Haven’t seen Uke around lately? Is there a bookin’ editter’s convention on this week? Is NYC no longer connected to the Net? Did we piss him off?
Y’ out there Ike?
Been here so long he’s got to calling it Home.
Yeah, Ike. Where are you?
I think he’s out kidnapping hapless ducklings, with a fiendish grin on his face, so he can cook them in his oven.
trisha
I’m guessing a ukelele swing festival.
He’s been “on vacation” in Italy (have you heard of any extra mob activity there lately?). He should be back this week, so I’ll kick this to the top so he’ll know he’s been missed . . .
OK, toots, we KNOW you’re back—gonna fill us in on your vacation?
Hey, that’s really sweet. Everybody missed me. Okay, five people out of 5,420 registered members missed me.
{re-reads jazzmine’s post}
Okay, FOUR people out of 5,420 registered members missed me.
Sicily was very nice, thank you for asking, Eve. The Greek temple ruins at Agrigento, the Roman mosaics at Piazza Armerina, the ceramics of Caltagirone, the pasta con sarde, the Abbey of Thelema (Yay, Rabelais and Uncle Al Crowley!) at Cefalu, the nifty new methods for pouring nonsoluble concrete into buckets around the ankles…so many things to learn!
I like the new sig, Frank! One man gathers what another man spills!
Uke
Did you see Palermo? You must have. Is it worth spending a few days there?
Actually, we skipped Palermo AND Catania. Tried to stay away from the largest cities. Only went into Messina because that’s where the ferry is.
A good friend of mine said “You’ll love Palermo, it’s just like New York!” and I figured if I wanted to be someplace just like new York, I could stay right here where I am.
So glad you had a nice time—wish you’d gone to Florence, though, so you could’ve snatched my favorite painting from the Pitti Palace for me . . .
Did you manage to have a minimum of the required family-vacation trauma? Do what I do: lock yourself in the bathroom and repeat quietly, “just THINK it. Don’t SAY it.” Anyway, welcome back—now, maybe SOMEbody’ll get my esoteric pop-culture jokes . . .
OK Eve, I was there in 1998. I’m guessing that you’re speaking of a Botticelli? Which one?
Naw, Arnie, it’s Titian’s “Portrait of a Young Englishman,” also known as “Man with Blue Eyes.” I ASKED Ike to grab it for me—it’s small enough to tuck into his Chesterfield—but would he?
Surely there must be ONE gentleman out there willing to engage in a little international smuggling for a gal!
Sorry, Eve, Thomas Crown I’m not. If anything, I’m more of the Jacques Clouseau type.
The best I can offer you is a photograph ripped out of a magazine of the blond-haired guy from ABBA. He does have blue eyes.
Check out a close-up of the painting—
http://www.arca.net/dbimg/tizianob.jpg
There’s a guy a gal could fall for! So what if he’s been dead 500 years? This is my favorite painting; as far as I’m concerned, it beats Mona Lisa all hollow!
Still working on “Frankie Bailey,” I’m afraid.
Oh, sure, you’ve been having just a miserable time while I was away, reading all those billets doux in the “I Like Jewish Girls” thread.
Sorry I wasn’t able to cop the Titian for you. I DID see Messina’s “Portrait of an Unknown Man” (you gotta love that title) in Cefalu. MUCH hunkier, in my opinion, although that smug little smile makes you just want to slap him after a while.
OK, to set your poor vacation-lagged brain at rest, a cut-and-paste on Frankie Bailey from GQ:
She was a famous chorus girl in the 1890–1910 period, whose legs were so shapely that for years, great gams were called “Frankie Baileys.” Then along came Betty Grable and Marlene Dietrich, and poor Frankie was forgotten.