How New York City Got It's Name!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Sunny 79F/26C in Rancho Las Musket

Unleaded = $3.85 gal €2.92

Bonjour, mes Amis! Buon giorno!

And today I would greet you with, “Goedemorgen.”

                For this reason. Around this day in August, I stop to think that I could have grown up speaking Dutch instead of English, if it weren’t for the gift given by King Charles II to his younger brother, James II, the Duke of York. (Today that title is held by Queen Elizabeth’s third child, Prince Andrew, but in those days the Duke was a Scotsman; the last male Stuart to reign over the British Empire). But before he became king, the Duke took possession of a little Dutch colony called Nieu Amsterdam. Yes folks! It became present day New York, aka “The Big Apple,” or “Nueva York.” It may be a milestone in history, but it’s an anniversary that New Yorkers themselves studiously ignore. If it weren’t for Sam Roberts’s excellent piece in the New York Times this morning, I would have gone all day wondering what I’m going to write about in my blog. My muse has been AWOL this week. But, I’m grateful for the Times and Sam Roberts for giving something to say.

                The most noticeable remaining impact of the Dutch on present day New Yorkers is that they talk funny. Every school kid in the Empire State goes through grade school reading about Henry Hudson and his ship the “Half Moon,” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and Ichabod Crane, Rip van Winkle and his 20 year siesta. New York stayed British during the American Revolution, and George Washington suffered some of his biggest defeats there: Long Island, Brooklyn, and White Plains. He did much better in New Jersey, at Trenton, but he bombed in New York. And, New York still has a lot of Dutch place names: Harlem, Spuyten Dyvil, Staaten Eylandt, and Lange Eyland (Staten Island and Long Island). 

                But, overall, the regime change goes largely unnoticed. Unlike St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day the anniversary of the English takeover is just not celebrated. In fact, it was further obscured in 1974, according to Roberts, when Paul O’Dwyer the Irish-born president of the New York City Council saw to it that the date “1664” was replaced on the official city seal and flag with the date “1625” to honor the Dutch founding of New         Amsterdam. So, there you have it, New York fans, a bit of history.

                Hmmm! It’s almost time for me to head to Linda’s French class, but Lola and I can’t leave the apartment for a few hours because the carpet layers are installing a new carpet in our hallway and we live on the third floor. Now, how does that excuse compare with “My dog ate my homework?”

Ciao! MikeBo

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” August 17, 2014

Mostly Sunny 90F/32C in Rancho Las Musket

ARCO Unleaded = $3.75 gal/ € 2.80 gal

Greetings,

                Since petrol is sold by the liter in Italy, according to my own calculations (which are always subject to my math abilities), my Italian friends could expect to pay Euro €2.80 if they fueled up here in Rancho Santa Margarita. Mike tells me that petrol is costing him the equivalent of $10 to $12 dollars a gallon or so (€ 7.47 to €8.96) in Rome.

                Not much is said these days about Benito Mussolini, a member of the original “Axis of Evil” along with Hirohito and the one-time Austrian corporal. But, if you ask, around, the most frequent comment about Mussolini, especially from an American will be, “he made the trains run on time.”   Now, I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but Italy has a very modern transportation system. The high speed trains of Trenitalia connect all of the major cities and link up with other European high speed intercity rail systems. I’ve taken the high speed from Rome to Florence and back and I’d love to see the Italians build one for us. San Diego to San Francisco or L.A. to Las Vegas would be a great start. Rome itself has a light rail-subway system that gets you around the city quickly. Only drawback is that there are just two main lines through Rome. Building a modern metro system has been slowed considerably by the fact that Rome is an ancient city. Modern Rome is built upon layer upon layer of earlier Romes, which date back almost 3,000 years. Every time the earth is turned along a planned metro route, more ruins and more antiquities are unearthed. There’s a stretch of boulevard near Mike and Laura’s old house that abruptly ends at an archaeological excavation of an ancient Etruscan settlement more than 2,000 years old. Italians take their history very seriously.

