"Shrimp with rice a la Greka"

I prepared it yesterday and it was absolutely delicious.

This serves 4 people

Ingredients
350 g. of shrimps (can use already peeled)
2 coffee mugs of rice
250 ml tomato juice
25ml olive oil
20 g. butter
100 g. of feta cheese chopped in medium size pieces
1 onion (crushed)
1 clove of garlic (crushed)
2 table spoons ketchup sauce
1 tea spoon of sugar
Salt & Pepper

Preparation

-Unpeel the shrimps
-Remove the black strip at the shrimp spine
-Wash shrimps thoroughly
-Fry crushed onion and garlic in a pot with the olive oil till they are transparent
-Put the tomato juice
-Put the shrimps, sugar, ketchup, salt & pepper and bring it to a light boil for 5 minutes
-Stir
-Put the feta cheese
-Stir and put the pot in the preheated oven for 20 minutes at 220c
-Meanwhile put in another pot 2 mugfulls of rice
-Add 4 mugfulls of water
-Add butter
-Salt
-Evaporate water till surface of rice is full of potmarks from the evaporating water.
-Serve the rice with the shrimps on the side or on top

How markets react nowadays (sent by Clovis)

"Pride and Glory" by Gavin O' Connor with Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Colin Farrell

What can I say. Another mega flop. Stupid movie about crooked cops and righteous cops faced with the overused dilemma to tell the truth or protect their own and their family. Bring me the bucket...

One of the last scenes, the good cop goes into a bar to arrest the bad cop for murder, who is his brother in law. After he disarms him he puts his own gun on the table and raises his fists and a boxing match starts. Pleeeeease!

The acting by these three very well known actors was very poor.

The cinematography was amateurish and what else? Not important, as the movie was bad.

Rating 2 out of 5.

Obama's 30 minute ad.

It was aired a few hours ago, on prime time, on 3 US major TV networks and four cable ones. With the exception of the last line of the ad, I didn't like it, because it was too much of a product of spin doctors, Madison Avenue emotive scenery 101 and too bloody long. A definite overkill
Judge for your selves if you haven't seen it and have 27 minutes to spare.

"The Prisonner of Mekkah"

Saudi Gazette
By Sabria S. Jawhar
"When I was a university student in Makkah, I was often homesick since it was the first time I was away from my family.The rules then, which still remain today, ensured that my loneliness didn’t count much. On weekends, university officials were charged to ensure girls like me were protected at all costs. We couldn’t be trusted to leave the dormitory because girls could get into a lot of trouble when left to themselves. So on Thursday nights, we would be locked up in our dormitories as prisoners until classes resumed on Saturday morning (emphasis added). The steel doors at the bottom of the stairwell that led outdoors were padlocked and an elderly man would guard it in case a crook wanted to break in and attack us."

GG1: I am not at all surprised , but at all, that this happening in Saudi Universities even today. I am, however, very pleasantly surprised that it made it to the Saudi Gazette on line edition. A good start. (Apparently the "muttawwaeen", Saudi religious police are not Internet savy :-))

GG2: I wished that the university mentioned was that of Jeddah, where I am positive they adhere to the same practice, instead of Mekkah. The title of this posting would have been so much funnier.

Smoking funny cigarettes at Google!

Larry Page and Sergey Brin the billionaire founders of Google along with their CEO Eric Schmidt, are adding a fighter jet, a Dornier Alpha, to their fleet of private planes of one Boeing 757, one Boing 767 and two Gulf Stream V's

GG: The carbon footprint of these Googlers must be pathetic.

Why is it that the world outside the US prefer Obama to McCain substantially more than the Americans themselves?

The first reason is quite obvious. He is not Republican. The world outside the US, has been exposed to the cowboyish impact of the Bush dogma (That even a US Governor didn't know what it was!!!), and are obviously unimpressed by the nationalistic and protectionist feelings it invokes to Americans ie flag waving, "we are the greatest nation", "protecting our values, freedoms", "whoever is not with us is against us" etc.

The second and most important reason is that Obama is so "Un American", which is his biggest problem in the States. Over the last 30 years or so, the image of a Bible and gun waving, arrogant, war mongering "ugly American" has been continuously reinforced abroad.
Obama being black appeals to the non whites, his "islamic roots" appeal to Muslims and Arabs in particular (In Arabic Barack means blessed and Hussein means beautiful), his willingness to talk to America's enemies appeal to all the people that love peace, and most importantly his vision is "cosmopolitan" and not US centric.

Location: Opiki, New Zealand

From Sophocleous Street (Greek Wall Street) to Main Street-The effects of the stock market melt down.

Greek investor of Sophocleous Street, collecting, on national holiday, olives from free range olive trees on the sidewalks of Voula, to feed his family. LOL

"Alors c'est la guerre."

Today is 28th of October, a national holiday here in Greece. It's the anniversary of the OXI (pronounced "OKHI" meaning "NO") the Greeks said to the Italian ultimatum of Benito Mussolini aka "Il Duce", that was delivered by Emmanuelle Gratsi, Italian ambassador to Greece, in the wee hours of 28th of October 1940 to the house of the then Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas. Metaxas, in his robe de chambre, after reading the ultimatum that demanded Greece to allow free passage of the Italian army into Greece, or else Italy will declare war, told Gratsi in French, as it was the diplomatic language of the time, "Alors c'est la guerre." In one hour the Italian armies were attacking Greek positions on the Albania-Greek borders. In the next 5 months the Greeks conquered half of Albania, humiliating the Italian armies and were ready to push them into the Adriatic. On April 6th, 1941, Hitler was forced to come to the rescue of his Axis buddy by invading Greece from the north.

A slide presentation of the significance of this in WWII war is enclosed.

What Greeks Achieved in World War 2 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Investment plan performance

Plan conceived at the Espresso Gang meeting on Sunday executed on Monday. Net, net up 14.3% in one day, and cashed in. Very, very, very lucky.
As they say on TV don't try this at home.

George Jr

I had my grandson George over for lunch today. His present to me was to show me, for the first time ever, that he could write his name, "Yiorgos Z". George Zarkalis.

"Koukla"

This morning I found this bitch that was desperately looking for her puppies. Apparently she was a pet in a home, got pregnant, they took/sold her puppies and threw her in the streets. These people need to be shot.

I took her into the garden of our apartment building, fixed her up in the covered BBQ area, fed her, and named her "Koukla" meaning "Doll". I will be taking her to the vet this afternoon. She is scared, in a state of shock, and very, very sad. Anyone interested?

Flowers.

I love flowers. Actually I've acquired this love since Popi left. Popi used to adore flowers and kept our home, wherever we lived, full of flowers, specially orchids. So, that's what I do now and I really enjoy them tremendously. I have a deal with a florist that replaces my orchids every 5-6 months and the rest of the flowers in the apartment weekly.

Here my beautiful long stem orchids:

And the rest of my flowers:

"Flight to Safety"

With the world markets melting down, this blogger has found a stock market that is weathering the catastrophic storm. The Iraqi Stock Exchange.

It has gone up in September alone +40% about the same percentage the Dow dropped in the 9 months of 2008.

It is manual (hint, hint), it has 94 companies trading through 49 licensed brokerages and a total trading volume for 2007 of $354 Million ie less than the bonus the CEO of the now bankrupted of Lehman Bros got during his tenure.

GG: This is a satirical posting and under no circustances should be considered as an advice to invest in Iraqi stocks.

Joe the Plumber. Part Deux

Joe Wurzelbacher, the most famous plumber in America thanks to John McCain , told talk radio host Laura Ingraham Friday he's considering a run for Congress in 2010.

That would pit Joe against longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur that won re-election in 2006 with nearly 75 percent of the vote and is expected to easily sail through another re-election this year.

PS: Joe, if you recall, confronted Obama when he was visiting Ohio, a couple of weeks ago, that his tax policy will prevent him from attaining his dream to set up a plumbing business for himself. It later came out that Joe owes back taxes and would actually get a tax break under Obama's policies.

GG1: If in America a peanut farmer, a Hollywood actor and a complete moron can become President, why not a plumber :-))? Especially when he works without a license and doesn't understand that a tax break is a positive for him.

GG2: Poking fun on the Joe the Plumber incident by no other than John McCain.

