The Continuing Adventures of Dr Dzoe

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to economic matters.  And on one particular item that’s in the news lately, I have my own plan for fixing the deficit.  The Washington Post is asking folks for their deficit plan, so I’ve decided to write it up and send it in.  But you get it first!

Note: if you’re not interested in ugly economic stuff, just move along now.

So here it is, the Dzikiewicz plan for wiping out the debt.

Let’s start with an observation: I really don’t think this is as hard as people seem to think.  After all, we had a surplus as recently as 11 years ago.  We can get back to that with a few simple steps.

First step: diagnosis.  How did we get from surplus to debt?  Looking at the numbers, the following things are new since 2000:

1. The economy tanked.
2. The Bush tax cuts.
3. The unfunded Bush initiatives, primarily the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also the Medicare drug benefit.

In addition, there’s one continuing problem that drags on our economy and budgets, and that’s:

4. Medical inflation.

So our plan needs to fix these four items.  We can do that by taking the following steps:

1. To fix the economy, we need a big stimulus.  Yes, this will result in worse deficits in the short term.  But it will improve the economy and thus reduce deficits in the long term.  And as an extra side-benefit, it will put people back to work.

Ideally this stimulus will work to improve the national infrastructure, which needs a lot of work.  But for economic purposes, that’s not necessary as long as the money gets spent on things being made in America.  After all, the most effective economic stimulus in American history was WWII when the government borrowed a lot of money and used it to buy a lot of stuff and blow it up.  If we can’t get any other kind of stimulus in place, let’s have a trillion-dollar fireworks display (American-made fireworks only) – that will get the economy going.

2. Let the Bush tax cuts run out.  Simple, really.  We don’t even have to do anything to make this happen – just refrain from extending them.

3. Quit with the stupid unfunded wars already!  We could do this with discipline, but we probably will need some institutional reforms to make it stick.  After all, there’s nothing that politicians and Americans like more than cheap short wars, though they usually fail to realize that cheap short wars have a nasty habit of turning into expensive long wars.  How about a constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority of Congress to approve military action?  Or some other thing – that’s a longer discussion than I want to have right here.

4. Countries with single-payer national health plans have considerably less medical inflation than do we.  Medicare, a single-payer national health plan, has seen less medical inflation over the past 40 years than private sector health plans.  That leads to a simple solution: a single-payer national health plan covering everyone.

Do these things, and avoid doing anything stupid, and you can fix the deficit.  It’s not really that hard.

And so our trip comes to an end.  We came home on July 27, which in English terms is 24/7.  Rather appropriate, given the pace of the trip, and especially of the last day.

First there was one last stroll through London:

Then the cab ride to Heathrow, a long plane ride home, and, for me, a drive to Charlottesville to drop off Andy.  I ended up back home at 1 AM local time, which is 6 AM London time.  24×7 indeed.

A few reflections on London:

• Kate and Diana most enjoyed the Much Ado production.
• Andy loved the Victoria and Albert.
• Julie enjoyed all the theater.
• My favorites were Leeds and the various views of St Paul’s.
• I did not much care for the bus tours.  Everything felt too rushed, and I prefer the greater flexibility that comes from having a car.  The one upside was that I could not have gotten everyone to out at 8 AM unless we were on a fixed schedule.
• Our hotel, the Crowne Plaza St James, was excellent.  A short walk to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben.  A few issues with the rooms, but the staff dealt with them quickly and competently.  A nice, though expensive, breakfast buffet.  All in all, highly recommended.
• What a terrific trip!

Our last full day in London.  That’s probably just as well, because I’m getting tired.  I plan to sleep for about a week when I get home.

For our last day, we had a fun day with little siteseeing.  Instead, we hit the markets.  First was Camden Market, which was hugely fun.  Everyone had a good time – even me, though the only things I bought were orange juice and a short and much-needed massage.  I didn’t realize how much my neck hurt from carrying around the camera until the masseuse was digging his fingers into it.

Here’s Kate at the Stables Market in Camden Market:

Then it was to Portobello Market, which was a lot less fun, consisting mainly of stalls of antiques and food surrounded by huge mobs of people.

We then returned to the hotel to drop stuff off and take a short break, then it was off for a walk through the Green, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens.  Quite pleasant.  Diana took the opportunity to climb a tree – here she is.

Can’t see her there?  Try this closer shot:

Finally, it was dinner, and then we went to see “Love Never Dies,” the sequel to “Phantom of the Opera.”

Two things you should know.  First, I love musicals.  Second, I hate “Phantom of the Opera.”  The plot is at best semi-coherent and drops many of the things that I used to love about the old Phantom movies (no acid in the face!).  And then there’s the Phantom.  In the scene early on when he lures Christine to his underground lair, and she swoons on his bed in her diaphanous nightgown, all he does is sing to her.  Poor Christine!

