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.

JANUARY 2008

DECEMBER 18

We have had a quite significant snowfall, the first in two winters. I first noticed it while on my return Saturday from Hajdúszobószlo, where there was no snow at all, even though that area typically has the worst weather in Hungary. It must have been Cegléd when I looked out---well, I had to change trains there, for I had spoken to Anna and she had suggested that I come to Szeged and have dinner there; so instead of changing trains in Szolnok and taking the train to Hódmezővásárhely, I continued on to Cegléd and took the train there to Szeged. In Vásárhely it was even worse, for my car, which I had parked across the street from the main railroad station on Friday, was covered with snow and ice, which I could only partially remove, since I had only a hand ice-scraper. Today we go to the language club meeting at 3.30, then to the symphony at 7.30., then leave to take the minibus to the airport at 2.45 a.m., as there is a railway strike here and we must go to Vienna by bus to be on the safe side. the minibus, a flight-catcher sort of thing,. also goes to the main bus station from which the international buses leave, so it will be a quite simple matter of walking from one part of the terminal to another part.

JANUARY 3

We spent several days in Vienna as guests of relatives we did not even know until about two months ago. the girl is the daughter of Anna's cousin and her husband, who is Austrian, and they live in Vienna. Anna and I used to go to Vienna every year at Christmas time and spend a week or so, but then Anna went back to USA and I stopped going; when she returned to live in Hungary she went again, but I did not go with her. Her cousin, who lives in Budapest, I had met only once, when I first came to Hungary Christmas 1978; then, about a year or so ago, she and Anna started seeing each other and she and her husband and their son came to Szeged and I met them then. As for our visit, they live about two miles from Westbahnhof, one of the main railway stations of Vienna, in a good-sized flat. If you know Vienna, you can walk straight down her street and come to Schöenbrünn Palace. We had a great time with them. To be honest I was not all that enthusiastic about going, but felt it would be rude not to, so I went. They took us to parts of Vienna I had never been to, though I have been to the city at least ten times. While there Anna and I went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, which is something we always do; and we also went to the Belvedere, to which I had been numerous times without ever going inside. Believe it or not, we walked from their flat down to Westbahnhof, and then to Belvedere, and it was coooooollllllldddddd! I would not do it again. I knew how to get there, but misjudged the distance, thinking it was only about four kilometers when it turned out to be more like twice that distance. We went to Vienna by bus because there was a railway strike in progress in Hungary at the time---we knew of it several weeks in advance----and we did not know if the international trains would operate (they did), so we did not wish to take chances. Returning, we arrived to the main bus station at 22.15 and had an hour-long wait; but the bus came promptly, though we had a long wait at the airport, which is where it goes to when it leaves the bus terminal. It was after 3.00 when we got home. I slept until 10.00; Anna got up at her usual time, about 5.15. Since then we have had a string of holiday parties, at some of which I drank rather more than I should have----an old Hungarian custom. Now I am about to leave for Spain for two weeks, until January 19. Here in Hungary we have snow. Lots of it. It would not be very much in Sullivan County, nor in Orange; and once it would not have been very much for here either. But it is as much as we have had in the past three winters combined. And we are just getting started, which is why I am happy to be leaving for Costa del Sol.

JANUARY 22

I am back from Spain now and Anna has left with friends to spend two weeks in a spa in the southwestern part of Hungary, only a few kilometers from Keszthely, a very lovely town on Lake Balaton to which we have gone on vacation several times.

I am presently in Szeged with her brother, who is looking after the cat for her. Spain was a bit cooler than usual, and it also rained a couple of times, which is unusual for this time of year; but it was still a great deal warmer than here in Hungary, usually about the low 60s, but sometimes as high as 70. My friends enjoyed it very much. They had not been to that part of Spain, and not to Spain at this time of year, so they really appreciated being able to walk on the beachfront and sun themselves on the veranda. For the most part everything went well. However, when we were in the process of moving from one timeshare to another the second week, the car we rented would not start. Why it did not came as no surprise. Because the rental agency did not have automatics, I rented a standard; but because I last drove a standard in 1970, I did not feel up to the task of learning anew how to coordinate the shifting of the gears and the manipulation of the clutch so as not to stall in first-gear, I decided to let my friends do the driving. there was something on the dashboard that was lit and would not turn off, and I suspect that that ran the battery down. I went to the timeshare office to find out if there was a service station I could call, and the receptionist told me I should instead call the rental agency, which I did. Within an hour and a half they had delivered a replacement car to me; the receptionist arranged for me to stay in the apartment until the car came, so there was no real discomfort or inconvenience involved. We got to the new place, which was only about six or seven minutes away, by noon and were settled in by one. While there we celebrated Julianna's birthday. She reminded me that I was also with them last year to celebrate her birthday, for at that time they came and spent the weekend in Szeged. They became so enthusiastic about Spain in January that I had to remind them that in January 2009 I shall be in Florida, for I have been promising Annette and Raphael for several years that I would come and now I am definitely committed to go to spend a few weeks with them.

