Author: Elise Patkotak

A lot of people on this ship came here to escape our recent election and its attendant turmoil. They are from every point of the political spectrum. Each meal as you sit down with different people, the first few minutes are awkwardly spent trying to find topics that are not going to cause a problem. Every once in a while, you end up at a table with people who share your viewpoint and then things are easier. But the best is the people from Australia and England who try to avoid all mention of our current election as if they Continue reading →

You eat more than you should. You drink more than you should. But given the average outdoor temp has been about 30 degrees, a little booze never hurts.

Viking Cruise ship is beautiful even if Judy and I have to practically crawl over each other to move around. We thought getting a cabin with an outside balcony to sit on would be the saving grace until the temps fell below freezing the first night and have’t really gone up that much since then.

But… did I mention the bar was about to open. Think I’ll go warm my innards. Continue reading →

I was only there long enough to change planes for Berlin but oh my… it is true that there is no accent like an English accent. Hubby, hubby Continue reading →

From London to Berlin and tomorrow on a boat that is essentially my floating hotel. First trip I’ve been on in almost fifty years of travel where I will unpack once for the entire trip. My floating hotel simply follows me from city to city. What a pleasure to do it this way. And why did it take me so long to figure it out. Continue reading →

Who ever thought flying to Germanh would be welcomed relief from America. But today it is. I need a break. I need to not see Day-Glo Orange man again for a long, long time. And for those of you out there wondering, I will never refer to him as president. He will never represent me or anything I stand for. Continue reading →

My family has been blessed to have all kinds of people in it – straight, gay, bisexual, biracial. We’ve even had a cat lover or two and one strange individual with a David McCallum obsession. And despite being only a couple of generations from our very Catholic immigrant grandparents, my family has never even blinked at it… well, except for one cousin we’ll call Joe (every other male in our family is called Joe in honor of the Giuseppe who first arrived on these shores so this won’t identify him except we all know who he is). He seems to Continue reading →

I’m heading to Germany for a cruise down the Elbe River from Berlin to Prague. I need this break. It’s been a hard year losing so many of my little family so quickly. I will post as the trip progresses and will still be doing columns that appear in the paper every Wednesday and here every Thursday. This is the only week I think I’ll miss if all goes well.

So if there isn’t a new post every day, figure that means I’m having a very good time on my trip. Continue reading →

No other words to say except, thank god. It’s over. The best person won and we can only hope the country will pull together now and forget the hideous presidential campaign of 2016. Continue reading →

Yep, out long national nightmare is ending… or just beginning, I guess, depending on your point of view and whether your candidate wins or loses. But no matter what happens, we have at least six weeks before the 2020 presidential campaign begins so please enjoy this moment of peace and quiet.

And for god’s sake, get out and vote or shut up for the next four years. If you don’t participate, you don’t get to have a say. Continue reading →

I heard on public broadcasting show Marketplace that a Chinese company has bought Dick Clark Productions. Yes, that Dick Clark, the epitome of white, middle class America through most of the fifties and sixties.
But wait, there’s more. One of the productions the Chinese bought with the company was the Miss America Pageant.
I’ll just let that sink in. Continue reading →