Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

A combination of, “Use your words.” (us to Arianna), “I’m funny.” (Arianna to everyone) has become:

• Words are funny (Arianna’s invention).
• Words are power (us to Arianna).
• Words are powers (Arianna’s invention. We think she thinks that words are super-powers like in some of her big brother’s TV shows (think “Super WHY!“)).

We’re trying to teach her  ”Knowledge is power. France is bacon.”, but she’s not there yet.

When I was young my father said to me:

“Knowledge is Power….Francis Bacon”

I understood it as “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon”.

For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon” they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, “Knowledge is power” and I’d finish the quote “France is Bacon” and they wouldn’t look at me like I’d said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did “Knowledge is power, France is bacon” meant and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on “France is bacon”. When I prompted further explanation by saying “France is Bacon?” in a questioning tone I just got a “yes”. at 12 I didn’t have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I’d never understand.

It wasn’t until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.

Ireland

Melbourne, Australia

Drive to and from IPAC

Montfaucon, Switzerland

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

• Bacardi makes good aftershave in a pinch.
• For Dan and Erin… being in Egypt with Cesar haggling is “better” / “worse” than Dina. It’s made even better by the fact that the locals are taken aback that the blond-haired blue-eyed tourist knows Arabic. That said, he got results. Initial taxi price: 35USD. Final taxi price: 30EGP (~5USD).

On the good side, my rental this morning was a little Alfa Romeo, 6-speed, manual. It was dead easy to get up to 160. On the bad side, it was really foggy and there was lots of traffic. The car handled so well that I was actually looking forward to seeing if I could break my land speed record. On the good side, I’m still alive and uninjured. :-)

My work for this afternoon consists solely of:

1. Writing or editing PowerPoint decks.
2. Meetings.

Long weekend in May with Marc & Chris.

It’s cheaper to mail a letter from the USA to Switzerland than it is from Switzerland to Switzerland.

Posted in Personal | No Comments »