WINTER 2008-09

NOVEMBER 14

It is now past Election Day and I need not tell you the outcome. I would like to say a few words about it, however. The result did not surprise me, even though it was something that I never expected to see happen in my own lifetime, nor even in the life of the world to come. In fact I predicted one week before the election that the result would be 375-163 in favor of Obama, which I missed because he lost Missouri by 3000 votes. I chanced to be more accurate with this prediction than with two of my more famous ones, to wit: It will never sell (Instant coffee, 1947), and I guarantee you no one will remember this guy's name in six months (Fidel Castro, December 1957). But to have assumed Obama might lose would have required me to believe that people lie to pollsters en masse. Except for a single week, the polls had always shown Obama ahead, and had never shown McCain above 44%. The result suggests that if anything persons said they would vote for McCain and instead voted for Obama, but said otherwise because where they lived it was not de rigeur to vote for Obama. Here in Hodmezovasarhely we already have a translation of The Audacity of Hope on sale, as well as a book about Obama, except that they take your order and you have to wait, since the few copies they had on hand were quickly sold out.

We have typical autumn weather these days, although more like mid-October than mid-November, being in the low- to mid-50s. They have taken down the flowerpots from the lampposts and started to erect the ice-skating rink in front of City Hall, though I suspect they will not freeze it for another couple of weeks if this weather continues. Last evening---this morning here---I followed the Jets vs Patriots game on my computer. It comes on here at 2.30 a.m. I was really feeling good when the Jets rolled out to a 24-6 lead with a minute to go to the Half; but the Jets being the Jets, they allowed the Patriots to score a TD and to outscore them 25-7 to the end of the Fourth Quarter with a TD on 4th and 16 with one second left. God, they were going to lose this game! But no, they won the coin flip and marched down and kicked a field goal for the win in Overtime. So now they are all alone in 1st place in their division, which they would be comfortable in had they not lost 19-16 in OT to Oakland, one of the very worst teams in the NFL. But at least they are where they are. Next game is against Tennessee, which has not lost a game yet this season. Not that they are a Juggernaut, by any means. After that the Jets have relatively easy games; but those are always the hardest games for the Jets.

NOVEMBER 21

The weather has turned quite seasonal now, barely reaching 40 degrees in the daytime and falling below freezing at night. In large parts of Europe there is snow, but except for flurries we have none here in Hungary, though it would not surprise me if it snowed this weekend in the Zemplen Highlands, which are in the northeastern part of the country. Not much is going on these days. Our big event locally was the competition held in Szeged for the Opera Awards. In four cities of the world, Szeged being one of them, there was a competition for new singers of opera. The competition was sponsored by a French TV channel called Mezzo. which Anna and I listen to---watch---faithfully. As season-ticket holders we could attend some of the auditions for free, but I did not go to any of them. The finals were televised both on Mezzo and on national TV here, and there will be periodic re-runs on Mezzo. I attended a performance of Renaissance music at the Conservatory this past Monday, and then a performance of the Philharmonic on Tuesday evening.

DECEMBER 12

Well, it is really winter now, not just here but all over Europe. We have not had any snow here as yet---I mean to say in our part of the country; it has snowed in Budapest and environs and other parts of the country. They say Christmas is a-coming, but I don't especially feel it, and none of my friends act like they know anything about it. I have been somewhat under the weather the past several days, but I have no concerts to attend and Anna is away for a couple of days in Kallosemjen, which is in the very far northeastern part of the country. The general attitude here is a bit on the grim side. Numerous plants are closing, or drastically scaling down their workforce, and there is doubt that companies such as Daimler-Benz, which had committed to establishing large facilities here---10,000 workers in the case of Daimler---will in fact do so, since it is virtually certain that any assistance which they receive from their governments will likely stipulate that they cannot reduce the size of local employment. Most concerns here are over how pensions, education, and health benefits will be affected by required austerity measures. And, Oh, yes: we have a strike at our only international airport. It is not as bad as it sounds, however, since you can get a bus in town that will deliver you to the airport in Vienna in three hours for about $29, and, except for MALEV (the Hungarian airline), any airline you could fly out of Budapest you can fly out of Vienna. I am sure they would accept a ticket without charge, given the strike situation, since otherwise they would have to refund the ticket. I think I had better go to bed, this cold is getting to me.

DECEMBER 13

Feeling better today. I shall drive to have dinner at my friend's in Ujvaros. Anna called on the train about 8.00 this morning, her train should arrive to Szeged about 11.20. I received a text-message last evening from Ildi; her mother is dying and may not last out the weekend. The hospital she is in is a less-than-five-minute-walk from Ildi, who cancelled all her classes this week in order to be at her side. The great hope that she remains alive long enough for David, Ildi's son, to see her, as he is in Denmark and will not return until next weekend, as he has exams Friday morning.

All this news about the Governor of Illinois is really astonishing, even for Illinois. It is hard to imagine what must be operating within someone when, knowing he is the target of Federal investigators, and that there is such a thing as wiretaps, he proceeds to make such blatant statements, the meaning of which would be clear to even a four year old child.

As for the Big Three auto companies and the tactics in the Senate, let us get one thing crystal-clear: this was nothing more than an attempt at union-busting by the Republicans. The UAW is one of the most powerful unions in USA, but if it loses the work-force of the Big Three via bankruptcy, it is finished. There is nothing wrong with giving billions and hundreds of billions to Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank, etc. without requiring them to prove they will ever be able to pay back the money; they are not unionized. The Republican Senate leadership wanted the UAW to agree to accept the same contract terms as those of workers at non-union Honda, Toyota, Hundyai, etc.. Why have a union if your contract is going to be the same as that of those who do not have a union? They also wanted President Bush to be able to appoint someone who could make determinations affecting the outcome of matters after the expiration of President Bush's term, on March 31st. For once Bush got a little sense and decided that the very last thing he needed was to have the Big Three go into bankruptcy in his last days in office. And Senator Shelby! We all remember his eloquent pleadings on behalf of Clarence Thomas, so how could we doubt his sincerity when he said that if the Big Three had auto plants in his state he would still be opposed to bailing them out. Of course they do not; but Honda, Toyota, and Hundyai do---all non-union, of course. What people often forget that it was the unions that got workers pensions, health benefits, even vacations , not to mention decent salaries; and the non-unionized companies that offer these things only do so in order to deter the workers from organizing. If the unions disappear, you can bet God's next breath that all of these things will disappear as well. I am not claiming that unions are choir-societies; but Ford wasn't either, nor US Steel, nor any of the companies the unions had to deal with. All you need do is see how workers get laid off in a non-unionized plant versus a unionized one. Just last week the workers had to sit-in to get their back wages when the company started secretly moving out equipment during closing-times.

