tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post3401407604146888103..comments2023-04-16T13:03:08.852+02:00Comments on Déjà vu - down memory lane in California: IS THIS TOSCANA?Emil Emshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07815643585218883358noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-50674335044384749322010-05-09T16:23:06.267+02:002010-05-09T16:23:06.267+02:00Dear Lars and Per,
I am glad that we now have gott...Dear Lars and Per,<br />I am glad that we now have gotten the background story to Per's poem right. As to Per's suggestion, I am at Berkeley square most every evening, frequenting the movie theaters there with abandon. My favorite watering hole there is the "Burgermeister", with excellent burgers and Blue Pabst Ribbon. Cheers!<br /><br />Dear Kari,<br />You chose the right valley to visit. There are only two in the Bay Area, so you must have been to the SONOMA VALLEY, where it all began. I will visit this sacred place before leaving for Stockholm and you will have a chance to look at it in all its splendor at a future blog!Emil Emshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07815643585218883358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-41940424377303299392010-05-09T12:24:07.445+02:002010-05-09T12:24:07.445+02:00I meant to say: Thanks for your great pictures of ...I meant to say: Thanks for your great pictures of the lost place!kari_lanttohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05948494087986287320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-21025132359238326132010-05-09T12:22:31.921+02:002010-05-09T12:22:31.921+02:00Napa valley was one of those places I did not see ...Napa valley was one of those places I did not see when in California the summer of 1981. It had been badly burnt so we were advised to see another wine-valley, the name of which escapes me. It was a great trip, but it was not the Napa valley. One of those small regrets of life.kari_lanttohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05948494087986287320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-68749139103743709572010-05-08T03:54:43.187+02:002010-05-08T03:54:43.187+02:00Dear Emil and Lars,
Thank you Lars for reminding m...Dear Emil and Lars,<br />Thank you Lars for reminding me of the war film Pimpernel Smith. Now we are getting down to some serious research! I googled Leslie Howard and found a Wikipedia article on him, which I recommend for those interested in esoterica. He was born Leslie Howard Steiner, of an English mother and Hungarian Father, in Forest Hill (UK). He filmed the Scarlett Pimpernel in 1934 and Pimpernel Smith in 1941. Among his many other films we find - most appropriately for this Blog - Berkeley Square. His death no longer appears mysterious according to the sources cited. The civilian passenger plane (KLM) that flew him from Spain (where he may have been on a political mission) to London was shot down over the Bay of Biscay on orders of Propagande Minister Goebbels 1943. The article also cites a rumour that London knew of the German plan to attack the plane but did not defend it since it would have revealed that the UK had cracked the German code.<br />Emil, on behalf of Lars and me please raise a toast to this gallant man in a suitable watering hole near Berkeley Square!<br /><br />Blog on!Per Wijkmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-15841469036232401932010-05-08T01:24:53.205+02:002010-05-08T01:24:53.205+02:00Emil,
I’m terribly sorry having to play the role ...Emil, <br />I’m terribly sorry having to play the role of superpedant, but I would like to return to the intellectual history of Per’s poem. I looked up on the film “Scarlet Pimpernel”, and found that it was in fact made already in 1934 (as I guessed). Per, you probably mix it up with another film called “Pimpernel Smith”, made during WWII, once again with Leslie Howard, now playing the role of a British professor who made the impression of being very absent-minded, but who went to Germany just before the war in order to rescue Jews and other threatened people, exactly as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescued French Nobility during the years of the French Revolutions. This film is also very good, worth seeing. For once I see the advantage of getting old, hence able to recall more things that happened long ago than you youngsters.Lars Werinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-5174648306446885682010-05-07T19:59:34.142+02:002010-05-07T19:59:34.142+02:00Dear Emil,
