A Life, Lived: Bits and Pieces

Some random thoughts today (which I have lost twice already when my PC froze! ARGH) some of which are happy, some sad, some funny, some odd . . . y'all can decided which is which.

Many of you will recall me writing about a group of slow travelers who have been working our way through Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma. Not only Gina is the pastry chef at Babbo in New York, she is also a member of slow travel. It was fitting that the slow bakers should enjoy her collection of recipes first.

Imagine our shock when Diana, another member of the slow travel community (and owner of the BEST B and B in Piemonte) wrote about Gina last week. We knew that Gina had been in Italy for an extended time researching her new book. Apparently she had popped back home to NY for a short visit to take care of some business and while there was diagnosed with cancer. As most of us know, this diagnosis changes time-lines, plans and immediately she was in a round of surgery and chemo.

A group from slow trav wanted to know what we could do to help out. The first order of business was to bring Gina's cats back home. Gina had taken her beloved pets to Rome but hadn't brought them back for what was planned to be a short visit. When she didn't return to Rome the cats were stranded in her rented apartment being taken care of by the owners. Gina was worried about her kitties and they were no doubt missing their mom.

Diana did her research and discovered that it would take $ 4000 to fly someone to Rome to retrieve the kitties and to fly them back in the cabin to NY where they would be united with their mom. She issued a challenge to help out. Help poured in. In fact, as if this morning $ 2800 had been raised. We're almost there.

If you want to help bring Gina's kitties home you can e-mail Diana at [email protected].

Not only is Diana the world's greatest B and B owner she is also the world greatest friend.

Switching gears a bit.

I am always curious about the way in which folks arrive at my blog. I get close to 300 visitors a day, most of whom arrive by way of a google search. Because I have no life I track this every now and then. Some of the google searches are just plain odd.

For example, last night someone searched for spell to force someone to obay Hmmmm NO, there are no spells on my blog. I did post about an ad campaign sponsored by the Ontario Community Colleges that featured a mysterious wonder drug called Obay. Ironically it was designed to encourage adolescents to think for themselves and to not make the decisions that others wanted them to make.

Anyway, the end result was that someone searching for a spell left unhappy.

I suspect the intended victim is quite happy (even if they do not know it).

In our modern world information is created and shared so quickly it never ceases to make me dizzy. Last night I was at the Toronto Star web site and saw some breaking news about the lead singer for the group the Barenaked Ladies. (have fun with that one google searchers) It seems he was arrested for drug possession in Syracuse, NY. I was surprised by this because I thought he lived in Toronto. I popped over to wikipedia and discovered that someone had updated his wikipedia page already with information about the drug bust not 27 minutes after it was released to the media.

Remember when the only news you got was the news reel of week old news at the start of a movie at the theatre? Actually, I don't recall this at all. Mom has told me about this from her childhood - some of you might remember though *smile*

Speaking of 'news'.

What does it say about our world when so much ink and newsprint (to say nothing of bits and bytes) are devoted to the birth of twins in a french hospital. We live in a world where millions of folks do not have access to food, medical care, drinking water, security, housing, education, or the means to better their existence. We are facing an economic crisis. What to talk about? The Jolie-Pitt twins.

And finally (actually there is more but after having typed this three times my wrists are getting sore) there is an election south of the border. Now anyone who knows me knows that I love politics. It has been fascinating watching the twists and turns in the seemingly never-ending US (AKA the nation that LOST the war of 1812) election campaign.

Last night jib jab posted a very funny video that satires the campaign without being offensive (New Yorker magazine take note!). It is hilarious and you should pop over and have a look.