Dash! About Paris

[Jeff K1NSS]

Hey all,

This past week Dash! and I enjoyed a whirlwind Parisian ham radio holiday in the company of his identical French cousin DitDit Jambon. Sights we saw included Supermarché des Ancres de Bateau at the Clignacourt flea markets, and Cafe Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris, where Ben Franklin, the first US ambassador, hung out and helped found the Institut des Passe-Temps Électriques, later carrying out joint Franco-American experiments in a shack behind a neighboring blacksmith shop. Between the hamfest, the history and the wine, there was preciously little time left for operating, although Dash! did manage a CQ Paris or two before boarding our Air France flight.

Much to show and tell. I shot some phone pix and kept a sketchbook. Eraser bit dusted hors d'oeuvres follow, main course at www.dashtoons.com (http://www.dashtoons.com), coming soon


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[NQ6U]

Hey, cool! I was wondering why nothing had happened on Dashtoons all week, now I know. Looking forward to see what you come up with.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Hi Carl, it was a great time. One of the high points was a private tour of some of the Louvre's Egypt collection. We signed up for a standard English tour of the usual Mona Lisa type suspects that AM though we had seen this stuff several times before but without a guide, so figured it would still add something. Well, we turned out to be the only ones who signed up this slack season morning. Found out the guide was a Egyptology specialist, so we followed her bliss and it was terrific. We parked ourselves inside a reconstructed burial chamber and she went over many of the inscriptions, floor to ceiling in some detail, translating hieroglyphics (or guesstimalating as she readily offered) such that it really came alive, with comprehensible bits of a very long message in a very big bottle popped right out a StarGate.

Another cool place was the Jardin de Plantes, a Victorian natural history complex in central Paris to which neither of us had been. It includes museums of zoology, botany, mineralogy and more, maintained but not tricked up in modern ways, spread out over a huge park with landscaped zoos and all sorts of interesting plantings. Check out this metal work on the staircase in the comparative anatomy museum. These places are massive, sumptuous, like churches of science. While all the skeletons don't run or swim in the same direction, there's a herd or schooling effect that's really striking.
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[NQ6U]

Pretty nifty. Kind of reminds me of the museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, only writ much larger.

[kb2vxa]

Those skeletons look like a scene from Jumanji Meets War Of The Worlds... spooky. At least the American Museum exhibits have their clothes on but such is Paris. Then there is the menu with poached haddock, couldn't they have just bought some at the market? Eh, I'll reserve comment on the Colbert hake for now. Seriously, (?) the storyboard looks interesting, I'm waiting with baited breath to see the finished Dashtoons. Meanwhile we'll see if baited breath can substitute for a fishing lure..........

[Jeff K1NSS]

'Lo too Warren. Yas on Jumanji, I liked that. The Procope was a funny kettle of hake. Yes it seems to be an attraction, kind of an older version of Boston's Union Oyster House and the full English menu makes it clear they wouldn't turn away a tourist bus, at least on a slow day (although many if not most menus do have English notation now) For all that, I thought it was pretty neat that Ben Franklin, Voltaire, Robespierre and all sorts of heavies hung out there way in the day, and pretty comical that its now a bit o' Olive Garden, a bit o'Rennaissance Faire, though the interior is supposed to cool. Was gonna eat there for fun and Dashs sake but the walk proved a little far to return from our hotel later on. Below is actually the Pocope's back entrance. Across the street was a blacksmith shop, where, according to Dash!'s cousin DitDit, Ambassador Franklin and other French "experimenters" rented a shack for purposes of electrical recreation and hard partying, paving the way for amateur radio as we know it today. All I can say is, consider the source.
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[KG4CGC]

I LOL seeing the French hamfest pictures. Tut tut!

[kb2vxa]

"All I can say is, consider the source."

DitDit sounds like the typical French storyteller embellishing history and getting a few things wrong hoping the tourists won't notice. Seems more likely the Heaviside layer of French society would conduct E propagation at the Procope especially since Franklin was known for wine, women and song. Oh, he propagated a bit but not in France, he kept it rather hush hush. Hard partying he did but in a blacksmith shop? Maybe dancing to the rhythm of the forge but his electrical recreation took place in his parlor where he, Voltaire and friends shocked themselves with Leyden jars charged by a Wimshurst machine. Right about paving the way for Amateur Radio but it had to wait for more practical inventions. Next time you see DitDit tell him to get it straight, Franklin invented the spark transmitter while Voltaire invented the battery but it took DeForest Kelly to invent the Audion tube thus making modulation possible... WOOF!

