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 TRAVAILS IN EUROPE  1998

Typical Lunch 

Traveling in Europe is a very rewarding experience most of the time. However, once in a while there is a major glitch in the system and you are caught right in the muddle.  I have detailed a few un-planned experiences that you might be aware of next time you visit Europe.

   The following plan was to get to our hotel in Paris from the Orly Airport.  (Before DeGaulle opened).

Arrived at Paris Orly Sud from SFO late in day so walked over to Orly Hilton and got a room for the nite. Drank up all the stuff in the minibar plus a bottle of good French champagne for you know who. In the morning caught the Air France bus to Invalides, where we started dragging our bags around for blocks (big blocks) as we were looking for Tourist Office at 127 Champs Elysees. I figured with that address it would be in the first block. Wrong! We learned later that the numbering system is separated into Residential and Commercdial, Each a 2” square porcelain number, Blue for Residential (Or the other way around) and white for Commercal.
   We ended up struggling uphill  the entire Champs  (Joy bitching all the while in the heat)  as the numbers are the number of buildings, not shops. Once there , however, ,at nearly the last building next to Napleon’s Arch de Triumph,  it was just a matter of time before they found us a two star hotel in Montemarrte district. Armed with directions we found the outstanding Paris Metro (Underground) and zipped off in the wrong direction. After a couple of transfers we got back on track and to the hotel, a small eighteenth century three story place called L'Ermitage, run by a nice couple who nearly spoke English. This near Sacre Cour cathedral on Rue Lamarck.
   The Paris Metro is a very clean, efficient system, venders and musicians set up in the interconnecting tunnels and amplify all over the place, classical to rock to reggae. Remember that at that time, we didn’t have a cell phone and there were no ATM’s to pick up cash whenever you needed it.  Lots of rain in Paris. We got soaked the next day running around to American Express and Galleries Lafayette so Joy can buy a sweater as it is freezing ass. The store has a marvelous stained glass dome, maybe 100 feet in diameter and the space is five stories high. Also found a travel agent and bought Cooks Train Schedules which was indispensable throughout our trip. (Brentanos Bookstore showed us books on cooking!).
   After many false tries we found Bank of Lyons to cash our Travelers Chcks, this being before ATMs or anything. This place, previously the Bibliotheca National,  also has a great three story central space with curlicue cast iron pinned connections trussed framing and another glass dome .

LOST CAUSE                                                         
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE JUST FOUND MY RANT, I THINK THE FOLLOWING ONE REGARDING THE METRIC  SYSTEM IS JUST TOO INTERESTING TO LEAVE,
Just finished “World in the Balance” by Robert Crease, as I have been so frustrated that we in the U.S. Can't use the metric system and wanted to really get down and find out why. It seems such a system is nothing new as it was considered in 1791. The French were the instigators of such a system. Even then, they determined there were three ways to set a measurement  of a METER.  Meter is from the Greek “metron” or measure.
1. The length of a one second pendulum. (See Faucalt’s pendulum in the Museo de Metrics. (About a meter).
2, One 20,000,000 of the earth's equator.(I didn’t quite understand that one).
3. A portion of the meridian running thru Paris. e.i., the basic unit length would be based on a ten millionth part of the meridian. (One meter).
One universal and unchanging standard would be the meter (or tenths of) to be cubed in order to hold water (distilled at the temperature of melting ice.) (Perrier?). But it had to be a measure found in nature, so when a standard was lost or damaged it had to be replaceable. Of course, the French went overboard at first  – they also made clock time decimated in 10 hour days, 100 minute hours, 100 second minutes, which actually worked for ten years. They also got off to a clean start with the year 1793 replaced with the year one. Just like the Mohammedans. and Langworthy’s new dating system.
Copies of a meter were placed all over Paris and two are left. I'll try find the one on Place Vendome and report back to you later. (Sorry, I Forgot to look for it).
 In 1999 the $327 million Mars Orbiter disintegrated as it approached Mars because its American engineers mixed up meters and feet!

