xmascard 11: credits, comments, ani and bob news for
2011
- Notes:
This was the year of the Arab awakening and the American Occupy Wall
Street and the public square movement. As usual police force was used to
break and suppress the resistance to business as usual. There seems to be
little hope in the near future for the 99%. Income inequality in the US as
measured by the
Gini (Italian) index
recently peaked at its highest point since the
crash of 1929. Class warfare came out in the open this year, but the 1% has
been winning this war for decades, and the rest of us are completely
outgunned.
- Sketches:
Why does Santa only seem to find his way to the 1% these days? I found a
McMansion photo online and traced it out without all the fine detail. I
stole the Santa from public domain clip art, but I redid it myself, removing
one reindeer.
OCCUPY what's left over... okay, I ripped off the mouse and bird from my
1981 christmas card, retracing them
without the log in between. I had to redo the mouse eye balls in Paint pixel
by pixel to get the right effect that I had messed up with the pen: namely
one of surprise. After trying many ways to rescan the original sketch
without success, knowing how hard it would be to get that look.
- Photos:
It was hard to select just a few photos. On page 1,
the annual Math Dept Christmas party shot by
Joyce. On page 2, the iconic Trevi Fountain, first
ani, then bob,
squeezed a bit to fit with cropping, and bob eating pizza in
Rome, ani sitting on the Spanish Steps.
Next line: cappuccino heart art, then
ani and bob relaxing on a bench in Villa Ada near our
Roman home, and last line: Orvieto weekend with Barbara and Christian,
against the Tuscan landscape.
- Miscellaneous news:
After a stressful third summer in Rome, bob returned to face a case of
shingles (herpes zoster), apparently stress induced. Luckily minimal
scabbing occurred in my hair on the left side near my ear. Could have been
much worse.
Ani got a chance to be a chemistry adjunct professor at Widener University
in the fall, teaching two freshman labs for nursing students. It was a great
experience.
The 1991 Subaru Legacy hand-me-down from Ani to bob finally gave up, after
starting fatal water system problems in the spring, causing overheating
after first 20 minutes, then only 10 after the Subaru dealer worked it over
and declared failure. Barkev said take out the thermostat, we all do it in
Lebanon. It worked for a while. We replaced it with a Honday Accord SE in
September, ending its misery and bob's.
- Bonus photos:
For photos of our summers 2009, 2010, 2011 in Italy, check out our
collection of
Facebook uploaded photos. Lots of Italian food shots!
- Remembrances:
Angelo Bianchi finally wore out at 100, leaving
behind wife Stella and the Bini clan of Sabaudia.
Etc.:
- The color of the paper this year was canary yellow. As usual Fed-Ex (Ex-Kinkos)
did the work. This annual enterprise was sent
out to about 450 recipients all over the world with nice
Garden of Love stamps to the domestic crowd, just before the postal
increase next month, but they are "forever" stamps, so maybe they will be
around next year too.
- Postscript:
This is for later maybe...
