MARCH 2007

5 February 2007

Yesterday was a really busy day! We went to a morning(!)symphony of the Szeged Philharmonic, and then to another in the evening of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, consisting mainly of chamber-orchestra works by Mozart. Then I watched the Super Bowl, which begins here at 11.50 PM with the pre-game entertainment. If you saw the game---and I assume most of you did---I think you will agree that except for the opening play, it was something less than gripping. Grossman, like Roethlisberger of Pittsburgh---I hope I have at least spelled his name correctly--is a rather average college-level quarterback who benefits from having a superior defense, a good running back, and a division of weak teams. If you ask, Is he adequate, I would respond that he is, if you are not troubled by interceptions and are satisfied by a completion every other week. I think Chicago would be a genuine powerhouse with a quarterback of the level of, say, Jeff Garcia. Notice that I have settled for a back-up, and not insisted on a top-level quarterback like Michael Vick, or even an Average Plus one like Chad Pennington.

Weatherwise we are still humming along with no sign of snow. I just checked the weather for Debrecen, since I shall be going there day after tomorrow, and see that there will be showers with possible snow flurries through the week. We have the first H5N1 outbreak---no humans, just geese--- in this area about fifteen miles from here. Previous outbreaks were near Kecskemet, about 50 miles northwest from here; but that was last year. The surprise is that we have not had any outbreaks in Hortobagy National Park, which is a refuge for migratory birds; we were there last April and will return again the end of this April.

Just when you think you have seen it all here, something else happens. What this time? The Opposition had scheduled a demonstration in front of Parliament. When they arrived, they saw that a barrier had been set up to keep the demonstrators away from the building itself, at a distance of about fifty yards. In a gesture of defiance, the Opposition MPs proceeded to attempt to remove the barriers. When the police acted to prevent it, they of course shouted "Most Foul Deed!" and cited it as proof that the country has descended into a dictatorhsip. Frankly I don't know where anyone would be permitted to block the entrance to Parliament as an exercise of free speech. It would be physically impossible to approach the Capitol in DC in this manner, since there is a very long flight of stairs; and of course demonstrators are kept at a considerable distance from the building itself. It is all part of a campaign by the Opposition to reverse the results of last year's elections, which they lost quite badly, although precedent was on their side, since no sitting government had ever been re-elected in the history of the country.

February 10

Everyone here is absorbed in the news that there is a Mother of All Snowstorms in New York. It does not matter that few of them have ever heard of Buffalo, let alone of Oswego, which is where the extremely heavy snowfall is. Here it is in the low 50s; this morning it was sunny, but in the afternoon it clouded up. The past several days have been marked by showers. I frankly do not know how much store is to be set by this matter of global warning. What I do know, however, is that it is ludicrous to dismiss it on the grounds that we do not have proof to an absolute certainty that it is being caused by human activity. My experience is that those who insist on absolute proof are not likely to be convinced by any proof one might offer. What makes it even more ludicrous is that these persons who demand absolute proof that cancer can be brought on by smoking, or that global warming is being caused by humans, are more than prepared to lock up persons suspected of terrorist "connections", or even to send persons to the execution chamber, on far less than absolute proof. These are persons who want to regulate the conduct of others on the basis of What God Wants, for which we clearly are lacking absolute proof. In short, the demand for absolute proof as a condition for doing something is simply a device for avoiding having to do what one doesn't want to do without appearing to be illogical, though in fact such a demand is illogical on the face of it. What if FDR had demanded absolute proof as a condition for authorizing the building of the atomic bomb? None of the scientists engaged in that undertaking could have provided it. Did Junior give us "absolute proof" that Saddam Hussein had WMDs? Or that Iran is attempting to make an atomic weapon?

17 February

Still no sign of snow. I was talking to Julianna, who had been to Bulgaria on business, and she is taking her son to Bad Gastein for a skiing weekend. She says she is playing it safe: if there is no snow, they can at least enjoy the baths. Bad Gastein is more noted as a spa---it was Emperor Franz Joseph's favorite---than as a skiing resort, though it is in a skiing area. The favorite skiing sites are at Gross Glockner and Kibutzhel, about 30 miles to the north and just south of Zell am See, which is my favorite spot in Austria.