DECEMBER 29

Christmas has come and gone and New Year's is coming down the street. Anna and I went to Vienna for a couple of days. It was not as cold as last year, though it was rather windy. We stayed at Stephanushaus, a hotel operated by Benedictine nuns. (Erroneously, I had always said they were Dominicans). We did lots of walking---as usual---but did not go to a museum, which is unusual for us. On the other hand we have been to Kunsthistoriches (Museum of Fine Art) innumerable times, and even went to the Belvedere last year; until last year we had walked in the gardens but had not gone inside. At least I had not; it is possible Anna had, since she has been to Vienna more times than I, and therefore not always with me.

We do not have any special plans surrounding New Year's. I usually go to bed early and do not bother to watch the various welcoming-in-the-New-Year events on TV, as they all seem rather frivolous to me. We have a fireworks display here in town which I am sometimes awake to hear, but I have never gone to see it, nor even looked out my front door, from which it is probably possible to see some of it.

And of course I do not watch the fireworks in Budapest which are shown on TV. I have no doubt it is quite impressive; but I have no special interest in that sort of thing. I have friends who have a ringside seat for the fireworks from their flats near the Danube in Budapest; but I am not all that certain that they watch the fireworks, at least they do not speak of having watched it.

Weather-wise it is----well, coooooolllllllldddddd. Not all that cold, rally; but the very mild winters we have had here in my nine years of living here have left me with the feeling that it is cold whenever the temperature falls below 45 degrees. Almost my entire life was lived in places where winters were quite cold and usually quite snowy as well; but a few years away from that kind of weather makes you think of it as, well, sub-Arctic. And I will be here the entire winter, for we do not go to Spain this year until mid-March.

So let me close this out with best wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May your pension fund be well managed and rock-solid! May the value of your house increase exponentially! May you be lucky enough to be among that 10% of Americans whose income is too high to qualify for the Obama Tax Reduction! May the Mets get a good bullpen and make it through September to reach the World Series! May the Jets stop getting suckered into getting the likes of Boomer Esiason and Brett Favre and finally give that promising looking kid from Utah a shot at the QB spot! Peace be unto you all! Amen.

AUTUMN 2008

SEPTEMBER 15

It has been, as you know, three months since I last wrote. During that time I have been in USA, entirely in the NYC area. If you live in that area, then I probably got to see you at least once. If not, then we did not see each other at all. I spent a relaxing and very satisfying time and got to see old friends and dear colleagues, which is something of a redundancy, since my old colleagues are all dear friends. I arrived back to Hungary the very end of August and have been understandably busy since then, as I am going away on a one-week holiday to a village on the Slovenian border at the end of this week.

In the course of a few days our temperature here dropped from the mid-90s to the mid-50s! It feels like November, and I have packed mostly late-summer and early-fall clothing for my trip. (I even included my swim suit, and the pool is outdoors). I shall add that area to my daily weather briefings on my home-page and keep my fingers crossed.

USA is not the only place with hot political news. While having ebed (a midday dinner), I watched our Prime Minister deliver a defense of his administration in Parliament prior to a Confidence Vote. The Opposition party is demanding new elections, which need not be held until two more years, and boycotted the Confidence Vote because they knew the governing party would win; the governing party will definitely not hold elections because they know they would lose badly. So we had the charade of speeches by the PM and his supporters to a chamber packed with their supporters, and speeches by representatives of the other parties, applauded by the two or three of their supporters who showed up.

I am going to go out on a limb and give you my feeling about the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Republican Party.

She is without a doubt the most ignorant (including Dubb-yah), the stupidest, the kookiest, and the most grandiose figure I have had thrust upon me in my years of observing the political scene in USA. I cannot believe some of the things she says: that her "preparation" to deal with the problems of our relations with Russia is that "you can actually see Russia from some islands in Alaska"; that our troops are "doing God's Will" in Iraq; and that her never having met a leader of a foreign country is because she was "close to the people" and not getting corrupted by being in DC. Until last year she never even had a passport, but she insists that she is ready to be President, because being President is about "knowing what the mission is about", and not cluttering your head with a lot of irrelevant DC-speak. No offense to him, for he is an old friend. But do you think that Dave Kauffman's being Mayor of Monticello (same size as Wassilla, and he was Mayor for 20+ years, mind you)

is adequate preparation to be President? At least some important people came to the Concord, which would have given Dave the opportunity to meet them at least; but who ever went to Wassilla? Let me drop this before I have to increase my blood-pressure medication!

OCTOBER 7

We had a grand time at the timeshare in Nemesnep. It is a quite new place, part of a chain; we have been to one of its other resorts, in Keszthely, several times. It was two kilometers down the road from the border crossing to Slovenia, which was unmanned. On our second day we went to a spa, Teplice, which has two grand hotels, in one of which we had coffee. From there we went to Sobota, a fair-sized town (about 75,000, I would guess) with no special architectural attractions. On the way home we stopped at Lendvara, a town of 5000+ in a small triangle that is about five miles from Hungary and five miles from Croatia. Astonishingly, it had a very large shopping mall and some attractive buildings, not all of which we went to. But we did go to the theater, a striking architectural gem you would never expect to find in a town of 100,000 in the US, let alone one of only 5000. On Monday we went to Maribor, a major city of Slovenia, with very impressive buildings and squares, and a very attractive park as well. And of course churches. On Tuesday we stayed in Hungary and went to a national park and several sights, including a church dating from the 13th century, that is still in use. On Wednesday came the greatest surprise of all. We visited the Croatian town of Varazdin, which can't be much larger than Hodmezovasarhely, but which had stunning buildings and squares, churches, and a magnificent castle dating from the 13th century. The weather also happened to be the best on that day, warm and sunny; on other days, though it never rained, it was cloudy for the most part and slightly on the cool side. On Thursday we visited Lenti, a Hungarian town with a large open-air market, which Hungarians call a piac (pronounced pee-otts), and some surprisingly attractive buildings, and also an old fortress on the edge of town. On Friday we went to Csesztreg (CHEST-reg) in order to mail some letters, among other things. And then we drove home the following day, a long drive as Nemesnep is clear across the country and there are no expressways going there from here, unless you are willing to go up to Budapest on the M-5 and the M-0, and then take the M-7, after which you still have about 1-1/2 hours to go on so-so roads. Once home I had lots of things to take care of. Saturday I went to Anna's class re-union, an annual affair; they have grown accustomed to my coming in Anna's absence, so even though I was not a classmate, they accept me as though I had been. In the evening I went to a magnificent performance of Tosca in Szeged. She sang magnificently and was ravishingly beautiful. My only complaint---if you want to call it that---is that Baron Scarpia was so handsome it was hard to accept him as a villain; it would have been easier had he been old and fat. Now I am preparing to leave Thursday morning for a weekend in Sarajevo, in Bosnia-Herczegovina, where my very dear friend, Peter McDermott, is doing a Fullbright this semester. For those who do not know Peter, he is Professor of Education at Russell Sage and our friendship dates back to 1974. He was a witness when Anna and I were married. So I shall have more to say when I return.

OCTOBER 15

I am back from Sarajevo and rather tired, as it is a sixteen hour trip by train, with three changes of train and a layover long enough to get a sandwich only in Pecs. I left home at 5.00 a.m. and arrived there at 9.15 p.m.; returning, I left at 7.15 a.m. and arrived home near midnight. Peter met me at the station and we walked to his flat, which is a quite attractive house overlooking the old city. We did quite a bit of walking during the three days I was there, which is not in itself a problem, for I love to walk, as those who know me well well know. But I am rather averse to walking uphill and Sarajevo is a quite hilly city, so I had to take it a bit easy now and then. Peter got tickets to the symphony for Saturday evening and we attended a performance of Carmina Burana, along with some unrecognizable but quite satisfying works. I was very impressed, both with the orchestra and with the hall where it was done, though it was not a traditional symphony hall but rather appeared to be a sports stadium which had been adapted to meet the needs of a symphony hall. But the acoustics were quite good, which suggests that I may very well be mistaken about that. We went to two very fine restaurants and attended a get-together at the home of a young couple employed at the US Embassy, where I met several other Fullbrights. It seems strange to see minarets and European Muslims in Europe, but otherwise it seemed like any other European city in the sense of the general atmosphere. There are numerous Christian churches, mostly Roman Catholic, and there is nothing in the general demeanor of persons to suggest that you are not in Slovakia, Hungary, or any other European country. People were very friendly, and their opinion of the US, and in particular of Bill Clinton, is extremely favorable.

I am not, however, one of those Americans who is greatly concerned about whether or not the locals like Americans. I have never been ill-treated by reason of being American, even in places where the inhabitants tended to sharply disagree with American policies. Like intelligent persons everywhere, they realized that I am not an official of the US government and Bush does not seek or act upon my advice, so I am not responsible for what he does.

OCTOBER 17

I enjoy doing this every now and then. What famous event in US history took place on this date? You have no idea? I'll give you a hint: the year was 1777.

Still no luck? General Burgoyne surrendered to the colonials at Saratoga, a victory which led to open support of the American cause by France and other nations.

Today is a cool rainy, typical autumn day, in contrast to yesterday, which was sunny and quite warm, about 70 compared to today's 51. I chanced to read in a local newspaper today an announcement that there will be a Mass Sunday evening here by the Bishop, the occasion being the acceptance and blessing of two paintings donated by an acquaintance of mine, Dr.Moldvay Sandor, in honor of his late wife, who was a classmate of Anna's. Naturally I shall attend. If I had not glanced through the paper at a friend's I would have known nothing of it. I have my car back. Alternator. Fortunately it did not happen while I was on vacation. About six years ago it did happen, while I was in Transylvania, in the course of a trip to Italy. Fortunately (because there probably was no Toyota dealer in all Romania with one in stock) it happened in a small town where a passerby directed me to a mechanic who built me an alternator in the course of six hours. It lasted me the entire trip to Italy and back, but once home again I immediately went to the local Toyota dealer and got a new one, which is the one that just went on me.

Next Wednesday begins the Oszi szunet, the Autumn Vacation in all schools of the country. The 23rd is a national holiday anyway, and the szunet ends after All Saints Day, which is a big family day here, when persons come from all over the country to visit the graves of deceased family members. Some do it on All Souls Day, the following day, as many Catholics do in the US; but All Saints Day is the most widely observed.

Well the election is almost upon us and at this moment it appears that Obama is headed for a rather convincing victory. I said long ago that he would either win by a wide margin or lose in a close election, but it appears that this will not be a close election, even traditional Republican states seem to be going for Obama. We shall see!

OCTOBER 19

Astonishingly, the BBC is carrying Obama's campaign speech in NC in its entirety.

For me, at least, one GOOD thing has come out of all this economic chaos: the dollar has actually risen in value against almost all European currencies. Here in Hungary its value has risen from 143 forints two weeks ago to 198 now----and climbing! Ditto the Euro: only $1.33 vs $1.60 two weeks ago. Today I filled my tank. It used to cost me $64 to fill my tank (I have a Toyota Corolla); today it cost me only $51, even though gasoline has declined in price by only .25 a gallon, thanks to the shift in currency exchange values. If you are wondering about my math, my tank was virtually empty today, whereas I usually fill it when it is about 1/4 full.

I usually watch the NFL on TV Sunday evenings, but since I have to get up at 04.00 and the game does not start here until 22.00, I shall have to get the results on my computer when I get up. It is almost 21.00, so time to go!

OCTOBER 22

I am back from Debrecen. My trip had a very bad beginning. The train from here goes directly to Szolnok, where I change and take a train to Debrecen. Since it is a 2-1/2 hour trip, I settled in and began to listen to my MP-3 player and to read. We arrived to Szentes, and after a few minutes I noticed that no one had gotten on the train and that everyone had gotten off. I got off and asked the stationmaster, and he said that there was no thru service between Szentes and Kunszentmarton, that one had to get off the train and take a bus and then re-board the train in Kunszentmarton. My problem was that the bus to take me there had already left and the next one would come in two hours. I considered taking the train back to Hodmezovasarhely, where my car was parked at the railroad station, and driving to Debrecen. Problem: the train just left. Next train: two hours. You would think they would have placed notices on the train, and in all the stations; but, no, this is Hungary. There were notices in the station in Szentes, as well as in Szolnok, where they also made announcements; but if you boarded the train before you got to Szentes, going toward Szolnok, then you just had to know in some other way. Apparently other passengers did know, but I did not, the result being that I arrived to Debrecen at 12.00 noon instead of at 10.00

I have taken to "watching" the US network news programs on my computer, as well as listening to the National Public Radio news broadcasts, along with other news programs, such as 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, etc. I have sort of known about them all along, but never thought about watching them until I watched them with Peter in Sarajevo. Just as I know about reading the local newspapers and listening to WQXR. the latter is less appealing because, using Media Player, I can created my own musical programs from the music stored on my hard drive, which amounts to scores of symphonies, operas, and other selections, and thus enjoy my favorite music all the time. I am writing this, by the way, while resting up from house-cleaning; I have done all the mopping, and now need only do my living-room and bedroom, the latter being the more difficult of the two and therefore the one I shall do last.

OCTOBER 26

It is a cloudy and cool Sunday morning. Yesterday I rode my bike home from the friend's where I had left it back in June before I left for USA. Although I go there several times a week, I never bothered to ride it home until yesterday. Let me explain the economic crisis here and how it came about. It actually has to do a great deal with----yes, mortgages! Believe it or not, it is possible here to buy a house or flat in many instances with no down payment. Or at least it was. Many persons borrowed money for home purchases, car purchases----again, no down payment----from Hungarian banks that were acting as agents for foreign banks. In short, they handled the paperwork, but you were borrowing the money from a Swiss, Austrian, or German bank. You got Hungarian forints, which is what you needed for the purchase; but your loan was in euros or Swiss francs, and---get this---had to be repaid in euros or francs. This was no problem so long as the value of the forint against the euro/franc remained about what it was when you borrowed the money. But it did not. The forint declined in value, therefore it took more forints to pay your monthly payment, with the result that payments jumped as much as one-third. This could not happen in USA, of course, since we borrow in dollars and re-pay in dollars, and the fact that the money is being borrowed from HSBC or Natwest (British banks) does not affect the amount of the payment because of fluctuations in the exchange value of the dollar against the British pound; but for Hungarians it is similar to having an adjustable rate loan, in that the amount of your payment is adjusted according to the exchange-rate every six months.

We are still in the long holiday weekend. I have a light schedule this week, but then there is the All Saints Day holiday weekend, during which I shall go to the cemetery and take flowers to the graves of Anna's parents and those of friends who have died. This is a very major holiday here, and people come from all over the country to go to the cemeteries where relatives are buried.

NOVEMBER 8

As you can see Election Day has come and gone. I was called by a newspaper reporter who wanted to know if I were going to vote in the election and how I would do so. I explained that while in USA in the summer I went to the election office of the county and had them mail me a ballot, which I then filled in and mailed to them in mid-October, as it had to arrive before November 4th in order to be counted. There were Americans here teaching English in the public schools for an organization that sends teachers here every year and they also appeared in the article which appeared in the newspaper; I have never met either of them, however.

As for the results, well, I had predicted that Obama would win by 375-163 electoral votes, which was very close to the outcome, the difference being caused by the fact that he narrowly lost Missouri by about 5000 votes out of about 5 million cast. As for my reaction to the fact of his victory, all I can say is that it is something I certainly never expected to happen in my lifetime. But then so many things have happened during my lifetime that I never expected to happen. I do not expect any miracles; after all, the Great Depression was ended by World War II, not by the New Deal. However, the New Deal provided people with the tools of survival during the Great Depression, and---more important----it gave them hope. People felt that they were better off, even if in fact they were not significantly so. The good part is that there exist today means for the government to address the problems of economic turmoil that did not exist in the time of the New Deal. The bad part is that the enormity of public and private debt may prove too crushing for sustaining a stable currency. So we shall see.

With this I shall end this, for it seems a natural breaking point.

PRE-SUMMER 2008

MAY 28

You will not believe what happened. I had been working on this since back in early April and went to add something today and accidentally erased everything! Now there is no way I can remember everything I wrote and I shall not even attempt it; and early April is so long ago I could not possibly recall even major events, let alone the trivia which I often include in these. Well, let me starts with the current news. It is very, very hot here, in the mid-90s, would you believe it? It was that way yesterday in Hajduszoboszlo, and I thought it was a fluke; but it seems it will be that way for the next several days. I shall check---I was going to anyway---because we (Anna, I, and a friend) leave for a week on Lake Balaton Saturday morning. We return on the 7th, then Anna prepares to depart for USA on the 18th, and I follow on the 27th. I had not intended to travel to USA this summer, and had instead thought of going to Bulgaria, to which I have never been; but something came up, and Anna asked me to come to USA, and when I demurred, she asked me again several days later, so I agreed. Meanwhile, the bad news is that all tickets to Wagner's Ring Cycle, which will be performed in concertized form from 19 thru 22 June, are sold out. I cannot say this is a great surprise, but I held out some hope. We were up to Budapest this past Sunday to attend a program of Bulgarian students and members of the Bulgarian community (not large, as you may imagine); Anna 's cousin teaches there, or at least she did, for she has been declared excess. This is not a school of the Hungarian government, but rather one sponsored by the Bulgarian Consulate. I do not know the technical details, but suffice it to say that last month they announced that she was being terminated, along with other non-Bulgarian teachers. I do not know the law here, but it would seem to me that you would not be able to dismiss someone solely on the basis of their nationality, especially after they have taught there for fifteen years.

In other news, Anna and I were to Prague with a group of retired teachers for a weekend. We had been to the city several times, and each of us recently, but never together. It was a very warm weekend---the Pentecost Holiday weekend, as it happens. which is celebrated here on Sunday and Monday, as are Easter and----well, I cannot think of another, but Christmas is also celebrated on the 26th. We left Friday morning and returned Monday evening. We were billeted in a dormitory of the Czech version of MIT, on a high hill. Since the group walked everywhere, this immediately gave rise to a problem for me, for although I love to walk and will walk any distance on level ground, I do not climb hills. The problem was solved by taking the subway to Dejvicka station and a bus from there to the University. I was familiar with Dejvicka station, having taken the metro there to get a bus to the airport the last time I was in Prague, and I saw at the bus stop in front of the University that the buses ran to that station, so everything became easy, except finding exactly where the bus left from in the plaza above the station, which we managed to resolve, though not always in the same way.

A friend of Anna's---some of you may know Karen, with whom Anna worked---came to Hungary, and she and Anna went to Venice and to Transylvania. I went to neither; I had no interest in going to see Bran Castle again, which is famous (?) for its connection with the Dracula Legend, and while one can never go too often to Venice, I would rather go in what comes closest to being the "off-season", for there is never really an off-season for Venice.

We have been following the Presidential campaign---who hasn't---and are relieved that we are at last nearing the end of Phase One. You will not believe how many persons here follow the results as though it were the World Cup in soccer. Most wonder if Hillary will get the nomination, for they feel that the odds are greater against a woman getting the nomination than against a black. This, notwithstanding the fact that under normal circumstances, our President here in Hungary would have been a woman, Szili Katalin, who is President of the Parliament, which corresponds to Nancy Pelosi being Speaker of the House. She isn't because SZDSZ, which was a coalition partner at the time, urged that the President should not be someone politically connected, but someone not identified with any political party. Also, I need hardly point out that most persons would dismiss as ludicrous the suggestion that a gypsy could become President of Hungary. And bear in mind that the position is a largely ceremonial one, which does not begin to bear the authority and power of the American Presidency. Mind you, the most important thing to people here is that whoever it is, it will not be Bush. They have never heard of McCain, and cannot imagine that a Republican could get elected for the next fifty years. If only they were right!!!!!

Well, the primary season is finally over, and the unlikely winner won. I must say that although I was a Clinton backer virtually until the end, I became somewhat disenchanted with her in the later stages of the campaign. You simply do not say that your opponent in the primary is unqualified to be President, but that the person whom you know is to be the candidate of the other party in the general election is highly qualified. I think everyone acknowledged that Hillary was more qualified than Obama; but that depends upon what you were looking for in a candidate. Nixon arguably was more qualified than JFK, and Gore was clearly more qualified than Bush Jr.

We are back from Lake Balaton---it is June 18th, and Anna left for NYC this morning. We have been to Keszthely numerous times, so it was mainly a change of scenery and rest. We went to Zalaegerszeg and Nagykanizsa, and I had never been to either of them before, for they are in that part of Hungary to which I have gone least often. In late September we shall go for a week to Nemesnep, which is on the Slovenian border; this will give us the opportunity to drive over to Slovenia, one of those small former autonomous republics of Jugoslavia which I have not been to, although I have been through it on the train to Venice. As I said, I shall leave for NYC the 27th and return the 26th of August. I am there primarily on business, so you should not become offended if I do not get to your part of the country. If you live somewhere near NY, then there is a good chance I will see you; if not, the chances are not good, for I do not know just how much of my time will be taken up by the business I am going there for and I have no idea whether the business will be concluded even by the time I return in August.

This will mark the end of this entry. The next time you hear from me on this site will likely be in late October. Until then, I wish you good health and good cheer.

SPRING 2008

FERUARY 22

It is a quite mild day. Anna has invited two couples to dinner. Both of the wives were classmates of hers both in high school and college and I know them and their husbands well, as we frequently are invited to their house and occasionally go out together. I got up and dressed early as I had to stop at the office of the community to pay my monthly charges. I had planned to do that yesterday, but instead went to the Ókmány Iroda, which is sort of like the County Clerk in the USA, as I had received a registered letter advising me that it was absolutely essential that I come ASAP to Window #1. Fortunately---and this is most unusual---there was no one ahead of me when I arrived and the woman was overjoyed to see me. The problem arose from a complicated set of facts. When I applied for Hungarian citizenship, I had to submit a copy of my birth certificate, translated to Hungarian (of course!). About a month later I received a letter from the Belügyminiszterium (like the Home Office in Britain; it is the Ministry of the Interior, but we have no corresponding agency in the US ) advising me that the birth certificate I submitted was unacceptable because only those which bear both the name of the mother and father are accepted in Hungary. No problem; I got on the Internet and found the website for the State of New Jersey----yes, I was born in New Jersey--- and found that, for a special fee, they will provide that kind of birth certificate and send it by express mail, which I arranged for. When it arrived I had to have it translated to Hungarian (of course!), after which I mailed it to the Belügyminiszterium, foolishly thinking the matter fully settled. No indeed! Nothing is simple in Hungary. I was subsequently advised that there was nothing to prove that the birth certificate (which, I should point out, had the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey impressed upon it) was authentic, and that I should get the Embassy to certify that it was indeed authentic. Well, I called the Embassy and they advised me that they do not authenticate any documents, including those issued by the US Government itself; but they did have a suggestion: I could swear that the birth certificate was genuine before the US Consul-General, and he would place the Seal of the Embassy upon it, and that should suffice. Well, that sounded pretty good to me, so I followed their advice (but forgot and left my brand-new umbrella at the Embassy----but that is another story) and Lo and behold! they accepted it. Subsequently, they issued me a Hungarian Birth Certificate, which I can validly utter from now on, and this is where the problem arose. My original birth certificate was hand-written, in long-hand; and when the translator wrote down my mother's maiden name (the most important piece of identifying information for you after your own name), she read the T in Tucker as an L and thus officially recorded my mother's maiden name as Louise Lucker, which brought it into conflict with records for which I had submitted the information verbally. The official in the office I had to go to is the Tax Administrator. No, I do not pay taxes; but I do have to pay my health insurance premium in lieu of the payroll taxes that would be deducted from my wages and matched by my employer were I working. Anyway, the matter is all settled now----I think. And I hope. As you can see, this turned out to be quite a lengthy explanation as to why I had to pay my monthly charges today instead of yesterday.

