Just a trip through a few blogs this afternoon...Amiland has all kinds of good stuff up from Germany. Belligerent Bunny Blog has an updated list of national GDPs per capita, which is very interesting, among bunny photos and weapons info. Cinderella Bloggerfeller has a lot of very erudite stuff--this guy is the best-read blogger there is out there and has a sharp wit as well. Just one thing--change your name, please! The Dissident Frogman has an excellent banner up, as well as commentary from behind the Escargot Curtain. Sasha Castel and Andrew Ian Dodge have gotten married. Opposites must have attracted in this whirlwind courtship, the first blog-marriage I have ever heard of, since operatic Sasha and heavy-metal Andrew seem to have hit it off quite well. Sasha, Sasha, if you had wanted the brilliant and sculpted Jedman, I could have got him for you! Oh, well, your loss. Poor old Jedman does need a girlfriend, though. Hope you females out there think bald guys are cute. Leave flirtatious comments for him here and I'll make sure he gets them. He's actually not a bad-looking guy, in sort of a goofy kind of way.

This crap does actually happen. I've been treated to it more than once in Spain, though never in France or Britain. Most Europeans are basically decent people, and most people in Spain are very nice though they may have political ideas that you would find inane. But it does happen occasionally. Last time it happened to me was about a year ago when a waitress at a neighborhood restaurant started giving me shit after I sent back a salad because it had salsa rosa on it, and I hate salsa rosa. Salsa rosa sucks. It's just mustard and ketchup mixed with a little brandy dumped in. I can't believe people think it's good here. Why would you put that shit on a salad in Spain, the home of extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar? Catalonia's arbequino olives, which come from Remei's area, make terrific olive oil that you can get here for three bucks a liter or so. You can even get varietal vinegars for only a couple of bucks for a liter bottle. They're good. Anyway, the report below is via The Radical.

Monday, February 24, 2003
No Americans Served Here: Rob Nichols, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the US Treasury, was on the Eurostar train from London to Paris when he changed his mind about his breakfast order. Nichol's server first mocked the American's indecision and then refused to provide him with cutlery, stating "Give peace a chance." Nichols was obliged to borrow the Secretary of the Treasury's cutlery. When asked whether Eurostar had extended an apology for its employee's behavior, Nichols replied that no apology had been sought.