   In 1790, a Mr. Dombry (from France)  was sent to America with a meter and a cube (a litre?). Just as he neared Philadelphia, a storm sent his ship to the Antilles, a French colony. He was arrested and imprisoned. During a riot he was pushed off a rampart into the water, resulting in a bad fever. However, the govenor finally recognized him, put him on another ship to America. But a British privateer took him hostage and imprisoned him in the British colony of Montserat, where he died. But the cargo was auctioned and someone sent the meter and kilogram to the U.S., but never got sent it to the U.S. Congress. As each colony determined its’ own weights and measures, the Articles of confederation (1777) gave congress the right of “fixing standards of weights and measures”. Since no action was taken on this, we just borrowed the British standards. Madison at least got the coinage system into a decimal system by 1786, too bad he thought we needed pennies, or maybe you could buy something for a penny in those days.   Strangely after all this thinking and agonizing, the metric system is very similar to the units of measure used in Mesopotamia about five thousand years ago. (That would be Iraq). Where 1 meter = 1 Mesopotamian step, 1 litre=1 Meso. Bowl, etc. By 1880 half the world's population used the new system. But not us!  An early attempt in US was in the 1920's by a group of pesky women, The General Federation of Women's Clubs. It failed, unfortunately.

Part of our reluctance to change (other than our arrogance and smugness) was the cost of changing all our steel, lumber, screws, etc. was just too much for some. Another  major roadblock was put up by some religionists who had a very strong lobby. “We have to defend our Native Anglo-Saxon metrology which derives from the God-designed metrology of Israel and found in the great pyramid of Giza”  What? The Cubit?!             Meanwhile, the IS (System Internationale) is still refining the definition of a meter. In addition to the speed of light, we could use Plank's Constant, An elementary charge, Boltzmann's Constant or Avagdro's Number. Take your pick. The World moves on without us.

VIDEO ALERT

 Next time you see the Cult Movie  “THE BIG LABOWSKI” (The Dude)  be sure to note the fabulous house designed by John Lautner in Hollywood Hills,( Jeff Bridges was visiting one of the Bad guys ). Mostly cast concrete with a high peaked ceiling in the Living Area. He also designed most of the built in furniture (couches, etc).

DITTO

  TV Land is not altogether a wasteland as there are a few  videos that actually are worth watching and are informative. One such is called WHY WE FIGHT.  (2005). A documentary of personal stories of government officials  and soldiers as well as a few innocent victims, it examines political and economic factors, past and present., behind America’s Militarism.  I believe our biggest problem is what President Eiesenhower warned us about; the collusion between our Military and Industrial folks in order to create the great Empire.

 PROBLEM WITH YOUR EYES?

My eyesight was failing in my early teen years , so I was introduced to the work of  Dr  .W.H. Bates, another early pioneer of healing by natural means, (along with my Doctor; Henry Bieler). I was excited to find that Aldous Huxley also was restored eyesight using the Bates method of exercises. In the 1950’s. and wrote a book about the method entitled THE ART OF SEEING.  This type o healing has fallen out of fashion and probably not followed anymore by anyone. This has  fallen out of favor as most Eye specialist would rather have you buy expensive glasses for the rest of your life.

MORE ABOUT THE METER PROBLEM

FRANCOIS ARAGO was one of those intrepid souls who was really into his work; a Physicist, Astronomer, mathematician, etc.  Born in 1786, he and a collegue were commissioned to complete the survey of a Meridian  as South far as the Spanish Island of Baleraic.  Unfortunately, in the meantime, France & Spain went to war, and determined that the Astronomer was a spy, therefore, Arago escaped from the Island on a fishing boat to Algiers, from there he was able to get passage on a boat to Marsielle.  Unfortunatley, the ship fell into the hands of a Spanish corsair, where he was imprisoned in a fortress.  The town was captured by the French, who transferred the prisoners to Palamos.  After three months imprisonment, they were released due to the demands of the Fey of Algiers, where he again set sail for Marseille, but driven back to Africa by a Northerly wind to Bougie, Africa .  The only reasonable transport back to Algiers was overland, which took them six months, where he again set sail for Marseille, where he was quarantined in the lazertto.  He was later released due to a letter from Alexander von Humbolt (of Humbolt County fame).  All this, in order to determine the Meridian, ergo the length of the Meter could be deduced. Upon returning to Paris, at age of 23, he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences.

  My point of all this is to make you aware of the Medallions that were installed througout the city of Paris. The Dutch artist, Jan Dibbets, installed 135 of them from Chantilly to Port du Clignancourt running thru the Paris Observatory to memorialize Aragos work on the fisrt meridian which later got moved to Greenwich, England in 1884. You can get a map of where they are in Paris online.

                      

ARAGO MEDALLION