Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

18 April 2008

As a Tourist: One Regret and One Lingering Question

Filed under: travel — Will @ 16:02

Anita and I visited many new places over the past three months. After every trip, we discussed the reasons we’d like to return to cities and regions: to see things that we couldn’t fit in our schedule, to experience a place in a different way, or to return for a different perspective on an unusually rich site or collection.

I have few regrets from the trips we’ve made so far. Anita and I find most hotels charming, and if we are momentarily disappointed by a locale or our accommodations, we assume that it’s our job to recognize something that we missed. Our photo collections on flickr are a celebratory embrace of tourism: “Look at what we saw!” And that’s a good reflection of our overall attitude.

Still I find that, for each trip, there’s a lack of some kind: something that I do regret, or a curiosity that will not be sated and will not go away. One regret comes from our time in Lisbon. We did not hear a live performance of fado. We tried to find a venue, although half-heartedly. Weeks later, I still feel that I missed something. I will return to Lisbon, and one reason is to hear the fado.

I’ve known for a long time that Portugal was uniquely famous for its bull-fighting, and we did not see that, either. But I have no regrets about missing that distinctive feature of Portugal’s culture. I don’t plan to see a bullfight when I return. I am just not curious about it, which is unusual for me.

Sometimes, a nagging curiosity is like a good itch, because there’s something pleasurable about the discomfort. I have that feeling about a trivial detail from one place on our trip to northern Italy. In the Piazza Brà of Verona, there’s a building with the following architectural detail. (You can click on the photo to see the context.)

alternatingarchitectureverona.jpg

I saw this pattern of alternating crowns in several places, and it seems so familiar that I must have noted it outside of Italy, too. I want to know the name for this style, I want to know why it was used, and I want to know whether it is as common as I think it is. I did the usual surfing around the web to find answers, but I failed.

If you can help, I’ll award you the Commenter of the Irish First Quarter of 2008. (I’ll have to think of an appropriate prize, to be delivered upon arrival at the BBB&B, of course.)

16 April 2008

Former Cubs are a good bet

Filed under: sports — Will @ 21:03

Well, it’s a tie, but this gimmick is hardly a rousing success so far. Thank you to the two voters for being good stewards of the Bugle franchise.

Corey Patterson’s birthday is August 13, and Melky Cabrera’s is August 11. Both are within a week of my own! So the tie-breaker goes to Mr. Patterson, with the closer one. He’ll be on the roster tomorrow morning.

14 April 2008

And now… Your Team… The Dublin Felons!

Filed under: sports — Will @ 15:19

After the second week of the season, The Dublin Felons have a respectable 13-7 record, good enough for third place in the league.

The staff would like to introduce a new gimmick — er, feature — for the Bakker Bugle Blog. At several points during the season, you can manage The Dublin Felons! For this week, we let you determine which player will get room service and white balls for batting practice. Just vote in the poll to the right before noon on Wednesday (CDT). Your options are:

In case you’re wondering about the overall lineup: The Dublin Felons currently have three second basemen (Brian Roberts and Dustin Pedroia) and three outfielders. Yes, that’s a serious imbalance. But are the available outfielders worth exchanging for Polanco? You decide!

12 April 2008

N.Italy and Nice trip: Photos finally done!

Filed under: travel — Anita @ 19:37

We’ve finished culling the photos and writing our descriptions, so have at it! You’ll find each day’s activities in a separate set of photos at the following page: Collection of Photos from Northern Italy and the French Riviera
One more beach photo

11 April 2008

More Photos from Italy

Filed under: travel — Anita @ 21:39

Happy Friday! There are two new sets of photos from our trip to Italy, so check the photo collection page.

Best map of the day

Bugle P.I. — Lost in Thought

Filed under: private eye — Will @ 15:04

By the time I left my study session at the cafe, the roads were covered in slush and the cars were regularly spraying dirty, ice-cold water on pedestrians like myself. I was hit more often than usual because I was still concentrating on the fact that Garran Keocaigh was a major player in the Chicago Spire project. The same Keocaigh who worked with Eddie years ago. The same Keocaigh who now lived in Dublin. Keocaigh and I had lives that ran in parallel, geographically at least. Also, there was the obvious differences in success, fortune and fame.

