2 Exhausted 2 Write Newsletter Archive

 

"This writing business. Pencils and whatnot. Overrated, if you ask me."

Eeyore from " ? "

 

November 1-2, 1999

 

1 November 1999

Alan spent the morning at Porte Clignancourt getting a clock key for the anniversary clock and a nut for Big Ben's pendulum.

I spent the morning packing.
And having very friendly conversation with the maid during which neither of us understood the other.

Watched "The Phantom Cavalier" as I packed. The dialogue would have interested me.

Our last day to photograph stained glass was not the day to do so.
Dark and drizzly.
Still, photographed stained glass at
St-Denis,
Église St-Séverin
and Notre-Dame de Paris anyway.

Outside St-Séverin a dude played "Ave Maria" and West Side Story's "Maria" repeatedly on his cello.

We bumped into Jack and Nancy ---- at Notre-Dame de Paris.
I got a hug.
I told Nancy how I'd thought of her when I saw linens at the Hippodrome Vincennes...they were at the Hippodrome Vincennes! This time we were smart enough to exchange e-mail addresses.

Journeyed to take one last photo of the Sarah Bernhardt Café after a few last photos of the Flower Market while Notre-Dame de Paris's bell tolled and tolled and tolled and tolled.

Returned to the "Gigi" Fontaine de l'Observatoire to see if there were any postcards of it in the area. No! "Gigi" fans of the World unite! We sat beside it in the park near Luxembourg gardens and ate the Doritos and Dr Pepper I'd "smuggled" in case of homesickness. A nuclear-powered child clambered all around that fountain faster than the speed of light or her adult, whilst a Pat-Morita-Doppelganger practiced tai-chi.

The time change brought twilight more quickly than expected. Paris seemed as deserted as Paris can seem with most of the shops closed in honor of...I dunno what most the shops are closed in honor of. All Saints Day? Postcard shops stayed open and made a mint off of me. We bought Victor (or at least that's his name so far). He's a gargoyle not a chimièra. He can even be hooked up to gurgle water!

Ate in the Greek Quarter at Le Latin Restaurant or Le Restaurant Latin out on the sidewalk protected from the rain by the overhang. Drank water poured from an Absolut Vodka bottle while our restaurant barker vocal-duelled with the barker across the way. The rivalry was sometimes more friendly than others. The bids for attention were sometimes sillier than others. Memorable were: "Hey, Spice Girls!" "English? Italiano? Kosovo?"

Our barker haggled a rose peddler down from 20F to 10F for me. Alan shelled out 10F; I got a pink rose for our last 1999 Parisian dinner; dried, it now resides on top of a Kramér book alongside the unknown soldier/sweetheart brooch. Posed sweetly with the rose for one photo. Posed cross-eyed with the rose and the vodka bottle for another, while a dude played "Ave Maria" and West Side Story's "Maria" repeatedly on his cello.

Stopped once again at the used book store on Rue St-Jacques to buy a tattered "Berenice" by Racine. Couldn't find a "Hamlet" en français. Hey Kramér! Pbbbbbbbllllltttt!!!!!!!!!!

Waited in the smoky RER station for quite a while. Waited in the St-Denis raindrops for the tram for a short while. Yawned until tears streamed.

Tuesday, 2 November 1999

It was raining when we went to sleep. It was raining every time I woke up. It was raining when our alarm clock woke us at 6:30 a.m. It rained as we dragged two duffle bags, two "backpacks," and three wheelie suitcases encasing Big Ben, Victor, et al, to the tram station. [From the time we left the motel until we stepped across our home doorstep I wished I had a sign on me that said "We arrived in Paris with just one wheelie suitcase and ‘backpack' each. This is three weeks worth of brocante loot. We are only stupid enough to haul this much junk one way."]

Yesterday's tram driver left us in the rain. This (the same?) driver started to close the doors on us again. This time Alan blocked the doors with his body (as I told him to do today and yesterday) instead of politely pushing the "open" button like yesterday. Ha! This time this rare Parisian RATP driver couldn't leave until Alan removed his body from the doorway. Ha!

Many rude Parisians helped me with my wheelie twin-pack on steps and stairs. At Gare du Nord RER it was a slim, young brunette helping me lift my two suitcases off the train to the platform. I thought "What an Amy Leach thing to do." She looked up when I said "Oh! Oh! Merci beaucoup! Merci!" She even looked like Amy Leach.

When we got to the platform for the RER B train, the quai was dim, deserted, and the computer monitors didn't have the usual train information: only the words "Interruption Maintenance Technique." That how to give budgeted travelers heart failure. Aaaaiiiigghh! Turns out the monitors were being maintenanced. And the flying fickle finger of fate put us on an RER train that stopped only at Charles de Gaulle. Straight through, no stops. Wow. Thank you, God, for traveling mercies.

At the Charles de Gaulle métro we rode the same elevator with a New York couple also bound for TWA flight 925. We think they traveled first class because we never saw them in the many endless lines, but saw them thereafter.