"Chocolat"

After a year, I went to the "Chocolat" to read the Sunday papers. It was Popi's favourite place on Sunday mornings, with Bobby always at her feet.

The place hasn't changed, the waiters are still the same, and the hot Belgian chocolate as good as I can remember. Bobby thoroughly enjoyed the croissant.

The Espresso Gang Reconvened

For the first time since the summer hiatus, the Espresso Gang ( a bunch of old high school mates) had it's full session in Balux. Glyfada, Saturdays between 10:30 a.m to 12:00 as always.
We have reviewed the situation in the markets and decided on an investment strategy to be executed on Monday.
I will be keeping you updated on the % performance of that investment strategy.

And the prize goes to ...Greece!

The votes are in and the oddest book title of the past 30 years has been finally selected and is: "Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers"

It nipped ahead of "People Who Don't know They're Dead" and "How to Avoid Huge Ships"

But, my favourite to win was:

"Peter Luger" vs "Zephyrion"

The subject of today's posting is restaurant tipping. I present here two extreme cases from my personal experiences of over 40 years of restaurant tipping in over 60 countries. I have excluded Japan since tipping is an unknown practice there.

"Peter Luger"

This is a well known Brooklyn steakhouse. A goup of 8-10 of us went one night. Great steaks, great atmosphere, rustic "Munich October Fest" type of tables and chairs, good efficient American service. Our bill came environ, (still under the French spell of the recently finished "L'Elegance of the Hedgehog"), $1000.
We leave a 15% tip ie $150. The Amex receipt and bill comes back with the maitre d', aka head waiter, telling us that the "minimum acceptable" is 20%. So, they didn't accept our one hundred and fifty bucks tip (in 1988 dollars ie today one could have saved Lehman Bros :-))) as not meeting the "minimum acceptable" threshold. We gave the additional $50 and left the place. Of course this tipping practice is quite prevelant in "good" restaurants in the States.

"Zefyrion"

It's a well known, Greek owned, excellent fish restaurant in Alexandria, in Abu Kir Bay, yes the place where Nelson crashed Napoleon's fleet. My father, Platon (notice that I am not using the anglicised Plato. And it is pronounced Pl-a-ton as in Pl-a-toon), used to take us kids there for Sunday lunch. In this restaurant, standard practice is, then as it is today, that you go in the kitchen, you select your fish and in the presence of the kitchen staff you tip your waiter. Yep, in advance, to ensure that they don't switch your fish and since now they know in advance what kind of a guy you are, they will deliver a service in direct proportion to the size of the tip! It's like paying protection money.

Spooky!

This is a low income estate in Ixtapaluca, Mexico Aerial view of Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico

GG: Good God! I will stop complaining, for a while at least, that Athens is one of the ugliest cities on earth.

Stubbing it Out Saudi Style

The Saudi authorities are pushing tobacco companies to pay for hazards they pose to public health. In the first case of its kind in the Middle East, the Saudi Ministry of Health has filed a lawsuit against international tobacco companies, demanding a compensation of SR10 billion ($2.7 Billion) and an annual compensation of SR500 million ($135 Million) for the treatment of smokers in the country.

GG: Great initiative. A better action would have been to ban cigarette importation outright. They have done it for alcohol for religious reasons, they should do it for cigarettes for much a more important reason than religion ie saving human lives.

From my travel log: Kano, Nigeria-"Tarzan Talk" and The Spaghetti Axiom

On one of my frequent and very forgettable trips to Nigeria, I was taking a few of my young engineers, all Brits, to their first trip to Nigeria to "show them the ropes."
We arrive at Lagos airport from London and of course I show them the "tipping method" of zipping through the airport. For details see relevant posting of October 12th.
I also show them how you tip, with smaller denomination banknotes, the dozens of kids that swarm you as you come out of the airport, selling you your portrait in profile, that they have just sketched on a small piece of paper. Corporate guys of multinationals, must always be generous patrons of the local artists. In fact, the real reason is that you don't want to piss off their parents who are certainly lurking around looking after their offspring fleecing the gringos.
I also demonstrated to them the use of the most important language they need to muster when they travel in these countries ie "Tarzan Talk" or "TT" for short. Two examples will clear matters for you on the use of "TT", dear reader:
1- When you get in a taxi don't say " Would you be kind enough to take me to the Lagos Hilton hotel?" because the cabbie has already lost you in the first three words you uttered, never to find you again. And of course, he knows his city as L-a-gos (L-a- as in L-a-mborgini) and not La-e-gos as it is pronounced in Queen's English. Similarly he knows the hotel as Heeelton. BTW, the word ho-u-tel also means nothing to him.
In "TT", you get in the cab, when driver catches your eyes in his rear view mirror, just say "Heeeelton!" That's it.
2-When you ask somebody for the time, you don't go with convoluted English and with interjection of verbal social niceties . In "TT", you tap a few times the index finger of your right hand to your naked wrist of your left hand and say "Time?". A very easy language to learn this "Tarzan Talk" .

Eventually, my guys and I arrive in Kano, in the north of Nigeria (see map). The pits!
In the evening the local field guy takes to a downtown Italian restaurant. A dump!
Anyway, we were given menus to order, and my group of young British engineers started ordering these fancy-pansy dishes, like '"Osso Bucco", "Quattro Carni" and the like, and of course, I order Spaghetti with graded cheese on the side. The gang started laughing because they knew my famous axiomatic GGism that I used when I visit restaurants of dubious quality. The axiom was: " Order spaghetti, because nobody can f..k up spaghetti."
Our orders finally arrive, and their food was absolutely atrocious. They couldn't eat it. The meats were tough and the sauces repulsive. My spaghetti arrived and it was cold, uneatable as well. When the gang saw that the old master had been had, they started taking the mick out of me. I took my plate to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with my heated spaghetti and declared that I am modifying my axiom. The new version now, cast in stone, is:

"Order spaghetti, because nobody can f..k up spaghetti. But even if they do, you can always fix it".

I was the only guy in the group that went to bed with a full stomach, that night.

Chucking a sickie, Aussie style.

Call centre employee, Kyle Doyle, in Australia, has come unstuck after his boss caught him bragging about "chucking a sickie" on his Facebook profile.

"Kyle Doyle is not going to work, f**k it I'm still trashed. SICKIE WOO!"

he posted on his profile after failing to turn up to work. His manager picked up on what Mr Doyle was doing and then sent him an email stating he did not believe his sick day was legitimate, without revealing at first he had proof... and then he closed the trap.

When Mr Doyle realised he had been found out, he responded good-naturedly: "HAHAHA LMAO epic fail. No worries man."

I love these Aussies!

PS: LMAO= Laughing My Arse Off

" The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery original French title "L'elegance du herisson"

Disclaimer: This is a French book, translated superbly in English (The English translation was marketed only recently, Sept.7th) and it is, in my view, for European readers only, ex- UK. My gutometer tells me that it will definitely "bomb" in the States and will not do well in the UK.

A very original story of Madame Michel, a concierge in an upper class apartment building in Paris, who tries to hide her erudition and successfully projects the expected image of an uncultured, cabbage eating French widow concierge, to the rich bourgeois occupants of her building.

The extraordinary intelligence and culture of the author is oozing arrogantly throughout the book.

The book has complicated but divinely entwined philosophical thoughts presented with a very quirky and adorable way. The play of words and humorous delivery makes the book a delight to read. I had a truly great time reading it.

A definite fiver for me, but I am positive that some people will not like it at all. Tant pis.

I am including it in my top ten books ever!

PS1: This is a photo of Muriel Barbery. After reading her book, I would have picked her, from any group of 50 people as the author of this fantastic book. I don't know why, but I would.

PS2: Paris.... cabbage....reminded me of the Montparnasse brasserie La Coupole , its enormous dining hall, with the rude and inattentive French waiters and the patrons who would have it no other way. La Coupole is famous for its Choucroute Garnie, a monster dish of sauerkraut (Choucroute in French), pork, ham, various sausages and shredded cabbage . With Choucroute, I recommend to use hot Dijon mustard and drink ice cold beer, no wine (beer goes extremely well with cabbage) Ah! Fantastique!

A McCain Blogger.

Meghan McCain, daughter of presidential candidate John McCain said in her blog that, if her dad wins New Hampshire AND the election she will tattoo "Live Free or Die" somewhere on her body.