I must have had terrible jet-lag, or maybe I was just cold. Either way, I didn’t notice the truck that pulled to the curb until its passenger threw something at me. I turned toward him, in time to get a hard piece of plastic in the nose. It hurt. (more…)

31 March 2008

Another month, another trip

Filed under: travel — Anita @ 19:38

In March, we took advantage of the public holiday “season” (17 Mar – St. Paddy’s day, 21 Mar – Good Friday, 24 Mar – Easter Monday) to take a trip to Italy and France. We started in Venice (2 days), and then traveled between Venice and Milan, stopping in Vicenza and Verona. We spent one day in Milan and two days in the French Riviera: Nice and Monaco.

We’ve prepared most of the Venice photos and they are now available for your viewing pleasure. The Bugle staff is hard at work, culling the very best of the rest of approximately 6000 or so photos that we took in six days. Each town/day will have their own set eventually. We’ll post another update when the next set is ready.

Here’s your link: Photo collection for March trip

27 March 2008

Links regarding the News in Ireland

Filed under: ireland,links — Will @ 21:16

News in Ireland:

“Hotels here are to slash prices for Americans in a desperate attempt to entice high-spending tourists. The Irish Independent has learned that hotels in the West — who have been particularly hard hit by the weak dollar — are to offer rooms on an ‘euro-for-dollar’ rate.” Wow — a suite will be about €10 a night by the end of the summer. Not that anybody can ever undercut the B.B. B&B’s low, low, prices. They’d have to be crazy to be as cheap as the Bugle! With every stay, you get a free onion!
You heard it here first. By the way, Chilean Sea Bass is sooo pre-War-on-Terror.
Mahon Tribunal vs. Bertie Ahern, government’s leader
Okay, so this is a bit of a mess. Here’s what we know: (1) It’s been going on for years, and (2) Everyone involved earns contempt, but not outrage, from the public at large. The Bugle has two staff members devoted, full-time, to figuring out the historical references, people, banks, and legal processes involved. Here’s a sample vocabulary list: dig-out, sterling lodgement, building society account, PAYE. And if you don’t know the terms “Taoiseach” and “Teachta Dála” and how to pronounce them, you’re going to find Irish radio news very confusing. (Fortunately, ministers are simply called “ministers”.)

As I recall, there’s a lazy, insipid way to report on matters that one is too intellectually challenged to understand. I believe it’s called American journalism, i.e. “Reprint both sides’ press releases and let the consumer sort it out.” So here you go.

Oops, too late. One of the two staff just filed for an extended leave for mental health reasons. Dammit. We’ll keep looking for a “Mahon Tribunal for Dummies” — anybody want to do freelance work for the Bugle?

Minister for Education under criticism on several topics
When it comes to news regarding the lesser ministers in the Republic’s government, there appear to be two possibilities:

  • All the basements of the major newspapers are connected by tunnels to a Control Room. In that room, there is wheel resembling the big wheel on The Price Is Right, labeled with the names of each minor minister. Twice a year, the editors-in-chief of those newspapers meet in the Control Room, spin the big wheel, and then launch a simultaneous attack on the name that comes up. They start covering the press releases of the applicable political entities rather than throwing them away, publish weekly “special investigations,” and encourage their cousins to write scathing letters to the editor.
  • The government is shot through with corruption and incompetence.

Please note the words “appear to be” above. As you can see, the Bugle takes an open-minded approach to Irish politics. We commit to you, our readers, that we will never jump to a negative assessment of a political system that we do not fully understand. Also, our own editor-in-chief has a conflict of interest on this issue, given the Irish union’s involvement. So that’s all for now.