Anna and I have been examining the possibilities of a trip to Syria and Jordan, or Iran, or possibly even Libya. There are spectacular Roman ruins in all of them, though not in Iran----the Parthians saw to it that the Roman legions did not get that far. We have received numerous travel brochures, thanks to Saci, Anna's cousin's daughter in Vienna; but the offer that interests me most was one that she got on the Internet and which is marketed here in Hungary by a firm up in Budapest. I shall try to get up there soon and check them out. Anna has been thinking in terms of March, but for my part I would prefer something in the Fall, as I have timeshare weeks that I must use soon or lose them, so I want to use one of them to go to Austria in late May or very early June, and another to go to a resort in a town in Hungary on the Slovene border the end of September. My other resorts are in points---if you are RCI, then you know what I am talking about; if not, then none of this is likely to make much sense to you and it is a drawn-out explanation. First, you buy a fixed week at a resort; it means that you own that apartment for that week either for a definite period of time, say, 50 years, or forever. You may sell or deed it to whomever you wish. You pay an annual maintenance charge. If you do not wish to come to the same place at the same time every year, you may join an exchange society, the largest of which is RCI; this will enable you to exchange your week for a week in a similar time-period---high for high, middle for middle, low for low, or any time period lower than your own, but not higher---of comparable or smaller size, at any resort in their system, which consists of about four thousand resorts all over the world, but mainly in the USA, Caribbean, Europe, and North Africa. You pay a fee of about 130 USD for each such exchange. You do not exchange directly with a person, so you do not have to find someone who owns the accommodation you want and is willing to go to the place that you own; that is the job of RCI. You simply deposit your week and find a place you wish to go to that conforms to the parameters I have laid out above. That is the Weeks System. The Points System works like money. A point-value is assigned to your property based upon its relevant characteristics: time period, size, quality of the resort. Thus your "week" might be worth two or even three weeks depending upon when and where you choose to use them. To give an example: I own(ed) a week at Miraflores in Malaga, Spain, which was worth 20,000 pts. But if I had not owned it, and had been willing to make a reservation forty-five days or less before my arrival date, I could have gotten that same week via exchange for only 7500 pts. As with money, you may spend your points howsoever you choose, not on a barter basis as is the case with Weeks. Does it make sense to you at all now?

I am pleased to see new winners of the Australian Open instead of the same faces year after year. I think it is good for the game when there are a number of genuine contenders rather than just one real contender with a handful of challengers. To be sure it was not that way with the women, who were far more competitive than the men. But except for Nadal, who does not win except on clay, Federer never had a genuine challenger during his reign. Sampras had his Lendl, his Agassi, his Becker, and even McEnroe and Connors at the end of their careers; but Federer had no real challenger.

I am going to close this now. Remember my e-mail address is alex@lewisbrooks.net, and my address is Dr. Brooks Louis Alexander, Petö F. u. 4,

Hódmezővásárhely 6800, HUNGARY.

AUTUMN 2007

NOVEMBER 27

Yes, it has been a long, long time! Let me explain why. I have been unable to work on this on my own computer for a technical reason I do not fully understand. I could have worked on it at an internet cafe, but that was not always convenient. But now Anna has a computer which, because it does not have the same browser as I have, and does not invoke special firewalls and similar obstacles, I can use hers. I happen to be at her apartment at this time because Anna is in Transylvania and I am here looking after her cat, so it gives me the opportunity to do this---at long last!