GG1:I don't know what's going to happen in New Hampshire but her father has no chance in hell winning the election so she can go on promising anything she wants.

The upside for her is that she's been on the road with her father publicising her book for children "My Dad, John McCain" (Amazon Sales Rank #1,856)

GG2: Some people say that Meghan needs to beat Guiness Book record holder, Julia Gnuse, before her dad has any chance of winning this election. :-)

Australian Pro Republican Cartoons (sent by Doris)

AOUOUCH!!!!

What will happen to Joe the Plumber as of Nov 5th?

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (photo) nick named Joe the Plumber by John McCain, is the person that confronted Barack Obama in Ohio telling him that his proposed tax plan would be raising his taxes.

So, what's going to happen to Joe as of Nov. 5th? My view is that irrespective of who is elected, Joe will be so severely devastated financially, because of lack of work and reduced income, for the next couple of years, that taxes would be the least of his worries.

So the whole Repuplican Joe the Plumber point is a mute one.

PS : BTW, Joe the Plumber said that he doesn't have a license and doesn't need one. But the county Wurzelbacher and his employer live in, Lucas County, requires plumbers to have licenses. Neither Wurzelbacher nor his employer are licensed there.

KAPI

Now that the US is becoming a socialist country, they should give heed to the old master, Andreas Papandreou who got Greece into Socialism. One of the good things he did, was the introduction of KAPIs in every district and small town in Greece, to address the very serious issue of loneliness and depression of old people or as he called them "People of the third age" .
KAPI, is a building, provided by the municipality, air conditioned for the hot summer months, with a garden where old people of the district can gather, sit, talk, socialise, play table games like chess, backgammon, simple card games (no gambling or alcohol), drink coffee or tea at the KAPI cafeteria, or bring their own in a thermos, organise day trips visiting sites or go to the beach etc.
A truly great idea.

OK, Hank, include this in your $700 Billion, fast becoming $1.5 trillion, "rescue package".

PS1: Henry "Hank" Paulson's current title, Treasury Secretary, is already 50% socialistic (Secretary) :-)))

PS2: A good question is whether Hank will be around after the Obama boys take over. Is it a case of
"Ave Cesar Morituri Te Salutant" ?

A couple of photos of the KAPI where I live

Dakis

Dakis is a Greek pop singer and is a year older than me, although he looks twenty years younger. Dakis was born and went to school in Alexandria, Egypt, so was Demis Roussos who is 3-4 years younger than me, and of course so was I.

Dakis singing career spans over 40 years, and in the 60's he was among the top five pop singers in Greece, and lasted at the top relatively long.

Now, why am I telling you all this?

Well, as I was walking Bobby this morning, I passed by a meat factory restaurant aka a "khasapotaverna" in Voula's main square and saw a sign at the entrance advertising that Dakis is singing at night in this.......place! Unbelievable!

Why can't theseartists manage their money when they are popular and then "...just fade away" as Gen. Douglas MacArthur said in his famous 1951 farewell speech to the US Congress.

PS: BTW, Demis Roussos after a very successful international career, with his very unique high pitched voice, returned to Greece. He has since been ostracised and treated like a pariah, here, because of a faux pas he made when he was asked about his thoughts on the '67-'74 military junta in Greece, and in an effort to show that he is apolitical and to make humour with him being overweight, he gave the now infamous response: " I don't know. I was eating steaks at the time". Greeks never forgave him for that.

Photos of the meat factory where Dakis is currently "performing". The place is called "Nayades" (fresh water nymphs in Greek mythology)

The reason for the melt down in the Athens Stock Exchange

For the non Greek readers: The "broker" in the red circle is K. Mitsotakis, ex-Prime Minister and the biggest "gademis" (somebody who brings bad luck). The other broker, realising that Mitsotakis is trading, puts his hands up and shouts "May God protect us"

"W" the movie.

This just in from GGWIRED laconic movie critic at large and mate Joe M., visiting NY :

"George, just went to see W . Unbeleivable"

GG1: I will go and see this latest Oliver Stone movie after it opens in Athens Nov. 27th

GG2: I found this photo yesterday. From right to left: GG, Joe M., Kevin R. (all three of the Koh Samui incident), and a field manager Antoine K.

"Waiting for Godot"

This is Samuel Beckett's most famous play, originally written in French and later translated by him in English. It's part of the theater of the absurd. It deals with two people that are under a tree waiting for Godot who never shows up.
Godot represents Hope in the play, I think.
Great play, needs a lot of reading before going to see it, and a lot more after.

From my travel log: Damascus- The lion story or "Waiting for Godot"

Continuing my journey down memory lane, of the last few days:
1985 Damascus airport- Transit area.
I am on my way home, Nicosia, Cyprus and I have a 4 hr layover at Damascus airport to catch a connecting flight. I am reading my book, and I see this Arab looking guy with his pregnant wife and a big suitcase sitting 15 meters away from me, talking to all the airport and airline staff. He seemed to know everybody in the airport and all were very friendly with him. After a while he comes and sits next to me and says in Arabic "Brother", as he thinks I am an Arab too, "can you spare a few dollars to feed my wife and my unborn child?". Now, I have been dealing with beggars and giving "bakshish" all of my life, in all those countries I travelled to. I consider myself world class in this field, and I thought I have seen everything there is to see as far as begging is concerned. But to get approached by a beggar in the transit lounge of an airport, it was a first for me.
After a while, he tells me his story. They are Iraqi Kurds and they had escaped Iraq because they were persecuted and gassed by Saddam Hussein (this is 5 years before Saddam invaded Kuwait etc). They were able to reach Damascus where they boarded a Turkish airliner with one way tickets to Stockholm via Istanbul to seek political asylum in Sweden. In Istanbul, however, they were not allowed to get on their connecting flight to Stockholm because they didn't have an entry visa to Sweden, so the Turks, sent them back to where they came from ie Damascus. And that was three months ago!!! They were not allowed to get outside the airport into Damascus city, because they didn't have an entry visa for Syria, so they were stuck at the transit lounge with no tickets, no money, sleeping on the floor and begging so as to feed themselves at the transit area cafeteria.
I was moved by his story and I tell him that I will buy him the tickets to send him to Stockholm. The guy was stunned, he started kissing my hands, rushed to his wife who came to me, dropped to her knees and started kissing my shoes. Absolutely crazy stuff.
Withing seconds, the whole airport knew of my offer and started applauding, "Allahou Akbar" shouts and the like. We quickly found that there was a direct SAS flight to Stockholm leaving Damascus in one and a half hour.

However, as I moved from my vision statement to the nitty gritty execution details the problems started.

First, the SAS ticketing office was in the airport check in area which neither I nor they could go because none of us had visas for Syria. The whole airport is now mobilised, and after quite some time, the airport staff convince the Chief of Police to allow us, under armed guard, to come out of transit to the check in area and SAS ticketing counter. A crowd of 50 people, the two Kurds carrying their huge suitcase, and the armed guards, all are following me, all eager to witness the miracle happening. We arrive at SAS and a very willing and helpful SAS employee starts preparing to issue the two tickets and asks the question on the mode of payment. Since I didn't have the $1,400 or so for the tickets in cash, I says "Amex". The SAS guy frowns and says "Sorry, no can do, because in this case the card holder must travel as well". All of us froze, you could hear a pin drop. At this point the PA system announced the boarding of the SAS flight to Stockholm, and pandemonium broke as the group of our supporters were getting ready to lynch the poor SAS guy who in defence of his position was saying that he could lose his job if he did this.
My mind started racing, so close yet so far. Then a flash. All these years of travelling, all those tickets, all that knowledge gave the solution. I tell the SAS guy: " Get me 2 tickets, coach, to Stockholm in the names of George Georgitsis and the name of the Kurdish fellow. Then, cancel them, and give me an MCO for them" The SAS guy smiled understood the trick and completed my sentence "And then use the MCO to get two tickets, same destination, same flight in the names of the two Iraqis". Amid applause, and the very peculiar trilling sound that Arab women do in weddings and happy occasions by moving their tongue from side-to-side (Zaghareet), the SAS guy issued the tickets, I pay $100 cash for the foreign exchange difference of the transaction, rush them to bag checking, check in etc. At the airplane door the Kurd asks for my address and I give him my business card, hugs me in tears and tells me "You are a lion". And off they went.
I told Popi the story when I reached home, and when I finished she was in tears giving me the sweetest kiss.