                Be that as it may. It’s quite easy to get around the city. For example, I used to step out the front of my apartment building in Mostacciano, walk a few steps to the bus stop and hop a bus for a 20 minute ride to Palasport, Rome’s Staples Center, to switch to the subway. Thirty minutes later I would come up from the underground right at the Coliseum. It reminded me of my student days back in New York City. “Drive? Are you nuts?” Same deal in San Francisco, or Pittsburgh, or Chicago. Los Angeles? Not quite there yet, but a lot closer than 20 years ago. And unlike Los Angeles, Rome’s metro will take you all the way out to the airport. Hmmmm! I didn’t really intend to do a post on Italian transit, but I got distracted by the price of gas this morning. Under FOUR BUCKS a gallon! I really had modern personal communications in mind.

                Back in prehistoric 2005 when I took my first trip to Italy, keeping tabs on the home front was done by telephone at a considerable cost. It’s gotten easier since then as cell phone service has improved and internet communication via Skype and Viber and others have come on line. Last week, Mike called from Rome via Skype. He was having dinner with some mutual friends of ours, expatriate Americans all. We had met during my trip last year. Mike directed the call. There was the wide shot of the table with everybody and then the cell phone was passed around and I had a chance to chat one-on-one with each of them. It really gave me something to look forward to on my next trip in November. A few days later a Facebook connection was made good, again on Skype, and I was talking live with a former colleague in the news business in Guangzhou, China. Marc has posted a video that he had shot of one of China’s high speed trains, shot from the high speed train he was on as the two came into the station alongside each other. Another friend of mine, who now lives in New Zealand, and I chat occasionally via Skype. Yes sir, folks. The world is your oyster in full stereo sound and living color. The heck with letting your thumbs pound the keyboard while texting. Pick up the phone and talk to a real person via TV. It’s a lot better than driving. Before I go, here’s the almanac.

Today in history:

1563 - King Charles IX of France (13) declared an adult. As an adult, he became King of France, and tried to exterminate Protestants.

1590 - John White returns to Roanoke, NC to find no trace of colonist's he had left there 3 yrs earlier [or Aug 18, 1591]. This was the first English colony in the New World, alas.
1786 - Davy Crockett, Greene County, Tennessee was born, frontiersman/adventurer/politician (Alamo), (d. 1836) Thanks a lot, Walt Disney!
1498 - Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander IV, 1st man to resign the cardinalate marries Charlotte d'Albret of Navarre. And you thought Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson were the first royal abdicators.

Ciao,

Mike Botula

There's a Garage Sale in here Somewhere!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Wednesday August 20, 2014

Sunny 85F/29C in Rancho Las Musket

Buon giorno,

                The year is just zipping past me. I’ve been a resident of “Lost Musket” now for eight months, coming up on a year where my life has been on “fast forward.” I’ve pretty well settled in to my new digs and reacquainted myself with a part of California that I had been away from for almost 15 years. One of my ongoing projects is sifting through the boxes and cartons of the personal possessions that I’ve accumulated throughout my lifetime. One carton gave up some china and silver that my mother had collected over the years. In it was the tiny silver cup with my name engraved on it that had been a gift to my parents when I was born. In it was one of my very own baby teeth that my young mother had saved. That little silver cup had become a genuine antique during my lifetime. So, I followed my mom’s example and placed the wisdom tooth that Dr. Isola had extracted just before I left Northern California. “Book ends,” I thought at that moment. “Baby tooth and wisdom tooth,” I thought again, “separated by a lifetime.”

                My goal in all of this is to sort through my personal effects and family photos and documents, keepsakes, and any valuables and distill a small mountain of “stuff,” into a coherent collection to pass along to my son and daughter and their families. It is no small task. I’ve been at it since January and I fully expect to be still at it come next spring. In the back of my mind is the experience that my younger brother and I shared when our father passed away suddenly in 1965. Both of us had been on our own for several years. Dad was a widower, living alone in a house filled with a lifetime’s accumulation of everything you can imagine. My brother and I had less than two weeks to arrange to store what we could so the house could be readied for sale, as dad had stipulated in his will.  Years later, when I related that experience to a family counselor friend of mine, she said that what we had to deal with was what other families experience when they lose everything they own in a house fire, hurricane or earthquake. I vowed that I would never put my own family through that experience if I could help it.