I am not going to try to fill you in, other than in a cursory manner. You know that I was to USA in the summer. Since my arrival home a number of important occurrences have captured my attention. First, when I went to the eye clinic for my three-month check-up and eye-pressure reading, they gave me a form advising me that the Health Ministry had advised that they would honor my bills only through the end of this year, and that I would have to contact them and resolve the issue. Naturally I did post haste. It seems that since I never really worked in Hungary---well, I did, but the University of Debrecen and the English university both treated me as a foreignor for tax purposes, and therefore did not have to pay health insurance for me, not that those meager payments could have been expected to significantly affect my status. In short, I was an uninsured claimant. Anna went with me to the appropriate offices and the matter was fully resolved in a single day. I must pay a sum equal to 9% of the minimum wage here, which is what I would pay were I working and earning the minimum wage. Of course I do not have an employer to make the matching contribution, but that will be conveniently overlooked. This will provide me with full coverage, which is important, since the last Rx I got was subsidized by the government for more than twice the amount of my monthly health premium. Although I was told that I would receive my new card within a month, together with forms on which to make payments, I have received nothing to date and the month has passed. However, I have a letter under seal from the Ministry of Health attesting that I am covered and indicating what my coverage ID number is.

Today is rather frosty and will get down into the upper teens overnight. This autumn has been more like what we are accustomed to, and that is the way it is all over Europe these days. I am actually thinking ahead to January, when I shall be going to Spain with Klein Sandor (Sandor Klein) and his family. I just got an e-mail today from Julianna, his wife, advising me that she is ready to book our flight to Malaga and will give me the info when she has it. Speaking of Sandor, their company just won a huge contract from the national government to prepare protocols to be used for the hiring of civil service employees in the several hundred job titles of that force. It is the largest contract they have ever gotten and they have been working night and day to finish preparing all the protocols before mid-December. It will not affect their going to Spain, as Sandor's eldest son, Balazs, can complete whatever needs to be done.

I suppose you have heard about the plight of the dollar. Let me explain it to you in flesh-and-blood terms. When Clinton left office in the beginning of 2001, $1 bought you 310 Hungarian forints (HUF). So, if something cost 310 HUF, it costs me $1. Today if something costs me 310 HUF, I must spend $1.79 for it. Mind you, this assumes that the price has not increased since 2001----which you know it has! It is the same all over Western Europe, where they all use the Euro, which, when Clinton left office, cost $0.85, but which now costs $1.49. So if something cost 1 E in 2001, it cost $0.85 then and $1.49 now, again, assuming that the price has not increased at all, which, again, we all know it has. Now some of you will say that I am trying to blame it all on Bush, and that it isn't fair to put it all on him. Well, if he can claim that the fact we have not been terror-attacked since 2001 is all to his credit, and the fact that unemployment is at only 4. 7% is all to his credit, then why is it so unjust and unreasonable to assign responsibility for the bad along with credit for the good? OR ARE WE SUPPOSED TO OVERLOOK THE FACT THAT JUNIOR HAS INCREASED THE NATIONAL DEBT BY 2.6 TRILLION DOLLARS DURING THIS BEST OF ALL TIMES? I am going to let this rest overnight and resume tomorrow or the day after.

NOVEMBER 28

We are currently in the midst of a series of episodic strikes, which is to say those that are planned to last for a specific duration of time, usually not more than six hours. Today I believe that it is the intercity bus drivers. This could present a problem for me, because I am in Szeged and must get home to Hódmezővásárhely, where my car is parked at the railroad station. But since I can take the train home just as easily as the bus---both go to the main railway station, which is where my car is parked---it is not a problem. It is only a real problem when both the intercity buses and the trains are on strike at the same time. I understand, however, that there will be a railway strike commencing 17th December without a pre-determined end-time, so theoretically the strike could last indefinitely. I cannot see it lasting much beyond the beginning of the year, however, as the government almost certainly will not pay unemployment benefits to the workers during the strike and the unions do not begin to have enough money in their treasury to support the workers during a long strike---they are not the UAW or the Teamsters. All this is about the government's plan to eliminate service on very lightly travelled rail lines, reduce the workforce, change to a semi-private health insurance system (with which I personally do not agree), make permanent medical co-payments for doctor visits and prescription drugs, and "reform" the pension system, which is the new way to describe a cut in benefits. The irony of all this is that the government is Socialist, the direct descendant of the former MSZMP, or Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, spelled C-o-m-m-u-n-i-s-t. The populace is overwhelmingly opposed to most, if not all, of these changes; but the government's term runs until Spring 2010, and they have the votes in Parliament to pass their program, which is why the Opposition is demanding a nepszavazas, or referendum on several of these questions, even though they are not under the umbrella of a referendum requirement in the Constitution. The Opposition, however, is undeterred by such legal trivialities, arguing that "the people have a right to be heard". I am just sitting on the sidelines trying to figure out how much it is going to cost me, however it goes. Overlooked in all this is the fact that the country is currently running a Bush-sized deficit which, according to EU requirements, must be eradicated (or at least reduced to about one-third of its current level) to meet euro-accession requirements. No one who opposes these "reforms" has come forth with any detailed plan as to how he will maintain the current benefit structure and still eliminate the excess deficit in the budget, which makes the the outcries of the Opposition ring a bit hollow.