A few months later, I receive a letter from Stockholm. It was from him. They had arrived, settled and she gave birth to a healthy boy, and because he couldn't give his son my name, being Christian, he named him after his Prophet ie Mohammad, and along the other names he was given as per Islamic tradition, he added al Assad (The Lion), to always remember me.

PS1: In this version of the play, Godot did show up!
PS2 Almost twenty years later, in 2004, a movie was done, called "The Terminal", with Tom Hanks, where an immigrant was stuck at JFK in a similar way. I didn't go to see it as I had experienced the real McCoy.

Photoshopping a Greek Orthodox Church Sign

"VOTE FOR THE BLACK THE OTHER ONE'S A JERK"

From my travel log: Fiji-Flagging down an airplane

December 1997, Sydney Australia.
We are enjoying immensely our lives in Australia and I loved working for my new employer, Lion Nathan. My Popi, arranged for us to spend Christmas in Sydney and New Year's in Fiji. She found a private island, Qamea, with 11 beach front bures, traditional Fijian huts, owned by an American lady and her New Zealand chef of a husband.
Off we go, and after changing a couple of planes, we finally arrive to what we thought was the final airport of our destination, where we would be picked up by a car and an hour of a boat ride to our secluded private paradise.
As we waited for the car pick up we realise that this airport was not the last airport of our flying leg, but we had to change there to a much smaller airplane for an additional 45' island hop. The small plane we were supposed to take was at this point at the end of the airstrip making its final run to take off.
The next plane to our final destination was in 2 days! Popi and I, bags in hand, rush in the middle of the airstrip, making signs to the pilot to stop , who had already started his final run. Thankfully, the pilot saw us, stopped the take off and taxied toward us and picked us up. Like they do in these Hollywood movies! Pheww! A very very close call.

We had a wonderful time on this island. The 11 bures were around this big central bure where the restaurant/bar was located. We called the area between our bure and the central one, "no man's land", because coconuts were constantly dropping from the trees from great heights with a scary thump as they hit the ground. We were taking our lives in our hands as we were running across no "man's land", after dinner, in the dark, as we were carpet bombed by the coconut trees. What laughs!!!

Again some photos of our Fiji stay

Popi boarding what we thought was the last airplane leg

Boarding the small plane, after flagging it down, under the watchful eye of the pilot and to the applause of the passengers Popi outside our bure washing the sand off her feet before coming in

My love relaxing on New Year's day

A view of our traditional bure. No TV, no telephone, no radio, no newspapers. Total bliss!

Standing below a B-52 bomber coconut tree

With a local mate of mine on New Year's eve, both of us dressed formally for the gala party.

Interestingly, as I was preparing this posting, I visited the Qamea island website and I noticed that they had fully covered the private parts of my mate. Prudes!

My Popi coming out of her natural habitat Map of Fiji islands

From my travel log: The last employer switch-Koh Samui

As promised in my Oct.16th posting, here is how I left Pepsico after 17 years of working there.
It's 1995 and we were on our 5th year in Hong Kong, and I was covering China, Taiwan, Korea, India, S.E. Asia, Japan, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand etc. We were having a ball, I was travelling a lot and Popi was joining me whenever she wanted to and we were spending our vacations to some very beautiful and exotic places. On the business front, however, I was not happy. Reason, Chris S., the galactical boss of Pepsi Beverages Worldwide, the capo di tutti capi, the golden boy, in short, god on earth. This guy came from nowhere, was "Pepsi pretty" and impressed everybody, minus moi, and everybody thought that the sun shone out of his ass. I thought that this guy was an arrogant, opinionated s.o.b, who knew jack shit about the business and that he would soon run the company to the ground with his BS strategies. I was wrong on two things:
1- It took longer than I thought for people to realise that the emperor was naked
2- No dissenting opinion was allowed and because of heavy "golden hand cuffs" people were agreeing with the lunacy.

I had two huge run ins with Chris. One on plastic bottle technology and one on performance management in India. And he put me immediately in his black list. The funny thing was that ,whilst everybody privately agreed with both my positions, in his presence, they were avoiding me like the plague siding with him. I used to call them "nodders".
I was proven right, unfortunately, on both those issues, as the company, the week they fired Chris, a year or so after I left, took a $200 million write off on the stupid technology he was pushing and the Indian operation reverted back to my "scorecard".
The possibility, however, at the time, of Chris getting the boot was not forthcoming any time soon, so, my soul mate and I, started discussing that it was time for us to move on, career wise. So, we decided to go to Koh Samui, relax and evaluate the options. Koh Samui a fantastically beautiful island off the east coast of Thailand, before the barbarians discovering it.

As we are enjoying the fantastic beaches and the excellent Amanpuri hotel facilities, Kevin R., an old Pepsi boss of mine, calls from Sydney Australia, inquiring whether I could help him out in finding a head of Technical for the beer company he was COO in New Zealand/Australia, Lion Nathan. Immediately I clicked, but as a good, in fact excellent, negotiator, I didn't offer my services but told Kevin that I will check around and come back to him. Next day, Kevin calls again, and tells me whether I would consider taking the job myself. I tell him that I am open and over a few calls and faxes, I closed the deal with Kevin's HR Director, Joe M., a very good friend of mine as well. We returned in a few days back to Hong Kong, submitted my one line resignation letter and gave them back the "golden handcuffs". Chris S. went ape shit because I resigned, as it was very uncommon for Pepsi executives, at my level, to resign once they were in the "millionaires row", and because I hadn't "kissed his ring" yet. "Kissing the ring" was exactly the term used by the Pepsi Global HR, of what I needed to do so as to be in Chris's good graces. Fat chance).

The standard operating practice in Pepsi those days was to "nuke" their executives years before they would think of resigning. There was a story in Pepsi that gives a flavor of the environment then:
The day you were hired at Pepsi a heat seeking rocket with your name on it is launched. Your career span lasted exactly the time it took, your personal missile, armed with a nuclear war head, to find you and get you "locked in". So indicated action was to duck and hide from the cross hairs of your missile.
Apparently with me, lasting so long in Pepsi, was a case of :

"This is Houston, we have no lift off on the GG rocket. Repeat no lift off" LOL

A series of photos of what happened in Koh Samui that summer.

Popi enjoying the Koh Samui beach

Me taking Kevin's call

Doing the "package' calculations

Giving the "Yes" sign to Popaki on closing the deal

Popaki happy with the deal

Popi loved Koh Samui so much that she didn't want to leave

Map of Thailand

My Popi

It's been a year to the day since the apple of my eye, my soulmate, has gone, and I miss her terribly.

She was an adoring wife

A loving mother
A superb grandmother

A trusted friend A fabulous hostess
She loved children and they reciprocated.















She loved animals

She loved the sea

She was full of joie de vivre























She had class

I am sure, my love, that you continue to spread goodness and happiness wherever you are.

Caught in the act

A cameraman caught CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin checking Facebook in the middle of Wednesday's presidential debate.

I always wondered what was the use of the laptops in front of all these people that constantly consult at these screens. Now I know.

I don't blame Toobin, as the debate was a tad boring. It's been too long of a campaign. C'mon guys let's get it over with it. Eighteen more days to Tuesday Nov.4th. Pheew!