[W1GUH]

Poached Haddock! Sounds very good -- that's my favorite cooked fish, but it's hard to find in these parts. Woulda ordered it immediately. Great pix, Jeff, and the story of the Egyptian tour illustrates the advantages of touring off-season. Bet Paris is great in January!

Also looking forward to the full report from Dash!

[Jeff K1NSS]

"All I can say is, consider the source."

DitDit sounds like the typical French storyteller embellishing history and getting a few things wrong hoping the tourists won't notice. Seems more likely the Heaviside layer of French society would conduct E propagation at the Procope especially since Franklin was known for wine, women and song. Oh, he propagated a bit but not in France, he kept it rather hush hush. Hard partying he did but in a blacksmith shop? Maybe dancing to the rhythm of the forge but his electrical recreation took place in his parlor where he, Voltaire and friends shocked themselves with Leyden jars charged by a Wimshurst machine. Right about paving the way for Amateur Radio but it had to wait for more practical inventions. Next time you see DitDit tell him to get it straight, Franklin invented the spark transmitter while Voltaire invented the battery but it took DeForest Kelly to invent the Audion tube thus making modulation possible... WOOF!

Warren, you got DitDit's nombre. I expected less than the truth from the Old Rascal, and he lived down to my expectations with a wealth of old XYLs' tales, just what Dash! and I were hoping for to supplement our less French imaginations. And speaking of DeForest Kelly (HA!) Aren't you confusing him with the guy who invented the Pogotode, the valve with a vibrating grid made from ground up Mexican Jumping Beans?

[Jeff K1NSS]

Hey Paul, tnx -- the camera was the only useful thing about the phone, a Verizon LG/Windows thing I essentially rented because my Verizon iPhone doesn't has the chip for furrin' operation. Real touchy device, shooting off into menu hell with every tap. Felt like grandpa up dial phone creek without a crank. l didn't get it anywhere close to sorta kinda tamed until it was about time to go home. Dopey, but perhaps useful in an emergency, when I'd be a lot more dextrous.

Good thing we had DitDit to draw back the veil of French ham radio, slightly more opaque than the one over US ham radio. No magazines on the news stands. The titles I remember from prior visits, Megahertz and Ondes (Waves)were gone. Apparently the REF (Froggy ARRL) sends its mag only to members. Biggest bookstore I could find, with a whole floor of technical titles, offered this shelf on antennas.

There's a small radio shop somewhere in the city that sells the usual HT, VHF and some HF stuff, hardly the sort of exotica that would lure Dash! on a wild goose chase as he sleeps off his morning Bordeaux.

Speaking of Poached Haddock and seafoods, belly up to the bar! This was out front of a kinda fancy shellfish place specializing in oysters. There was a entire 8.5 x 11 menu just for oysters, apparently trucked in by Gulfstream G650s from all over the map, some Big Bastids going for over 20 Euros, gettin up to 30 dollars, I think, each, about the price of a Viagra tab, or so I hear.

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[kb2vxa]

Do you think maybe putting oysters and Viagra in the same paragraph was a bit of a mistake?

[KB3LAZ]

T-Mobile. Most of their phones are unlocked. In Euro (and even in some airports) you can pick up said Euro countries SIM card for aprox 20€. Though, as long as you have a GSM phone many Euro countries will unlock your phone for 40€.

Idk about you but I have had bad experiences renting phones. Then again Euro phone plans suck too. Not that it matters, I rarely use a cell and do not currently have one. The Mrs will force one on me though. :P

It seems you had a good time in France, that's great. :)

[Jeff K1NSS]

Do you think maybe putting oysters and Viagra in the same paragraph was a bit of a mistake?
You think I did that on porpoise?

I'm shucked, shucked I tell you!

[Jeff K1NSS]

T-Mobile. Most of their phones are unlocked. In Euro (and even in some airports) you can pick up said Euro countries SIM card for aprox 20€. Though, as long as you have a GSM phone many Euro countries will unlock your phone for 40€.