But everyone was in the mood for this show, so I agreed  to go.  And to my great surprise, I kind of liked it.  Much more than the original Phantom, anyway.  To be sure, it’s an incredible cheese-fest, complete with oversinging and melodrama around every corner.  And then, it’s set in a freak show on Coney Island (Julie and I saw one of those just three weeks ago, and had a great time too!).  But those elements were kind of fun, in a so-bad-it’s-good kind of way.  In fact, my one complaint about the show is that it dragged a bit in the second act when it started getting too serious – it really needed more mustache-twirling and oversung melodrama.  But overall, kind of fun.  (But if you want to see it, better go soon – it’s closing here in August, and given that it wasn’t a London success, I don’t expect to see it in New York any time soon.)

Of course, I couldn’t take pictures in the show.  So to represent the freakish nature of the Phantom, I give you this picture of Kate’s rather freakishly limber arms.

And so ends our touring.  I’ll do a wrap-up post tomorrow or Monday (tomorrow is going to be a busy one, what with traveling and all), so stay tuned!

Like many women, Julie travels with a well-stocked purse.  One thing she’s just taken to bringing is baby aspirin, having recently read that immediately giving baby aspirin to someone who is having a heart attack can make a huge positive difference.

But that’s not the only attacks she’s ready for.  This trip, she’s also carrying a set of watercolors and a sketch book in case, as she says, she gets an Art Attack – a sudden urge to draw something that she sees.

She hasn’t had an art attack yet.  But tonight at the Tate Modern, I had one.  Upon encountering this piece:

I decided to try a technique I’d read about in camera books.  You set the camera to an exposure of 1-2 seconds, and while the shutter is open you zoom in the lens.  The result is something like this:

The shadow is Kate, who happened to be walking by.

Coincidentally, she was also walking by when I tried it with another piece of art:

And so I made it through my art attack, without even needing an aspirin.

If you were to ask me what is the most beautiful place that I’ve ever visited, I’d be hard pressed to pick just one.  But somewhere on my short list you would find Leeds Castle.

Leeds is a castle associated with various queens of England.  The castle is nice, but the grounds are stunning.  Every viewing angle is carefully designed to maximize the visual pleasure.  It’s a treat to just wander the grounds with eyes soaking in the scenery.

Today we went on our second bus tour of this trip.  The first stop was Leeds.  Here’s a few pictures I took there.

See what I mean?

The second stop was hardly a stop at all but instead a drive through Dover.  We drove by the major sites and stopped for a ten minute photo op.  Here’s Julie and me with the cliffs in the background.

Then it was off to Canterbury where we visited the cathedral, and where I made a point of reading the Canterbury Tales while riding the bus into town.  Funny stuff – that Chaucer fellow has a real future ahead of him.

Much of the cathedral was off-limits to visitors as there was a school graduation going on (this is graduation week in England, and we’ve seen groups of robed students throughout our travels).  The downside: we did not get a chance to see where Thomas Beckett was killed.  The upside: there was live organ music in the cathedral for much of our visit.  And there were still plenty of lovely things to see.

And by the way, this is the gyrations your humble photographer goes through to get a shot like this:

Given my knees, and figuring in the weight of the camera and flash that I carry around all day, you should appreciate how I suffer for your enjoyment!

Then at last we stopped at Greenwich where we took a boat ride up the Thames to the heart of the city.  The boat was a strange thing, jet propelled and making several stops at various docks along the river, feeling like a subway-on-the-water.  But the scenery from this water-subway was a lot better than had it been underground.

I am happy to report that London Bridge did not fall down when we passed beneath it.  (Not that this is a picture of London Bridge, which is a rather boring thing to look at.)

Then it was time for dinner, then a visit to the Tate Modern, London’s best modern art museum, which is open late on Fridays.  Much fun was had by all.

What’s my favorite thing I saw at the Tate?  Actually, it wasn’t a piece of art at the Tate at all.  On leaving the Tate, we crossed the Millennium Bridge, a lovely walking bridge across the Thames.  And at the end of the Millennium Bridge is a marvelous view of St Paul’s, as previously mentioned one of my favorite buildings in the world.  So I was able to bask in the view of St Paul’s at dusk.  Marvelous!

It’s getting late, and we have an early morning tomorrow.  So just a quick recap.

First I went off on my own on an early morning jaunt to the Churchill War Bunker.  This is the underground shelter that housed Churchill’s government during WWII.  I had visited there back in 2001 but had read that they added a new Churchill museum.  It did not disappoint.  Nice stuff for the history geek.