From my travel log: Thessaloniki. The earthquake incident

Tuesday 20th of June 1978.
I am working as Technical Director Greece for "The Coca Cola Export Corp.", yes, the Atlanta boys. I am in Salonica, or Thessaloniki as it should correctly be called, it's 11 p.m and I am still at the plant, supervising the installation of some new pieces of equipment, when a 6.5 on the Richter scale earthquake hit (ten times stronger than the one that woke me up a couple of days ago as the Richter scale is a base 10 logarithmic scale, and released 31.6 times more energy), with an epicenter 20 klms east of the city. The noise was frightening as hundreds of pallets full of thousands of returnable glass bottles stacked up to the plant ceiling came down. To cut a very long story short, I return to my hotel by 2:00 a.m and called Popi in Athens, woke her up, and told her that an earthquake hit, I am fine and I'm catching the first flight back to Athens, so as to ensure that she will not panic when she would hear the earthquake news in the morning (no mobiles in those days).
A few days later, in my Athens office, I do my expense report. In those days, you would break the hotel bill and put in the expense form, under separate columns, the billed board, food, calls etc. So under the column for "calls" I put the billed cost for that telephone, say 30 drachmas ($1 at the time). I complete the rest, sign the form and submit it.
After a week, the expense report comes back with a red circle on the 30 drachmas with a question mark. I call accounting, and they inform me that my boss, John B., was asking whether the call was personal or business? I told them the story, and they told me that they will repeat it to John B., which they did.
A few days later my expense report was paid, minus 30 drachmas. I called John B., and he told me that he was told my story, but since the call was to my wife, he judged that it was personal.
I continued working that day till 5:00 p.m, put my personal things in a box, went to HR, gave keys etc, a one line resignation letter, and after 8 years working for the Coke bottler & the Atlanta boys I left the place never to return.
Went home, and next morning, Popi and I, took the ferry for Spetses island, for our first holiday, after 8 years of non stop work without a day of holiday. It was in Spetses that Nino of Pepsico was able to track me down and set up to interview me, as soon as I returned back to Athens (see Sept 23rd posting).
PS1 There is at least one lesson to be learned from this story but I leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusions.
PS2 Funnily, my next "employer swich", 17 years later, occured whilst Popi and I were again on holiday in an island. This time more exotic. Koh Samui, Thailand. I leave that story for a future posting.

Being an Arab or a Muslim is bad in the US?

At a John McCain political rally a few days ago, a lady told the republican presidential hopeful that she didn't trust Obama because she'd read that he was an "Arab."
McCain answered: "No Ma'am, he's a decent family man." Implying of course that being an Arab means being not decent.

So, now there is this huge debate in the US on the perception that calling someone an Arab or a Muslim is tantamount to an insult.

Obama is not helping matters here. Instead of saying there is absolutely nothing wrong in being an Arab or a Muslim he has vehemently denied that he is either and thus by implication confirming that being one is bad. I do understand that he has to win an election with that particular electorate, at this point in time, but he could have handled it better.

Anyway, all these discussions are for the good, as these misconceptions are finally out in the open and talking about them educate people.

Nobel Prize in Economics (sent by Christine)

Blitzkrieg!

Without any fanfare, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged, yesterday, a banking rescue package of 500 Billion euros ie $700 Billion, equaling Germany's annual tax take.
And this is Germany, with 1/4 th the population of the US.

The Minister of Finance of Germany Peer Steinbrueck said that he wants to cap the pay of executives at banks that used the rescue fund. "These managers should not receive more than 500,000 euros per year. And no bonuses. And no severance deals. And no dividends."

Earthquake!

At 5:06 this morning I was woken up by a 5.5 earthquake, epicenter some 60 miles north east of Athens, in the Aegean Sea. Earthquakes in Greece are quite common, as the region is one of the most seismically active areas in the world. You eventually get used to them. The only problem I have with them, is not knowing whether the tremor I just felt is a pre tremor or the main event of the seismic sequence. So you wait for a while waiting for the big one, doing nothing. Eventually, you forget about it, and you get on with your life.

PS: The stuff they say that dogs have a sixth sense that makes them predict earthquakes etc. is definitely not applicable to my Bobby, as he was in the arms of Morpheus throughout the event!

Follow the money.

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been announced as the latest face of the Dh8 billion ($2.2 Billion) Jumeirah Golf Estates project in Dubai. He has been brought in to design the kitchens.The residences go on sale on October 15 and range in price from Dh2.5 million to Dh15 million.

At the launch of the residences on Sunday, during which Oliver served up two dishes to the delight of the audience, he described the project as a personal indulgence. "I'm doing this to push the boundaries, to create something a bit bonkers. They don't need me to sell flats. What I'm trying to do is make sure is that it's as easy as possible for anyone to be brilliant."

Oliver will also open two restaurants in the Water neighbourhood's Life Centre, a community hub which will also house the Chris Evert Tennis Centre, an 18-hole putting course, fitness centres and an art gallery.
The restaurants will be the third outpost of his Jamie's Italian brand, and a new barbeque venture. He will also open a cooking school and shop allowing residents to rent out high-end cooking equipment.

GG: Hats off to this brilliant young man.

And the Nobel goes to....

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2008 was given today to American Paul Krugman of Princeton University :

"for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity"

He is an Op-Ed columnist with NY Times since 2000, and his most recent article was Oct 9th titled "Moment of Truth".

He has a blog there and his posting today was quite funny in its simplicity.

No Indian again this year. Patience.

The destruction of Athens continues unabated.

As I was walking Bobby his usual morning walk, we passed by what used to be a beautiful corner villa that had this very nice garden. And we saw this:

Whilst the world economy is melting down with the housing market as the epicenter, with 300,000 unsold apartments in Greece (population 11 million), with construction materials up 40% versus year ago, a new very unfavourable tax regime for house ownership, and zero liquidity from the banks, the barbarians continue to engage with their adoration for pouring concrete.

A POV

When I saw this picture I said this is exactly what the investors were doing during the markets bull run, pre-meltdown. Exactly that. I remember quite vividly when I was asking why the markets are up, the standard response was "Too much liquidity". Not the fundamentals, just "too much liquidity". Well now it has reversed on itself. So why is everybody surprised?

The turmoil in the banking section will continue with further consolidation and till the car loan/credit card excesses are also flushed out. Wall Street will continue to correct itself so as to bring the P/E's of the companies to reflect the revised earning expectations due to contracting demand for goods and services. The long awaited relatively mini bubble of the hedge fund industry will eventually burst. Till then, brace yourselves, because the roller coaster ride will continue.

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2008

It will be announced mid day tomorrow. It will be quite interesting because with the current turmoil in the financial markets candidates who are advocates of efficient markets hypothesis would have little chance of winning, in my view e.g Gene Fama or Kenneth French.

1.2 billion Indians, on the other hand, are expecting all or two or at least one of the famous Indian trio Jagdish Bhagwati (Columbia ), Avinash Dixit (Princeton) and Partha DasGupta (Cambridge) to finally get the coveted prize.

We will find out tomorrow.

PS: Notice that the prize is for Economic Sciences not Economics as it is commonly referred to. This is a prize established and funded by the Bank of Sweden in memory of Alfred Nobel. However, the nomination process, selection criteria and awards presentation are conducted in a manner similar to the five (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace) Nobel Prizes.

From my travel log :Airport customs.Score : 2-1

Lagos:
Sometime in the 80's, British Airways flight, first class, London to Lagos Nigeria. I was sitting next to a Pepsi colleague of mine, Andre L., a Frenchman. It was my third or fourth trip to Lagos and Andre's first. As we were getting ready to land I was explaining to Andre my approach to clearing customs in Lagos, ie the good old "bakshish" way, tipping. I would put 10 ten naira notes in my pocket, 10 naira=$1 at the time (now it's 120 to $1), and whoever came within 3 feet of me I would give him one note. From air force generals to lowly soldiers. Andre's view was that this was against le principe of his ie not to give money for no work. I've tried to dissuade him but I was abruptly interrupted by the pilot who, as he was landing, saw a herd of sheep crossing the runway and had to abort landing just the last minute. Finally, on the second pass we land and proceed to customs. In five minutes and fifty naira poorer I am sitting in a taxi on my way to my hotel, thinking of my warm beer (refrigeration an unknown concept in Nigeria those days) waiting for me there, before retiring to go to bed for the night. Andre was not in sight.
Next morning, as I was walking out of the hotel, after a full 8 hour sleep and a hearty breakfast, to take my ride to go to the Pepsi plant, I saw Andre arriving, totally bedraggled. He had just cleared customs. La lesson cher Andre is : listen to the master.
Casablanca:
On my first trip to Casablanca, I proceeded to the custom officer at the airport and gave him my passport and a landing card duly completed. The officer, reads the card and very politely, with a huge smile (a dead giveaway) asks me whether I came for business or pleasure? I told him business. He then starts the sideways moving of the head and tells me that unfortunately for business I need a visa that I had to get before arriving in Morocco bla, bla...So I asked him whether a tourist would also need a visa to enter the country? He says that no visa is required for tourists. OK, I am a tourist I declare. Oh!No, no,no you cannot change now he informs me. "Gotcha" I says and give him a $10 note that miraculously forced the officer's hand to pick up the stamp and stamp my passport with lightning speed.
Tunis
Arriving Tunis, Tunisia airport, luggage check, circa 1980. The officer opens my hand luggage and starts inspecting some microbiological filters I had in it, used for checking the sterility of the beverages. He asked me what they were. I explain but he still doesn't understand, so I further simplify my explanation. He then calls his supervisor and the scene is again replayed, twice. Again they don't understand, so they bring the big honcho who is quite upset that his tea drinking ceremony has been interrupted. I go again through the explanation twice again without success. The big guy finally tells me that I have something to hide that is why my explanation doesn't make sense to them. And that's where for the first and only time in my 40 years of travelling in third world countries I let him have it by saying " The reason why you cannot understand it is that you should have gone to university first, and I don't have four years to wait". Big, big mistake. They pulled an "Andre" on me, and the Tunis bottler had to intercede to have me released. Never again was I a smart ass with airport officials.

