Stormtroopers Invade Paris!

by Erik Olsen on

Maybe it’s just me, but the thought of
storm-troopers in the
streets of Paris conjures up rather unsavory memories of events from about 65 years ago (not that I remember them
personally, mind you). To “celebrate” the release of the final Star Wars installment, fans dressed as Darth Vader and
storm-troopers marched on Paris…or at least hung out and listened to music.

“Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith” is set to get its world premiere on Sunday at the Cannes film festival and so
a three-day convention is taking place in Paris in anticipation of the opening.

Of course, any similarities between the white armoured foot soldiers of the Dark Side and the Nazis is purely
coincidental (or is it?), but you’d think Parisians might be a bit uncomfortable with the sight of storm troopers
marching on the Arch d’Triomph (OK, maybe they didn’t do that).

Star wars fever. Man, it’s a global phenomenon.

Triskaidekaphobia Trivia

by Erik Olsen on

A little bit of trivia for gadling readers today. Everyone knows that the number 13 is supposed to be bad luck.
There are many buildings in major cities and elsewhere where the
13th floor has actually been
“left out”, that is, while there is technically a thirteenth floor, the elevator buttons go from 12 to 14. Some say the
problems with the Apollo 13 space flight was
due to its association with this unlucky number. John Mayer’s album Room for Squares has a 13th track, but it is
basically blank. And who can forget

Jason the lake-based serial killer who sliced up so many folks in all those awful movies?

What a superstitious species we are!

Well, how many people actually know the origin of
Triskaidekaphobia, or the fear of the number 13? Some say
that the superstition has to do with there being 13 apostles at the last supper, but the superstition probably goes
back a lot further than that. For example, the Mesopotamian
Code of Hammurabi,
one of the earliest sets of written laws, omits 13 in its numbered list. The fact is, no one really knows where this
fear came from. Perhaps from aliens?

But it the number really bad? Our
currency, which has been suffering late late, come to think of it, is riddled with 13s. For example, there
are:

    * 13 levels of the truncated pyramid,

    * 13 stripes on the flag,

    * 13 letters in “E Pluribus Unum”,

    * 13 stars above the Eagle,

    * 13 leaves on the olive branch,

    * 13 arrows held by the Eagle, and

    * 13 bars on the shield.

Very strange.

By the way, fear of the double-whammy of Friday the 13th is known as
paraskavedekatriaphobia.

Monkey Business

by Erik Olsen on

How many times have you been to a big-time art museum and thought, man, a monkey could do that. Hell, I used to feel
that way about my job.

Well, monkeys do art after all, and the stuff can fetch some sweet cabbage. 
Congo
the chimpanzee was a compatriot…kinda, sorta…of the great Pablo Picasso. And now, after half a century, some of
this super-simian’s paintings are going on sale. The
prestigious London auction house is offering some of Congo’s work at a coming up auction, and the paintings are
expected to fetch from between $1,130-$1,500. Would you hang this on your wall?

Making a Day in Montevideo

by Erik Olsen on

Occasional Gadling contributor Blaine Zuver is in
Montevideo, Uruguay and sent in this dispatch:

Montevideo is a nice laid-back city where half of

Uruguay’s population lives. The streets are wide and empty – there’s never a traffic jam. Now that it is autumn
(opposite seasons, remember), crisp winds blow up from the south and the foliage is at its height. The markets are
laden with a bountiful harvest and the air is filled with wood smoke from parilla (pa -ree-sha) – excellent steakhouses
that are everywhere. A dinner or lunch consisting of several different cuts of beef (all natural grass fed and
delicious) sausage, sweetbreads, grilled vegetables, a liter of beer and a snifter of grappa to finish it off will run
about $7 – less than the price of a sandwich in New York. By the way, Uruguay has 36 million head of cattle and only 3
million people.

Walk off your feast, exploring the city on foot. Beautiful old beaux-arts and colonial buildings are everywhere – the
most famous being the Palacio Salvo – one of South America’s early
skyscrapers built in 1928. The port area is picturesque and great for antiquing. The Ramblas are a series of long
seaside boulevards that runs for miles along the Rio Plata – the world’s widest river mouth (Buenos Aires sits on the
other side, about 100 miles away), emptying into the South Atlantic.

Montevideo is a great side trip for those visiting BA – it is a 20-minute flight from Aeroparque or a 4-hour hydrofoil
ride across the Rio Plata.