On the way, I spent a little time sitting in the beautiful St James Park, a place where every view is perfectly choreographed and where even the waterfowl are scenic.  Here’s one of their pelicans.

Then we all met up at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  It’s an interesting ceremony, but it’s probably the worst example of crowding that we encountered in London.  This is definitely tourist season – there are vast crowds of people in the various places we’ve been, and this was an example.

Then it was off to Westminster Abbey via St James Park.  Here’s Andy and Kate against one of those choreographed views.

I love Westminster Abbey, a place where vast numbers of really famous people are buried.  There are not only all those Shakespearian monarchs (Elizabeth I, Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry V, Henry IV, Edward the Confessor, Edward I, Edward III, Richard II – okay, not all of those are in Shakespeare plays), but there’s also Darwin and Newton.  No photos allowed, though, so no photos here.

Then Diana took a break from crowds while Julie, Andy, Kate, and I visited the British Museum.  Here’s a couple of pictures from there.

Then it was dinner, and we all went to see “Doctor Faustus” at the Globe Theater, a reproduction of Shakespeare’s Globe.  Here’s the kids in our box.  Well, sort of, anyway.

And one last note: I love London cabs.  We never have trouble getting a cab.  It’s cheaper for five of us to ride a cab than the Underground.  And unlike American cabs, you can fit a family of five in one taxi without any problems.  Of course, two of those five have to sit backwards, and given that Diana and Julie get motion sickness when riding backwards, I’m pretty much always one of the two.  So here’s a standard view of one of our cab rides.

In America, we know that right is right and ever shall be.

Sadly, other countries haven’t achieved the same realization.  Even some of our best friends in the world, places like England, haven’t discovered this simple truth.  They persist in following a wrong course, even though they have our sterling example set before them.  They will only accept that right is right if there is no other option.  At all other times, they refuse to recognize that right is right.

I refer, of course, to the proper side of the road for driving.

But every now and then a man has an itch to put aside the right and drive on the left side of the road.  They tend to frown on that sort of thing when you’re driving the Beltway, so today I took the opportunity to take a turn to the left.  And so we rented a car and drove to Windsor Castle, a place where I’ve wanted to visit since Julie and I came to England in 2003.

Windsor didn’t disappoint.  It’s a magnificent castle – absolutely huge, with plenty of medieval defenses and a lovely chapel – practically a cathedral – that featured the graves of a number of people that excited me.  I got a chance to stomp on the burials of Charles I and Henry VIII, two kings that I particularly despise.  (I take my history seriously!)  And I got to pay my respects to several of whom I think better, including George V and VI and Henry VI.  Here I am with guidebook in hand and the Round Tower in the background.

The living quarters at Windsor are also quite nice.  When Julie and I visited England last, we visited a number of palaces and occupied castles.  With the exception of Brighton Pavilion, which is a delightful place, they tended to feel awfully stodgy.  But we rather liked Windsor, even if there are an awful lot of portraits of Charles I hanging there.  (Then again, Julie rather likes Charles.  One of my complaints about the man is that he was a profligate spender, leaving England bankrupt.  But one of the ways he spent all that money was by patronizing artists, something of which Julie approves.  And something that tends to leave you with lots of portraits of yourself.)

Meanwhile, Kate got a chance to join the guard.  Here she is, learning how to march.

Wipe that smile off your face, Private Kate!  You’ll never make it that way!

In the evening, Julie, Kate, Diana, and I went to see “The 39 Steps.”  This is a comic version of the classic Hitchcock movie, performed by a manic cast of four.  Diana did a project on it in a stage management class and wanted to see it.  It was a fun show, but not amazing.

Meanwhile, Andy decided he wanted a day by himself in London.  I’m not sure what he did all day, but I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow.

And a last note about the weather.  It’s been terrible.  Every day it’s rained at least some.  In fact, we never know when we go into a building whether it will be raining or clear when we get out.  We’ve taken to carrying umbrellas everywhere, and picking up new umbrellas to replace damaged ones.  Here’s a typical view from our touring.

Ah well, nothing’s perfect.

When I travel on a tourism vacation, I typically put together a long list of things to do.  This includes the top tourist attractions of wherever I visit, or things that I really want to see for my own reasons.  I rarely get to see everything on the list, but have fun trying.

Kate has her own list for this trip.  A rather unusual list, which should surprise nobody who knows Kate.  Today and yesterday have been great days for Kate for knocking items off her list.

• She minded the gap.
• She heard somebody say, “Bloody hell.”
• She ate fish and chips.
• She saw a fuzzy-hat guy.

