A very Happy New Year to you all

Wishing you all a Happy New Year 2019.

Thank you for reading my blog. See you in 2019

Listen...Listen...Listen

Microsoft's market capitalization exceeded that of Apple today.

Here you can get good chocolates and much more

Actually, we went for much more than chocolates...

September 28, 2017

We left Orvieto and travel to Tuscany to taste its wine and take in its splendid scenery. Along the way we stop at Perugia, an Etruscan stronghold in the past but which came under Romans later. the Papacy and travails of WWII effectively made Etruscans disappear. It is the provincial capital of Umbria.

Source: https://www.distancesfrom.com

The city of Perugia has a hilltop area (669 ft above sea level) which has all the main sightseeing places and can be reached by a Mini monorail, a fully automated driverless transport system. Perugia also has a town in the foothills. To escape the mosquitos it appears that hill-top city was built.

We used the Mini metro as a group to go to the hilltop city. Metro Pichetto.

The main attractions that we could cover in our short visit were the Papal built underground city merging with the remains of Etruscan's constructions; the Vittorio Emanuel the II's statue in Piazza of Italy; the group of important sights - the Fontana Maggiore; the National Museum of Perugia; the St. Lawrence’s' Cathedral and the Palazzo dei Priori; and the main streets of Perugia connecting all these locations.

Our main regret was we could neither enter the Cathedral nor visit the museum which appears to have some important paintings.

Here are some pictures of our visit.

Perugina Chocolate shop. They also gave out samples distributed by our tour director.

Eglo was a communist and cousin of Ricardo Tenerini who organized the resistance during WWII.

Exit from Rocca Paolina, the Etruscan underground city. 

Statue of  Vittorio Emanuel the II. Source: Bing Maps

Lunch at the Caffe Blu. All water carafes are blue.

Just entered the museum but did not visit the interior. The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria is hosted in the upper floors of Palazzo dei Priori, with the entrance in Corso Vannucci. 

 Fontana Maggiore from Bing Map. It is next to the St. Lorenzo Cathedral.

The Fontana Maggiore is a monumental medieval fountain located between the cathedral and the Palazzo dei Priori in the city of Perugia in Italy. It was made between 1277 and 1278 by sculptors Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano. The hydraulics were by Fathers Bevignate and Boninsegna. [Source: Bing Search]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYzmpp8lw7Y&t=6s

https://www.charminly.com/perugia-a-walk-in-his-underground-city/

We will be leaving around 2:30 PM on our way to Tuscany.

Are you investing wisely? You better know about SIPC

If you are investing in 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA etc., you better be advised of what SIPC stands for otherwise you may be in for surprises.

 This is how SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) is defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:

"If your brokerage firm goes out of business and is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), then your cash and securities held by the brokerage firm may be protected up to $500,000, including a $250,000 limit for cash. When a SIPC member becomes insolvent, SIPC will ask a court to appoint a trustee to supervise the firm's liquidation and to process investors' claims.
SIPC covers most types of securities, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. But SIPC does not protect you against losses caused by a decline in the market value of your securities. And it does not provide protection for investment contracts not registered with the SEC.
"
Make sure your investment is in a provider who is a SIPC member. If you are investing your money in a on-SIPC member you need to be extra careful.

In any case your read to end the following link if you don't want to be one involved in a scam as in American Greed.

https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answerssipchtm.html

Charles Azanavour, my favorite singer dead at 94

I feel very sad at the passing of Aznavour (May 22, 1924 - Oct 01, 2018) to the other side. My liking for his songs began while studying in Japan during the 1970's and I have not stopped liking him. His voice is deep; his emotions strong and lyrics great. No wonder he was honored by so many. He even acted in movies and I did not like them so much. But his singing is another thing.

We had the opportunity of seeing him perform at Carnegie Hall in NY. It was the best birthday gift I have received and of course it was from my wife.

Charles was French Armenian and wrote over a thousand songs. For sheer volume and variety, I only have another immortal singer to compare, Lata Mangeshkar.

I miss him,

Tu me manques...

Here are some of my favorites:

Emmenez-moi
https://youtu.be/ieYQKS9-Is0?list=PLLMd1OWRUE09lOvJmWFf8qr00Eumlke0P



She
https://youtu.be/67Or_E7DwTw?list=PLLMd1OWRUE09lOvJmWFf8qr00Eumlke0P



Et Pourtant

https://youtu.be/_OeNAeEwwws?list=PLLMd1OWRUE09lOvJmWFf8qr00Eumlke0P

Ave Maria

http://www.famousfix.com/topic/charles-aznavour-ave-maria

List of his lyrics/Singing:
https://www.oldies.com/artist-songs/Charles-Aznavour.html

Here is a list of more than 1000 songs of Azanavour
http://www.famousfix.com/topic/charles-aznavour/songs

If this happens to you, use the tip in this post

It could happen like it happened to me. You provide a link to your friends in your email and you hear from them saying they could not open.

They may resort to cut and paste the two pieces of what appears to be hyperlinks (words with blue underlines that are active when you click) to get them on a single line and save. Many may not go that length and just let you know that they could not open.

The solution is simple by reducing the length of the link (see example at the bottom). You can do this by pasting your original link (the long one that may get broken) by a short one. This is how you do it.

Go to this URL:

https://tinyurl.com/

Enter your link (the long one) and click Make TinyURL!. That's it. You can get the shortened url below where you entered your URL. This is free and you are not supposed to misuse it.

Now copy that and send it to you friends.

That's it.

I reduced this link which Safari could not open on iPhones/iPads:

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2018/09/visit-

to-assisi-birth-place-of-st.html

with this one,

https://tinyurl.com/ybyzn4tl

 Google also had one of these tools and it has been discontinued for new users.