The Save Tara Campaign
Ireland, as a young and island nation, is always wary of dependence on foreign markets and institutions. So it fosters its own natural resources, including the all-important hippie-leftie-greenie crop. The Save Tara campaign currently brings together factions devoted to the environment, sustainability, anarchism, historical reenactment, or opposition to corporate power. Now that the campaign has become the subject of a celebrity squabble involving Bono, Americans might hear about it, once.
Columnist for Irish Independent publicises embarassing US lawmakers
Seriously, you people are making it hard to live abroad.
The Next Big Issue: The Queen’s Visit
Many organisations, including the British government, have been sending up test balloons on this one.

26 March 2008

Bugle P.I. returns after late-winter hiatus

Filed under: private eye — Will @ 15:15

Editor's note: Our American audience is probably accustomed to long breaks in narratives, given the recent television writers' strike. Nevertheless, I apologize for the long break from the last episode. If you'd like to review the story so far, then scroll down to click on "private eye" under the Categories heading.

I wanted to help Eddie in every way possible, I quizzed Dan, his lawyer, for about a hour. Dan kept my drink topped off. Good guy, that Dan. Smart, too. Still, I was worried that there would be some surprise on Friday that would leave Eddie in dire straits. Dan did all he could to prepare me and reassure Eddie.

The alcohol helped with the second part, if not the first. Eddie and I left Dan’s office with few cares beyond a slight buzz and a strong desire for a meal at Hot Doug’s Encased Meat Emporium.

By ten, Eddie and I were knocking back lovely, yellow, watery American beer at Tommy’s. Tommy’s Bar was a neighbourhood place in just the way that the Cubbie Bear wasn’t. The Lincoln Park kids wonder how this place stays open, and the answer comes straight from Tommy’s mouth if you ask: “Figure out how many beers you gotta sell in order to buy a television. We don’t have a television and I serve the guys that I like.”

My phone rang and I answered it without leaving my stool. Eddie’s face broke into a smile as soon as he heard the voice at the other end say, in a flat Chicago accent, “This is the Athlone Garda. Am I speaking to Will’s pants?” (more…)

24 March 2008

Forbidden Fruit-y Candy

Filed under: consumer,ireland — Will @ 18:58

Maynards Wine Gums have gaily coloured packaging that calls out to children and adults alike. B&B chose this candy due to the enigmatic word, “wine” — would the “gums” taste like the varieties of wine pictured on the package? Burgundy, sherry and port? Would such flavours be appealing in candy form?
maynardswine.png
As you can see in the second illustration (click on the image to zoom), the candies come in medley of shapes and colours. The shapes suggest distinct wine-like flavours, as mentioned above. The colours suggest the usual collection of gummy flavours — lemon, berry, orange and the like. The plot thickens.

Unfortunately, the appearance of Maynards Wine maynardgums.pngGums suggests far more complexity than the gums actually deliver. The flavours correspond to the colours, regardless of the shape and label. The typical colours are fairly tasty, but nothing special.

There is even the usual, very dark colour; you know, the unappealing gummy that nearly everyone avoids. It corresponds the only vaguely wine-like flavour. Rather than licorice, the dark coloured candies suggest a strong red wine that half-evaporated from sitting open on the kitchen counter.

So the name “Wine Gums” is mostly hype. Why “Wine”? I can’t say that the idea of wine flavoured candy was enticing so much as fascinating. Is this a cynical ploy to enthrall children by offering an adult transgression in kid-friendly form? When I see the little names of wine varietals, clearly chosen for their cultural cachet, I can only think of the candy cigarettes that I “smoked” at seven years old.

And then my mind asks the inevitable question: Is Maynards acting in the service of Big Grape? The inclusion of both “port” and “burgundy” suggests a cabal so wide that it stretches from the stuffiest French vineyards to the scrappy merchants of Portuguese fortified wine.

Back to the candies themselves. I’d rate the consistency and mouth-feel of the candies as a 3 on a 5-scale of gumminess. (For calibration: Haribo Gummy Bears are a 2 and Cadbury Swedish Fish are a 3.) The Maynards Wine Pastilles differ only in their coating of sugar crystals, which add little to the appeal of the confection.

In sum: Maynards Wine Gums are passable candy, but they simply cannot overcome the high expectations (and sinister lure) of their name and physical appearance.

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