We are having a huge rally tomorrow to protest the cuts in service at the hospital under the health reform plan of the government. There will be some shifts in where services will be provided, but, unlike numerous other places, there will be no reduction in the number of hospital beds in the hospital here. The Mayor hopes for 10,000. Frankly, it is hard for me to imagine any rally of that size in Hodmezovasarhely unless they are giving out free palinka (the favorite alcoholic drink of Hungary, a quite potent fruit brandy). I was asked if I plan to attend, and I answered that I had no plans to do so. Later in the evening, however, I changed my mind, for reasons I shall come to shortly.

I heard from Cheryl (my niece) and her husband; she works for Proctor and Gamble and just began a year plus-tour in Singapore. They are finding it quite an adventure, which is the spirit I like. Travel is an education, and especially so when you interest yourself in how the people there live and what your own life would be like if you lived there. Speaking of which, I am nearing the end of eight years living here, a fact which never fails to astound new acquaintances. As if that isn't enough, imagine their reaction when I tell them that I first came to Hungary 29 years ago, and that many persons feel they have known me their entire lifetime, which some of them actually have.

I have been playing Bridge on the internet. It is amazing the things you can do on the internet. You have a game with three other persons, all of us in different countries. Some are good players, some not so good; a few are really outstanding. I myself have not played regularly in thirty years, but I played so much when I did, and except for the most esoteric bidding systems, not all that much has changed over the course of the years. In fact my own preferred bidding system (Roman Club) is esoteric to all the persons I have had as a partner thusfar, though the system is over 40 years old.

And now as to why I have changed my mind and decided to attend the rally. I have gotten some quite devastating, though not entirely unexpected, news. My closest friend just got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and if you know anything about it, you know that it is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer, with a very poor prognosis. I met him over 28 years ago, when I first came to Hungary, and he and his wife were always the ones to meet me when I arrived, see to it that his driver took me to the airport when I left, cook for me, take me around to places---everything. When I was alone here in Hungary they looked after me, saw to it that I knew what had to be done and how to do it. In short, they were always there for me. Last year they celebrated their fortieth anniversary, and this week we were in the midst of celebrating their birthdays---his was the 14th, hers the 16th. Originally we had planned to be in Italy at this time, but changed plans and decided to go back to Hortobagy National Park the last week of April, as we did last year. When we took him to the hospital last evening, the attending physician recognized me as a former patient and asked how my own health was, for she assumed that I, too, had come for treatment. She was relieved to be told that I was quite fine and had had no problems since my stay there a year and a half ago.

20 February

My friend is resting comfortably, I am informed by his wife. I shall go there in another two hours---it is 09:45 here---and then go to Szeged to attend a recital this evening, then to Debrecen by train in the morning, returning the next day. Anna stays with the wife, for she does not know how the wife would respond should the husband pass away during the night. She went to Szeged to look after the cat, but will return later. I shall stay with the cat overnight, then look in on her Thursday noon when I return from Debrecen. Today is mild and sunny, in the high 40s to very low 50s; tomorrow there will be snow showers in Debrecen, but the temperature will rise to the high 40s by early afternoon.

For years Anna always bought my clothes, and I was always getting after her for buying them too large in the waist. "I have been a 31 for 25 years," I would remind her. Now I have considerable uncertainty if something will fit if I have not worn it in some time, which is the case with what I have on now. I can fit into it, but rather snugly. The previous suit I tried on I had to squeeze into. Although I have not gone up in weight---I am still 165, but that is about 20 pounds over my 40-year average---it has redistributed itself in such a way as to make it difficult to fit into things.

25 February

My friend died Thursday evening, just after being taken to the hospital. The speed surprised even me. I had expected that he would be relatively all right until early May, after which he would go into sharp decline and almost certainly expire before my return from USA in mid-August. In fact he did not last a week. His wife is devastated, but she would have been probably even more so if he had lived according to my expectations, as she would have taken renewed hope from each day he survived and eventually come to believe that he would not die at all. The funeral will be March 2 and, in accordance with his wishes (expressed some weeks ago upon the death of a relative), he will be cremated.

Meanwhile the time approaches when Anna will leave for ten days in Italy with the group from SUNY-Orange, beginning 16 March. We have heard from a colleague of hers, Pat Riley, and she and her husband will come to Hungary for two weeks-plus 20 April. This will give us time to show them more of the country that the usual fare afforded to tourists: Budapest, Lake Balaton, Hortobagy. I always consider it a shame that most tourists never get to see this part of the country, which has some particularly beautiful sights as well as significant historical sites. Jeanne and Tom Savona, and Gail and Tom Harlach made it to this part of the country; but no one else among our friends has ever been here. My grand-nephew, Daniel, is the only member of my family to have ever been to Hungary.