Idk about you but I have had bad experiences renting phones. Then again Euro phone plans suck too. Not that it matters, I rarely use a cell and do not currently have one. The Mrs will force one on me though. :P

It seems you had a good time in France, that's great. :)

Yes we did thanks. Your informative post does make me feel like a OM. Sorting out finer points of unlocking, SIM cards and compartive phone plan studies make my brain lumbago flare up. I'm not a phone phone person at all, as if I had more than three or four people to call for any reason who weren't family. However, I do have one awful Jones for net access, so useful, never mind fun, when traveling, walking around unfamiliar places and generally referencing random nonsense.

BTW, nice animated profile picture! This copycat wants to try one too. Is it animated GIF or some other format and does one put it up like any other still graphic? Are you an anime fan/artist? Far into Otaku world? Japanese pop culture is fascinating stuff all right. I use Manga Studio EX, mostly for "inking" pencil drawings, really just scratching the surface of its topsoil, never mind the mantle of its capabilities.

[W1GUH]

Asterix on Dashtoons! Whoopie! LOVE Asterix. Wish I could find more translations about him and all his buddies. There's a reason to learn French -- to read and enjoy all that he's done.

[KB3LAZ]

Yes we did thanks. Your informative post does make me feel like a OM. Sorting out finer points of unlocking, SIM cards and compartive phone plan studies make my brain lumbago flare up. I'm not a phone phone person at all, as if I had more than three or four people to call for any reason who weren't family. However, I do have one awful Jones for net access, so useful, never mind fun, when traveling, walking around unfamiliar places and generally referencing random nonsense.

BTW, nice animated profile picture! This copycat wants to try one too. Is it animated GIF or some other format and does one put it up like any other still graphic? Are you an anime fan/artist? Far into Otaku world? Japanese pop culture is fascinating stuff all right. I use Manga Studio EX, mostly for "inking" pencil drawings, really just scratching the surface of its topsoil, never mind the mantle of its capabilities.

The profile picture is just an animated gif from Deviant art. The avatar was made by the bar tender. ^^ Sadly I am not an artist. I do however like manga/anime, mostly non mainstream. Vampire Knight (did finally hit semi mainstream), Rosario + vampire, Blassreiter, tower of druaga the aegis of uruk, and many more. More mainstream I like Naruto, Ghost in a shell, Blood Plus, Bleach, etc..too many to ust.

Yes, I love Japan. Pilar and I are planning a vacation for the summer of 2013 to Kyoto. One month in Japan, one month in Queensland Australia, two weeks in Sardinia, and two weeks in the states with my parents. Thank god she is a teacher. That three months off is unbeatable!

The profile picture is from Rosario + Vampire, the Avatar is from Vampire Knight (I have a thing for vampires).

[K7SGJ]

Hey Paul, tnx -- the camera was the only useful thing about the phone, a Verizon LG/Windows thing I essentially rented because my Verizon iPhone doesn't has the chip for furrin' operation. Real touchy device, shooting off into menu hell with every tap. Felt like grandpa up dial phone creek without a crank. l didn't get it anywhere close to sorta kinda tamed until it was about time to go home. Dopey, but perhaps useful in an emergency, when I'd be a lot more dextrous.

Good thing we had DitDit to draw back the veil of French ham radio, slightly more opaque than the one over US ham radio. No magazines on the news stands. The titles I remember from prior visits, Megahertz and Ondes (Waves)were gone. Apparently the REF (Froggy ARRL) sends its mag only to members. Biggest bookstore I could find, with a whole floor of technical titles, offered this shelf on antennas.

There's a small radio shop somewhere in the city that sells the usual HT, VHF and some HF stuff, hardly the sort of exotica that would lure Dash! on a wild goose chase as he sleeps off his morning Bordeaux.

Speaking of Poached Haddock and seafoods, belly up to the bar! This was out front of a kinda fancy shellfish place specializing in oysters. There was a entire 8.5 x 11 menu just for oysters, apparently trucked in by Gulfstream G650s from all over the map, some Big Bastids going for over 20 Euros, gettin up to 30 dollars, I think, each, about the price of a Viagra tab, or so I hear.

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If you can't sleep in, stay away from the Viagra. I hear it'll keep you up all night.

[NQ6U]

Hey, Jeff—where can I get me one o' them "Jean-Paul Sartre Brand" berets?

Also, the XYL, who has spent some time in France, wishes to know if you noticed that the men there tend to have "large noses and no butts."

[K7SGJ]

Hey, Jeff—where can I get me one o' them "Jean-Paul Sartre Brand" berets?

Also, the XYL, who has spent some time in France, wishes to know if you noticed that the men there tend to have "large noses and no butts."

