Aftermath

Aftermath is the fourth studio album by the Rolling Stones, released in 1966. But that's not what we're talking about here.

One generally thinks of a 70th birthday party as a sedate affair. I wish that had been the case last Saturday. I woke up in my backyard Sunday morning along with a couple Belmont dudes that had decided to climb my pergola some time after midnight. The house was trashed and some wiseguy unbolted the guest bathroom toilet. I’m still waiting on the legal consequences of the three separate ER visits due to bounce house injuries.

OK, I kid. Our Saturday soiree went smoothly.  We turned the patio into Party Central and in the kitchen we had professional chefs from Pinterest and Flour + Water, because we’re connected. The chow was a major hit.  We started with stinky French cheeses, sesame noodles and spring rolls, then moved on to the curry chicken and eggplant entrees. We had plenty of vino and beer and I scored a few leftovers. There was oratory and singing, but no dancing. Things wrapped at a reasonable hour so I could get my usual ten hours of sleep.

I’ve been following the news on Trump’s Big Fugly Bill. It seems a lot of people have problems with it, but the Senate passed it nonetheless. I appreciate that Susan Collins unfurrowed her brow and voted no. Rand Paul, who hasn’t had his ass kicked by his neighbor for some time, made it to the Senate floor to cast a no vote. Thom Tillis did the right thing this time, after voting to confirm charlatans RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth.  I’ll be sending Tillis a new bolo tie as a thank you. Sen. Murkowski got special carve outs for Alaska, admitted it was a lousy bill, and still voted yes. I wish she could have thought of the other 345,000,000 Americans, especially the poor, many of whom will suffer silently when their Medicaid runs out and rural hospitals close, until it is possibly too late, and then flood the nearest emergency rooms. I’m crossing my fingers that the House wrangling sinks this thing. I can dream. At least Fetterman can head to the beach now. If you can get a freebie from Esquire, I recommend you read Charles Pierce’s take on this mess.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a65269543/republican-big-beautiful-bill-passes-senate/

Shindig

As I mentioned in my last post, we got Mashie’s bash tonight here at the mansion on Gull.  The bounce houses are ready to go for the event.

I know F1 aficionado #1 can’t wait to check out this flick. He likes cars that go vroom vroom and for his entertainment to be loud and silly.

You’ve all heard the big buzz about the mayoral race in NYC.  I was planning to comment on the right losing its mind, but Charles Pierce took care of that for me. On top of the meatheads he references below, Rep. Andy Ogles, whom Pierce refers to as “a one-man ethical Superfund site", is seeking to denaturalize Mamdami. There does not seem to be a bottom.

Stephen Miller, White House Lycanthrope: 

“The commentary about NYC Democrats nominating an anarchist-socialist for Mayor omits one point: how unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate. Democrats change politics by changing voters. That’s how you turn a city that defined U.S. dominance into what it is now ... NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.”

Laura Loomer, White House Maniac:

“New Yorkers forgot all about the victims of 9/11 killed by Muslims. Now a Muslim Communist will be the mayor of New York City. Get out while you can ... He is literally supported by terrorists ... NYC is about to see 9/11 2.0.”

And ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States:

"The Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart, he’s got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!"

Enough politics. I’m back at home now.  I flew in early this morning via private jet from Venice. I’m a little pissed because I tore my Dolce & Gabbana tux, but the trip was worth it. I had a brief private chat with Jeff, and he committed to giving my new charity with $200,000,000,000 to provide food and medicine for those in need. Then I turned off my CPAP machine.

Daddy

NATO Sec General Mark Rutte knows how to play the game. He was fawning over Trump and stating, re the Iran-Israel conflict, "Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop." It was simple language Trump could understand. Rutte also committed to defense spending of 5% of each country’s GDP by 2035, knowing full well Trump would likely have croaked by then, and if not, he’d be long out of power and hopefully wearing a stylish ankle bracelet at Mar-A-Lago.

My daddy never dropped the F bomb, but you could often catch him with a GD, like the time I came down the stairs during my teen years with a ponytail. “Get that god-damn rubber band out of your hair”. I appreciated him making his requirements simple and crystal clear. I have shared this story previously, but it is one of those loving moments that’s worth repeating.