I have just returned from the funeral and the gathering afterward. Today is about 53 degrees and rainy, but it did not rain at all during the funeral, which was held outside, for a reason too complicated for me to go into it. I was quite surprised to learn that the interment is in their own plot, and not in the family vault of the wife's family, as I had expected. I knew about 60% of those who attended, including all of the family and nearly all of the relatives, even the distant ones. Many of those who did not know me knew who I was for having heard about me over the years. Additionally, I have appeared several times on the local TV station, which is watched by a majority of the residents of the town. The news programs are repeated on the weekend in case you missed them during the week. To repeat, most persons here in town know who I am, even if they do not know me personally. Many know me from seeing me on TV; many others know me for being Anna's husband. Anna was a very prominent teacher here in town and taught many of the adults here, either the husband or the wife or both. This is even more likely to be true if one lived in the section of the city called Ujvaros, as even today the school where she taught is the only elementary school in Ujvaros, though it is a much larger school today than it was in her time there.

It is March now, as you know, so I shall end this. If you have any suggestions for me, e-mail them to me at alex@lewisbrooks.net. So long until next month, and may the force be with you! (I always hated that expression, just as I disliked the Star Wars series.)

FEBRUARY 2007

CLIMATE NEWS

I need not tell you that the weather these days is warmer than usual. It should come as no surprise to you that we have had absolutely no snow and that in fact there has been practically no snow in the Alps, much to the dismay of the skiers. It is not exactly warm all the time, but it is certainly mild and sometimes quite warm even. I have been riding my bicycle regularly, and occasionally walking the nearly four miles to the home of friends. Anna left for London yesterday and will be visiting friends until 29 January; she arrives in the afternoon, and then in the evening we attend the symphony. On Wednesday we go to the symphony in Budapest.

LOCAL POLITICS

As for the national budget, the protests seem to be diminishing in acknowledgement of the futility of it. Most of the complaint has to do with the reforms of the health system. What will happen is that a number of hospitals will either close or have the number of beds reduced, though no such reductions will take place here in our town. The reason behind the protest is because the average number of patients amounts to only 62% of beds, while the present payment of the government is based upon the total number of beds, whether there are occupants or not. Thus presently the government must pay for the total number of beds, and in addition to the specific treatments for each patient. The government estimates that reducing the number of hospital beds will result in a saving of nearly 30% of health costs. Similarly, the government currently pays twice the amount of federal funds to schools for the education of so-called "difficult" students as for normal students. You can imagine how readily the school characterizes students as "difficult" as a means of obtaining greater funds. The government plans to institute stricter criteria for determining that students are "difficult". There is little doubt that the Socialists will be vanquished in the next election; but that will not be until 2010, and by then the resulting reduction of the deficit may overcome the desire for vengeance on the part of the electorate.

IDLE THOUGHTS

Some years ago, while driving home from Transylvania, I got a flat outside a fairly large city. After a half hour of trying to figure out how to change the tire, I gave up. Let's face it: only high school kids change a tire in the USA; the rest of us call AAA. I had changed a tire only once in my life, for Norma Roer (whom you should know if you were at Crystal Run, but not otherwise; if you don't, it is not all that important who she was). I tried flagging down a car, but it was nearly 3/4 of an hour before someone stopped. He changed it for me, and I rode the 200 miles home on the doughnut. I told this story to explain that today, while riding my bike, I got soft enough to hear my tire squishing. I stopped at the filling station, but the hoses were out of service! Fortunately, the filling station was part of a department store, so I went in and bought a bicycle-tire pump. What makes the story interesting is that I actually do not know how to fill a tire at the filling station anyway, the time I needed it done there was a station attendant who filled it for me. But now I have my own pump to carry along with me when I am out riding. Needless to say, I haven't the vaguest idea how to change the oil in my car; my friend changes it for me when it needs to be done. Fortunately I have a sealed battery now. Here in Hungary you had to remember to fill the battery regularly (which I of course always forgot to do), as sealed batteries were quite uncommon until about a year or two ago.

