There he is again! Duke is acting ten years younger without his load of hair. He also thinks he's a yellow lab. He is now known as the "bonsai dog". (can't see the tail too well here.)

Who to root for? It was fun to watch my old college friend, Bob Bradley, coaching team USA and his son. Liam's team is out (England). I like the new German style and have always liked Argentina. Maybe there should be a coin toss at the start of each World Cup game where an undeserved goal or goal deficit is awarded just to get things started?

Who's that doggie?

Ah, summer haircuts,....doggie bootcamp?

ferdinand the deer

Happy Birthday, Rachael! Thanks, again, for setting up this blog.

Ah, World Cup! Sometimes the sabotage comes from within; temper, temper, socceroos! And, sometimes it comes from without; is it true that Mali tradition stipulates that refs must get wasted before doing their on-pitch job? Perhaps,.....

And back to that childhood favorite, Ferdinand the Bull; Here is the Dobbs Ferry version; Ferdinand the Deer. I shot this while walking across the Mercy College campus on the aqueduct. It's a pretty busy thoroughfare and it didn't bother the deer.

Best to all! Julie

Some photos for ancient history buffs - Cruise # 3

These photos from the cruise cover highlights of the history of ancient Greece through the period of imperial Rome. We start with Athens and the acropolis - Erectheum (below) note the porch with the statures of women holding up the roof, and of course, the Parthenon - the crowning achievement of Pheidas and Pericles in the 5th century B.C . Then they appear in chronological order from the Minoans, through Mycenaeans, Classical Greece, and Roman. If you enjoy any of these, you'd enjoy ancient history ( and archaeology, probably.)

Note: I can arrange these nicely on the blog writing page but never know how they are going to translate to the blog. It is smaller vertically so things are rearranged. Anybody have ideas on how to address this? Dad

The Palace at Knossos, Crete, the highlight of the Minoan Civilization about 1700 B.C. the palace had no defense walls, giant storage jars, running water, and inside toilets. The frescoes, as reconstructed by Sir Arthur Evans are beautiful - I especially like the dolpihns in the Queen's megaron (near her bedroom.) The bull played a major role - see horns behind the jars.

An Archaic sculpture of a young man or of Apollo(?) - in ivory about 6 inches tall. One of the earlier mainland carvings.

The first known large sculpture on the Greek mainland. The Lion Gate at Mycenae.

Apollo's holy island, Delos. Courtyard of house with columns and view of the harbor.

Above - Greek sculpture - classical tombstone in Rhodes museum, Archaic statues at Temple of Hera on Samos, Black Figure Athenian ware from Athens now in Rhodes. Below -The classical Temple of Hera on Samos - one of, if not the largest classical Greek temple.

Greek/Roman Stadium and theater at Aphrodisas inland from Ephesus in Turkey.

Scenes from Ephesus. The library -

big facade, little behind. Columns of different designs. Mom on a Roman - you guess it.

Main street of Roman Ephesus in modern Turkey. It had a fine harbor that silted up and the city was eventually abandoned. You can see how flat the land is in the middle distance.

Home of an wealthy, Roman, merchant. The excavation of these reminds me of Pompeii so much is left - color on walls, mosiacs, room layout.

The Cruise - Crowds and Familiar Places

The first part of the cruise took us back to a number of familiar places - in fact, as I have said, I felt I could give the tour at several lcations such as Knossos and Mycenae. Here are some shots of places that we and the girls have visited. Rico has been to several but, unless there is a deep baby brain cell working, he won't recall them. In many places, the biggest change was the size of the crowds, i.e. tourists. There were lots of student groups from age 8 to 18 out seeing the sites of their history. Some were actually paying attention and some were having a good time running about the ruins. There were a lot of adults, too. It is early season, at the beach in Santorini the taverna had just opened the week before for the summer, but there were a few cruise ships in most of the locations we stopped at but many visitors appeared more local than foreign

Entrance to Topaki Palace, Istanbul

Bazaar in Istanbul Ferry Boat Crowds

Santorini

Corinth Canal

Knossos

Epidaurus - where Rico had first solid food -bananas from a baby jar.