I received my voting certificate for the March 9 referendum. Here we do not register to vote; all persons have a Personal Identity Card and a Residence Verification Card, so if there is to be an election and you are eligible, they automatically mail you a voting certificate, which you bring to the polling place----for this election it can be anywhere in the country----together with your Personal Identity Card and your Residence Verification Card. Naturally all citizens are eligible to vote in all elections; but permanent residents may vote in local elections (and even hold local office) only, which means they cannot vote for Members of Parliament or in national referenda. This is my first vote as a citizen, until now I voted only in local elections, since the last national elections were held in Spring 2006 and I did not become a citizen until June 2006.

FEBRUARY 28

Tuesday evening we attended a concertized performance of Wagner's Die Walkyrie. If you are not an opera buff, "concertized" means that it is only sung, not acted out with scenery. I had only once heard a Wagner composition performed by the Szeged Philharmonic, that being the Seigfreid Idyll, which is an orchestral prelude to the opera of the same name, so hearing a Wagnerian opera was an unaccustomed pleasure. Wagner is regularly performed in Budapest of course, and occasionally in Debrecen, but not in Szeged. As for the performance, it was simply superb! The hall was packed, the orchestra and singers were in rare form, and it was one of the most memorable evenings of recent years. It began at 6.00 instead of the customary 7.30; because of their length, Wagnerian operas tend to have earlier starting times. Anna's brother Lajos (Lou) went with us and had a seat so near our box that we could very easily see and even speak with him.

The weather continues very mild, like late April or even early May. Yesterday I rode my bicycle for the first time since late October, and today I walked to Ujvaros. I had to go to the doctor to get a new prescription, as I am about to run out of medication. When I arrived it appeared to me that SZTK (which is what we call the municipal health center---I do not know what the letters stand for)---it appeared to me, as I said, that it was closed, for I saw no one going in or out of the building, which is generally a beehive of activity, and in addition the door was covered with signs saying that this clinic and that had moved to such and such address, or to the hospital in most cases. The inside of the building was quiet, and when I reached the first floor (second in USA) I heard nothing. To my relief I found that there were indeed patients seated outside my doctor's office, and the doctor himself arrived minutes later. I have no idea for what purpose the building will be used once all the medical offices have moved elsewhere. It hardly seems suited for anything except offices, and there seems little need for more municipal office space. Afterward I went to the pharmacy, the lottery office, and then to a stationery store to purchase some greeting cards. It being still quite early and quite nice, I decided to walk to Ujvaros for dinner, and that is where I am now. I shall probably take the bus home, however, and perhaps stop off to visit Anna's brother on the way, since the bus stops at his apartment building.

MARCH 5

It is much cooler now, somewhere in the mid-40s. Hillary Clinton reminds me of Floyd Patterson, if you remember him. (If you do not, he was heavyweight champion after Marciano retired and before Ali became champion.) He was small for a heavyweight and did not take a punch very well, so he was always getting knocked down and seemed on the verge of losing; but he had this way of getting up and mounting a counter-attack, frequently knocking the other guy out, until he came across Sonny Liston---another story. Well, Hillary has been on the verge of being finished off several times in this primary race, but Obama obviously does not have Liston's punch, and she keeps getting up and, what do you know, it's a close race all over again. That is what just happened in Texas and Ohio. The point can be made that Obama has not carried (except for Illinois) any of the large industrial states that comprise the Democratic bastion in a national election: New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, California, In fact he has been badly outgunned in almost all of them. Most of the states where he has won are states the Democrats are very unlikely to win in November, barring a Rooseveltian Landslide, which is something we could use. And in that case, Alex Brooks could probably sweep to victory in them just as easily, and probably your house cat as well. Mind you, I am not trying to knock Obama, only trying to view his successes critically. I mean, unless it's a gift, you look closely when someone hands you a hundred dollar bill. If you don't, please tell me where your store is located and I'll send you lots of business.

Aside from politics, it is pig-slaughter here for us. I have just returned from the slaughterhouse with a trunk and back-seat full of pork products and the women are inside doing what has to be done to it. I know nothing about these things. In the past my contribution consisted of watching occasionally and drinking palinka, which, if you remember, is a local home-made brandy very much favored by Hungarians. Today I am not drinking, however, as I am driving, and the law is very, very strict about drinking and driving, and I am not sufficiently sure they would make an exception for someone in his upper 70s. This is one of those weeks when very little is happening: no concerts, no sporting events except for the basketball game Saturday evening, and only the referendum on Sunday to spark interest. Of course everyone knows the outcome. The Government's proposals will be soundly rejected; the only question is whether or not a sufficient number of persons (50% of registered voters) will participate in the election. In any case, the Government, not being bound by the result, will implement their program anyway; and then next year, the Opposition will start a campaign for another referendum on the identical questions, with the same result---the Government's proposals will be rejected, but the Government will continue their implementation, and the only recourse is for the electorate to vote for Opposition candidates in the elections that must be held in Spring 2010.

MARCH 11

Well, the election is over and the results are as expected: the proposed fees for health and higher education were all soundly defeated by margins of at least 4 to 1. In a shift, the Government, through the Prime Minister, announced that it would honor the results of the referendum and abolish the objectionable fees; but it would not replace the revenue lost from the abolition of the fees with increased budget support, meaning that a Yes vote amounted to a vote for underfunded health and higher education services, since the government will not make up the difference. Until about 80% of the ballots were counted, it was not certain that the participation would reach the required 50% + 1 level in order to make the whole thing valid, and as it is, only 51.8% of voters participated, notwithstanding vigorous campaigning by the Opposition to bring out the vote. Of course the best strategy of the Government would have been to encourage their supporters to NOT VOTE; but obviously there would have been problems with taking such a position.