It looks like Tulsi Gabbard could be on the ropes.  She’s been dropped from intel briefings and Trump is blaming her for the leak that stated the U.S. bombing of Iran only set their nuke program back a few months. She had also said earlier this year that Iran was not close to having a bomb. Trump’s been saying we’ve obliterated their program, so if you don’t go along with the lie, you are on thin ice.  He always has to have someone to crap on. Meanwhile Fox weekend host turned Secretary of Defense was losing his shit at a presser.  You can almost see him sweating Old Crow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCcOtAp6GTc

On lighter note, the Bezos-Sanchez wedding is almost upon us.  I understand Jeffy boy wanted Trump to attend. I wonder if he’d be satisfied with the guy below as a sub.  The wedding invites stated no gifts, since that creepy pair already has a net worth higher than the GDP of over 100 countries. My main concern about this tacky affair was that my daughter was flying into Venice today, but she and AG got their rental car and hit the road to the Dolomites without a snag.

It seems like everyone is turning 70. My bro reached it in March, we’re having a party here for Mashie on Saturday and we’ll be off to a big event in Sonoma next month to celebrate with LA. This past weekend we were in Tahoe to hang with TCG. His boys took him out to golf on Saturday so we could prep for the event down by the lake. Plans changed when the snow started coming down and it kept coming.  Katie made a quick pivot to bring it inside their home and the surprise came off smoothly. Here’s a view from their kitchen window on the afternoon of the party.

No Kings

The wife headed to SF with #1 and Barbie, Charlie was representing in MA, TCG and Katie were in Truckee, my high school pal Dream went to NYC, and JB and her husband did their bit in FL. They joined 4M to 6M like-minded folks in what has been called the largest protest ever in the US. Meanwhile Trump’s low energy parade had about 40,000 stragglers. Steven Cheung, WH comms director, lied at Trump’s behest, saying there were 250,000 attendees. Facts matter. Trump also reamed out Hegseth because the parade was not all he had envisioned. Perhaps if Hegseth had arranged to put a few Democrats in pillories, his boss would have been satisfied. Trump also whined about the weather forecast.

Right now, Daily Beast tells me that Trump is trying to stop a civil war within MAGA regarding the Israel-Iran conflict. Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec are taking the isolationist view while Laura Loomer and Mark Levin are on the other side.  I'm really torn on this because all of those individuals are psychos and the entire MAGA movement makes me want to puke. Thomas Friedman provided his thoughts in an NYT op-ed as to how to solve the problem. I appreciate him showing us a reasonable approach, but does he really expect Trump to take rational action?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/opinion/trump-israel-iran-war.html

Elsewhere, there was another internal skirmish, with ICE Barbie and Stephen Miller, whom Trump has blessed with the moniker “Weird Stephen”, on one side. The other side is Ag Sec Brooke Rollins, who wants farm workers left out of the immigration raids. I side with Rollins, as I like to eat and want to continue to do so. Let’s extend her idea to every other industry so the economy doesn’t grind to a halt.

I’ll close on a lighter note. In celeb news, Barbra Streisand is not sure if she slept with Warren Beatty or not, Mariah Carey does not believe in the passage of time or clocks, and Brad Pitt’s girlfriend is bringing big Boho belts back to the red carpet. There’s so much more but I’ll spare you.

France Part Trois

I’ve been home for a week, so it is past time for me to get this one posted. Many thanks to Katie for providing me her detailed notes from our trip’s second half and to all my traveling companions for helping me get around. 

Before leaving Alsace, the four of us took a side trip to Germany. We visited the city of Freiburg, walked around a pedestrian mall and stopped at a biergarten for a lunch of pretzels, white sausages and a large mug of beer brewed on-site. We then took a drive through the Black Forest and ended up at an outdoor museum with an 18th century farmhouse, sawmill etc. My wife and TCG made friends with a few baby goats by feeding them some weeds.

The next day we hit the road to Épernay, the home of Moët & Chandon. We thought we may have gotten lost when we ended up cruising around some narrow, rural roads but the Google map proved reliable. We went into Moët’s courtyard to have a glass of Champagne and ended up ordering a bottle. It was a nice sunny day, so we lazed around a bit before heading to the classy Hotel Continental in Reims. They gave us a free glass of Champagne if we waived maid service the next day.  Such a deal! After getting settled in our room, we joined TCG and Katie at the bar before dinner. Our restaurant that night was just a few doors down and had a unique menu.  If you are in the mood for chicken or steak, this is the place for you, because that’s all they serve.  And you can get seconds, which we passed on, in favor of dessert and port back at the hotel.

