Paul Attinello

Author: paulattinello

  • Party

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    paulattinello
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    On Sunday, before Susan and Rob left, we all went to a party in a nearby hamlet (not big enough to be a small town). Expatriate Brits, lots of art and artists, two dogs and only one child. We had expected (dreaded) something possibly pretty deadly – this party was given by friends of Chris,…

  • Between holidays

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    paulattinello
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    After Christmas, before New Year's, and even more importantly before Epiphany, which is really the big gift-giving holiday here in Catalonia. I'm afraid I'm a bit exhausted by the food, the wine, the sheer goose fat (that's not a metaphor, I mean that literally) of the past four days; it's been seriously impressive and well-done,…

  • Amusements

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    paulattinello
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    A truly fun Christmas day dinner: a very large goose managed by Susan and Rob, Chris' special slightly-roasted saffron rice, an unexpected slightly spicy yellow pepper soup from Dennis, plus a mushy but tasty pecan pie. I'd bought small gifts for all, just because I thought they should have something to open, and was lucky…

  • Café

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    paulattinello
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    In a café (it seems that the same word, with the same accent, works in French, Spanish and Catalan, for the beverage as well as for the business), with wifi. Rain: which is actually very nice – my room has been so dry from the heaters, I'll leave the windows open a bit later to…

  • The beach in winter

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    paulattinello
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    I have come to Sitges, the beach town near Barcelona, yet again – though never quite so far out of season, for Christmas and the New Year. It is too cold, the room is too cold or hot, streets quiet… but I'm glad I'm here: a change is as good, etc. Susan and Rob are…

  • Early December

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    paulattinello
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    Early December is always strangely dense, a bit one-thing-after-another, though some of those things are subterranean rather than evident out in the world: World AIDS Day is on the first; and I tend to remember, not always on the day but sometimes the next day, that Reid died of AIDS on December 2, 1983; then…

  • WAD

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    paulattinello
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     Sorry I didn't comment on World AIDS Day, or attach a speech as I have for the past five years. My reasons: it was a very long day – successful but long – and I ended up not using the speech I'd prepared; what I did say wasn't written down. An all-day conference, largely organized…

  • Enrage

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    paulattinello
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    [It's some months since I showed up at meetings of the University writing group; most of my classes and seminars this semester have ended at 1 p.m., and then of course people have questions, etc.; so crossing the University to be fifteen or twenty minutes late for a meeting that last less than an hour…

  • Craic

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    paulattinello
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    A lovely one-day-late Thanksgiving: Bennett cooking, Merrie setting everything up; I brought Annie with me; Michelle and her husband came, plus two of our new postgraduates from the US. A gorgeous evening, good food, endless laughter, lots of stories, everyone seemed engaged right up to the hilt – just what a social life should be…

  • Bum roll

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    paulattinello
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    As I unpack the groceries, delivered to my doorstep, I discover that instead of nine rolls of toilet paper I have received twelve, three of them emblazoned with a  yellow stripe as Bargain Extras. And I remember the old woman in San Francisco: when I was living in the ratty, drug-dealer-infested apartment house on Market…