EU Spectacle
The word spectacle is carefully chosen, since this is what the current drama of which Greece is the symptom, not the cause, has become. It no longer bears any relationship to coherent democratic leadership or process of governance in a workable political and currency union. The cancellation at a moment’s notice of a summit of all EU leaders is extraordinary.
There is a problem with Greece, but it is not that difficult to solve. Indeed this blog working alone would be able to negotiate a workable solution. What is proving impossible is to find an acceptable solution, because the institutions normally established to process decision making at national and international levels are not there, or there in such abundance nobody can detect who is in charge. And to make matters worse the structure of the currency itself is unsustainable as it lacks a treasury and a finance minister answering to an elected government. A committee of finance ministers at loggerheads, elected by only one member state in each case, on conflicting mandates and to differing electoral timetables will work only in the good times and becomes dysfunctional under pressure.
So all we know at this moment is that Greece may or may not go bust tomorrow, the euro looks more like an impediment to growth than an engine of it, and the reputation of the EU as a coherent political union is severely damaged. Beneath that a big gap is developing between the north and the south of Europe, between the politicians and their electors everywhere and between those in the eurozone who want to stand firm to high principle even if it brings the whole thing down, led by the Germans, and by those who feel pragmatic reality demands compromise, led by France and Italy.
At the heart of of this crisis now engulfing the whole EU are three violated principles. You cannot have a democratic political union without an elected forum from which all authority flows. You cannot have a currency which cannot be printed. You cannot have capitalism which does not permit debtors to go bust. The first is violated because the whole EU is wrongly configured. The last two are rescinded because Germany says No.
I suspect that your car problem revolves around the agency agreement between Europacar, who are the principals and Auto Europe which is a commission agent. The rule for the future is never deal with middlemen. You would probably find the Europacar have charged Auto Europe for the lost days because it was their screw up. I would tell Auto Europe to get stuffed otherwise you will start an action for harassment.
Also under UK law the fact and evidence that you paid the twenty dollars confirms you had a contract to drop off the keys and I imagine European or German law is similar. So they do not have Alex to stand on. Also they must have spare keys for these cars for goodness sake.
You think it has to do with Auto Europe and not Europcar? Usually we write to Auto Europe and not EuRopcar directly. What makes it more complicated is that Auto Europe is headquartered in the US in Maine. There doesn't seem to be any direct line to EuRopcar. We can never talk to them. I really wish we could talk to the branch where we picked up the car on June 12, but the city car rental office doesn't seem to have a phone number.
The fact that we have a receipt for the extra 20 euros is what we've been basing much of our case on. But we can't get them to respond, and we've been at it for months. And when you call Auto Europe on the phone, you can't talk to the decision makers. And the credit card leveled with Gary. It said that it has a special contract with the car rental agencies to prefer them in such disputes unless we had taken videotapes and movies of the car rental as it happened. The credit card we used to pay for the car rental doesn't seem to think the receipt is good enough. I thought the credit cards were supposed to protect the consumers. That was one of their major selling points.
A complicating factor is that if Auto Europe operates out of main as its HQ it will be subject to U.S, and Maine law rather than European law. So many of the EU protections I have mentioned may not apply. I suspect that Europcar got the money for the missed days from AE, so they are not involved.
Auto Europe keeps on blaming EuRopcar for the charges, though. They say that EuRopcar is the one that keeps on billing them for the days they couldn't rent the car. It's hard to tell what is going on. I also wondered about having only one set of keys for the car. Even when I buy a car they give you at least two.
Even here a receipt is supposed to give you rights. From what I can tell Auto Europe/Europcar don't have a legal position but they keep on stonewalling anyway for a reason I can't understand. If nothing else, what about customer service?
I'm also disillusioned about the reaction of the Capital One Credit Card that we used to purchase the car rental. Credit cards are supposed to go to bat for you when you have a problem with a purchase, aren't they? In the past when I had a dispute with Office Max/Office Depot or something like that it worked. It even worked when I had a dispute with a motel. But this is the first time we've had a dispute with a car rental agency that involved a credit card. We've uploaded all the information that the credit card needs to the credit card's website. They can see the receipt for themselves. But still the credit card acts as if it is powerless in the face of the illegal maneuvers of the car rental agency. I've really had it with all the illegal stuff that seems to go on all the time with so many different things. It really does seem as if there is no way to protect yourself unless either you are a millionaire yourself or you are a hermit and don't deal with people.
Auto Europe is the problem. I would ignore them and see what happens. Tell them if they have any further demands to make to write to your attorney and give them Gary's office address.
Car rentals in general seem to be such a problem. Three years ago we ended up leaving the Ford Mondeo parked in front of the Best Western St. Raphael in downtown Hamburg because the car wouldn't start. We were supposed to return it to the airport. We left the keys with the front desk of the hotel and Hertz picked it up. Gary almost got locked inside the car in 80 degree weather when the car shut off and wouldn't start. Kenny went outside to look for him while I was unpacking. Somehow Gary managed to climb out the back of the car. This again was three years ago in July, 2012.