                This project is also good therapy for me. It even ties in with the study goals that I set when I went back to college a few years ago and decided to change my major from communications to history. I thank my main history professor, Wes Swanson, for that advice. We had a special sub-category of study that was devoted to how to conduct research and how to document the facts in the papers we were required to write. This was all knowledge that I was eager to use when I started researching my pet family project, an account of the U-boat attack on my dad’s convoy. Who knows, I may even write a book.

                Well, that’s my story for today. Let’s see what occurred on this date in years gone by:

Historical Events

2CE - Venus and Jupiter in conjunction - possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem
1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1191 - Crusader King Richard I kills 3,000 Muslim prisoners in Akko
1391 - Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order. Wow! He got to be Hochmeister!
1566 - Iconoclasm reaches Antwerp, Belgium
1597 - 1st Dutch East India Company ships returned from Far East
1619 - 1st Black slaves brought by Dutch to colony of Jamestown Virginia
1641 - England & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification
Famous Birthdays

1833 -23rd US President Benjamin Harrison 

Weddings 

1939 - "Rebecca" actress Joan Fontaine (21) weds actor Brian Aherne (37)
1992 - Rocker Sting weds Trudie Styler at an 11th century chapel in Wiltshire, England
2011 - Socialite and model Kim Kardashian (30) weds basketball player Kris Humphries (26) at a private estate in Montecito, California

And, on that note, I’ll say –

Ciao!

MikeBo

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and the Internet! August 17, 2014

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Sunday July 17, 2014

Mostly Sunny 90F/32C in Rancho Las Musket

ARCO Unleaded = $3.75 gal/ € 2.80 gal

Greetings,

                My Italian friends could expect to pay Euro €2.80 per gallon if they fueled up here in Rancho Santa Margarita. Mike tells me that petrol is costing him the equivalent of $10 to $12 dollars a gallon, €7.47 to €8.96, in Rome. That’s why he does most of his commuting on a Vespa. Only when he’s carting dear old dad around the Eternal City does he bring out the four-wheeler. And he does the driving when I’m in Italy. Or Laura takes the wheel. That’s because I am not Italian, and my California driver’s license does not entitle me to practice “Driving Italian Style!” While Californians moan and groan at the cost of motor fuel…. (”Remember when regular was 25 CENTS a gallon?”)….visiting Italians would consider $3.75 or € 2.80, a real deal. However, Romans are not chained to their gas pumps the way most Americans are.

                Not much is said these days about Benito Mussolini, a member of the original “Axis of Evil” along with Hirohito and that one-time Austrian corporal. But, if you ask around, the most frequent comment about Mussolini, especially from an American will be, “he made the trains run on time.”   Now, I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but Italy has a very modern transportation system. The high speed trains of Trenitalia connect all of the major cities and link up with other European high speed intercity rail systems. I’ve taken the high speed from Rome to Florence and back and I’d love to see the Italians build one for us. San Diego to San Francisco or L.A. to Las Vegas would be a great start. Rome itself has a light rail-subway system that gets you around the city quickly. Only drawback is that there are just two main lines through Rome. Building a modern metro system has been slowed considerably by the fact that Rome is an ancient city. Modern Rome is built upon layer upon layer of earlier Romes, which date back almost 3,000 years. Every time the earth is turned along a planned metro route, more ruins and more antiquities are unearthed. There’s a stretch of boulevard near Mike and Laura’s old house that abruptly ends at an archaeological excavation of an ancient Etruscan settlement more than 2,000 years old. Italians take their history very seriously.

                Be that as it may. It’s quite easy to get around the city. For example, I used to step out the front door of my apartment building in Mostacciano, walk a few steps to the bus stop and hop a bus for a 20 minute ride to Palasport, Rome’s Staples Center, to switch to the subway. Thirty minutes later I would come up from the underground right at the Coliseum. It reminded me of my student days back in New York City. “Drive? Are you nuts?” Same deal in San Francisco, or Pittsburgh, or Chicago. Los Angeles? Not quite there yet, but a lot closer than 20 years ago. And unlike Los Angeles, Rome’s metro will take you all the way out to the airport. Hmmmm! I didn’t really intend to do a post on Italian transit; I really had modern personal communications in mind. I really had modern personal communications in mind,

but I got distracted by the price of gas this morning. Under FOUR BUCKS a gallon!