"Out of Place" by Edward W. Said

This book is a memoir of Palestinian American Princeton/Harvard educated Edward Said, who was a Columbia University professor of English Literature and the famous and controversial author of "Orientalism".

Said's writing style flows smoothly with a very subtle humorous streak. The problem of this autobiography is that he lived a privileged childhood and attended the best schools in Egypt, Palestine and the US. A rich Arab, who was a Christian and an American citizen, who lived in the Middle East at the time of the beginning of the M.E "problem" with no personal points of reference to what was going on around him. So a very well written autobiography but so what......

Rating 2 out of 5.

"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" by Woody Allen with Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz

Penelope Cruz is good for an Oscar for a supporting role for her performance in this movie.

Rebecca Hall was good in her role of an inhibited American

Scarlett Johansson, in the role of a typical American "searching", should be very careful because it's the third Woody Allen movie she is in ("Match Point", "Scoop") and she sounds like Woody and her mannerisms in her acting was Woody's; it was like seeing Woody acting.

Javier, his usual wooden or should I say woody performance, never liked the guy except in the 1992 Bigas Luna movie "Jamon, Jamon" with the then 18 year old Penelope Cruz where she again delivered a stunning performance.

The dialogue in the movie was excellent. The voice over connecting the scenes was totally useless and distracting. The story unfolds in beautiful Barcelona, with frequent visits at Antoni Gaudi superb buildings. The music very appropriate and the song "Barcelona" sung by Giulia y los Tellarini quite haunting.

The whole proposition is an overly American naive view of old cultured Europe, Barcelona in this case. Handsome, lustful, uninhibited, Spaniard, a painter, with artistic friends, driving a red two seater open top car, owns a beautiful house, fantastic sunny summer, with wine continuously flowing, and Spanish guitars lamenting all over the place etc bowls over 2 "Amerikanes".

Interestingly, although a menage a trois is shown quite openly, the sanctity of marriage is prudishly upheld in a very American/Hollywood way and of course in contrast to Woody Allen's, who also wrote the script, private life.

Rating 3 out of 5.

PS1: Unfortunately, to emphasize the Spanishness of Cruz's and Bardem's characters, Woody has them smoking cigarettes throughout the movie. For that alone I should have taken a full point off the rating, but I can't, because that's the reality in Spain.

PS2: I could have chosen a different picture of Cruz, without a cigarette in her mouth, for this posting. However, this is exactly the photo that catches the essence of her role in this movie.

PS3: If you've seen the trailer of this movie, as I have, then you know exactly what is going to happen as well as the most powerful lines of the script!!

Lehman Bros CEO punched in the face in the gym

Richard Fuld, the former CEO of the former banking giant Lehman Brothers, was punched in the face while working out in the company gym after the announcement that the 158-year-old firm was filing for bankruptcy.
Journalist Vicki Ward says she heard the story thusly: "He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner pumping iron, and he walked over and he knocked him out cold." She said she would have done the same to Fuld.
Before the House Oversight Committee, Fuld said he'd wonder "until they put me in the ground" why the firm wasn't bailed out. Democrat Henry Waxman asked Fuld if it was fair for Fuld to keep $480 million; Fuld replied that he only kept $300 million.

GG: He flattened Lehman Bros and somebody flattened him.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2008

The Prize goes to Finnish Martti Ahtisaari :

"for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts"

Ahtisaari is a former President of Finland (1994-2000) and a special UN envoy at Kosovo, and a life dedicated at the establishment of peace in numerous trouble spots in the world.

It appears that he is a worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize

"The Grapes of Wrath 2008". How this generation is going to handle the new Depression.

The real reason for the current financial crisis.

A clock in New York showing America's national debt has run out of digits.
The National Debt Clock was designed to show figures of up to 10 trillion U-S dollars.
When the figure rose above that amount at the end of last month the clock failed to cope.
As a short-term fix, the dollar sign on the digital display has been changed to a number, so the full figure of about ten-point-two-trillion dollars can be displayed

GG: My calculations show that when the National Debt reaches $11.8 Billion, ie +16% from current levels, the same trick must be applied to the family share number as it will hit the $100,000 mark.

Google Inc. cancels its annual ski trip.

Who needs to go skiing when you can go down these "beautiful" NASDAQ slopes!

It's hilarious! In case you haven't seen it. GWB on global warming

And the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature goes to....

French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

No American again (last American to win was Toni Morrison in 1993). I am sure the controversy on selection criteria will continue to rage on, especially when the Nobel Prize permenant secretary and committee member, Horace Engdahl, told The Associated Press, only last week, that the United States is too insular and ignorant (!!) to challenge Europe as the center of the literary world.

The Ladbrooks favourites : Italian Claudio Magris, Syrian Adonis (Ahmad Said Asbar) and Israeli Amos Oz, no show.

PS: All Jean-Marie's books are out of print in both Amazon US and Amazon UK, since a long time ago, with his most recent one "Ourania" (2006) ranking in Amazon US sales five millionth ! The used versions are now going for over $100 each.

New Dubai Metro

One year to go, 9/2009, for the start of Dubai's driverless Metro.

From the official Dubai City website

"Unlike most urban transport systems in the West, Dubai's Metro will have segregated

carriages for different types of passengers". (Emphasis added)

GG: Alabama 1960 here I come!!!

Ya see....

Figure this out

"Good Housekeeping and J.D. Power and Associates surveyed more than 40,000 female new vehicle owners and asked them to rank their satisfaction with their purchase. Safety was the single most important contributor to overall vehicle satisfaction. Other deciding factors included the vehicle's durability, interior and exterior construction, and quietness. The Chrysler PT Cruiser was the only domestic make to win its segment."

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/01/31/017671.html

GG: So they chose safety over style hey? Why is it then that the PT Cruiser is the epitomy of old fashion, Roaring Twenties/Prohibition, style?

If you love Jon Stewart

"Life & Times of Michael K" by J.M. Coetzee

This is a very peculiar book. The story unfolds in a South Africa that has precipitated into a police state because of a civil war "...so that minorities can have a say in their destinies". It describes the life of Michael K, a 32 year old simpleton, as he begins his quest to freedom away from the incomprehensible and irrelevent to him events that are happening around him.The story line reminds me a lot of his other book "Waiting for the Barbarians", written in 1980, ( see June 5th posting).

This book, that by the way, was the reason for J.M. Coetzee to win his first Booker Prize in 1988, has two basic mortal flaws in it, in my humble opinion:

- Whilst the style is classic Coetzee, austere, precise, detailed and lucid , "every word counts", and you can, in a lot of instances, get a glimpse of the authors' genius, the plot betrays the book. The dimwitted, simpleton hero, Michael K, can't put two words or two thoughts together makes the whole allegory of the book untenable, and very difficult to read. Example: Michael K is starving himself because he will not eat while incarcerated, he will only eat "the bread of freedom". The only problem is that he was willingly starving when he was free as well!! The author had to interject a chapter, chapter 2, from a total of 3 chapters, where he moves from a third person narration to a first person, that of the doctor of the camp, and it is the doctor, on almost no data, that deduces why Michael K is behaving the way he is behaving, as Michael K doesn't tell him a thing.

-The allegory of the South Afican police state/concetration camps etc with apartheid/Soweto, civil war of minorities etc is too obvious, too simple too contrived. The book was written 3 years before apartheid was abolished in South Africa.

Not my cup of tea. Rating 2 out of 5.

