Post Bathhouse Tea. In Heaven.

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Turkish Bath House

We have been in Jordan for
Less than 8 hours and we have managed to become best friends with the owner of our hotel who in turn introduced us to the owner of a turkish bath house who invited us over closed down the bathhouse and let us roam around the saunas steamrooms hottubs and get massages. It was incredible. Women are not usually allowed. We were so lucky. Off to the Dead Sea tomorrow for more massages!

An iPhone Compass is Not a Compass

Also while visiting Australia, I had a chance to hear some great war stories from my grandfather. He served heroically on a submarine with the Dutch Navy in WWII off the coast of France and in a covert mission against the Japanese in Western Australia. He then went on to be a commercial ship captain, later a tugboat captain and later a fisherman. He has spent the majority of his life out at sea. I decided to show him my handy-dandy compass on my new iPhone. Maybe its not a nautical compass but it should at least show me East! He told me an iPhone Compass is not a Compass.

Peter Describes Underwater Welding

Last December I had the rare opportunity to spend a month in Australia with my mother's side of the family. Most nights were spent out on the back porch story telling. On this particular night my uncle told some stories of his days as an underwater welder. He was a diver who spent a majority of his career welding on oil pipelines and rigs. I wonder now what he would say about the disaster in the gulf.


Here is a story of him welding off of a ship stuck in a tropical storm.

The Dry Cycle

"I want my quarters back" I said to the laundromat lady.

"but u clothes wash." she said.

"Yes, but without water. That does not count." I said staring into the machine at my soap covered dry clothes.

This was the end of what has become my quest to wash my own clothes so they smell good when they come out of the dryer. I have been living in New York for some time and I have yet to figure out the secret formula for that "fresh-straight out of the dryer" smell. I'm pretty much convinced it does not exist unless you own your own machine.

I have tried several different laundry places, even in different boroughs. I have tried different detergents, dryer sheets, wash cycles, you name it.

I had one ray of hope recently while visiting my sister in Colorado. I noticed her clothes smell overwhelmingly good. and strong. I asked, "what is your secret?"

"Dreft."

"Never heard of it."

Probably because I don't have babies. Its a baby detergent. The #1 choice of Pediatricians.

But I thought, I'm on to something. When I got back to New York, I searched for this secret detergent. My friends with babies were like, yeah I've heard of it. You can find it most anywhere.

Well, not if you live in Chinatown. I finally found a bottle at a Duane Reed on the Upper West Side. There just happened to be a really cute guy in the aisle at the same time and I fumbled with the bottle. This is awkward. I turned to him and said. "I don't have kids...I ..I just like the smell." I have to admit it wasn't my best pickup line but. It didn't work.

Anyway, having thought I had finally found the secret to good smelling clothes, I excitedly waited for laundry day. (wednesday..sometimes Thursday depending on motivation).

Thursday, I marched over to the laundromat threw my clothes in the washer, with a certain sense of satisfaction mind you. Turned the machine on. Returned 28 minutes later to find my clothes spinning with no water in the machine. That's it! I went over to the Laundry lady which resulted in the above conversation.

I'm not sure if this is some wicked attempt at making me celebrate Earth Day with an absurd round of water conservation but I wasn't celebrating.

I'm done. I have given up. I surrender. I'm waiving the white sheet.
P.S. It's dry and its covered in Dreft.

Obama signing HC Bill on every TV

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Rethink Afghanistan

I was doing research for my own documentary about Afghanistan and I came across this 6-part series called "Rethink Afghanistan". Really powerful stuff. I recommend watching all 6 parts --free online.

Part 3 is below on the cost of this war which could be upwards of 3 trillion dollars. It will cost 17 Billion for New York tax payers alone. I wanted to embed the clip on the Soviet Lesson Not Learned but it wasn't availble. It was definitely an eye opening history lesson. You can take all the articles in the 80's and replace the word Soviets with the word Americans and the articles mirror each other. Interesting case study at the least.

Don't Ever Play Scrabble with this Guy.

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Iranian Heritage Night in DC

A friend of mine produced this video for Iranian Heritage Night in DC. A team is headed now to DC from NYC right now to make it happen. I wish them all the best.