I spent this past weekend, January 19-21, at a hotel in Szeged, as the guest of friends. Some of you may have met them many, many years ago: Sandor Klein; his wife, Julianna; and their sixteen-year-old son, Adam. Sandor was the Chairman of the Psychology Department at Juhasz Gyula Teachers Training College, Anna's alma mater, and then of the Department of Psychology at Janus Pannonius University in Pecs. When Socialism ended here in 1990, they established a consulting business for evaluating management- and executive-level personnel and now have a sizable international clientele. In June 2005 I went to Bucharest to assist them in evaluating personnel for Philip Morris and Co. When we told them we were going to retire and move to Hungary, they were overjoyed. "Now we'll get to see you much more often," they said. In fact we saw them more when we did not live in Hungary, as we do not get up to Budapest frequently, and I even less than Anna, who of course was in USA anyway for four years. We spent two weeks in Malta in 2003, and a couple of weekends together during professional conventions; but outside of that we see each other only occasionally.

It is now 26 January and more wintry than it has been; but still. no snow. I see on the internet that it is quite cold in NY and that there is a severe weather warning. I am thinking of driving up to Budapest Monday and meeting Anna's bus. True, there is a bus to Szeged only minutes after her arrival; but if her bus is late---and I would expect it would be, since it is coming from London---she would have to wait another hour and a half for another, and by the time she got home she certainly would not feel like going to the symphony in the evening. At least I don't think she would; with Anna, you can never be sure. On Tuesday morning I leave for Debrecen, and then on Wednesday Anna goes on a bus trip to attend the performance of the Szeged Philharmonic at the Palace of the Arts in Budapest in the evening, and I will come by train from Debrecen to attend the performance as well, then ride back on the return trip of the bus to Szeged. This is an annual thing, and a very pleasurable experience for us and our friends, who make it a point to go, as the cost of the bus and the symphony together is only about $16. Speaking of the symphony, while attending the Sunday matinee performance with Sandor and Julianna, I ran into the Musical Director of the Philharmonic, who was attending---not conducting---with his wife and children. We are acquaintances, and Anna remarked how thrilled she was that he greeted her when she bought the tickets at the offices of the Philharmonic earlier this month.

I did not listen to---watch---the State of the Union; it was conflicting with the Australian Open, and I knew there would be more than ample coverage of it on the newscasts anyway, which there was. As for the Open, the results have been quite surprising. I am impressed by Fernando Gonzalez, even if he does not beat Federer. It reminds me of when the first Super Bowls were played and they said that the American Football League was a bush league because their champions, first Kansas City and then Oakland, were both beaten by Green Bay. Well, so were all the National Football League teams! And it is the same with Gonzalez if he loses to Federer. I realize it is not his fault that there are no Agassis or Connors or McEnroes to challenge him, as was the case with Sampras; but it is undeniable that he does have the advantage of there not being a single player out there who can consistently challenge him. He may well be the greatest of all time, as is already being claimed for him; but it is difficult to say just how great he really is when the persons he defeats are persons who have not won collectively half as many Grand Slams as he has.

It is now February 1 and unusually windy, though not cold. I did not go to Debrecen, but went up to Pest with Anna and a friend, accompanied by numerous acquaintances: Erzsebet Dombi, a professor of music at the University; Dr. Ferenc Izbeki and his daughter (he was the surgeon who attended me during my illness in 2005); and one of Anna's former students and her husband. There was a reception for selected persons after the performance, which was the same performance we attended on Monday evening of this week, and we were invited; but due to a misunderstanding we did not go to the place where it was held, and when we attempted to go back into the Palace to attend, the guard would not admit us. Today an official of the Symphony called to say that the Musical Director had looked for us and expressed disappointment that we were not there. We are acquainted, but I did not expect him to seek us out. He happens to have been a classmate, coincidentally, of Ferenc Izbeki, of whom I spoke earlier. The Palace is a very impressive complex, consisting of the National Theater and the Performing Arts Center, and was completed in 2004. It is quite a visual treat seen at night, as it sits next to the Danube and is lit up in a highly decorative manner. Unfortunately, because of its location at some distance from the center of the city, few visitors to the country are likely to see it, unless they are part of a tour group and the sightseeing bus takes them up that far---unlikely, as there are no significant sights in the neighborhood.

