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Ghost of LL

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. Yeah--we had that experience. We were supposed to fly from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to Livingston, Zambia, on Kenya Airways. But when we got to the airport, we just waited while a very confused-looking ticket-counter agent typed on the computer. Eventually she figured out that the airline had moved the Wednesday flight from Nairobi to Livingston to Tuesday, which is to say that we had missed our connecting flight by around 24 hours. And let's just say that customer service is generally not a strength when it comes to African transportation companies. Her suggestion was to wait three days for the next flight; that seemed like a reasonable outcome to her. This is where having a good travel agent is pretty critical. We called the travel agent, who was in Cape Town, and she worked out a connection out of Nairobi to Lusaka, where we then had a six-hour layover until catching a puddle-jumper to Livingstone. By the way, the bar at the old terminal at Lusaka is great--the beers are $0.75, as I recall.
  2. In 2021, we did five days at the Masai Mara in Kenya, four days in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, three days at Kilimanjaro, and then we flew down to Victoria Falls for four days and finished in Cape Town (which was cut short because of a covid lockdown). Let me tell you--that was a lot. Traveling from Nairobi to Cape Town is akin to New York to Los Angeles. But I have a lot of thoughts and recommendations if you want to go that route. I also did Egypt back in 2008. I'm not sure I would do it right now, with the war in Israel. But I'm not sure I wouldn't. It's not like there's every a real good time to do Egypt. I've stopped in Tunisia and Morocco on a cruise back in the mid-naughts, so my experience in those countries is pretty limited. Morocco was really cool. Tunisia has the ruins of Roman Carthage (they did a really good job of destroying Carthaginian Carthage--there's not much to see from before the Third Punic War). But I'm not sure I'd go out of my way for that unless you're just a huge Roman history buff. As to real highlights, I'd say the African selection of cities is somewhat lacking. Cairo and Cape Town are pretty great. Otherwise, . . . meh. Natural wonders--Victoria Falls was amazing. Kilimanjaro is somewhat disappointing in that the summit is typically in the clouds; but at the same time it's easy to go up. On the safari end, I'd do the Masai Mara over Serengeti. On the cultural front, if you're at a safari lodge, they'll always offer a trek over to a nearby village, which is pretty interesting. So anyway--I'm happy to answer any questions you have as you get to a more refined thought on an itinerary. Also, I would strongly recommend a travel agent. Africa is the only place I'd use a travel agent, but I think there it's almost essential. I have a good recommendation if you get down to needing one.
  3. As Nadel referenced, I do feel like I’m dreaming. I spent more summer evenings in Arlington than I can recount. From the time we moved to Dallas in 1986 until my dad died four years ago, he had season tickets. He would’ve really enjoyed this night.
  4. Right back at you, Sausage King!
  5. Oh, my god. I can’t believe this is happening!
  6. Here we go, boys!
  7. Nate looks like he could go three more innings. I mean, it’s WS Game 5–fuck the pitch count.
  8. We’re just not going to make this guy throw any pitches. He could throw a CG with a pitch count below 60.
  9. This is the first game for which I also am nervous. Against Tampa Bay, I was still so disappointed by the last week of the season that I didn't have time/didn't bother to get enthusiastic. I was exactly like the groundskeepers: "they're still shitty." I assumed they'd lose, and two games wasn't enough to really adjust that outlook. Ever since, we've just been playing with house money. If we'd have gotten bounced by Baltimore, I really would've been okay with it. I hadn't thought the team was playing well enough for a deep playoff run, and everything was just a very happy surprise. The third inning last night was really the first time I had really internalized the fact that the Rangers could win the World Series. And now, . . . fuck--it's so close, we can almost touch it. And at the same time, I remember That of Which We Shall Not Speak. I remember the pain. A win tonight would be a balm on that wound, but I don't think it'll ever heal. And being this close has me really nervous. I was a kid when we moved to Dallas in 1986. My dad bought season tickets for the first time that year. I spent my summer evenings leaving my parents' good seats behind home plate to try to catch a foul ball down the third base line, where entire sections were empty unless the Yankees were in town. And yeah--I was Gen X, so my parents didn't mind me leaving their sight for a couple hours. We had those season tickets for more than 30 years. We saw a lot of bad baseball, and some good. But we never saw a championship.
