The following news comes to us from this month's New England Historical and Genealogical Society newsletter... (BTW, note that "Divers David Faye, Bob Foster, Don Morse, Slav Mlch and Paul Blanchette spent 10 to 15 minutes each dive exploring the shipwreck but had to endure up to 4 hours of decompression in the frigid North Atlantic in exchange"!)
The wreck of the steamship Portland off the coast of Cape Ann was one of the worst shipwrecks in the history of New England. Sailing into a 'perfect storm' now known as the Portland Gale in November 1898, almost 200 people, including a senator from Maine, lost their lives returning home from a Thanksgiving holiday.
Little of the wreckage was ever recovered. Few victims ever turned up on shore. Even the exact location of the disaster remained a mystery for a century, until researchers discovered her in the summer of 2002. The wreckage lies about 15 miles east of Cape Ann, and at 460 feet is about the limit that unprotected human divers can reach. Five Massachusetts men recently reached the Portland for the first time since she sank more than a century ago.
Even though the disaster was enough to rip the upper decks off the ship, many fragile class and porcelain items were found intact, including stacks of delicate china plates.
You can read more about the divers in the Boston Globe, and a slideshow is also available here. In addition, you can also read more about the wreck and view a computer-animated [and - I think - haunting!] video of what scientists believe happened to the ship, on the Science Channel.
The wreck site of the S.S. Portland was added to the National Register of Historic Places back in 2005.
What could POSSIBLY be more Venetian than Vivaldi OR accordians? How about a post which manages to combine BOTH?! Without further ado, I give you Vivaldi's "Winter" from The Four Seasons (the unofficial soundtrack of Venice) played by a virtuoso on the accordian! Enjoy!!
(A sixties' ad that was done with pigeons by spreading corn just right in Saint Mark's Square)
"After several months of battling thousands of pigeons hovering over Piazza San Marco, Venice has declared victory. From 20,000 the canal city's pigeon population has dwindled to less than 1,000."
Turns out the AHN did what a lot of tourists do all the time, and that's confuse Saint Mark's Square with Venice itself.
As any longtime fan of Venice and/or this blog can tell you, San Marco's pigeons aren't quaint; they're gross. And their numbers in the square had swelled to 20,0000 because of the corn vendors there, making that pigeon population a veritable petri dish for salmonella and respiratory disease. So, the fact that EACH pigeon produces an estimated 26 pounds of guano annually (MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A TON COLLECTIVELY?!) which was burying and eating away at the peerless historical monuments there, was really only a (powerful) side concern.
(The video doesn't seem quite so delightful NOW, does it? Yuk!)
Hence, the Venetian city government's decision this past year to ban selling corn in the square and thankfully for once they had the stones to stick to it!
As a result, the population of pigeons IN PIAZZA SAN MARCO ALONE is now estimated to be 1000 instead of 20,000. (Although, as one reader on Venessia.com put it, "would you be happy if somebody said that now there are only 1000 rats in the piazza?")
So, don't lament the untimely passing of those poor darling Venetian flying rats just yet. But, for God's sake and Venice's, please don't feed them either!
A fantastic little animated short of a love-struck octopus' rescue from one of those cute tiny "ape" scooter trucks on a small Greek island... It's a hoot! Enjoy!!
I'm not usually a huge fan of the glass tchotchkes that are mass produced these days on Murano, Venice's glass-making island, but - almost despite myself - I thought this video was kinda endearing... Enjoy!
"Two brands have dominated the history of Scooters: Lambretta and Vespa.
The larger and more decorative Lambretta is often considered more desirable for vintage scooter enthusiasts, however, I have always preferred the minimalist simplicity of the snail-like Vespa from the early 60s, which seems to better capture the spirit of modernism rather than Mod.
This documentary traces the history of Viaggio and Innocenti scooters from post war Italy to mid 60s Britain. It has some particularly great period footage from the 50s." Enjoy!!
Very Good Taste introduced the "Omnivore's 100" meme, a list of one hundred foods that every gourmand ought to try.
My results were pretty good, I guess... a good 80 out of 100! Literally, great food for thought! (Especially when my first taste ever of venison had actually been [fresh] roadkill!)
Here's the list...
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison (See comment above!)
2. Nettle tea (I had nettles at a vegetarian restaurant in Italy once and seemed to have a bit of an allergic reaction to them... Never ate 'em again, just in case!)
3. Huevos rancheros (Not a big vegetables-at-breakfast person!)
4. Steak tartare (Wanna try!)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht 10. Baba ghanoush 11. Calamari 12. Pho 13. PB&J sandwich 14. Aloo gobi 15. Hot dog from a street cart 16. Epoisses 17. Black truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes 19. Steamed pork buns 20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Fresh wild berries 23. Foie gras 24. Rice and beans 25. Brawn, or head cheese (I'd like to say that I'm open-minded enough to try everything, but I just can't...)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (Am I brave enough?!)
27. Dulce de leche 28. Oysters
29. Baklava 30. Bagna cauda 31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi 34. Sauerkraut 35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar 37. Clotted cream tea 38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O 39. Gumbo 40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal 44. Goat’s milk 45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu 47. Chicken tikka masala 48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (Mmmmm... *HOT* glazed doughnuts!!) 50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear 52. Umeboshi 53. Abalone 54. Paneer 55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle 57. Dirty gin martini 58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine 60. Carob chips
61. S’mores 62. Sweetbreads (See number 25!)
63. Kaolin 64. Currywurst 65. Durian 66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis 69. Fried plantain 70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho 72. Caviar and blini 73. Louche absinthe 74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (See comment at top of post!)
76. Baijiu 77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong 80. Bellini (Venice's *elegant* cocktail!)
81. Tom yum 82. Eggs Benedict 83. Pocky 84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Totally sign me up, if you're paying!!)
85. Kobe beef (Ditto!!)
86. Hare
87. Goulash 88. Flowers 89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate (Thanks to Timinus!) 91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab 93. Rose harissa 94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox 97. Lobster Thermidor 98. Polenta 99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee 100. Snake
The following news comes to us from this month's New England Historical and Genealogical Society newsletter... (BTW, note that "Divers David Faye, Bob Foster, Don Morse, Slav Mlch and Paul Blanchette spent 10 to 15 minutes each dive exploring the shipwreck but had to endure up to 4 hours of decompression in the frigid North Atlantic in exchange"!)
