I was going from Ukiah to Yreka today and my Teaching Company CDs on Linguistics being bound to run out before I got home I thought I'd see about getting books on tape around Clearlake. I went into the Supermarket at the West edge of the lake to see if they could equal the Ukiah Safeway selection of magazines and books. Nope. But the woman at the DVD rental desk told me the nearest bookstore was the K-Mart. Unfortunately it was off to the south from my route and would require going back a few miles - something which real men will never do. So I didn't get any books on tape or CD. I listened to KGO instead. They had someone on talking about the bad effects of our materialistic culture - interrupted every 10 minutes or so by a string of commercials.

According to an article in todays Internet Washington Post (or NY Times) the airlines routinely sell more tickets for their flights than they have seats to put the ticket-holders in. Last year some 600,000 people who had bought tickets for specific flights were told at the gate to the plane that it was full and they couldn't get on. The airlines do this because a certain number of people book flights and don't show up. If they have refundable tickets, no problem for the flyer. But its an empty seat for the airline, so they overbook. The theory is they'd rather have some people pissed off than fly with empty seats. I say a ticket is a contract and overbooking is fraud. What does the Airline Travellers Association have to say? I'm going to look. Good night.

You need a car in Los Angeles. We were staying in a Best Western in Sherman Oaks which my client puts us up at because it is convenient to court. The museum was 34 miles away by freeway, less by streets. I went on-line and the LA bus system said that they could get us there if we didn't mind being on busses for 3 hours each way. We did mind. So we checked the taxis. $2 a mile plus the traffic penalty of so much per non-moving minute. Estimate $68 each way, maybe more. So we rented a car. Enterprise came and got Mary Alice and took her to a car. For $50 more we were able to drop it at the airport the next day. That sounds like a lot, but the Supershuttle costs $39 + a tip, so it wasn't really much and it took care of the problem of arranging our schedule to fit the Supervan's.

We drove to the museum in about 45 minutes - 45 really interesting minutes because we were on LA streets, not the freeway. We passed the AUTO RESORT, which I thought might be a motel but it was a car wash and lube joint, and any number of repurposed buildings. There is a certain screen set style of archetecture in LA and buildings which seemed like they might have once been some sort of Turkish Harem were now the B of A. Suddenly we were passing by Canters, the place to eat in LA (which we did, later) and pulling up at the museum. It's at the tar pits. Nice place. The art we wanted to see was a show of images of the American West. The lead picture was one of those wild 19th century landscapes showing craggy mountains, a raging river pouring over the cliffs, and an untamed forest. It was a knockout. The 19th century seemed to be trying to show the West to Easterners, or even Europeans. In the 20th century we began getting interpretive art. Several Thomas Hart Bentons (my fave). He, it turned out, mentored Jackson Pollack so there was a Pollack too, not that it had anything to do with the topic. There were several native American painings, and mixed in with paintings were photos from the way-back machine. We must have wandered around the exhibt for a couple of hours. Bought the book, too.

Stopped at Canters. I had meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Mary Alice had chicken soup. Really good. Tomorrow morning, early, we drive to the airport and go home.

We really had a plan in Rome. We knew the tours the cruise line offered didn't look very appealing. Rome is a big city, important, and we didn't want to spend our time riding in a bus and looking over people's shoulders trying to hear a tour guide give us kind-of true information. So we emailed a friend who has a daughter in Rome & got advice, and made our plan. Art viewing was the plan, and churches and museums were the sites.

We did catch a ride into Rome from the port ($79 for "Rome on your Own") which dropped us at St Peter's. The Vatican was closed. Our guide on the bus in said the museums in town were closed. We got a map - our plan had been to walk to the subway, ride to the daughter recommended spot and start looking at art. Instead we ended up walking to the Tiber, taking a boat trip (recommended except for the narration which was recorded and seemed to be a bit out of sync with what we were seeing). Then we consulted our map, walked through some narrow tourist-infested streets, and arrived at a plaza filled with tourists, Egypian oblisks, and outdoor restaurants. Each had a waiter who would attempt to lure us in. One succeeded but then vanished so after 5 minutes or so we abandoned our table and went on down the line. We found one with quick service , got the national food, pizza, and enjoyed lunch while we watched the tourists and the African vendors (illegal it seems) selling watches, handbags, and shades, occasionally, to one or another of the throngs of tourists. After lunch we walked, dodging scooters, over to what turned out to be Tragan's column. Its really tall and covered with incredibly detailed carvings detailing his career. None are visible from the ground. Odd idea.

From there it was a simple walk down two main streets to get back to St. Peter's. The tourist area of Rome seems, in retrospect, fairly small and easily managed on foot. The main streets are a noisy drag, but the sidestreets are interesting even if its hard to predict where they will drop you out. Next time, art.

I should mention that I found some stamps, which I'm always on the lookout for, but they were seriously overpriced - as they are in all tourist joints. I finally figured out that the stamps are not for sale to collectors. They are for sale to people buying gifts for collectors - ie people who don't know what the stamps are worth.

Got to go to a museum in LA now. Bye for now.

So we're staying at the Best Western in Sherman Oaks for some reason, and go for a walk to try and keep the body alive until we can go home. The roads are extremely large and filled with vehicles, but with the aid of the traffic light and some fast walking we cross. By the gas station are three definitely homeless people with several grocery baskets and about 5 dogs. Friendly dogs, fortunately. This morning we were walking again, and found the crew in front of a different building. They still had the dogs, but they were sitting on the sidewalk watching a TV set they had. I don't know what they had plugged it into and it wasn't very big, but it was surprising just the same.