2008 Nobel Prizes in Physics & Chemistry

Physics




From left to right: Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa and Yoichiro Nambu for their work exploring the hidden symmetries among elementary particles


Chemistry



From left to right: Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y Tsien for the discovery and development of the Green fluorescent protein (GFP).

GG: Tomorrow Oct. 9th they will announce the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the next day the Peace Prize which I hope they don't repeat the 2007 Al Gore farce. Al Gore is the only person ever to win a Nobel Prize for contributing on a single multi-media Powe Point presentation on climate change. I am rooting for Vietnamese Thich Quang a Buddhist monk and dissident who has spent more than 25 years in detention for his peaceful protests against Vietnam's communist regime.
We will be posting the results of both these Nobel Prizes.

Nice surprise.

In opening my email inbox today, I saw a thank you note from Dave, a member of the management team of a London Client of mine that I did some consultancy work for them a few months ago. It definitely made my day because contrary to Tom Jones' mega hit of my generation "It's not unusual", its very unusual for members of Client staff to send thank you notes to consultants because the consultant's recommendation was implemented successfully with good results.Thanks Dave.

BTW, I recently saw an old video clip of Tom Jones singing and dancing this song and let me tell you that my generation was as wacky as this generation is as far as singers, songs and dances go.

The flake

For those who follow the US stock markets and watch CNBC, should know Jim Cramer.
Jim is the loudmouth host of CNBC's, very popular, "Mad Money" show, where he jumps up and down, yells and has a machine that makes silly noises, and provides so called "advice" on US
stocks. This guy is a total flake and unfortunately, now, the serious job of stock picking has become a comedy skit. He has been pushing his viewers to "buy" stocks throughout 2008 whilst the markets were tanking, creating substantial losses to whoever followed his advice. Only this Monday, without apologising he finally advised his viewers to sell all their positions, with the Dow diving up to 800 points at one point and closing 370 points down.
Good call Jim, only it was a year late.

I followed his advice once, and got burned, some fifteen years ago, when he was touting very heavily, a stock that I bought only to see its price evaporate after a few months and the company eventually exiting the business.
I learned a great lesson there, never listen to TV stock "experts"!
One would have made a fortune all these years if he was contrarian to Jim's advice and bet against all of Jim's recommendations.

Bernanke's speech

Watched the Fed chairman's speech tonight, who informed us of a gloomy outlook and that the financial storm after hitting Wall Street is now hitting quite hard Main Street USA. On the bright side, inflation is dropping substantially, not only because of contracting demand.

Net, no new news.

What was cool was that CNN, as usual, had in the lower right hand corner of the screen during Bernanke's speech, in real time, the Dow, which was parring its losses at the beginning of the speech, as investors were hoping that he would say something positive, and then when all realised that it was doom and gloom all the way, the Dow reversed and started its descent to the abyss.

Instant grading. Very cool!

From my travel log - Cairo, "Ahmed"

In Utah, a Jewish Frito-Lay truck driver is suing the company for facing discrimination, after he complained about hauling Christmas trees, saying it made him uncomfortable because of his Jewish faith.
In London, a Muslim worker at Tesco's has launched a legal action against his company because his warehouse job required him to lift via a fork lift truck, cartons of alcoholic drinks, which he said violates his religious beliefs.
In Cairo, when we lived there, I had a very sweet, old driver called Ahmed who was a very devout Muslim and who told me, right upfront, that he would carry any and all of our shopping bags to and from the car except bags that contained alcoholic drinks. I totally respected his request, and never had a problem with Ahmed.
Religious beliefs, when genuine, are very strong and run very deep and cannot be ignored.

"Pezo"

Greeks, although the Greek language has a very rich vocabulary, choose to use the verb "pezo" ie "I play" when they refer to the process of buying or selling equities or other financial instruments. "Pezo" actually denotes in this context, "I gamble". One would then think that this is an articulation of a belief in Greeks that investing in financial instruments entails risk as gambling does.

Not so.

When stock prices are up, as they were in the infamous 1998 to mid- 2000 bubble, everybody was "gambling" with taxi drivers, in Greece, selling their taxis to "play" in this game, where everybody was winning. They were no different, of course, than the rest of the world that believed that a new era has dawned and that the new technologies and the Internet will be deliverings pizza to your home through fiber optic cables etc.

When the markets crashed, only the Greeks blamed their government for their losses, because they claimed that they were misled by then Minister of Finance, aka "Mr. Kolynos", because of his fake Hollywood smile, who once said, towards the end of the bull run, that the strong stock market is a reflection of the strong economy or vice versa. BTW, Greeks never, never believe what politicians say, especially when they are peddling a "rosy picture" but apparently, in this case they have made, conveniently, an exception. Example, when a couple of days ago Alogoskoufis (Horse-bennie) the Minister of Finance, pledged that all the deposits in Greece are "guaranteed", nobody in Greece took him seriously, little did he know, though, that 300 million EU members believed him and very quickly chastised him. No worries guys, he wasn't meaning to do it in the first place. Words in Greece don't cost a thing.

Now, 8 years on, they still believe that were deceived by their government and lost their money in the Athens Stock market, which of course the current government, then in opposition, continuously re-enforces that they were fooled by "Mr Kolynos" and it's the bad PASOK that is to blame for them being wiped out. And of course with the current meltdown the same guys are rushing to their banks demanding from them to cover their current losses in mutual funds, bonds or structured notes as the associated risks were not clearly communicated to them, and they are also 5,000 of them holding Lehman Bros worthless "paper", representatives of whom, are being paraded from TV station to TV station, everyday, blaming and suing everybody!!

So no lessons learned here.

The same thing, unfortunately, is happening in the US right now, catalysts in this being the Fed bail out package and the election campaign rhetoric.

Blaming the government for the greed in Wall Street. No mention of their own greed, that although everyone knew that these financial institutions had a 30 to 1 or more debt to equity ratios and a 3.3% negative swing would wipe them out, they "played" with the belief that they will get out in time, and leave the "paper" in the hands of the "bigger fool" So, no lessons learned there as well.

If we do not learn from our mistakes, and understand our own personal responsibility in all this, and blame everything to the government, I am afraid that history will repeat itself.

I'll be darned

Bangkok film boxes its way to top

"Nicolas Cage stars as assassin Joe in Bangkok Dangerous
Action thriller Bangkok Dangerous has hit the top of the North American box office in its opening weekend.
The film, starring Nicolas Cage, took $7.8m (£4.4m).
It knocked Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder, with $7.5m (£4.2m), into second place, with comedy The House Bunny third with $5.9m (£3.3m). "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7603594.stm

GG: We are talking about a movie that could easily be included in the 10 worst movies ever made by Hollywood.

"Bangkok Dangerous" by the Pang brothers with Nicolas Cage, Shahkrit Yamnarn

Since yesterday's posting was on the 'Wallet Incident" in Bangok, I decided to go and see this movie "Bangkok Dangerous". This is a remake of a 1999 Thai movie with the same title, directed by the same brothers.
In that version, the hit man was deaf and mute and falls in love with a girl that works in a pharmacy. In this version, Cage is the hit man that falls in love with a deaf and mute girl that works in a pharmacy. The problem was, that nobody told Cage that they were not shooting the 1999 version. He was horrible trying to act by almost saying nothing (obviously, if in the original scenario his part was that of a deaf and mute) and continiously twitching his mouth, or openning his eyes in surprise, as the rest of his face was totally expressionless because of probably ample botox injections to it. And to those of us who have been in Bangkok several times, you are talking about one of the most congested and densly populated city in the world, it is stupid to assume that all these deadly shoot outs in the movie, happen in those completely deserted streets of Bangkok. Pleeeeeease!
An absolutely horrible movie. Rating 0 out of 5.

From my travel log: Bangkok- The wallet incident.