I was somewhat surprised that some friends asked me if I am going to watch the Super Bowl. Their reason was not to invite me to a Super Bowl Party; the proceedings begin here at midnight and run until about 06:00, so most of them are likely to see the re-runs, of which there will be several during the course of the week. My surprise was due to the fact that the game has become as popular as it is here. We do have an American-style football team in Budapest, believe it or not. If asked to rate the quality of the team, I would say it is about as good as a SUNY team, excluding Buffalo. Basketball, however, is a big favorite here, and we even have a team here in Hodmezovasarhely. Most teams have an American player. I have not seen a team with more than one---well, yes I have, but only one or two; I think Pecs has two Americans, and maybe Debrecen as well. Here in Vasarhely we have only one, and he is a great favorite. I attended a game last weekend for the first time at the invitation of a friend and enjoyed it very much, so much so that I shall probably go regularly.

It seems hard to believe that I shall have been here eight years this summer. Persons frequently ask me if it was difficult to adjust to living here and are surprised when I tell them it was not. I had been coming to Hungary every year since 1978 until 1991, when there was a five-year lapse. I had a sizable number of friends here in Hungary and had traveled to almost every large city in the country. I could go wherever I wished alone. I could read the newspapers and discuss current events with acquaintances and friends. I am beginning to feel really accepted now that the police no longer stop me and ask whose car it is that I am driving. Mind you, I do not blame them; I would stop me if I were a Hungarian policeman, as there seems no logical explanation as to why this obvious foreigner is driving a car with a Hungarian license plate.

I have just returned from friends who live nearby, about a seven minute walk down the street. I had dinner there with Anna and friends. Tomorrow we go to two concerts, one in the morning at 11.00, the other in the evening at 19.30. It is unusual that there is a Sunday evening symphony performance, so much so that they highlighted it on the program schedule. There are matinee performances on occasional Sundays---remember that I went to such a matinee performance with Sandor and Julianna only two weeks ago---but they are usually abbreviated performances of a mid-week program. In this case, however, both programs are completely different from any others.

My great enterprise is that I am downloading music from the internet to upload to my MP-3 player, when it arrives. They sell them here, but a 2GB player that costs $85 in the USA costs $200 here, and it isn't a brand you've ever heard of. So I ordered it from Amazon and had it sent to a friend who will give it to Anna when they meet on a trip in Italy in March. A 2GB player will hold about 60 hours of music, which is more than enough,since the reason I am getting it is so that I do not have to constantly lug a Discman and twenty-five CDs every time I go to Debrecen or somewhere else on the train. An MP-3 player can be as small as a cigarette lighter; the more sophisticated and more powerful ones are about the size of a pack of regular-size cigarettes.

It is time now to end this and post it so you may read it. If you want my e-mail address it is alex@lewisbrooks.net. Feel free to give any information you are asked for to anyone who asks for it---if you know the person, of course!

WINTER 2007

THE POLITICAL SEASON

We had our parliamentary elections in April 2006 and history was made when the Socialists (MSZP) became the first party in the rather short history of the Republic to win re-election. One would have thought that this ushered in a new era, but, alas! this is Hungary. In a rather bizarre development, the Prime Minister was secretly recorded during a convocation of major party figures to plan the legislative agenda for the new session during which he admitted that he had lied about the state of the economy during the campaign. In the USA we would have attached no significance whatever to this; we would have to pick our President out of the telephone directory if lying during the course of the campaign were a disqualifying offense. But here the citizenry, egged on by the oft-defeated Right-wing party, was in an uproar. what followed was a series of demonstrations---some quite riotous---followed by a resounding defeat for the government party in the local elections held across the country in October. In my town, which is a Far Right stronghold, the Right won all twelve seats in the city council, and the mayor, who is also our representative in Parliament, won re-election with nearly 75% of the vote. We are currently experiencing a succession of demonstrations by various interest groups against the government's legislative program, which, in a budget-balancing initiative, will impose tuition charges for the first time in the institutions of higher learning. there is also talk of instituting another outrage: higher co-payments for prescriptions, and for the first time for doctor visits. Now the school teachers are on a kind of mini-strike over having the teaching day increased by another half-hour or such without more pay. And there are plans---we say discussions---about having a national road-use fee for autos and trucks. What makes this particularly offensive to Hungarians is that this fee was recently instituted in Romania, and to Hungarians nothing could be worse than doing something which the Romanians have done. Why these changes? As a member of the European Union we are obliged to adopt the euro; but in order to do so we must have a budget deficit no higher than 3%, a figure currently exceeded by France. Germany, and Italy, the largest euro-currency countries. But whereas they have exceeded the limit of the stability requirement by only 1% or 2%, Hungary is currently running a deficit which makes the Reagan-Bush,Sr.-Bush,Jr. deficits seem like a pocket-change, a whopping 10% of Gross National Product! It is as though we got a Visa card and decided to buy gifts for all our relatives and friends while having only a part-time job in Burger King. Something drastic obviously must be done; but pity the party that does that Something!