The next day we took a tour of Pommery, a Champagne house in Reims. When we arrived, we found that we had booked a tour in French.  Fortunately, there were several other Americans that did the same thing so they able to arrange a tour in English.  Our young guide had been working there only two weeks but did a great job. There were about 160 steps down to the cellar, but they had an elevator for me. The tour wore me out, but we got a couple glasses of their fine product at the end.

Our next destination was Hotel Normandy in Vernon, a three-hour drive. This is where we met up with the numbers, Barbie and our newest friend, AJ. AJ is a long-time pal of #1 and Barbie and she fit right in with our crew. Vernon was just a pit stop, and we checked out the next day to head to Monet’s gardens. It was overrun with tourists, so I spent the majority of my time sitting, dodging people, or restraining the impulse to whack some people with my hiking sticks.

We pulled into Caen later that day. Everybody’s room at the Royal Hotel was available except ours. It turns out our reservation was at the Zenith Hotel, which was supposed to be our spot before plans changed.  We didn’t get the memo. So, the wife and I started following the directions on the phone to our new spot, but after almost running over several pedestrians, we discovered those directions were set for walking there. Oops. When we got to the Zenith, we couldn’t get the car in the gate, which put me in a huff and turned me into an ugly American. Or at least a mildly unpleasant American. All turned out well as we were able to get reservations for the next two nights at the Royal.

We split into two groups of four for dinner that night at La Rapière, a Bib Gourmand restaurant in Bayeaux. I had the 6:30 reservation with #2, AJ and Barbie, with the rest of the crew coming in at 7:30. This was the consensus pick for the best meal of the trip.

The following day we had an Omaha Beach tour with Val, our knowledgeable guide. We saw the beach, the German bunkers, some intact and some blown up, and stopped at the American cemetery. It was a very moving experience on an overcast day. I had never seen Saving Private Ryan, so I watched it on the flight home.

The agenda for the following day included a morning tour of the Tapestry Museum. I’m a major tapestry fan but I bailed on that to get some rest.  I did go to the Calvados tour in the afternoon. You can educate yourself here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvados

From Caen, we drove to St. Malo on our way to Mont St. Michel. St. Malo is a walled town that took heavy bombing in WWII. They rebuilt in the original style, and it was well done as it retains its charm. It is the setting of the book and TV series All the Light You Cannot See. I was riding with #2 on the way out and he managed to lose his parking ticket, but we sorted it out and headed to Mont St. Michel. We had further parking issues there as our entry code did not work. I told #2 I was never traveling with him again but rescinded that when I finally got on the island. Tourist trap might be too harsh a phrase, but I was not impressed.  The rest of the crowd was able to tour the Abbey, but it had too many steps for me. We got out of there as the visitors flocked in.

Our last stop as a group of eight was at the Hotel du Tumulus in Carnac, not to be confused with this Carnac.

This segment was quite relaxing, with several get-togethers before dinner or in the afternoon, sipping beer or wine at the hotel bar, in #2’s suite or AJ’s patio. We visited some beach towns and had several excellent meals. As we said our goodbyes, we laughed, we cried.

The original four then headed to Chartres for one night.  We had almost as much difficulty pronouncing that as we did with Reims. We saw the beautiful cathedral there on a warm day and had an excellent outdoor meal that evening in the shadow of the cathedral. And then we were off to CDG via a quick drive through Paris. Katie and I took the same morning flight on June 1, my wife caught a later flight that same day and TCG was off to Paris to meet up with the numbers and the Belgian for a boy’s trip to Île de Ré.

Cute Little Villages

Just to set the stage, I’m sitting on a backless chair in my boxer briefs in my hotel room in Ribeauville.  If that does not make you stop reading right now, you get what you deserve. However, I would like to point out that a backless chair is not incredibly comfortable for me, so I do suffer for my art at times.