The weather is quite Spring-like since Sunday. Last evening Anna and I went to a concert at the Conservatory----a recital actually, by a young pianist from Kecskemét. The Conservatory is only about ten minutes or so, maybe fifteen, from here, so we walked, it was such a pleasant evening. Our friend, Dr. Dombiné Dr. Kemény Erzsebet (remember: it means she is married to a man with a doctoral degree, and she herself has one as well), arrived late---no surprise, and afterward we had a brief conversation with the Dean of the Conservatory, who invited us to attend a series of competitions to be held later this month. He said that he had met me before, but I have no memory of it, I have a horrible memory for faces.

MARCH 19

Last evening we attended a performance of Schubert's Great C Major Symphony No. 9, only here it is identified as No. 7. Gyüdi Sándor conducted and it was a very stirring performance. Later this season there will be a performance of a Bruckner symphony, also favorites of ours and also monumental works.

Anna's brother's wife arrived from New York this past Saturday and stays until the day after Easter. We gave a small dinner-party for them and her parents at a restaurant in town Monday, and today we have dinner at the Katonas, which was intended to be the dinner party, except that today was not suitable for her parents. Since this is Anna's dinner-party, she just left to help with the cooking, whereas I am staying, composing this, and will take a later bus. (It should be apparent to you by now that I am at Anna's and not at home). I want to go down and check the height of the Tisza, as the water level was quite high when I drove on the river-drive last week, such that I suspect that the drive is closed to traffic by now, as it customarily is every spring, when the Tisza tends to flood. It is sunny outside but somewhat cool the past several days. Anna's cousin---it always means the cousin from Budapest with the daughter married to the Austrian man; she has no other surviving cousin except one who lives in Hódmezővásárhely but whom we rarely see---is supposed to visit sometime over the weekend, we do not know for certain which day it will be at this point, though it appears that Sunday is more likely. As usual, this means that I am expected to attend. I like Sari and her husband very much, but I do not go up to Budapest when Anna visits them, I just find it hard to work up the necessary level of enthusiasm to take the trip, even though it is only about two hours by train to where they live, which is the station after the Airport, the first station in Budapest.

MARCH 27

Well, Easter has come and gone and the weather----yes, that!!!!!----is really strange. Tuesday I was with Anna to our weekly meeting of the language club. It was a pleasant day when I left home that morning, so I wore only a sweater under a jacket. By evening, however, it was quite unpleasant, so much so that I decided to take the train home rather than the bus---both leave from the identical location---because the bus, although it drops me closer to home, does so at a place where there is no shelter, and if it began to rain during the trip, I would have to wait in the unprotected outdoors for a taxi. The train, however, goes to a station where it is possible to wait indoors for a taxi. When I arrived to my town, however, it was not raining and did not appear that it would, so I walked home, swiftly because it was quite windy in addition to being quite cool. Today I am in Szeged again, at Anna's, as we attend a concert this evening. It was, again, quite pleasant when I left home; but this time I wore a cashmere overcoat, which was a good idea because by the time I got to Szeged---I left for Szeged in mid-afternoon---it was quite cool. Since the location of the concert is really too close to take the bus, we shall walk there and back. But because it will be late evening---the concert does not begin until 8.00---it will undoubtedly be even more unpleasant, even if it is not raining.

Anna's cousin came with her husband and son, and we had a quite nice time. Earlier in the day I had gone by to see her brother, as his wife was leaving the following morning for New York and I wanted to see her before she left as she will not return for a visit until June. I did not think to ask when in June, as Anna and I go away with friends to spend a week in Keszthely on Lake Balaton, after which Anna will go to USA.

APRIL 5

Just when I know that global warming is changing everything I learn that this year will be cooler because of the effects of La Nina, which is circulating cold-water currents where warm-water currents usually go. It has reached the point where even a simple thing like the weather is becoming much too complicated to understand. The big news here, however, is not the sudden spate of cool weather, but the frigidity that has come into the relationship of MSZP, the main government party, and SZDSZ, its coalition partner. Or used-to-be-coalition-partner.The coalition is no more, but the government is still in power as a minority government, because the SZDSZ has simply pulled its ministers out of the Cabinet, but will still vote with the government on questions on which both parties agree, which is most things. What they do not agree on is who should be Minister of Health---it used to be Agnes Something, an SZDSZ, but the Prime Minister said that she simply had to go---and certain features of the proposed health insurance plan that I am not going to explain simply because I do not understand them well enough to give you a straight account. The Main Opposition (FIDESZ: Alliance of Young Democrats) would like nothing better than to have the government fall and early elections (something which has never happened in our brief experiment with democratic rule), as they are ahead in the polls by an incredible 49 points. Suffice it to say that it ain't gonna happen, because the last thing SZDSZ wants is a FIDESZ victory. How do you like your education on the intricacies of Hungarian politics?

Turning to another subject, what on earth has happened to Federer? Here it is mid-April and he has yet to even reach the finals of a single tournament this year. How, you ask, can he retain his Numero Uno ranking in the face of this performance? Look, I only read the news, I don't make it. I was a bit disappointed that Roddick lost so badly to Davidenko---have I spelled his name correctly---for while his game is solid, it is not marked by a feature that guarantees a rescue when he gets into trouble, such as a huge serve, or punishing backhand passing shots. My disappointment is assuaged somewhat by noting that Lleyton Hewitt has fallen way, way down in the rankings; I think he was 21st when I last looked. For some reason I never liked Hewitt. Well, I know why: when he was seeded 3rd in Wimbledon, which put him in the same draw with Federer, which meant he was unlikely to reach the finals, he complained that he should have been seeded Number Two, which would have put him in a different draw and increased his chances of reaching the finals. He persisted in his complaint even when told that the rankings were based upon performance in tournaments on grass, which is what Wimbledon is played on, whereas his ATP ranking was based on all tournaments played in. To my mind, it is the sort of thing you say over a drink with a friend, you don't go out of your way to criticize the seedings to the press. Now you may say that this is hardly enough reason for me to dislike him so, but that is just the way I am.

This marks the end of this blog.

