By this evening I’ll be winging my way to Tenerife via Madrid, and thence on a ship to Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar, and Portugal. I’ve been to all these countries save Tenerife and Gibraltar, and am most excited about seeing the new places. I’ll also be visiting Jerez in Spain—a city I’ve never seen. It’s the home of sherry, and I hope to indulge in some sherry tasting.
As in Antarctica, I’ll be lecturing—this time to University of Chicago alumni, and perhaps to alumni of other colleges and institutions, as it’s a general “alumni” cruise. It will be fun to meet and talk to graduates of the U of C, especially those who went here decades ago.
The ship will be smaller this time: the Sea Spirit, which seems to be even fancier than the Roald Amundsen. A photo is below, and you can read more about the ship here
The upshot: I’m not yet sure how often I’ll have access to email until I return in early May, so posting may be considerably lighter. It will resume at its normal pace in two weeks or so.
Now, the note to readers. Both yesterday afternoon and this morning I had a bit of a problem embedding tweets in the posts (this is, I think, a temporary glitch from Twitter), so when the subscribers’ emails arrived, no tweets were in them. This was also true on the website itself. I fixed it by simply tracking down the errant tweets on Twitter and embedding them again, which took some time. That fixed the issue, at last for now. But of course the original emails remain tweetless.
I always recommend that, when possible, readers view the posts on computers themselves rather than reading them in emails. The glitch above is one reason, but another is more important. I often update posts, not only fixing glitches and typos but also by making additions. Greg, for example, sometimes puts in an addendum. These will not show up on the emails, which don’t get updated, but you’ll see them on the website.
So, if you can, avoid reading my site via the emails that go out when a new post goes up. Instead, check the site itself online from time to time. As I almost never post after 2:30 pm Chicago time, if you go to the site after that you’ll see the entire day’s offerings.
Thanks! I am Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) and. . .
Have a wonderful trip! Hope to hear about it and see pictures.
I can recommend William & Humbert’s sherry Dos Cortados Palo Cortado Solera Especial Aged 20 years. Rare old dry. It’s from Jerez. I love this sherry.
¡Buen viaje otra vez!
¡Viajes felices! – I’m pretty sure it would be hard to avoid getting to taste really good sherry in Jerez.
Jerry’s Jerez sherries Jez?
Yes, but Jerez starts with a sound like the “ch” in Scottish “loch”.
😭
Macaronesia!
I tend to regard the emails as alerts, to induce me to look at, and revel in, the website posts.
Have a great trip, enjoy it all, and let us enjoy bits of it vicariously! That vessel looks great: not too large or overwhelming. I note from its description that “Some of the suites feature private balconies for enjoying fantastic”. That could be fun!
I delete the emails, they clog my inbox. I just want to be a subscriber, and the emails are the unfortunate result of that (can one be a subscriber without the mails? If possible, I’d go for that option). I always go to the website anyway.
What would it mean to be a subscriber without the emails?
Why not just look at the website every so often? I sometimes read the email rather than coming to the website.
4 to 6 posts a day is a lot I agree. Can you set up a filter to send hem to one mail box ? Jerry has got more prolific from when I first came to these pages over 10 years ago!
Sounds like a great cruise. My guess is that you may be of median age among the alumni passengers. Hopefully there will be no covid restrictions and you and your audience will be able to move about and converse freely. I can sense the energy in your last line: “Thanks! I am Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) and …. I approve of this post. Enjoy!
Have fun! I’m cruising to many of those same places in the fall, so I will look forward to hearing your tales.
May I recommend Bodegas Tradicion for sherry? Excellent bodega specialising in brilliant long-aged sherry. Still hand filling, etc.
Also, the owner has transformed part of the bodega into an art gallery. You can sip 40 year old sherry next to Picaso, El Greco, Velasquez, etc!!!
I flippin’ loved it!
Enjoy Tenerife. The scenery up in the caldera is spectacular. “Unearthly” even – I think it has been used for scenery in various grades of movie, and not just because it’s cheap (unlike certain gravel quarries near London). Lots of interesting rocks (well, interesting to some), lava caves, landscape scars from “sector collapses” (massive landslides) which have been on peoples lists of “things that can extinguish America’s right-hand coast” for a number of years. All sorts of fun.
Didn’t Darwin and the Beagle stop off on one of the Islas Canarias for water and supplies?