As if all this were not enough, we have a resurgent neo-Fascism, replete with storm-troooper like outfits and insignia reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, Hungary's equivelent of Romania's Iron Guard during the Horthy regime at the time of Hitler. Their mission is to protect Hungary from its "enemies". These are not specified, but you would have to be naive not to know whom they are referring to: gypsies (of whom we have a sizeable number) and various religious and ethnic minorities, who comprise a mere pittance in the total population. Bear in mind that over 96% of all persons in Hungary were either born here or are ethnic Hungarians who moved here from neighboring lands formerly a part of Hungary: Croatia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, for the most part. Hungary is hardly a magnet for refugees, for many of our young professionals have to go elsewhere to find employment, the language is an insuperable barrier for most persons---why even bother to learn a language spoken mainly in only one country and not likely to be understood anywhere else; and we have no special attractions outside the cultural realm to woo outsiders. I personally love it here, but I realize that that feeling would not likely be shared by refugees looking to make a new life for themselves in a Land of Opportunity.

DECEMBER 4

We had miserable weather the past couple of days, but today is sunny and mild, though it is not the same in the Eastern U.S. The Christmas tree in front of City Hall is up, the ice-skating rink is being prepared in Kossuth Square, and the booths for the Christmas Fair are being set up and stacked. I have not been into the center of Szeged, so I have no idea what it looks like there, though I imagine it is as it usually is, meaning like in Vasarhely, only on a bigger scale. It is time to make up gift lists and buy cards. Buying gifts is not a big problem; I buy fragrances for ladies and liquor for men and give money to children. No one has ever said, Oh, I was hoping for a tie, and I'm so disappointed that you gave me money. Anna's brother, Lou, arrives day after tomorrow; later this month Anna and I go to Vienna to visit relatives. We are to decide upon the exact date later this evening. The problem will be how we go, for there is to be a railroad strike beginning the 17th and no one seems to know whether international trains will be affected. If so, there are plenty of busses to Vienna; but if the bus drivers here in Hungary go out in support of the railway workers, and the transit workers in Budapest also join them, then it could be a problem. The only way I see in that case is to drive to Budapest and have A nna's cousin's husband take us to the bus station while we leave our car at their house. If the international busses are also on strike---most improbable----then we can drive to Vienna, it is only about five hours from here on the expressways. For the time being we shall assume that the international railways will operate, or that the intercity busses here in Hungary will operate. The latter would be best, because the intercity and international busses use the same terminal in Budapest and it is just a matter of walking around the corner in the terminal.

DECEMBER 6

Today is Mikulasnap, the Feast of St. Nicholas, which serves as a kind of Christmas preview for children and adults, in that petty gifts are left in the shoe of the person. In the old days it was the official start of the Chriszmas Season commercially, but now it begins as early as it does in U.S.A. Here in Vásárhely we have had Christmas shopping ads up since the end of October, and a friend was telling me how lit up our main square is at night. I of course am rarely out at night in Vásárhely, and certainly not in the center of town, so I have had no occasion to notice. I have digital TV service as of today, with about thirty more channels, about half of them worthwhile, which is, after all, a rather good percentage for TV these days. I am particularly pleased that one of my new channels is Deutschewelle, the German equivalent of the BBC, which has exceptional news programs. I used to get it on cable, but then they switched to satellite and I could not get it anymore. I of course do not understand German, but the programs are in German one hour, and then repeated in English the following hour. Thios evening Anna and I go to a chamber concert, with a work of Corelli and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. This chamber orchestra is very good, they perform several times a year, usually at the Conservatory. Earlier in the day Anna was to the airport to meet her brother, but he missed his connecting flight in London owing to the late departure of the flight from JFK, so she decided not to wait, a friend is going to drive him home anyway. I went for my annual check-up for my esophagus, and learned that my specialist is abroad. I could have seen his substitute, who is the Head of the Department, but I decided to skip it as all that would happen would be that he would ask me how I am , I would say I am fine, and he would say that if I have any problems I should come in, I do not need an appointment, and he would hand me a summary of our meeting for me to give to my doctor. That can surely wait until Dr. Izbéki returns from wherever he is.

DECEMBER 12

Last evening we attended the symphony in Szeged: a Mozart symphony and Richard Strauss' A Hero's Life. Richard Strauss is not one of my favorite composers, and not just because he was one of Adolf Hitler's favorites---after all, I adore Wagner and Bruckner. He is one of those composers whom I can abide provided I do not hear him often, as is the case with Delius and Khatchaturian. At the symphony I was approached by the wife of Kosztandy Istvan, the concertmeister. She gave me a recording of his that he had asked her to give to me. He of course was playing in the orchestra, but Gyűdi Sándor, the Musical Director, was not conducting and was in the audience, two boxes down from ours, which is where he always sits when he is not conducting. There is some musical event this Friday that Anna is attending, but I shall be in Debrecen that day and will miss it.

Anna's brother, Lou, is here and I have spent considerable time with him. His wife just got a very big promotion and has to go to Mexico City, so it is not at all certain that she will get here for the Holidays; Lou, however, will stay until sometime in mid-January, as he has an open-dated return ticket. I still have not gotten around to buying Christmas cards, so you will know why yours arrives late, or even not at all. I still have not gotten up to Budapest to visit Sándor and Julianna, if I do it will have to be Monday of next week as I have an appointment at the eye clinic on Tuesday and we go to Vienna to visit relatives either Wednesday or Thursday---I must check with Anna to make certain which day. Everything here is uncertain because we shall have a railway strike and possibly others as well in the transportation field beginning Monday. Unlike other strikes, this one does not have a scheduled ending date.

I am going to close this now with Holiday Greetings to you all and wishes for health, happiness and success in the New Year.

SUMMER 2007

JUNE 21 This is when I was supposed to post this, and I am only beginning it today, which is my last day in Hungary, as I have a morning flight to New York via Milan. So what has happened since I last wrote..... Hmmm... Well, suppose I work backwards from today.

This past Saturday we threw a dinner party at a restaurant in Hodmezovasarhely. We had been guests at the home of these friends--ex-classmates of Anna, but neither Anna nor I have an apartment large enough to comfortably invite guests, so when we invite someone to dinner, we are inviting them Manhattan-style, which is to say that we are taking them to a restaurant. They set us up in a very nice private dining-room that was air-conditioned, which was very important, given that the temperature has been in the low 90s for as long as we can remember and in fact is supposed to hit 97 today. We dine there frequently, so they know us very well and take good care of us. Everyone was very pleased, so naturally we were as well. I had driven back from Debrecen that morning. Normally I take the train, as I do not have to pay, it is only an hour or so slower than driving there, and I can read and listen to music on the way. But although I arrived to the train station a half hour early, I missed the train. How could that happen? Well, I had decided to take a later train, and a train pulled into the station and just sat there. Then at 7.15 the front half detached---it was a two-coach train---and set off for Mako. I assumed---big mistake; NEVER assume anything in Hungary---that the train I wanted would pull in and I would get on, but the next thing I knew, the front half (now the back-half) pulled off and headed for Szentes, which meant it was my train. Now I could have sped to Szentes and beaten it there; but while I have been to the railroad station in Szentes numerous times, I do not remember the appearance of the area around the station, and since I planned to leave my car overnight, I felt some misgivings about the idea without knowing (or remembering) what the neighborhood was like. So I decided against outracing the train to Szentes and instead drove to Debrecen, which is why I had to drive back Saturday morning to be in time for the dinner-party.

I am going to do something and post this and just keep adding to it while in USA.

June 29 I am in USA now, arriving under the most pleasant circumstances imaginable. My plane landed at 1.30 PM, and by 2.00 I had (a) clearned immigration; (b) collected my baggage---it was the seciond one out the chute!; (c) cleared customs; and (d) gotten on the bus to Grand Central. It was the hottest day of the year in NYC thusfar. I am now in Middletown at the College, having just visited Cassilda at her office and stopped by the College on my way to see Ken Newman, intending to stop off and see Rich Eldridge on the way. Now, re-tracing my steps back in Hungary. We went to Kalocsa to attend a performance of Haydn's The Creation, performed by the Szeged Philharmonic and Vaszy Viktor Chorus. I had last been to Kalocsa in 1983, and Anna had not been there since the late 60s. We had a fine room in a hotel right across the square from the Cathedral. But the bells rang at 5.00 AM. They even rang during the performance of Haydn, causing the conductor to pause at an appropriate point. We also visited several museums, the Archbishop's Library and Treasury, and a peasant house outside the town. It was a most enjoyable experience.