We traded in our New York travel buddies for a self-described "nervous" L.A. resident with a 10-year-old Sheltie and a Rottweiler waiting at home for her. We ended up in line with her continually and the three of us made the run to CDG Satellite 2 Gate 3 together. Our plane had been boarding ever since the check-in line. Aaaaaaiiigghh! We even ended up in line with her at JFK where our luggage had been removed from the plane for us to pick up and take through customs before sending it off to our St. Louis-bound plane. Customs. We pick up our luggage, go to the gate that says customs, hand our tickets to the customs official who looks at them, hands the tickets back, and says "Have a nice day." Customs. Truly, that was the most stringent customs we dealt with our entire trip. Customs.

[We didn't know about the EgyptAir Flight 990 disaster. Glad of that. Right before we returned from Europe 1996 a Valujet crashed into the Everglades. In July 1996 TWA Flight 800 to Paris exploded off Long Island. It's not dangerous for us when we fly. It seems dangerous for others when we fly.

On the nearly-midnight drive back home with Dad I said to him "So Mom tells me Buki is having such a great time, he doesn't care if I ever come back." Dad said "Oh, I think he's changed his mind." They were waiting until Wednesday to tell us that while we were somewhere over the Atlantic, Buki picked a dogfight that cost him his left eye.]

"And that's all there is. There isn't any more."

 

except a few links here and there:

Louvre, comes from Lupara, a latin name for wolf hunt kennels.

 

• ratp

  The Tocqueville Connection -- The Insider's Web Source for French News and Analyses and Archived Florence's Table Pages from Tocqueville Connection

  French museum information, some with links to websites

   

  NOVEMBER 24, 12:06 EST
  EgyptAir Data Points to Human Cause
  By GLEN JOHNSON
  Associated Press Writer
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a diplomatic dispute over what was said on the EgyptAir Flight 990 cockpit voice tape, investigators can still point to hard evidence from the plane's other ``black box'' that a human hand caused the Oct. 31 crash.

  It is that evidence, documented by the plane's flight data recorder, that allowed National Transportation Safety Board Chairman James Hall to make the unusually early pronouncement that the plane did not appear to have been brought down by a mechanical problem or bad weather.

  The recorder, among the most advanced ever handled by the safety board, also does not support any theory of a bomb, U.S. officials say.

  Some Egyptian authorities suspect a bomb brought down the New York-to-Cairo flight, killing all 217 aboard. That theory has been the subject of wide speculation in Egypt.

  Gen. Issam Ahmed, a senior Egyptian transportation ministry official, said today that the plane crashed because of an explosion. He said the cases of both black boxes, located in the tail, were severely damaged, which ``confirms that the tail of the plane ... was subjected to an explosion at the height of 33,000 feet'' because of ``an internal or external explosion.'' Ahmed said he believed a missile or bomb caused it.

  U.S. investigators believe the crash may have been caused by Gameel El-Batouty, a backup pilot who apparently was alone in the cockpit shortly before the crash.

  The cockpit recorder picked up the sound of the right-seat occupant uttering a statement before the plane began its dive toward the Atlantic Ocean.

  What was said, its translation from Arabic to English and its meaning in the Egyptian culture have triggered diplomatic tension between the two countries.

  ``We don't even have to discuss what was said by the occupant of the right seat in order to have a prima facie case that a human being caused this accident,'' said John Nance, an airline captain, lawyer and aviation author.

  Data released to date by the safety board supports no scenario for the Boeing 767's flight path other than one in which ``the occupant of the right seat disconnected the autopilot and aggressively pushed forward on the yoke, holding that big jet in an incredible screaming dive,'' Nance said.

  Such analysis is based on information from the Allied Signal Universal Flight Data Recorder aboard the EgyptAir plane. When TWA Flight 800 exploded in the skies off Long Island in July 1996, investigators were left with a flight data recorder that documented only 19 flight parameters.

  The unit aboard the EgyptAir plane logged the performance of 55 aircraft systems and over 150 pieces of flight information on a computer chip.

  Hall said Monday: ``The board has not found any information to believe that this is a mechanical or weather-related event that occurred. But our investigation is far from complete.''

  Among the evidence gleaned from the EgyptAir data recorder:

   

• —The plane was in a level cruise both before and for eight seconds after the autopilot was switched off, indicating it was a normal flight until the nose was pushed downward.
• —The plane's master warning alarm was not sounded until 14 seconds after the dive began, the same time the plane exceeded its maximum design speed of Mach 0.86. The alarm is designed to sound for five reasons, including excessive speed and a cabin depressurization that would likely follow the explosion of a bomb. While pilots are taught to dive to a lower altitude in the event of a decompression, the data recorder shows no loss of cabin pressure.
• —The plane's elevator panels, which sit on both sides of the tail and pitch the nose up and down, made an extremely rare in-flight split in direction. Boeing designs the 767 so the panels go in opposite directions only with a sustained push of over 50 pounds of pressure on either the captain's or the co-pilot's control stick. In the case of Flight 990, the side linked to the co-pilot's control stick remained pushed down — pointing the nose toward the ocean — while the side linked to the captain's stick was pulled up. Investigators believe the captain may have returned to the cockpit as the dive began and fought with the co-pilot for control of the airplane.
• —Twenty-eight seconds after the dive began, the plane's engine control switches were moved from ``Run'' to ``Cutoff.'' Boeing designs the switches as ``lever locks,'' meaning they can be moved only if they are pulled outward at the same time they are lifted up or down. That prevents an accidental bump from shutting off fuel flow to the engines. While some Egyptian officials have said the pilots may have shut down the engines to restart them, Nance said that would have been premature since the recorder shows the plane was still in a dive.