Hungary at Christmas is rather different than USA, though in some respects (mostly having to do with shopping) it is becoming less so with each year. Under Socialism, which is to say the Socialist System (which we referred to in USA as Communism), there were no airplane flights into or out of Hungary on Christmas Eve, Christmas, or the Second Day of Christmas. they are still holidays of course, but the airlines function normally. Parking fees are suspended however except for three small districts in Buda that are not easily accessed by car anyway. I remember the first year they had public Christmas trees under the Old System; it was in 1978, and people here were shocked that the government even telecast readings of the Christmas Story and other programs that are commonplace in the West. Curiously, I have not seen any Christmas programs as such on TV thusfar and it is Christmas Eve already. Of course they will have religious services on TV as usual. I customarily attend services at the Unitarian church here on Christmas with friends of mine who are all Unitarians, a religion which is miniscule in USA and even in Hungary, but a major religion among those from Transylvania (Erdely), which is where these friends of mine are from. Today is quite overcast, but it is unlikely there will be snow. This evening Anna and I go to have dinner with her brother and his wife at the wife's parents' home here in Vasarhely. Tomorrow we have dinner at friends' in Ujvaros which is a section of Hodmezovasarhely---it means New Town---and then on the following day we have dinner at another friend who lives about five minutes walking distance from me to celebrate his name-day. You may remember that birthdays are not commonly celebrated here in Hungary except by the very young and the very old, though this practice of celebrating birthdays, too, is becoming somewhat more common. Instead persons celebrate their name-day, which is similar to celebrating your patron-saint's day for Catholics, an old European custom. The following day we celebrate Christmas at the home of friends who live at the other end of the district where I live, in the section called Kertvaros---it means Garden Town, and applies to districts which are residential and made up largely of low-rises and family homes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!

Yes. it is 2007 now. As usual I slept through it all. There was a big party here where I live, but I did not attend. I am not much of a mixer among persons I do not know well, and my acquaintanceship with my neighbors here in the community does not extend beyond facial recognition in most cases, when it reaches that far. I stop for conversation and occasionally sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk, but rarely more than that. There is an American here from New Jersey who lived in Delaware County, New York (!). We used to get together regularly and have a glass of wine and talk, but for reasons quite unknown to me he stopped coming and, for a while, stopped speaking. I have not gotten around to asking him why and am not sure I ever will, though I found his company quite pleasant. Another man here lived in USA, but was actually born near here and left for America with his family when he was twelve years old. We talk together now and then. But for the most part my socializing is done with old friends and acquaintances of many, many years.

It is in the mid- to upper-40s here at present. Thusfar we have had no snow and, hopefully, will have none in the next day or two, as I go to Debrecen Wednesday. I take the train, so the weather is not a serious problem. In a way today, New Year's Day, is a day of mourning here in Hungary. I am speaking somewhat facetiously, because the "mourning" is about price increases for train travel--substantial--electricity, gas, and heating---also substantial--and some other things. In Hungary price rises take place on January 1, as well as all wage increases. The government furnishes financial support for fixed-income persons and families with children to offset the cost of these increases. I received a form to fill out for my support but did not fill it out as I do not feel entitled to support, given the size of my pension, which is considerably higher than the annual earnings of most wage-earners. Among the new increases is a requirement for co-payments for doctor visits. I believe it will be $1.50 for a doctor-visit which does not result in a hospital admission or referral for treatment, and some increase in the prescription co-payment. But the prices of pharmaceuticals is relatively low here in Hungary, unless you are taking really serious medication, meaning for cardiac, oncological, or problems of similar magnitude. A two-month supply of blood-pressure medication for me, for example, costs me $5.50. Since as a senior I do not pay for any domestic transportation, be it by train, bus, or otherwise, I tend not to worry about price increases very much.

