Quote of the Day

Christian Fundamentalism: The doctrine that there is an absolutely powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe spanning entity that is deeply and personally concerned about my sex life.
- Andrew Lias

Quote of the Day

Children are like TV sets. When they start acting weird, whack them across the head with a big rubber basketball shoe.
- Hunter S. Thompson

Quote of the Day

A pessimist is one who builds dungeons in the air.
- Walter Winchell

Quote of the Day

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.
- Michel De Montaigne

Quote of the Day

When humor goes, there goes civilization.
- Erna Bombeck

Quote of the Day

History is a vast early warning system.
- Norman Cousins

Quote of the Day

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Quote of the Day

Theology is but the ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system.
- Baron Paul Henri T. d'Holbach

Quote of the Day

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.
- Thomas Alva Edison

Quote of the Day

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public monies.
- Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
- Mae West

Quote of the Day

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.
- Eva Young

Quote of the Day

Formerly a public man needed a private secretary for a barrier between himself and the public. Nowadays he has a press secretary to keep him properly in the public eye.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Quote of the Day

A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares.
- Elbert Hubbard

Quote of the Day

The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children is contrary to every principle of moral justice.
- Thomas Paine

Quote of the Day

If you're hanging around with nothing to do and the zoo is closed, come over to the Senate. You'll get the same kind of feeling and you won't have to pay.
- Bob Dole

Quote of the Day

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
- H.L. Mencken

Quote of the Day

Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren't, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.
- Gloria Steinem

Quote of the Day

Expecting something for nothing is the most popular form of hope.
- Arnold Glasow

Quote of the Day

Laus est facere quod decet, non quod licet
[It is commendable to do what is right, not what is legal]
- Cicero

Last odds and ends from Vienna

Downtown Vienna is full of horse carriages which will take you anywhere, no doubt for twice the price and thrice the time it takes to get a taxi to drive you there.


Strange woman greeting guests at the Böhmenwald.


Here we have a contemporary image of the composer Brahms, drunk out of his thick, Germanic skull, with his local groupie of the day... some floozy in a state of undress and not a small degree of inebriation if I'm any judge. Not that I am.


I just love this: It is not permitted to "drink excessive amounts of alcohol" on the subway/underground. But a little refreshener is ok.


From the City Museum - one of three (as far as I could tell) miniature models of the city.


This is a painting of some royal prince and his siblings. If I'd seen something as hideous as this crawling my way I would have hacked them all to death with a shovel, screaming the whole time, till they were all dead... and then some.

Quote of the Day

Originality is the art of concealing your source.
- Franklin P. Jones

Quote of the Day

Heathen: A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel.
- Ambrose Bierce

Foooooood

Some assorted pics from meals we had.

From the first cafe, near Stefansplatz. Notice the teetotaler and his Almdudler. And notice his drunkard colleagues and their glasses of liquid sin.


This is from the window of a chocolatier. The Viennese are big on cake and chocolate.


The cakes on display at the Kahlenberg cafe. I was torn between apple cake and strawberry and had just enough shame in me not to get both (meaning there were witnesses). Now I shall always wonder how their apple cake tastes.


The pheasant I had in Grinzing. Yummylicious.


My last meal in Vienna was at a restaurant called Böhmerwald. I chose the Czech national dish "Sviszkove ne smetana e knedliky" (I may have the spelling wrong). A slab of meat in a sweet and sour sauce, a dollop of jam and cream and potato dumplings. I must be one of the few non-Czechs to love this. The waitress' face lit up when I ordered it and when I said "djakojem" (= thanks in Czech) she answered back in Czech. It wasn't just a lovely meal; the taste reminded me of Prague and all the lovely times I've had in that beautiful, beautiful city.


The interior of the Böhmerwald. I heartily recommend the place.

Quote of the Day

It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "The Copper Beeches"

Excursion to Kahlenberg and Grinzing

Friday, I decided to get adventurous and go up north to the very edge of town, to Kahlenberg, whence there was supposed to be a grand view of the city. I casually mentioned this at breakfast, and suddenly I had half a dozen people who wanted to join. We first went by underground, then the city tram and finally a local bus up to Kahlenberg. There's an old church there, a very pricey hotel and a nice cafe, where we stuffed face - I went for hot chocolate and strawberry cake myself. We then took the bus down to the cozy little town of Grinzing and walked around a little bit before stuffing ourselves mightily in the local restaurant "Brandl". I chose pheasant and I chose well. Others had wild boar sausage and all pronounced their food good.

The views from Kahlenberg were indeed grand, but the weather wasn't the best. The hill itself is outside the city limits, while Grinzing is inside.


The great river Danube aka Donau flows through Vienna. The Austrians dug out a second arm to alleviate the periodic flooding and they also have a Donau Canal that runs through the town center.


Grinzing was full of really cozy, old buildings.


I think this building was possibly the whitest I've ever seen, it was almost radiant.


Cozy, narrow, one-way street.


This grand old house, from 1527, was the residence of the Namibian ambassador. We saw lots of houses along the way up to Kahlenberg that looked like they came from old money.


Strange looking straw bunny at the Brandl. Not sure if it's cute or eerie.

Quote of the Day

All men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue alone, that makes the difference.
- Voltaire

More from Vienna

I've mentioned that Vienna is a grand city with lots of monumental buildings. Here's a small selection of stuff I found picworthy.

This is the remains of a Roman structure, almost 2,000 years old. The fortress of Vindobona was built to guard against the northern Celts.


Cool detail on one of the umpteen fountains of the city.


Very cool detail on one of the city's academic institutions.


One of the many shopping streets in the old city center, or the "Inner Stadt".


On a large square in the historically Jewish parts of town stands this memorial to the more than 65,000 Jews killed during WW2.


The central synagogue in Vienna, with the Israeli embassy next door. Our guide told us one is not allowed to stop for too long outside, and armed police are patrolling the street 24/7. Almost 70 years after the end of WW2, this is how it is. Meshuga.


Old church just outside the Inner Stadt.

Quote of the Day

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.
- Thomas Sowell

Quote of the Day

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.
- John Maynard Keynes

Quote of the Day

An election is nothing more than an advance auction of stolen goods.
- Ambrose Bierce

Quote of the Day

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.
- Henry Brooks Adams

Quote of the Day

Evangelist: A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbours.
- Ambrose Bierce

Quote of the Day

My mind says "Get up and get active." Then my body begins to laugh.
- Jim Davis, "Garfield"