How nice to be back as an interactive ...Dear Emil,<br /><br />How nice to be back as an interactive participant in your travelblog after my attic rumagings! Your learned participants, Lars in particular, are of course well aware that the Baroness Orczy is the originator of the poem that I have modified slightly to your needs.<br /><br />They seek him here, they seek him there<br />Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.<br />Is he in heaven or is he in hell?<br />That damned infernal Pimpernel!<br /><br />The Scarlet Pimpernel was an English nobleman who rescueded - at considerable personal risk - French from the reign of terror during the French revolution(s). The Baroness' books were turned into films - probably by J. Arthur Rank - during the second world war - and Leslie Howard played magnificently the Pimpernel. The parallels with the terror then reigning in Nazi occupied Europe was obvious and I suspect that the films served as a great moral booster in the free world. Leslie Howard, that most English of Englishmen, was I recall, a Hungarian jew. He died in a plane crash during the war in circumstances that I believe still remain mysterious. If any of your readers are too young to have grown up on the books or the movies they may well enjoy viewing them in video or even reading the books to their young children.<br /><br />Blog on!Per Wijkmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-15008401995270978562010-05-07T18:44:09.228+02:002010-05-07T18:44:09.228+02:00Emil,
You rightly praise Per for his beautiful an...Emil, <br />You rightly praise Per for his beautiful and ingenious poem. I think pointing out that it is partly an imitation does not all detract from its qualities, it adds to them. As most readers of your blog are still quite youngish, many of them may not know that it is based on the poem written by the person played by Leslie Howard in the film “The Scarlet Pimpernel”. The film was probably made in the early 1930s (!!!), and is a minor classic.Lars Werinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-37211324069420687402010-05-07T03:05:04.081+02:002010-05-07T03:05:04.081+02:00Dear Dave,
I am as pleased as you to have met you...Dear Dave,<br /><br />I am as pleased as you to have met you the other day at the veggie restaurant on Telegraph and was in turn educated by you in the use of histograms for focussing search procedures in databases like Oracle. <br /><br />I highly appreciate your suggestions to visit Briones and, in fact, have arranged today for a car rental over the weekend. Saturday morning at 7.30 sharp, I will drive briskly over the Berkeley hills to this wonder of nature, in order to capture its beauty in the mellow morning light. Report back from the trip will be made on this blog in due course.Emil Emshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07815643585218883358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242228370300474063.post-91875842114323172892010-05-07T03:01:25.050+02:002010-05-07T03:01:25.050+02:00Emil,
Thank you for your kind words regarding my p...Emil,<br />Thank you for your kind words regarding my photos. I am honored that you call me an "accomplished" photographer, since I think I am such an amateur, and have so much to learn. I am inspired by the beauty that abounds, and take photos mostly to please my own eye. I take care to title and caption them, however, since others may find these data useful for searching. I knew nothing about histograms in photography until we chatted. But I started to study, and made sure that my camera could display them. I will have fun learning about them, thanks!<br /><br />I have attached a map to one of my favorite hikes in Briones. It starts at the Bear Creek staging area, near the northern section of the parking lot, near the water and bathrooms. Follow the Abrigo Trail<br />north up the canyon. Turn right uphill at the Mott Peak Trail. Climb to the ridgeline, and turn right on the Black Oak Trail. This follows the ridge a bit, then descends down to your right turn at Old Briones Road. This is about a two-hour hike, and involves about 400 or 500 feet of climbing. If this is too much work, you might wish to simply explore the valley of the Abrigo Trail, or Old Briones Road, both fairly flat.<br /><br />The hills are beginning to look a tad brown. But the grass is still soft and green underneath. The brown color comes from the seeds, which are grey and red. The hills have this "fake" brown color for just a<br />few weeks, until real brown appears. This process is just now starting, and is just visible in my latest "Slopes of Mott Peak" photos.<br /><br />By the way, nearly all my photos were taken during bike rides. I ride my bike out to Briones, and then through Briones and back, about a 6-hour round trip, with about 4500 feet of climbing. I also ride Marin trails a lot, after taking BART to SF and riding over the Golden Gate (and back, about a 15-hour day).Dave Abercrombienoreply@blogger.com