  ``The overwhelmingly logical conclusion is that the occupant of the right seat, whom we already know was pressing forward on the yoke, took this affirmative act of killing the engines,'' he said.

  ###

  By Hoda Abdel-Hamid, ABCNEWS.com

  C A I R O, Egypt, Nov. 30 — An article in an Egyptian government-run magazine that gives a very different interpretation of the final moments of EgyptAir Flight 990 than has appeared in U.S. news media has become a hot topic among many Egyptian citizens.

  The well-regarded and generally trusted weekly Rose el Yousef, Egypt’s most-read magazine, gives a much more benign version of what happened in the cockpit leading up to the flight’s final moments than what has appeared previously.

  The flight crashed Oct. 31 in the waters off the island of Nantucket, Mass., killing all 217 people aboard.

  The magazine, in its latest edition, says that the cockpit voice data recorder shows none of the apparent struggle between pilots that has been reported, and says the captain never left the cockpit.

  Sources have told ABCNEWS that the relief co-pilot, Gameel El-Batouty, appeared to take control of the aircraft after it reached cruising altitude, and that the captain then left the cockpit.

  Batouty, the sources said, spoke a few words that appear to be a common Muslim religious phrase, and the autopilot was disconnected. The plane then started plunging, and the captain, Ahmed Mahmoud el-Habashy, appeared to return to the cockpit.

  Batouty, the sources said, may have purposely steered the jet toward the water.

  The reconstructions are based on analysis of the voice recorder, cross-referenced with the flight data recorder, radar and other information, the sources said.

  The magazine reports that the first thing heard on the tape is a three-way conversation among the pilot, Habashy, co-pilot Adel Anwar and Batouty. Habashy and Batouty were teasing Anwar about his upcoming wedding, jokingly advising him to reconsider his decision before the big day.

  Habashy is heard throughout the conversation and is in the cockpit when the plane starts to nosedive, the magazine says.

  The door of the cockpit is heard slamming because it was open, the magazine says, and is slammed shut by gravity as the plane plunges — not because Habashy comes back to the cockpit, according to the magazine.

  Habashy is then heard saying: “What is happening? What is this? … Help me, Batouty. Pull, pull!”

  Sources have told ABCNEWS that the plane’s tail elevator flaps were pointed in opposing directions — one to send the plane’s nose up, one to send it down. Those fins are controlled by the pilot and co-pilot’s steering mechanism and could indicate that the pilot and co-pilot were working at cross-purposes.

  The magazine says that there are only two explanations for the crash: Either the elevator flaps malfunctioned, or there was a problem with the thrust reverser, which is a brake used to stop the plane once it lands.

  It says that for the remaining 30 seconds of the tape, passengers are heard screaming and calling on God. One person is heard screaming more than the others, apparently a female flight attendant in the area near the cockpit, the magazine says.

  Then Batouty is heard saying in a worried tone: “Allahoma, Fawadt Amri ellaika ya rab,” which can be translated as “God almighty, I delegate my destiny to you.” The phrase, generally said when someone is facing death and knows he is powerless, signifies that only God can help.

  Today in Cairo, people in the street, at coffee houses, and at work were asking each other if they had read the article, and also seemed convinced that it was not the co-pilot who had brought the plane down, but rather some sort of mechanical malfunction.

  Egyptian television and radio, which have generally been downplaying news of the tragedy, were silent about the magazine article and other assertions surrounding the case.

  Hoda Abdel-Hamid is a producer for ABCNEWS based in Egypt.

  ###

  Sunday, October 24, 1999 Published at 19:28 GMT 20:28 UK

   

  World: Europe Paris protests mark Jiang's arrival

  Human rights activists protested in Paris on Sunday as Chinese President Jiang Zemin began his first state visit to France. About 300 people, including senior French politicians Jack Lang and Alain Madelin, demonstrated against China's human rights record several kilometres from the official welcome.

  Later, 135 people were detained as they moved towards the Champs-Elysées in the west of the capital, close to where Mr Jiang is staying. They were taken to police stations for identity checks. Similar protests have dogged the Chinese leader since he arrived in Europe last week.

  Although President Jiang arrived from the UK on Friday, the official leg of his state visit began on Sunday after a private visit to French President Jacques Chirac's residence in south-west France. Mr Chirac welcomed the Chinese leader in a military ceremony at the Invalides monument, as unprecedented as the hospitality offered during the unofficial part of the visit when Mr Jiang fed a lamb and danced with Mrs Chirac to accordion music. ....

  ###

   

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