I was trying to remember some of the other highlights from Strasbourg.  We did get our boat ride, which came with recorded tour notes on the history of the city. There were some Spanish high school students and local grade schoolers in front of us. We heard multiple languages as usual. We had an excellent dinner on our last evening. JB said my last blog was great and just needed a description of our dinners. Not knowing if that was snark or not, I won’t go into detail, except to say we were crammed in pretty tight. My wife made a remark that it was a fire hazard. She and Katie would have had to climb over the table or out the window if we needed to bail fast.

Friday morning we went to the car rental place to get our Citroen. It has proved to be very comfortable. They provided us two hours to take photos to document any pre-existing damages. We spent the first hour putting some pretty good dents in the thing and then we took our pictures. We stopped in Obernai and Selestat before checking into Hotel de la Tour in Ribeauville. My wife and Katie are on a mission to see as many cute little Alsatian villages as possible. Those two along with TCG are currently walking the wine trail to Riquewihr. We have had some interesting discussions about how to pronounce the town names.  I was calling Ribeauville ree bo vil but our bartender in Strasbourg corrected us.  It is pronounced ree bo vil lay. I’d add the accent on the second e if I felt like looking up how to do it on my Chromebook. The most fun in that regard are our chats about the pronunciation of Reims, our next destination. We came to the conclusion that it is a cross between a cat with a fur ball and that sound that Frankenstein makes.

Yesterday, our first full day here, we went to Colmar, the second biggest city in Alsace after Strasbourg. We had quite an enjoyable day and I was able to get around well with the cane. My wife is taking good care of me and had brought the hiking poles, but we kept them in her backpack. We visited the chocolate museum, which I thought might be a snooze, but it turned out to be fun and interesting. The creator of the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Bartholdi, was born in Colmar so there is a replica in town.  It is situated in a roundabout, so TCG went around five or six times so Katie could get a pic.  Then we decided to go to the nearby parking lot to get a better shot. The highlight of the day was wine tasting at Emile Beyer.  Our hostess spoke excellent English and was engaging.  Except for a couple Pinot Noirs, we had a wide variety of whites, their specialty. We finished our day in Colmar with another boat tour, this one in a much smaller and creakier watercraft.

Back in Ribeauville, we had a some difficulty figuring out where to dine. As we wandered the streets, there were some slight differences of opinion, but no harsh words were spoken.  Just as in Italy, this foursome has gotten along swimmingly.

We’re from France

I’ve been in the land of the croissant since Monday morning and I have yet to see a conehead.

I thought I had escaped censure for another painfully long period without a post, but one of the first emails I got after touching down was from JB telling me it had been nine days. Even #1 had taken a chill pill, as he knew I had been wallowing in loneliness all month.

I had to pack myself, which caused me all kinds of agita, because I have the emotional intelligence of a 10 year old.  I checked my travel list about five times before I made sure all the doors were locked and the stove was off. Fortunately I was traveling with Katie and TCG, so they picked me up for the airport ride and held my hand until we were safely on the plane. Katie had called a few days before to tell me the pick up time and to make sure I packed a belt.  After a pause, I realized she was joking about the episode from my 9/22/23 post. I might not have taken kindly to being teased but I realized I needed my substitute mommy to be on my side 100%.  After we were on the plane for about a half hour I went up to her seat to confide in her that “I’m feeling lonely”.  She said, “I understand. Now go back to your seat”.

I reunited with my wife at an airport hotel Monday. We have gotten along amazingly since.  Let’s see how long that lasts. We took the high speed train to Strasbourg Tuesday morning. We think we got on the wrong car because we could not find our assigned seats. Fortunately we did not get kicked out of the seats we had plopped down in.  The train made only two stops before Strasbourg, but I was looking out of the window to see which couple might potentially eject us.

TCG and Katie arrived here this morning. They stored their baggage in our room as it was too early to check in. My attempt to get remuneration for that failed. We took a walk to the cathedral and then ended up at a cafe by the water for lunch.  We sat next to a local that looked like Rod Stewart and was approximately his age.  He seemed like he was half in the bag, but I’m not one to judge. He regaled us with the stories of the Americans he has met, like Reagan, Barack Obama, and Obama’s sister.  We thought that was a mean feat since Obama does not have a sister, but we figured out he was referring to Michelle. After lunch we planned to take the canal boat tour but had to push that to tomorrow as they were booked for a while. Tonight will bring us to the Drunky Stork Social Club for cocktails and L’Oignon for dinner.

Au Revoir