Tue 28.Oct.2025
Rhodes GR
No deathless prose tonight, no profound insights.
Just a buncha pictures from an island as familiar by now as it is photogenic.
I am typing this on Oct 28, known here as No Day. 'Tis a major patriotic holiday -
enough that I found the laundromat closed when I arrived. (I'll manage 'til tomorrow.)
Today, Greeks commemorate their country's rejection of a 1940 ultimatum from then-fascist Italy,
and Greece's subsequent entry into the Second World War against the fascist powers
(Italy and Germany).
Though historians say that the actual word NO is apocryphal, it certainly captures the spirit
of the thing. If fascists try to take over your country, you'll probably get sympathy
from Greeks if you say NO.
Some days I hear a lot of German -- or French, or whatever -- in the mix of languages in the
Old Town, and I guess where today's cruise ship(s) are based. This one really is German.
A low-profile selfie where a restaurant used to be in more prosperous times.
If I remember right, they had all-but-spiceless "Indian" food.
Some souvenir shop on the main drag. I am happy to see Pythagoras getting some respect,
amongst all the junk t-shirts in town! (I think the man was actually from Samos, not Rhodes, but
what the hey!)
A weathered wooden crossbar on one of the city's medieval gates. The gate dates back more than
500 years, but this wood is probably from the restoration under the Italians in the early 20th
century.
Artwork in the pavement at a plaza where portrait artists work.
Around the turn of the century, I used to joke that many effects that we achieved with chemicals
in the 60's were since done with computer graphics. Now I am back to the basics with plain
old optics and fluid reflections.
Doing this stuff physically is much easier than programming the HDE's (Hairy Differential
Equations) that describe it.