Athens - view similiar from the rooftop on Skufa St. 1963-4

Crowds at the Parthenon 2010

New Colour Scheme

Hello everyone!
Firstly I would like to say: Wow, Babbo and Yia Yia your cruise looks like it was amazing. I am incredibly jealous! I would love to visit Gallipoli (having spent so much time learning about it in school) and Troy and well everywhere!

Now, I decided that our blog might like some new colours, a little winter spirit now that its getting colder down here. I tried to choose colours I think will be easy to read, but if anyone is having difficulties please let me know and I'll make any necessary alterations. Or feel free to change it yourself... I would tell you where the place is to change it but I haven't worked it out yet myself, I just stumbled upon it eventually and didn't take note of how I got there!

Hope everyone is well,
Love Rachael

The Cruise and Memorial Day Thoughts

Gallipoli Peninsula - Turkey

Plaque quoting Attaturk, first president of modern Turkey, on the fallen troops.

Ann and Bill at one of the ceme-teries - there are many scat-tered over the battlefield and reserved for the dead from different nations. We are a bit more smiley than we were feeling at the site.

Burial sites and two Aussie graves of the hundreds that are on the peninsula.

Lone Pine was one of the major battles.

The two photos below show the national park area that was set aside by the Turkish government. They show what the Allies were facing as they landed. The bluffs were right at the ANZAC landing site. The Turks were dug in on the hills (see photos above of trenches today and one of the hills the Turks never gave up.) The Allied commander had his headquarters at one of the Greek Islands south of the battlefield and had little idea of what the terrain was or what was happening. The British fleet first tried to sail up the Dardanelles (Hellespont - Troy is on the other side from Gallipoli) to get supplies to the Russians. After losing half their battleships to mines, decided on a landing to attack Istanbul and the control the Straits from the land side. Fighting went on for almost nine months, nothing was achieved, the Russians got no supplies from the Allies through the Dardanelles, and surrendered to the Germans. The Communists under Lenin soon took power.

Memorial Day 2010

Hi all - This is report #2 on the cruise. Memorial Day weekend seemed an appropriate time to send some pictures and thoughts about one of the most meaningful stops of the criuse. We were scheduled to go to both Troy and Gallipoli - two famouns battle sites - on the same day. The ship was late arriving and we had to choose. Mom said Gallipoli and I, after a bit of hesitation, after all, I taught about Troy for 30 +years, I went to Gallipoli also. I am so glad I did. Troy has been and is in my mind, Gallipoli will be. The two locations reflect so much about humans, our animal roots, our noblest moments, our devotion to causes and to our fellow beings, to our failure to learn lessons, and ability to repeat mistakes such as attacking territory with no grasp of the geography. As you may realize, I am a pacifist at heart but I do appreciate the bonding, the sacrfices for others, the need to take a moral stand, that war entails. Troy and Gallipoli illustrate all of these factors.

In addition, Gallipoli hit me in several other areas that made it very emotional. Dad was involved in the creation of the American cemeteries in Europe after World War II and that whole chapter of my life came back as we visited cemeteries at Gallipoli. Also, ideas about my military service, various disagreements with my father, and my intolerance of leaders who do not have a full understanding of what they are doing, whirled around in my head.

We are both reading the Iliad at the moment - it has been 62 years sine I read it cover to cover. It is an amazing work if you can avoid getting bogged down in all the names, but see it as a commentary on war - I read it as anti-war but many don't. The war was, at its roots, a trade war but Helen makes a better story. Ten years and what was achieved? Glory for a few and a type of glory,of testing, that is terribly important for men as I see it, but there are other means of gaining it. There are some great insights and emotional/personal moments in the Iliad. I recommend it as a base for much of western literature and a study in psychology.

Anyway, these are some Memorial Day thoughts provoked by a delightful cruise and one of the most though provoking sites we visited.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. Hoping to hear soon about DI Globals. Hope it was fun.

Dad

Troy and Mycenae - another war story. Also, a great and memorable place to visit full of links to ancient Greek history and pleasant time in 1963-4 and 1968.

Two views of the area near Troy one showing a hill that might be an acropolis for such a city and the other beaches near the same location. View of the Lion Gate at Mycenae where Agamemnon was welcomed back from Troy after ten years of struggle according to Homer and the Iliad - he was murdered soon after by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover.