Loose Links (Monday)
Friends of Fafblog: Jesus' General, home of "Republican Jesus"; Tom Burka's Opinions You Should Have; and Arran's Alley, where HM the Queen is ready to take us errant Americans back. I ask myself, would Fafblog not be as funny if it got its look-and-feel act together? (The idea that it does have its look-and-feel act together exacerbates my eczema.)
Every once in a while, I have to visit the "Wonderful Woodies" page at Forgotten NY. I remember the rustic lamps that used to line the Bronx River Parkway (which I crossed every day when I was very little) with an unaccountable pang. They contributed to the illusion that the Parkway threaded through a wildnerness, or barely tamed landscape; in fact, of course, the verdure was not much deeper than a stage set. The ghastly cobras that replaced the Woodies are now on their way out, and it's not too much to hope that the Woodies will return in triumph.
In a comment yesterday, Max of The Biscuit Report alluded to a personal anecdote involving a successfully aborted mugging on Gellért Hill in Budapest. While we wait for Max to tell the whole story, here's the view from Gellért Hill.
Comments
I'm not sure the story works in writing: an important part of it is my demonstration of how, when Max yelled, "He's got my wallet!" I jumped onto the man in question like he was my long-lost uncle, grabbing him in a giant bear hug, preventing him from passing the wallet to his accomplice (who'd appeared out of nowhere). Max snatched the wallet back (Simpsons-esque "Yoink!" sound effect goes here) and we ran for our lives.
It is a measure of how weird and paranoid we all were just then that we worried afterward that the muggers were part of a plot to spread anthrax to unsuspecting American tourists. Given that people back stateside were dying of anthrax at the time, nothing seemed particularly farfetched for our Sept-11-addled brains.
Also, strictly speaking I guess they were pickpockets rather than muggers, as they got the wallet through aggressive you-are-an-idiot-tourist tactics rather than violence. We, on the other hand, were definitely muggers.
Posted by: Biscuit | January 24, 2005 06:21 PM
Good Show! The more I consider this hair-raising tale, the more impressed I am with your dogged, spontaneous bravery.
Posted by: R J Keefe | January 24, 2005 06:53 PM