MARCH 2008

FEBRUARY 14

Here we are smack in the middle of Primaries at a time when most of us thought it would be all over by now, at least for the Democrats. I have to say I am one of those just emerging from shock. If you think the American election system is confusing, you can imagine how confusing it must be to most persons here. In USA we resolve the confusion problem simply by lapsing into disinterest; in Europe, however, disinterest in the US elections would be looked upon as grossly irresponsible. I do my best trying to explain it to them and am no little surprised when they at least appear to understand it---to the extent that it is susceptible of understanding at all. Curiously, almost no one has asked me anything at all about the Republicans, for it is assumed here, and very definitely hoped, that their participation in the election is simply in satisfaction of the legal requirements and has nothing whatever to do with the outcome, which is simply a question of whether it will be Clinton or Obama. Just as in the US, they feel they know Clinton; they assume---not unreasonably---that she is more or less like Bill in terms of policy, which is, I am sure, the way most Americans see her as well. But just as most Americans, they know very little about Obama. They very much like the way he sounds, even if almost none of them understand anything of what he says; and he is really handsome and looks to be a quite decent fellow. Surprisingly, very, very few persons raise the race issue. I say "surprisingly" even though I have grown accustomed to the Hungarian attitude toward race, which is to ignore it on the grounds that it cannot logically be important. Admirable as this may sound, I have to say that virtually everyone I know would consider the possibility of a gypsy becoming President of Hungary (a largely ceremonial position with few actual powers) as being beyond ludicrous.

In our own electoral affairs, we have a national referendum coming up on March 9, when we will decide three questions of great import: (1) Shall patients be required to pay a co-payment for each doctor visit and outpatient treatment, and (2), for each day of a hospital stay, of $1.60; and (3) Shall students be required henceforth to pay tuition (approximately $1000 per academic year) in state institutions of higher learning? (Currently there is no tuition charge for the undergraduate degree). Although the Constitution expressly forbids a referendum on questions pertaining to the budget, the Constitutional Court, heavily packed with appointees of the right-wing opposition when they were in office, has ruled that this is not a budget question, even though the defeat of the measures would require the government to provide additional funding for the Health and Education Ministries, respectively, in order the defray the costs of the services provided. I intend to vote to reject the proposals to eliminate the charges; but I am not going to tell my friends of my intention. Hungarians have lived all their lives under a system whereby they were paid very little, but everything essential was either free or very inexpensive, and they are understandably unwilling to pay for things that they have never had to pay for to this point. Yet the government must reduce the deficit in order to meet our required Euro-convergence obligations; we must join the Euro, and we must reduce the deficit to not more than 3% in order to do so, and health and education costs are the biggest items in the budget, hence the items where cuts most logically must be made. Confronted as we are by requirements that we must fulfill and no other way of meeting them, it is irresponsible for the Constitutional Court to make such a far-fetched interpretation to require a referendum in which everyone knows the voters will reject what every sensible person knows must be done. But, alas! it would not be Hungary if it happened otherwise.

We are having quite pleasant weather these days. Late autumn and early winter were quite unpleasant, but now we have settled back into the Global Warming Mode and it seems like very early Spring. Yesterday we rode the train from Hódmezővásárhely to Szeged, which is the preferred mode of travel for me, though both the bus and the train go from the railway station in one city to the railway station in the other, and both Anna and I have flats not distant from a railway station, although Anna lives quite close to the main station in Szeged, only about seven or eight minutes walk at a moderate pace, whereas I am about twenty minutes from the nearest station. Anna had insisted that there was a bus at 3.00 p.m. going to Szeged, but it turned out there was not, only the 3.30 bus, which would have required us to wait forty-five minutes. However, though it seemed deserted from a distance, the ticket seller was on duty and Anna asked her if the trains were operating, to which she replied that they were. We must ask, you see, because we have a kind of strike going on since late January. In USA, if the railroads strike, then there is no service whatever until a settlement. Here, however, they strike for a fixed period of time, say six hours, and then return to work. Everyone knows when the strike will end and can plan travel accordingly. In the case of the present strike, however, there tends to be a strike on alternate days; yes, there is service on odd-numbered days, and yes, there is a strike on even-numbered days. But yesterday was an even-numbered day and still there was service. Will there be service today? And how long will the strike-no strike go on? And, by the way, why are they striking? I cannot tell you if there will be service today, although that would seem to be the simplest question to answer. The strike will last at least until March 9, the date of the national referendum. Presumably it will end if they are satisfied with the outcome of the referendum, even though we all know how it will end. As for why they are striking, that is more complicated, and I am not sure I fully understand it myself, though I can say that it has to do with plans to privatize some services of the state railway system (mainly in the freight-handling area), eliminate service on some little-used parts of the system, and make reductions in the work-force. These reductions would amount to less than 0.4% of the total work force and might not require any actual dismissals, but would require reassignment of some personnel to other parts of the system, e.g., to runs from Szentes to Szolnok and Szentes to Kiskunfelegyhaza rather than from Szentes to Mako or Oroshaza to Mezötúr. Although it has not received much publicity, I would guess that the employees also want a wage increase, something most Hungarians would not be in sympathy with, given that railway workers have received substantially higher wage increases over the past five years than others in the public sector, such as teachers, health professionals, etc.

It is now Saturday, the 16th, and we have relatives ariving (late, they just telephoned us) from Vienna and Budapest. We are entertaining them at Anna's, and since Anna does not drink alcohol and has never in her life had a drink of alcohol, I had to go out to buy wine and beer. Because I had to get alcohol-free beer and was afraid that the nearby store would not have it, I went to TESCO, which is like Walmart. I walked there, but having to carry back three bottles of wine and six of beer led me to take the bus back. To my surprise the bus was quite crowded and there were no seats. A girl about 18 or 19 offered me her seat. I thanked her and told her I would be getting off in two stops, so I would stand. In the days of yore (Socialism---we never say Communism) younger persons were obliged to surrender their seats to seniors, pregnant women, or women with small children, but that requirement has long since gone the way of all flesh so that it surprises me when young persons these days offer their seat to an older person. To my surprise it happens more frequently in Budapest than in smaller cities and towns, even though the likelihood is greater that the non-offering person will be known by the older person and other passengers in smaller towns than in larger ones. Under Socialism the driver or conductor---there was a fare collector on the bus in those days---would actually tap you on the shoulder and tell you to stand, like in Get-to-the-back-of-the-bus fashion in the days of segregation. Fortunately, some customs still exist, such as the senior exemption from paying fare on public transport. I am going to end this now and continue with a new blog.