                Back in prehistoric 2005, when I took my first trip to Italy, keeping tabs on the home front was done by telephone at a considerable cost. It’s gotten easier since then as cell phone service has improved and internet communication via Skype and Viber and others have come on line. Last week, Mike called from Rome via Skype. He was having dinner with some mutual friends of ours, expatriate Americans all. We had met during my trip last year. Mike directed the call. There was the wide shot of the table with everybody and then the cell phone was passed around and I had a chance to chat one-on-one with each of them. It really gave me something to look forward to on my next trip in November. A few days later a Facebook connection was made good, again on Skype, and I was talking live with a former colleague in the news business in Guangzhou, China. Marc has posted a video that he had shot of one of China’s high speed trains, shot from the high speed train he was on as the two came into the station alongside each other. Another friend of mine, who now lives in New Zealand, and I chat occasionally via Skype. Yes sir, folks. The world is your oyster in full stereo sound and living color. The heck with letting your thumbs pound the keyboard while texting. Pick up the phone and talk to a real person via TV. It’s a lot better than driving. Before I go, here’s the almanac.

Today in history:

1563 - King Charles IX of France (13) was declared an adult. As an adult, he became King of France, and tried to exterminate Protestants.

1590 - John White returns to Roanoke, NC to find no trace of colonist's he had left there 3 yrs earlier. This was the fate of the first English colony in the New World, alas.
1786 - Davy Crockett, Greene County, Tennessee was born, frontiersman/adventurer/politician (Alamo), (d. 1836) Thanks a lot, Walt Disney!
1498 - Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander IV, 1st man to resign the cardinalate marries Charlotte d'Albret of Navarre. And you thought Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson were the first royal abdicators.

Ciao,

Mike Botula

Disobeying Orders, but Saving Lives!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” August 14, 2014

Cloudy 65F/ 18C in Rancho Las Musket

Buongiorno,

70 years ago today, August 14, 1944, Allied convoy EBC 72 was en route from Milford Haven, Wales to Falmouth, England when it was attacked by the German submarine U 667. The first torpedo hit the Landing Ship Tank LST 921, breaking it in half, sending the aft section to the bottom of the channel with half the crew. The memories of this August day were seared into my father’s memory. Memories that remained with him until the end of his life, and reverberated through the lives of the generations that followed him.

The second torpedo headed toward the LST 920, a sister ship to the ill-fated 921.   My father, Lt. Charles Botula, Jr. watched from the bridge as the speeding torpedo’s trail headed toward him. There was no time to order a change in course. The outcome seemed inevitable. At that moment, a British escort vessel came up between the U-667 and LST 920 and took the full force of the torpedo. That ship  was blown out of the water. The entire crew was lost. The Skipper of the 920 was Lt. Harry Schultz, one of three career Navy men among a crew of about 100 “90 day wonders,” the newly minted sailors who had started their training about the same time as the keel for their new ship was being laid at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard at Hingham, Massachusetts. Schultz had been a Petty Officer aboard the USS Jarvis, a destroyer that escaped from Pearl Harbor during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Now he had his own command and a sister ship had been torpedoed, leaving survivors struggling in the water.

While Charlie Botula talked freely about his wartime experiences in the Navy, Harry Schultz was very closed-mouth. He said little to his family or friends. My dad resumed his civilian life after the war, raising a family, and started a business. Harry Schultz stayed on in the Navy and eventually worked his way up and retired as a Commander, never talking about what drove him to defy his superiors and do what he did on that long ago August 14^th.