Those aren't noses, they ARE their butts.

[kb2vxa]

So would you rather have a large butt and no nose?

[Jeff K1NSS]

Hey, Jeff—where can I get me one o' them "Jean-Paul Sartre Brand" berets?

Where else, my fellow most interesting hams in the world...where else but J.Peterman Company?
http://www.jpeterman.com/!y7fZ7cZ2qNhPNTadVFD44A!/Basque-Beret

Trouble is, in search of the answer to your question, I also discovered that apparently Sartre didn't wear berets. No pictures on Google. I was shocked and shattered I tell you, shattered that one of my most fondly-held misconceptions may simply be the stuff of Peterman catalogue copy. This unhappy accident has led to a profoundly existential crisis my friend. Could I be the stuff of Peterman catalog copy? Don't answer that.

Yet Google gives even as it takes away. Here's my new favorite existential book cover, in addition to irrefutable evidence that Jean-Paul Sartre IS the Fourth Pep Boy.


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[NQ6U]

Jean-Paul Sartre, the Fifth Pep Boy? Who knew? I guess that explains the existence of the old Dodge Dartre, eh? And as far as the wearing of berets goes, in my mind Sartre will always be wearing his best existentialist beret whether or not he wore one in real life.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Also, the XYL, who has spent some time in France, wishes to know if you noticed that the men there tend to have "large noses and no butts."

The noses I noticed, the butts non, but...not so many ham bellies like mine. Major distraction was French women, who, all gawrshin' and Dash! tongue-lolling aside, are as a group, astonishingly attractive. Oy, bones to die for. Tall, fit, not all that made-up (which I was told means its correctly applied). Yes, yes, in Manhattan you see your share of women who look like movie stars, but in Paris I saw more -- plus way more fresh-faced, pretty women next door who understate their fashion and somehow manage to look chic without the extra cheese and, for the most part, unless they're more discrete about placement, tats.

French Physiognomy is a trip. Must be a names for all the stock traits which escape me, but it's so cool to see the brows and noses and lips and eyelids and chins walking around escaped from classic caricature. Like, I must have seen the bicycle racer from The Triplets of Belleville two dozen tiimes, the grand dames, the heavy-lidded beret-topped pensioners, although even the OMs hardly wear berets any more. (Stamped-out rainbow imitations of the real thing, probably rendered from recycled Chinese dental floss, sit stacked up and untouched in souvenir stores.)

As astonishing as the attractiveness of French women, the Franco America belly gap remains a punch in the gut and gives me pause. Yeah, yeah, McDonald's on St. Germaine Blvd was about full every time we passed by, and I'm not suggesting every guy is Jean Claude Killy (how's that for dated reference!) but ya just don't see a lot of spare Michelins unless it's some joker in a baseball cap struggling with sign language and pidgeon english to inquire about the availability of French amateur radio magazines. No kidding, I'm really beginning to think its the diet soda. Cherry Coke Zero. I'm disgusting.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Jean-Paul Sartre, the Fifth Pep Boy? Who knew? I guess that explains the existence of the old Dodge Dartre, eh? And as far as the wearing of berets goes, in my mind Sartre will always be wearing his best existentialist beret whether or not he wore one in real life.

HA! Dodge Dartre indeed. And your comment went to the heart of my dilemma when characterizing Jean-Paul's connection with the auto shop icons. All right, Murray the K was the Fifth Beatle, so if go for that joke I need to call JPS the Fifth Pep Boy, except, to my knowledge, the auto shop icons number but three. Hmm. I considered designating Sartre as The Lost Pep Boy, but that's not as associationally funny, lacking the comedic dissonance of a preposterous middle aged DJ clutching the coat tails of The Lads. All this, craving a Cherry Coke Zero, and a profound existential crisis to boot. Just another Pleasant Valley Sunday, speaking of Jean Claude Killy.

[NQ6U]

Funny, the Fifth Pep Boy thing was totally unconscious on my part but we can work with it. The Missing Pep Boy—who was it? Maybe Zeppo Pep? And I can't take credit for the Dodge Dartre thing, as much as I'd love to. It was from a bit of doggerel written by NPR's Susan Stanberg to Tom and Ray from Car Talk.

[kb2vxa]

“The first time I met Murray, he told me he was called the fifth Beatle. I told him I wasn’t sharing my money with him.”…Ringo Starr

Just to rub it in he's wearing his promo T shirt at a session with the REAL fifth Beatle.