We were in Bangok for one of those famous Pepsi meetings. This time with wives, an occurence that happened in those "good old days" 2-3 times a year.
As I was walking toward the hotel, The Shangri-La if my memory doesn't fail me, I passed a leather shop, where I saw a lady from our Pepsi team bargaining with the Thai shop keeper the price of a leather wallet. I walked in to help the lady with my world class negotiating skills :-)). When I arrived, the bargaining (notice I do not use the term negotiations) was at the point where the shopkeeper was firm at 80 baht (20 baht to the US$ at the time) i.e 4 bucks, and the lady was at 60 baht, 3 bucks, with no price budging from either side. I told the lady that I will handle the proceedings from now on and she had not to worry. And the transaction went something like this:
"What is the current price for this wallet, my friend?"
"Only 80 baht sir" said the Thai shopkeeper smiling as all Thais do.
"I will give you 100 baht for this wallet, my friend" I say.
The Thai stunned says "No, no sir. You don't understand I only want 80 baht"
With the lady mumbling something to me in disbelief I say to the Thai shopkeeper: " Listen my friend, this is my last and final offer which if you don't accept I will leave. One hundred and twenty baht!". The lady is now ready to faint, the Thai shopkeeper is moving his head sideways in shock, trying to clarify to me the situation, I threaten to leave and finally, reluctantly he accepts my last and final offer of 120 baht. I pay him, and offer the wallet to the flabbergasted lady, who asked me why did I pay 120 when I could have got it for 80 or less? I told her that had I bought for 80 or less, the Thai shopkeeper, you, and me, had no story to tell to our family, children, neighbours friends etc whereas now, for only 2 bucks, all of us have this wonderfully unusual story to tell for years to come.

Glorious day at the beach today.

Sunny and 28C. Wearing my new T-shirt, sent to me from Alaska through a friend of a friend, emblazoned with an original "Palin" Alaskan caribou, drinking my macciato at the beach.

The water was fabulously warm.

Elevators!

Different nationalities behave differently towards elevators. In Hong Kong for instance, people waiting for an elevator, when it arrives, don't wait for the people inside to get off first, they will push themselves in first, creating, havoc as the elevators are usually packed. Or, in tech savy Singapore, in high rise apartment buildings, they had to install closed circuit video cameras in elevators and electronic "sniffers", as people would often urinate in them, when alone (My guess is that the high speed of these elevators has something to do with this behaviour :-)). The "sniffer" detects the smell, starts the camera rolling (for court evidence), locks the elevator door and dials the police!!

In Greece, however, something quite bizzare happens. In elevators with dual calling buttons, one with an up arrow and one with a down arrow (see photo), almost always, Greeks, will press both buttons to call the elevator, instead of pressing the one in the direction they want to go. And invariably, now that both arrows are lit and the elevator is a bit slow to arrive, most Greeks waiting for the elevator, will alternate in continuously pressing both the already lit buttons, believing that this process will accelerate the arrival of the elevator.

Very difficult to fathom how the Greek mind works!

"Smoking will kill you"

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia 3/10/2008

Relatives beat a Malaysian couple to death in a ritual apparently meant to help the man to stop smoking, police said Friday.The couple died of head injuries after being beaten with broomsticks and motorbike helmets during a family gathering at a Kuala Lumpur home Wednesday, said Ku Chin Wah, head of the city's crime investigations department

Biden vs Palin VP debate.

Appearance

Biden followed my advice and had a less flashy dress code i.e :

-No handkerchief in the breast pocket.

-No tab collar shirt.

-No Rolex.

(Maybe too much or poorly applied make-up)

Palin dressed perfectly for the part with the hair down, no fancy/sexy hairdos.

Performance

Biden

Very good overall

Used too many numbers and Senate "speak"

Superb on foreign policy

Very good and restrained debater

Palin

Folksy ("Joe six packs and hockey moms")

Much much better than her very poor interview with Katie Couric

Knew the names of foreign leaders, some quite difficult to pronounce. I loved her use of "The Castro brothers". She may need to pronounce correctly the words , "Iran", "Iraq" and "nuclear" (she pronounces them as "Airan", "Airaq" and "nukelear") unless of course she does it to "connect" with the way the average American is pronouncing them.

Net, net both met their brief, with Biden not falling off his Manolos and Palin recovering from her recent disasters

Visiting Alex's office today

His desk is as cluttered as in my last visit (see posting of Aug. 10th). Hence no improvement in the "clean desk" score

My feelings on Alex's continued smoking

A great one liner

"If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street by herself"

Kathleen Parker, a Republican, and a supporter of Palin in the early stages post her nomination, writing in the conservative National Review On Line.

Dress code

GG: Joe, this is not the way to dress if you want to "connect" with middle class America. You look like a $300 an hour NY lawyer. I hope tonight, for the VP debate, you think twice before you choose what to wear and definetely lose the handkerchief in the breast pocket, Christ!

Apple's Mac Pro desk top computers cause cancer?

Oct 1st, 2008

...An often noticed smell emitted by Apple's Mac Pro desktop computers is caused by a combination of toxins, including benzene, which is known to cause leukemia. The questions now have to be: What did Apple know and when did Apple know it? Posts in Apple support forums, full of Mac Pro owners complaining of the smell, indicate Apple was well-aware of how their computers smell...."

A French molecular biologist detected the smell as he was connecting his brand new Mac Pro. He contacted Apple's service center and they sent him a replacement that smelled as well. He sent it to a French lab. and they found "benzene", a chemical that causes leukemia.

Apple Corp. did not reply when contacted by Liberation

http://www.liberation.fr/terre/010133618-mac-pro-le-pepin-toxique-pour-apple

GG: With Apple's stock price dropping like a lead balloon in the last couple of weeks (see blue line in the graph compared to the NASQAQ index in red for the same period), the last thing Steve Jobs should do is leave this "smell" issue unadressed.

Going ballistic!

A dentist, in the Bavarian town Neu-Ulm, is being investigated by the dental association and a health insurance company and faces possible criminal charges after he invaded the home of a 35-year-old patient, bound her, and tore out dental bridge work he had done.
The rampaging dentist was reportedly upset that the £320 bill had not been paid by the woman and her insurance company was not settling the account.

GG: Easy does it mate!

MIG

Amid the meltdown of the markets, and right after the giga 777 point drop on the Dow, the biggest in history, (luckily it didn't stop at 666, because then we would have added another problem :-)), MIG (Marfin Investment Group) a 5 Billion euro , FTSE-20 in the Athens Stock Exchange company, announced, yesterday, that they are raising their capital by an additional 5.0 Billion euros, through private placement, at a 20% premium of latest stock price!!

Five Billion! MIG is a private equity firm that is delivering about 380 million euros profit/ year, has zero debt (!) and now 6.2 billion euros in cash!!. They could have done the Buffet/Goldman Sachs $5.0 billion deal and still have $4.1 Billion to spare. But who needs fiat money aka "toilet paper" aka US Dollars nowadays, and invest in a company that is the mother of all "toxic waste" paraphrasing the late Saddam Hussein.
One of my best friends, Dennis, of the Mougins fame, is the CEO of MIG and maveric magician Andreas is the executive Vice Chairman.

Good work boys!

Eid el Fitr

Today, at crack of dawn, all Muslims around the world, are celebrating, Eid El Fitr ( breaking of the fast), the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the ninth lunar month of the Islamic calender. During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk, so as to get closer to God.
Eid begins with the fajr (morning) prayers, when the call to prayer is heard. Muslims are urged to eat something, usually dates and milk, which is what the Prophet Mohamad ate for breakfast on the first day of the Eid.
Most people try not to eat fish during Ramadan because fish can leave you thirsty and hungry during the fasting hours next day, so after a fish-free month, in Eid el Fitr, Muslims feast on seafood, as they can have as much water as the can the next day. In Egypt they would eat fisikh, the saltiest fish on this planet.
Altough not a Muslim, I have very fond memories of quite a few Eids that I have participated, in my youth, with my Muslim friends.
"Koul gh'am ou entou be kheir"
"Every year you be in grace"

Yaya!

Yaya, a very old lady, is my neighbour. She lives one floor below me on the fourth. Popi was treating her as if she were her mother and Yaya reciprocated. Yaya has very high blood pressure. I had read somewhere, and told her, that the presence of dogs has a soothing effect on people and in a lot of cases that psychological state reduces high blood pressure. Now, that Popi is gone, Yaya, when she knows I am in the apartment, comes up the stairs knocks at my door, and under the pretext, that her blood pressure is high and she needs to caress Bobby, she comes and keeps me company, once a forthnight, shooting the breeze and drinking beer which she adores, and which of course doesn't help her blood pressure problem.
God bless you Yaya.

I told you Greeks maybe barbarians, but in matters of the heart, nobody in the world can beat them