Rome/Brooklyn 22/11 – Day 39: ‘Murica

Back in Rome sunrise was at 6:49.  Sunset should be at 16:59.

The Ave Maria ought to ring at 17:30.

Today in the Basilica of St. Peter is a Feast of all the Saints and Martyrs whose relics are in the Basilica.  It is also the Feast of St. Adeodatus I (+618) and of the Four Crowned Holy Martyrs (+306), whose church is on the slope leading from the Colosseum, past San Clemente, and up toward the Lateran.  I used to walk by there everyday for university when I was a seminarian.

Before heading out to airport yesterday, I had a couple things left over in the fridge, so this was breakfast.

Behind this wall and up the street is the Casa Santa Marta a certain person lives in humility, which meant that the whole place had to be redone and the street outside the wall, pertaining to the Comune di Roma, had to be secured at the cost of, lets just say very many Euro.  But it was all for humility, so that’s okay.

The Delta planes have a new “entertainment” system, which turned out to be not very entertaining.  There is a new swoopy 3D graphical interface for flight information.   And while there are lots of movies (lookin around the cabin some of them truly fitlhy), they eliminated all the games, etc.

There were problems with the system, too, in zone all over the plane which meant that they had to reboot the system I think six times, each time requiring two things, a) 15 minutes and b) that no one touch their screens.   Imagine how well that went.   So, as we flew along we had to …

…. wait… and wait… and wait.

I never get tired of this brilliant movie, and I always enjoy the sight of Rick working a chess position with his cigarette and cocktail glass.

Someone should do a count of how many drinks were ordered in Rick’s Café Américain and then not drunk.

The flight was boring, which is how you want flights to be, and everything from the taxi at my front door to airport check-in at FCO and customs and luggage collection on the ground at JFK went without flaw.  I skipped the meals on the plane.

A friend picked me up at JFK, where everything is a half mile walk away, and we got supper.   Cheeseburger, of course, with American cheese, of course, and onion rings.

The beer had the irresistible name of Delirium Tremens.

As I glanced out the window of the guestroom in Brooklyn, I saw a sight that wove the two ends of the day: the American flag and the trees, which are plane trees, the same as line the banks of the Tiber and other boulevards in Rome.

In the following, there is material to be won.  This is easy.

WHITE to move.

NB: I may hold comments with puzzle solutions a little longer than others so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Interested in learning?  This guy helped my game. Try THIS.

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About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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9 Comments

  1. monstrance says:

    Good to see the colors.
    My Latin Mass parish sits in a Portland OR neighborhood.
    No flags in sight. Civics and Citizenship needs to be brought back to primary education.

  2. Neal says:

    1. f3 Bh5
    2. g4 Bg6
    3. h5
    And the bishop is lost.

  3. Kentucky Gent says:

    “The beer had the irresistible name of Delirium Tremens.”

    I love that beer! Have had it many times. Here in the US there is a brewer near Philadelphia called “Victory Brewing”. They make a beer called “Golden Monkey” that is similar to Delirium Tremens. I think it is supposed to be a play on words: Monks make Delirium Tremens, and Golden Monkey is similar to that beer, so monkey or “monk like”. But that’s just a guess.

    Puzzle analysis:

    1.f3 Bf5 (or h5)
    2.g4 Bg6
    3.h5 and the bishop is trapped.

  4. Dominicanes says:

    Were you near S. Maria Sopra Minerva this morning?

  5. acardnal says:

    I hope you voted absentee! YOUR voted definitely matters!

  6. Dominicanes: S. Maria Sopra Minerva this morning?

    No, I was not near there. Though I was recently, and inside as well. To get in you have to go to the back entrance, these days because of work in the nave. Also, these days, they are allowing people to go up behind the main altar and the door of the tomb of St. Catherine is open. You can also see very well the tombs of the two Medici popes and get a good view of the choir.

  7. Dominicanes says:

    I was taking to a Brother in the Piazza when a priest wearing. Saturno drove by and looked like you! He looked at us like he knew us.
    Yes, the repairs of the roof are endless.
    Lacordaire received the habit in St. Dominic’s chapel and the minor cloister is cool to see but not open to the public.
    The friars choir has the frescos of the life of St. Catherine.

  8. JonPatrick says:

    Glad you had an uneventful flight. As we used to say during pilot training, a good flight is one with an equal number of takeoffs and landings :)

    On recent international Delta flights (BOS-LHR and DUB-BOS) I was also underwhelmed by the seatback video system. The one on my return trip got stuck on one of the flight information screens and wouldn’t show anything else. Fortunately I had Patrick O’Brian’s “The Wine Dark Sea” with me so I didn’t need a movie.

  9. Wine Dark Sea…. what a nice SURPRISE to see the reference!

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