good talk

Take back the Holly and Mistletoe, Silver Bells on Strings..... I could listen to Lisa Layne's version of "All I Want For Christmas is You" all day. I live a mile from the Las Vegas Strip and I just walked outside to see the Fireworks Display at Midnight, it was okay but there was 10 times more of it last year (hard times) and starting this year they shoot them from the top of parking garages or the ground and not from the tops of casinos as in the past, so they're not up in the air as high. I just stayed in, it's very dangerous out there. Back in Ohio one New Year's Eve I went to a Party with a girl I had been seeing and I was driving around afterwards and drove into a ditch and had to be towed out. Hey, it was just 2 wheels in and it was just a little ditch, I didn't get a ticket or DUI or anything, could have happened to anybody. So one has to be wary on New Year's Eve lest those ditches come running out at you. From Istanbul I took a bus to Ankara, the Capitol of Turkey. Buses in Turkey are cheap and there's lots of 'em, you can go anywhere and quickly. A city of 4 million, Ankara and the region have been ruled by many different peoples, the name comes from the Greek word for "anchor." The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is wonderful, the Mausoleum that is the resting place of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk, that is Father of the Turks), Anitkabir, is really good. And there's the Roman Bath and Column of Julian and other archeological treasures to observe. Sort of in the middle of everything is the equestrian statue of Ataturk, I was told by this guy who had been an attache at the American Embassy in the late 50's that he was out on the town with these guys one night and one of them wanted to see the hanging of this Russian Spy from the neck of this Statue at 4 A.M. He said that the Turks just shoved this guy off and let him dangle without a hood, he said that he was sorry that he had let himself be talked into seeing this. From Ankara I took a bus to Bergama where there's the ruins of Pergamon (Pergamum). Pergamon which had been Greek was taken by the Romans in 133 B.C. and was the birthplace of Galen, the famous Roman Physician, in 128 A.D. Under the Greeks Pergamon had a library of 200,000 volumes that rivaled that of Alexandria and it was in Pergamon that parchment was invented. Pergamon became the Capitol of Roman Asia. There's 2 different locations for the ruins and you have to hire a taxi to take you there and wait (good business for the locals) and this was $45 for 5 hours, money well spent. You can see the ruins of the famous Medical School, Library, the Altar of Zeus, the Theatre, and other goodies. When you go to Turkey you can do as I did and buy a Souvenir Shirt which is the Turkish Flag, a White Star and Crescent on Red.