[Otclassof1973] CLASSY MAIL & EXOTIC VACATIONS

Mon Nov 14 08:10:55 EST 2005

Russ,

You and my wife must share the same "gelato gene". We've been fortunate enough to travel to Italy several times and every trip ends up in a search for the perfect cone. We are heading back next September and it will start all over again. Did you make the climb up to the top of the Duomo? When you think how that was done and the tools they had to use, you realize that Brunelleschi was truly a genius. 

One thing with the gypsy musicians. While you are watching the performance, it is not all too uncommon for some of the others, usually the children, to be helping themselves to the contents of your pocket or backpack. We ran in to a few other tourists who had been victims.

John S.

-----Original Message-----
From: otclassof1973-bounces at eris.njit.edu [mailto:otclassof1973-bounces at eris.njit.edu]On Behalf Of Russ Malta
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2005 11:26 AM
To: otclassof1973 at eris.njit.edu
Subject: Re: [Otclassof1973] CLASSY MAIL & EXOTIC VACATIONS

Excuse #317b for belated replies to the class bulletin board:  I, too, was on an "exotic vacation" all week.  I just flew back late last night from Tuscany.  My oldest daughter (Megan) is getting an MA in Italian Studies at Middlebury College/University of Florence this year and my own SWMBO (Sue) and youngest daughter (Laura) took the opportunity to pay a visit.   We saw way to much to describe here, but to mention some of the highlights, we took in lots of "culchah" including tons of Renaissance paintings at the incomparable Uffizzi Musuem, more paintings at the Pitti Palace, too many churches to name and Michelangelo's David.  We also took a side trip to Lucca, a beautiful old Tuscan town complete with excavated Roman ruins.  This summary would not be complete without at least a mention of the the great food.  Since I was putting about 100 miles a day on my Reebok's I felt justified in eating anything I wanted, including at least one gelato a day!  

Marvin and Patti have been gushing about their concerts.  Our vacation was not without live entertainment: the "concert" we caught was a gypsy band playing in the piazza one night.  They were not bad, and you could get as close as you wanted to.  

It was not my favorite part of the trip, but I am sure at least some of the class will appreciate the fact that the distaff members of my family were enthusiastic about the shopping.  I must admit to a purchase or 2 myself.  

The weather was uncharacteristically and unexpectedly beautiful, with bright, sunny and unseasonably warm (high 60s and even as high as 72) days; except for light drizzle on the day we arrived and fog the day we left.  We all had a great time.  

----- Original Message ----- 

From: neufsaid at juno.com 
To: otclassof1973 at eris.njit.edu 
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 7:58 PM
Subject: [Otclassof1973] CLASSY MAIL

It's taken me a while to check in with observations about this year's 33rd annual running of the Blues Festival through the streets of San Francisco (and where ARE Karl Malden & Michael Douglas when you really need them?).

Wouldn't you know Patti's not here to read about this first hand.  Shout out to Patti: When you DO read this (and I think I speak for just about everyone) realize that I/we am/are just jealous that you're on such an exotic vacation and we're not (unless someone else is and hasn't piped up, yet).  Oh look, now I'm/we're performing grammatical acrobaticals.  

And without a net.  You know, I/we never even had one lesson.  

Continuing along this Patti thread, and this isn't a complaint, just an observation - now that she's on vacation the rest of us will get an email response bump from her system every single time we send out a class email just to dig that knife in and give it an extra twist after each class email.  That includes a response bump after this one, too, folks.  

Class email or Classy mail? Hmmm, coincidental homophone or underlying intelligent design? 

"Response bump," is that the proper technical term for the function I'm referring to?   Clark/Tim/Russ/Doug/John Livingston, you guys are probably better versed on this subject, I don't think I've ever heard of a name for this function and as far as I know I may have just invented "Response Bump" as my own response bump to the phenomenon. This reminds me there's some kind of redundancy function built into most systems these days that stops them from automatically sending out knee jerk e-responses to themselves when they recognize itself as the original poster (hello, department of redundancy department).  My, those internet elves get smarter each and every day.  

This happened a few years ago, at the University of the Pacific San Francisco (UOP-SF), where I work.  UOP's San Francisco campus is a dental school (just look at these pearly whites - future's so bright I gotta wear shades) and the main campus is way the hell over in Stockton, CA (a "short" 2 hour drive from SF that includes 2 toll bridges and an interminable drive through rolling farm country that coincidentally includes a vast windmill farm - now THAT'S "rolling farm country" people).  There's also a law school over on the McGeorge campus, in Sacramento (that's even further away than Stockton, in the land where Arnold the Barbarian lives with Maria the Shriver - but that's another story) and now I've revealed far too much and will probably have to kill all of you (no hard feelings, 'K?).  

Anyhoo, a few years back one of my campus' high muckety-mucks (that's "DR" muckety-muck) went on vacation and set his email to respond with an e-note back to everyone who tried to contact him.  Thing was, if he was on the cc list of the original email, his response email would include himself in its response list, and Murphy's Law being Murphy's Law his system would then send out another round of emails every time it received one of his own response emails.  Now, multiply all these response loops times every group email he received - stir vigorously, garnish with a twist and within a week the mainframes at all three UOP campuses crashed from the strain.

Now systems have redundancy protections in place so something like that doesn't happen - but without eternal vigilance... blah, blah, blah and the terrorists win.

OK, I've flexed my email muscle quite enough for now, I'll write about the Blues Festival tomorrow.  

Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

Marvin

#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9
You're just jealous 
because the voices 
only talk to me.
Name withheld upon request  
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