Under wartime convoy rules there were standing, inviolable orders that no ship could leave the convoy, for any reason. If a ship in the convoy broke down, it was left behind. As soon as the Captain took the bridge after the torpedo struck and survivors were seen in the water, Schultz ordered the communications officer to send the command a request for the 920 to “come about” to pick up survivors. The reply came back moments later, “stay in formation. Do not come about.” The word was relayed to the Captain. He ordered the request to be sent again. A few more minutes passed and the reply came back again, more emphatically. “Stay in formation. Do not come about.” After a few long moments while he pondered his next action, Schultz bellowed his order, “The hell with them! Bring this ship about. We are going to pick up survivors!” Every officer on that bridge knew that their skipper had probably just ordered an end to his Navy career and might even face prison. But, they followed the command and the LST 920 was brought about to pick up survivors.  Over the remaining daylight hours and into the night the 920’s crew rescued dozens of floundering sailors from the cold waters of the Bristol Channel. About half of the LST 921’s crew was saved. Schultz was court-martialed, but later exonerated and he went on to a successful Navy career. He never talked about his wartime experiences, but years later as I researched my dad’s service on the LST 920, I finally figured it out. Schultz’s original ship, the Jarvis did survive the attack at Pearl Harbor, but was sunk by the Japanese off Guadalcanal the following year with the loss of almost the entire crew. Schultz, along with a handful of shipmates were the Jarvis’ only survivors. Everyone else died. Now that he had his own command, Schultz was not going to leave fellow sailors behind if he had anything to say about it. Ironically, two weeks later, the U 667 struck a mine en route back to it’s base. The U667’s Captain, Karl-Heinze Lange and his entire crew went to the bottom of the English Channel.

My dad talked about this incident many times over the years, but, he never knew the real reason the captain disobeyed orders, or the fate of the enemy submarine. The surviving crewmen from the LST 921 certainly knew who they owed their lives to. They were still praising Captain Harry Schultz more than 50 years after that moment. By August a year later, World War 2 was all but over.

Ciao, MikeBo

A Trip Into the Past

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Wednesday August 6, 2014

Sunny 79F/ 26C in Rancho Las Musket

Buon giorno,

Every so often I will be asked, “Gee, now that you’re retired, what do you do all day?” That’s a good question, and candidly, I think about it periodically when I’m not slipping into an “end of the trail depression,” as I do as my biological clock ticks away at increasing speed. Let’s just say that each day brings a new adventure.

First thing when I wake up is to look around and check myself out. “Inhale? Exhale? Check! Pulse? Check! What is Lola doing? Is she licking my face or sniffing at my decaying carcass? Licking? Good! Check! Do I have to go to the bathroom? Yes! Good! Check again!” Now, I’m “go” to swing my legs over the side of the bed and see if I can stand up. “Standing up! Good. Check!” And, so it goes.

A stray thought crosses my mind as I click on the internet for my first check on my “Morning Reading” file of shortcuts to news outlets, blogs, emails and my personal collection of comic strips. This is Wednesday August 6, 2014. I’ve been retired for ten years! What’s more, I’m alive to talk about it. Enough of the preliminaries, on to today’s adventure.

Several months ago I was chatting on the phone with my first cousin Nancy, who lives on the other side of the country. When she mentioned that a close friend of hers had found my father’s name on a list of people who were eligible to receive millions of dollars’ worth of unclaimed funds, being held by the State of New York. So, when we ended our chat, I went on the Internet and checked with the Office of Unclaimed Funds of the New York State Comptroller’s Office. Lo, and behold, to my total amazement, my dad’s name came up. All I had to do was: document his existence, document my existence (and that of my brother, his other surviving heir), document our relationship with the decedent, fill out a few simple forms and mail it all in to the Office of the New York State Comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, Office of Unclaimed Funds.

“Ka-ching!” Right? Not so easy. The form has a two page list attached of documents needed to validate the claim. No easy task in a situation involving a man who has been dead for half a century. It is cold case file time, folks! But, being the intrepid newsman I was, I know how and where to get this stuff. As long as lightning hasn’t struck the Suffolk County Court House, I should be OK. It’s time-consuming and tedious and may not be very rewarding in the long run. But, like any journey, the adventure along the way may be more rewarding than reaching the destination.