USA POLITICS

I can't believe the Democrats actually won back control of Congress; I persist in the belief that the Republicans simply lost it. Whatever the case, I heartily approve of the result. Hopefully the Democrats will not succumb to the temptation of engaging in an orgy of triumphalism and will instead settle down to the serious business of trying to straighten out The Big Mess. I am not speaking of Iraq. Iraq is not a mess; but the Bright Ones have succeeded in messing up Iraq by the most childish of mistakes: to assume that everything will turn out the way you hope it will. I feel very deeply about the whole matter, even more so because Bush is about to venture forth on his next Great Delusion and send tens of thousands of military personnel back for their second, third, or maybe even their fourth tour of duty in Iraq, among them my cousin's son, who is a colonel in the U.S. Army. Do I hear someone saying he wouldn't do that? Well, if he plans to have a "surge" of forces, where do you think he is going to get them from? Since one of the cardinal principles of the strategic planning of the Bright Ones was that we did not need a large ground-force army, but rather high-tech weaponry that would make every GI the equivalent of seven or eight Viet-Nam Era GIs, the only other way the President can conjure up the 30-40 thousand troops for the surge would be by drawing down forces in South Korea, South Dakota, and South Carolina---for starters.

As for domestic politics---which is to say the impending proliferation of exploratory committees, meditations in the wilderness, and other rituals precursory to the unsurprising decision of WHO????????? to announcing his/her candidacy for the nomination of his/her party for the Presidency---I have to say I am underwhelmed by Edwards' decision to be a candidate. I grant that he has an engaging personality, a pleasant voice, and a handsome face; but his contribution to the ticket in the last campaign was rather feeble. If you can't outscore Cheney in a debate, well, what is to be said for you? To be fair, he wasn't as bad as Joe Lieberman in 2000, but then the only running-mate in my lifetime worse than Lieberman in 2000 was that Admiral who was Perot's running-mate in 1996. Edwards did not help Kerry to take any state where he was supposed to help. Granted that that can be attributed as much to Kerry (himself a very disappointing performer on the campaign trail) as to Edwards. But I just don't see him. He had minimal and undistinguished experience as a Senator, and I have to keep coming back to my main theme: if you can't outpoint Cheney as a debater, well you have to seriously ask yourself if you aren't in the wrong game. As for the two names most being bandied about these days, Hillary and Obama, I must say that I am a bit uneasy about both as candidates. First, let me say that I happen to believe that Hillary would make a very good President; but I fear she would not be successful as a candidate. There is a sizable hard-core anti-Clinton bloc in the electorate that simply would not vote for her under any conditions whatever. Granted that there is an equally sizable bloc of hard-core supporters in the electorate, but, as in 2000, I think this election is for the Democrats to lose, which is to say that they should win unless they do something very ill-advised, which, to my mind, might very well include nominating Hillary. I really want to believe otherwise, believe me, which means that I am open to being convinced. As for Obama, I feel he is vulnerable on more numerous and more substantial grounds, beginning with Experience. Well, you say, Junior had no experience to speak of, and of course you are right. But you see where Junior's lack of experience led us. I am not suggesting that Obama---or anyone else for that matter---could possibly match Junior's Team when it comes to making Colossal Blunders; but at this point I don't think we could survive even a few minor ones. His name certainly does not help, either. I mean no offense to him, but to most Americans one hundred miles from the coasts he sounds like he might be an illegal alien, if not a From Out There Alien even. All right, you argue, he didn't sound like that to the good people of Illinois; and of course you are right. And I admit I don't have a rebuttal for that, so I shall go on to the next item, the R-factor. Now I have to concede that I have been pleasantly surprised by the American people numerous times in my brief lifetime; but I do not believe this will add to that number. And the worst part of it is that after his almost certain defeat in the election, we won't have any way of truly determining why he lost, since Inexperience will be confounded with Race. The likely result of that will be that neither party will nominate a candidate who is inexperienced or a candidate who is a minority of any kind for the next fifty years.

PERSONAL NEWS

All the traveling these days is being done by Anna. On the 12th she goes to London for two weeks. In October we were to Ireland for a week. It would not have normally occurred to me to go, which is true of all the UK area; I enjoy being there, but it does not often occur to me to go there. Neither of us had ever been to Ireland, but a colleague---Gigi Sesti, if you know her---was going, so we decided to join the group in Dublin and get to spend some time with her while partaking of a new experience. It turned out to be extremely enjoyable. Now Anna is going to London, where she lived for several years after leaving Hungary and before coming to USA. In March she will join the group from OCCC in Milan for ten days in Italy. The end of April we go with friends to spend a week in a national park in the northeast of Hungary called Hortobagy; I was there with the same friends in the same week of April 2006, but Anna was in USA at the time.

ABOUT THESE POSTINGS

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