his embarrassment he dropped his eyes to the proffered evidence bag and studied its contents.

Inside the bag was a piece of paper torn from a small spiral bound notebook and written on it in a shaky hand was written the message, “If anything should happen to me, call Vincent Biondi” along with his personal mobile phone number.

“So Mr. Biondi,” Megs intoned in her surprisingly whiskey edged voice, “what can you tell me about this note and what may have happened to Mrs. Stephanie Coign last night?”


a. Eponymous laws:

Bradford’s law — a pattern described by Samuel C. Bradford in 1934 that estimates the exponentially diminishing returns of extending a library search.

(Everyone knows that. Ask any student.)


“All fortunes are based on Ponzi schemes.”

c. From God’s Mouth to your ears:

“…be content with your wages.” (Luke 3:13-14)

Ask for a raise and go to Hell.

d. You must be a Republican ( http:/ if you believe that:

“Torture is necessary for the defense of American freedom but the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures is not.”

e. Testosterone Chronicles:

Wayne State University recently published the results of a study that concluded men with more testosterone are more likely to engage in competition with men with less testosterone when being presented with an attractive woman.
Source: Wayne State University

In other words Testosterone poisoned men haven’t the slightest idea of how ridiculous they are.


—Michelle Pfeiffer




Categories: April 2011 through June 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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