Getting everyone up and out in the morning can be quite a challenge.  So much so that I’ve gotten in the habit of taking short journeys in the mornings until everyone is ready to go.  (By this you should note: Dad still has the most stamina for tourism, something I was wondering about now that the kids are all in their twenties and the years are growing on my own roster.  Go Dad!)  This morning, Andy and I walked to the Imperial War Museum, a rather excellent museum containing tanks, planes, really big guns, and various exhibits about Britain’s wars from WWI to the present.  Here’s Andy with Montgomery’s tank from WWII:

Then it was off to lunch, and then one of the great tourist sites in the world: the Tower of London.

One of the things that makes the Tower of London such a great tourist destination is that it has some of the best tour guides in the world.  The Beefeaters, or Yeoman Royal Guard, are all retired sergeants from the British army.  (Well, some are former marines, navy men, or airforce.  But traditionally they were army.)  They do a terrific job giving tours that focus on the gorier parts of the Tower’s history, with detailed descriptions of the more gruesome beheadings that took place.  Here’s the one that gave us a tour today:

Now there’s one thing you should know about this guy.  He was showed up in a most embarrassing manner by a certain American tourist.  See, the guide mentioned that Henry II was Edward I’s grandfather.  Silly him, everyone knows that Henry II was Edward I’s great-grandfather.  Which a certain uppity colonial told him (while in a break between stops – that colonial isn’t completely uppity!).  The guide had his doubts, but a quick perusal of Google shows that the colonial was right in this case.  Hooray for America – we know more about British history than the Brits.  (Well, some of us do, anyway.  Some of the more obnoxious of us who love nothing better than to correct a tour guide!)

Then it was off to St Paul’s Cathedral.  This is my second-favorite building in the world (the first is the Taj Mahal).  I loved the trip – a quick dash up the spiral staircase to the dome, a quick descent down to the vault under the cathedral.  Alas, no pictures – they wouldn’t let us take any.  But we paid our respects to Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, both of whom are interred here, and I basked in that lovely white marble dome.

We went back to the hotel for a short break, then it was off to the first of the plays for which we have tickets this week.  “Much Ado about Nothing,” featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the leads.  If you are of a certain geeky disposition, you’ll know that these were the leads in the British science fiction series “Doctor Who” a couple years back.  We Dzikiewicz’s are of such a disposition – the girls in particular have a crush on Tennant – so this was a real treat.  It didn’t hurt that the production was absolutely marvelous.

Note: you won’t see many pictures of Diana in this blog.  She’s here and having a good time – I assure you!  (She’s smiling next to Kate in the pre-cropped version of this picture.)  But she doesn’t like having pictures of her posted online, so the couple of times she’s appeared here, it was with her express permission, for which I am grateful.

Today we went on the first of our day-long guided bus tours for sites near London.  First stop, Stonehenge!

It was a dramatic cloudy day, just the thing to imagine all those ancient Britons dragging rocks across the field for whatever reason they dragged all those rocks.  We had a grand time.

And here’s a Kate-and-Diana henge, visible through the stones:

Then it was a matter of who could do the best impression of the frowning stone.  You tell me – who wins?

Then it was off to Salisbury, a town near Stonehenge, where they have a terrific gothic cathedral and plenty of Elizabethan architecture.  In fact, Kate looked at buildings like this one and said that she always thought that kind of thing was just a spoof in amusement parks.  She found the real thing to be quite disorienting!

I particularly like the way that the British include a little modern art with their ancient buildings.  They had several plastic statues of modern folk around the cathedral.  Here’s one of my favorites:

And here’s the modern baptismal font, complete with reflection of the cathedral ceiling.

Interesting factoid: William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, was a teacher at a boy’s school in Salisbury.  Yes, that’s right.  Lord of the Flies was inspired by its author’s time spent teaching young boys.

Then it was off to Bath, including the Roman baths there.  Where, interestingly, we ran into our guide from the Jack the Ripper tour last night.  (Good thing too – he owed me a piece of candy for knowing who the current Duke of York is, which he paid off today.)

Here’s the baths, with Kate in the foreground:

But my favorite thing that happened in Bath was when we hit the gift shop.  There was a copy of a guide of the Bath Fashion Museum.  Fashion museum, said Diana?  We still had forty minutes before the bus had to leave, and it was only a ten minute walk to the museum, so Diana and I put on our rocket boots and sped our way through the lovely Georgian streets of Bath.  We did a mad tour of an exhibit on movie costumes, including the following from Young Victoria:

Then, confident that we had twenty minutes left, allowing for a leisurely wander back down the hill and a visit to the Bath Abbey (where Julie, Andy, and Kate went instead of the Fashion Museum), we turned a corner and found – there was another whole floor of period clothes!

Yes, we did that floor.  Yes, we picked up a book for Diana in the gift shop.  Yes, on the way back we did a quick pass through the abbey.  And yes, we made the bus on time!

I do love adrenaline siteseeing!