Amsterdam: Is a city of canals with 90 islands and 1500 bridges. Coffeeshops  are big for tourists, but not as much anymore, as many other locations have legalized this weed. This is the term used for smoky rooms buying and smoking marijuana.   They also sell coffee.   Most are located in the Red Light District. They can sell a maximum of 5 grams of cannabis twice a day to the same person. Cannot sell cigarettes or alcohol. Smartshops sell psychoactive and related substances. Here you can buy magic truffles and cacti. I nteresting that those are legal, but magic mushrooms ( psilocybe cubensis ) aren't . They are rapidly being replaced by online retailers. Read my posting 2011  providing details, for nothing much as changed. Another one of 2014 . The Netherlands is called the land of windmills.  From the Viking Daily. Records indicate that  China was the first  to use windmills, to pump water in 200 BC. Some say they were first invented...

I liked this month of May.  We completed our 53-day around the world trip, and came home healthy.  I did gain 7 pounds, but by yesterday found out that I had lost 7.5 pounds of that. The World did okay too, if you are not Trump, Netanyahu or Red Lobster.   For example, that disquieting  unified reich  matter might have been a clerical error, but Truth Social did carry it, for a while, and any reference to Hitler can't help a presidential campaign. Red Lobster was one of ten companies going bankrupt this month.  I remember a bunch of  new restaurant openings in Florida going back as far as 1968  with Red Lobster.  Many of them, like Outback Steakhouse, LongHorn Steakhouse and Olive Garden seem to be having financial problems these days.  Fast food chains are doing well, and so are high end restaurants.  It is this middle category that is affected by consumer adjustments. Is it possible we now have a working U.S. Congress? They p...

Last week Kyle Rittenhouse was found innocent of two killings and a wounding.  There were scattered protests, especially in Portland, which has recently become a hotspot for these events.  Why was the nation relatively controlled on this issue?   Simple, Rittenhouse was white, and so were his three victims . Speaker of the House  Nancy Pelosi has become a real playmaker .  She marshaled through the $2.1 trillion social welfare spending bill, now awaiting Senate action, and appears to have influence over Senators Manchin and Sinema. This second package will be enacted and signed by President Joe Biden because of something called reconciliation, which only needs 50 Democratic votes and the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris.  The only two questions are when, and how much. The only two Democratic senators voicing concerns are Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Turns out that both Manchin and Pelosi are of Italian heritage wh...