I’ve traveled this road before. Twelve years ago, when I began researching a story about my dad’s adventures as a Navy Officer in World War II, I went through the same process. He was the executive officer of the LST 920 (Landing Ship Tank) that came under attack by a German U-Boat off the coast of England. His sister ship, the LST 921 was struck by a torpedo, split in two, with the aft section going to the bottom with 43 of it’s crew members. A British escort vessel took the torpedo aimed at my dad’s ship and was blown out of the water with the loss of all hands. I spent a couple of years tracking old Navy archives, talking to crew members and gathering photos which had been processed in the ship’s clandestine dark room. That search led me to immigration documents from Ellis Island where I was able to follow the journey my grandparents made in getting to this country. A project like this can be compared to yanking a loose thread on your Christmas sweater from Grandma. You never know what exactly you’re going to unravel.

This morning I took the first step. Before I submit my forms and documents to the New York State Office of Unclaimed Property, I’ve got to round up the documents that proved that my dad  lived and died, and why I’m entitled to receive the proceeds. So, another form, requesting a copy of dad’s death certificate is on its way to the Town Clerk in my home town, with a copy of my birth certificate, passport and driver’s license and a $10 dollar postal money order. When I get that back, I can go on down my road to adventure. And, if I’m boring you, I would just point out that New York State has more than $13 BILLION in unclaimed property. Check it out for yourself! The web site address is: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/

Ciao! MikeBo

Hot August Nights in Roma!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Sunday August 3, 2014

Partly Cloudy with Showers 87/31 C in Rancho Las Musket

Cloudy with Showers 83F/28C in Roma

Buongiorno,

Roman Holiday 2014 is under way. Since August is the hottest and steamiest month of the Roman Year, everyone with the time and the means abandons Rome, leaving the city to the invading tourists. Having lived through hot summers in Phoenix, Florida and California’s lovely Central Valley, I have no intention of going to Rome during August.  I’m planning on waiting until November so I can celebrate Thanksgiving with my Italian family.  Even the Pope abandons the Vatican for the cooler climes of Castel Gandolfo. (I’m just guessing that Francis will take a bus there, not the Pope-mobile). Mike and Laura will probably also head out of town. One year it was up the coast to Cinque Terre, last year it was South Africa in search of a Paul Simon concert. Occasionally, they even come back to California. The natives will do anything to avoid staying in Rome during Emperor Octavian’s namesake month. This leaves plenty of room for visitors.

The only reason, I’m even mentioning this, is because I’m trying to plan my annual family visit to Italy, and Mike has already warned me about coming to Rome in August. "Vedi Napoli e poi muori! — See Naples and die!" goes the old saying. But, farther north up the “the boot” it’s “See Roma and melt!”  So, I’ll leave Rome in August to the folks from Poughkeepsie, and wait for cooler weather. I’ve even re-read some of my Rome Diary postings from late 2013 and early 2014 and have been glued to Rick Steves’ travel shows on PBS.  Every time his features on Rome or Venice or Florence air I get all quivery inside and begin to perspire in anticipation. This year, I’m hoping to stop over in Amsterdam to visit an old friend from my home town. And, I would really love to visit Prague. My paternal grandparents emigrated from that area of the Czech Republic, and I’ve been told that there are still some Botula’s living there. Well, we shall see how it all shakes out.

I have also been reading some of the “Rome Diaries” I posted on Facebook last year. I had gotten a positive response from people who followed my expatriate adventure and since I’ve been back in California, I’ve started a blog and I’m posting regularly on Facebook. I’m also continuing with my efforts to learn Italian and I’m even taking a conversational French class given here at my apartment complex by one of my neighbors. I am so glad I took two years of Latin back at Riverhead High School. Latin has eased me into learning bits of three other languages – Spanish, Italian and French, which I also studied for a year in high school. Other travels took me several times to Germany and Austria where I picked up a little German as well. At least now, I can say “hello” and “goodbye,” find my way to the bathroom and understand most of what’s on a restaurant menu.

Of all the tips I can give to friends with an eye for travel it is heartily suggesting that you take the time to learn a little of the language spoken at your travel destination. Grab a phrase book and try it out for yourself. In the book section at Costco there’s a cracker jack of a learning program from EuroTalk in just about every major language, priced at about $30 dollars (that’s €22.34.) The program is on disks and is interactive. It also includes a travel map and a phrase book that you can take with you.  There’s even a nifty, free online language program called Duolingo that Linda showed me.