  10. Ok--so I'm really very puzzled by this plan. You want to spend 6-8 weeks in 7-10 countries? And you think that is going to give you some sense of the continent? What you're proposing is roughly one week in each country. And actually less when you consider that each trip is going to be a full day's travel if you fly. How much insight into a country's geography, scenery, and culture do you think you're going to get in one week? I think you're underappreciating how big Africa is and how diverse it is. People get fooled by the Mercator Projection, thinking it's like Europe and you can just bounce between tiny countries easily. It's not. With eight weeks, you can see maybe one region of Africa. You could do North Africa (Morocco & Tunisia), West Africa (Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone), East Africa (Kenya & Tanzania), Lacustrine Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi), or Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia). Don't fucking go to Madagascar, man. Traveling overland is do-able from Zambia down to South Africa. Not particularly desirable, but do-able. But otherwise, it's really challenging and you're vastly better off flying. I have no experience with West Africa, but can give some thoughts elsewhere. Oh, and for the record, I think a safari in South Africa and a safari in Kenya is plenty different. But what are you interested in? Are you in for the wildlife/safari deal? In which case you want to hit up the Masai Mara in Kenya and the mountains of Uganda to see the gorillas? Or are you more interested in the cities, in which case maybe you want to do Casablanca and Cape Town? Or do you just want to see natural wonders, like Victoria Falls and the Skeleton Coast?
  11. I will never understand why anybody who is not a network executive would ever give a fuck about the television ratings. Is there some asterisk that would go down in the record books? Like "*Had low television ratings"? No? Then I don't give a fuck.
  12. I love Wash. I mean, I don't think he's a great in-game manager. But neither was Dusty Baker, and Dusty has a few more World Series rings than I do. So what do I know? Managers should be entertaining. Billy Martin, Lou Pinella, Sparky Anderson--they were all entertaining. Tony LaRussa was entertaining; I hated him, but he entertained me in my hatred of him. The game lacks entertaining managers these days. And Washington is always entertaining.
  13. Yeah. The voters are really going to be unimpressed. We’ll probably drop a spot or two in next week’s polls.
  14. So they have a deal on vouchers? This seems like it sucks.
  15. I'm not married to anything (I mean, apart from Mrs.LL; and even that's a bit day-to-day). My thought, though, was that since the Billy Joel concert is the point of the trip, we probably want to be close by for it. And in particular, it'd be nice after the show to be able to have a short walk back to the hotel rather than waiting on a cab or having to fight the Subway with 20,000 other people. But if I've misapprehended the situation, I'm all ears on other suggestions. I mean, I know she's going to want to go to a show on another night. But other than that, I don't think we have any real plans. And I'd appreciate any suggestions on that, too. It's January, so the weather is liable to suck.
  16. What the fuck possessed Castro to throw that pitch anywhere close to the plate. I mean, I’m glad he did. But goddamn.
  17. There is a nice big cell that looks like it's just going to park over Fredericksburg for a little while, which will be really nice for the Perd.
  18. Go up to the line at the top of your browser where it has the actual site address. Elon changed the name, but he has never actually changed the web address away from "twitter.com." So click on the post you want to link, then copy and paste the actual web address from your browser--i.e., the one that has a "twitter.com" address.
  19. Yeah--I noticed that. He's always been a big guy, but it's reached worrying proportions.
  20. This guy is going to be the gift who keeps on giving in 2024.
  21. Yeah--the "we'll take it to the voters" isn't a particularly dire threat to these House members. Their constituents are with them on this. Vouchers may be real fucking popular in Euless, but nobody wants them in Matador.
  22. It is meant to suck the oxygen. But it's also meant to undermine the next Special. Abbott has said he's going to call one more Special, after which he's done. And realistically, he'd have to be, because you're then running into election season. So the House plan is (I think) to clear the decks so that vouchers can really be the only thing on the call. The House can then pass their plan and adjourn sine die. They've run that play before, and it's actually a pretty good play.
  23. Glad to hear it. I thought of you immediately when I heard "Lewiston" last night, so it's a relief to hear that your folks are all safe.
  24. Oh, shit--I don't think that's terribly insightful analysis. I think it's been pretty damned clear that the House is insanely pissed at the Senate over the Paxton acquittal. And that particular hostage was always likely to be a casualty. I mean vouchers were always going to be a heavy lift in the House. But the House's anger with the Senate probably makes it completely impossible.
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