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.