After three extended trips to Rome, I look upon the Eternal City as my home away from home, especially since my last visit where I spent more than two months and actually had my own apartment for a month. Now, I can count Rome along with San Francisco and New York as three big cities that I have loved living in. Los Angeles is a different animal because it’s not just one city; it’s a collection of villages. And while I tell people that I loved living in New York, San Francisco, and Rome, I never got the same feeling about LA. I like it. In fact, I’m in awe of the city and its history, but it’s a tough city to love. The best thing I can say is that after 35 years of being a newsman in Los Angeles is that I think I understand it.

Well now, it’s August, a big month for History. What else happened on August 3^rd? Flashback music, maestro, please!

On this day in History:

8CE - Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus, (overwhelming all 101 of them.)

435 - Deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
881 - Battle at Saucourt: French King Louis III beats the Vikings. (Then meets the 49’ers in the NFL Playoffs?)
1108 - Louis VI, "the Fat One," King of France, crowned
1492 - Columbus sets sail on his first voyage with his 3 ships Santa Maria, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the "Indies"
1527 - First known letter was sent from North America by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.(It arrived in Stockton, California on August 1^st with a bill for postage due of 4 million pieces of eight.)
1635 - The third of the Tokugawa shoguns, Iemitsu, establishes the system of alternate attendance (sankin kotai) by which the feudal daimyō are required to spend one year at Edo Castle in Tokyo and one year back home at their feudal manor, while their families remained in Tokyo as virtual political hostages.

1678 - Robert LaSalle builds 1st ship in America, Griffon
1778 - Teatro alla Scala opens in Milan
1852 - 1st intercollegiate rowing race, Harvard beats Yale by 4 lengths
1855 - Rotterdam-Gouda railway opens
1881 - US National Lawn Tennis Association removes "National" from its name
1908 - French brothers Amadee and Jean Bouyssonie discover the fossil remains of a nearly complete 60,000 year-old Neanderthal man at La Chappelle-aux-Saints, France. Known as the 'Old man of La Chappelle' his skeleton shows that Neanderthals led physically stressful lives with high risk of injury.
1913 - Wheatland Hop Riot
1914 - 1st seaworthy ship through Panama Canal
1921 - 1st aerial crop-dusting (Troy, Ohio to kill caterpillars)
1921 - Due to a technicality, 8 Chicago White Sox accused in Black Sox scandal are acquitted, however Commissioner Landis throws them out of baseball
1923 - Baseball games cancelled following the death of President Harding. VP Calvin Coolidge becomes 30th US President.

1926 - Traffic lights installed at Piccadilly Circus, London
1943 - Gen Patton slaps a US GI in hospital, accusing him of cowardice
1948 - Cleveland's Satchel Paige make his 1st start & goes 7 innings

Birthdays

1926 - Tony Bennett, Queens NY, singer. (Left a body part in SF)

1941 - Martha Stewart, New Jersey, business magnate and TV personality, founder of Martha Stewart Living. (Martha and I were born the same year.)

My trip planning is  already underway. Passport has another couple of years before expiration. International roaming and discount plans for US to Europe and Europe to US already set with ATT on my IPhone. I’m also taking my laptop, which will give me Skype and Viber capability. Since I plan to do some writing while I’m on the road, I’ve already picked up several of those 240 to 110 voltage converters. I bought a new Kindle “PaperWhite” for all my reading, including the language and phrase books along with plenty of material to read on the plane.  I’m trolling the airline sites checking out prices, and talking to the airlines in case I bring my dog with me. I’ve already registered Lola as a “Companion Animal” so she can travel in the cabin with me. A couple of weeks before departure, I’ll call my friends at Citibank to let them know of my travel plans so they don’t shut down my accounts when I start using my debit and credit cards in Europe. I’ll also order some Euros so I have some cash in my pocket when I arrive in Italy. Anything beyond that, I can get from a local ATM. The Italian Post Offices all have ATMs, so it’s not a problem.

                Mike and Laura have bought a new house and should be established in the new digs long before I arrive. If there’s a delay, I will probably delay my arrival until the Spring. Having Grandpa visit you in your new home while there’s remodeling going on is not a curse I’d wish on my kids. They've done too much for me.

Ciao, MikeBo