Another time years ago during our first visit to Yellowstone National Park over the Fourth of July our minivan broke down and had to be towed 100 miles back to Idaho Falls to have its transmission worked on by Idaho Transmissions. We had to rent a car in West Yellowstone to get us through our trip in Yellowstone and Jackson Hole and drive to Idaho Falls to pick up our minivan 100 miles away. The rental agency wanted us to return the car to West Yellowstone. That was impossible. We couldn't be in two places at once 100 miles apart. We left the rental car at Idaho Transmissions when we picked up the other car. It was impossible to do anything else. The car rental agency complained about having to trek to Idaho Falls to pick up the car, but they didn't try to charge us anything for it. And I thought that was our worst experience in renting a car!
Before that we had to rent a car in New Orleans to drive back to Charlottesville when we were in a train wreck. It was a one way rental. They wanted us to drop off the car in Richmond instead of Charlottesville. There was a 60 mile difference, and again it was impossible to comply. We left the car in Charlottesville, and they had to pick it up there. Again they grumbled about it but didn't cause anywhere near the trouble Auto Europe/Europcar is causing for no reason at all. Very ironic that the worst car rental trouble we've ever had is this year when we did everything we were supposed to do.
My Dora Benley author’s page is being posted on amazon.com. It should be visible pretty soon now. I was posting author photos on it last night and writing a biography for Dora. I even connected the blog page to her bio.
Linda wrote: "My Dora Benley author’s page is being posted on amazon.com. It should be visible pretty soon now. I was posting author photos on it last night and writing a biography for Dora. I even connected the..."Oh, well done. I will check it out.
Just a caution. I don't know what the US protocol is for authors, but here it is acceptable to have a pen name, but I think there would be a problem about creating a fictitious author with a fictional biography. With Tor Raven I make it clear that is a pen name of an English novelist. Essentially a pen name makes you anonymous although it is generally known, but not always, who it is. But I have not come across a fictional author with an invented biography.You don't want to hit problems with Amazon or get hostile reviews.. If Dora Benley's biography is in fact yours that's fine.
Why do you say there would be a problem in England about creating a fictitious author with a fictional biography? This is very interesting if it's true. What does the law say about it?
I'm not aware of any US laws about pen names for authors. What's interesting is that it's much more difficult to change your name for real, unless you're getting married. I looked it up last week and it involves a oourtroom procedure believe it or not. But none of this applies to pen names.
I was also going to get around to creating an author's page for Helga von Wessel. I have lots of photos of her to use. She is going to publish cookbooks about chocolate for one thing. It's her way of luring men into her traps. I've already created a Pinterest page for her. It's called the Chocolate Vamp.
What do you mean about hitting problems with Amazon and getting hostile reviews? What problems could I hit with Amazon? Do you know of any examples?
Some people have suggested that the ultimate pen name in English literature is William Shakespeare. They say it was the pen name for an English aristocrat, and that included an invented biography and identity. I don't believe this myself, but the rumor and the speculation has been around for a long, long time.
I just saw a photo of Rudolf Hess online last next to the photo of a German politician who is the head of some minority German political party. Have you heard about this? I thought this sort of thing was supposed to be outlawed in Germany, but apparently not. They oppose immigration into Germany for one thing. They also espouse German nationalism.
Linda wrote: "Some people have suggested that the ultimate pen name in English literature is William Shakespeare. They say it was the pen name for an English aristocrat, and that included an invented biography a..."Yes I have heard and read of this. It pops up about once every five years. it never quite goes away.
Linda wrote: "I just saw a photo of Rudolf Hess online last next to the photo of a German politician who is the head of some minority German political party. Have you heard about this? I thought this sort of thi..."There is always a far right party on the fringes of German politics but they never get to mainstream. Every country has one. Actually Kaufmann was mixed up in trying to start one in Hamburg in the fifties I think it was. I seem to remember he was arrested but not much happened.
Linda wrote: "What do you mean about hitting problems with Amazon and getting hostile reviews? What problems could I hit with Amazon? Do you know of any examples?"Well I have nothing specific. Self publishers are a relatively new phenomenon. The English term was Vanity publishing, but that's been dropped now. The traditional industry over here is quite disciplined and I don't think it would do this. It would certainly protect the anonymity of a pen name but I am not sure it would go with a fictional author.
If you want any reassurance you could do an email query to CreateSpace help desk. They are very quick to respond, always within 24 hours. Explain you want to not only use a pen name but also a fictional biography and see what they say. If they give you the green light you are fine. If not they will tell you what the limits are.
First of all, I haven't encountered all that many pen names. But when I do they are usually names for bestselling authors which obviously can be looked up. For instance Anne Rice is also A.N. Roquelaure.They are well known on Amazon,too. I know of a non bestelling writer named Eliza Knight who also goes by the name of E. Knight which isn't much different. It seems that nowadays pen names seem to be an organizational tool for writers. They put one kind of novel under one name and another kind of novel under the other. But back in the 19th century lots of women writers used pen names to deceive not only readers but the public not only about their identities but about their sex. For instance the Bronte sisters went under the name of Bell. Charlotte Bronte was Currer Bell. Emily was Ellis Bell. Anne was Acton Bell. They even stated their reason was because women were looked upon with prejudice.
Jane Austen started with the pen name "A Lady". Mary Ann Evans had the pen name George Eliot which stuck. George Sand was a pen name too that stuck.
Nowadays with the internet it is easier to trace people's real identities. In fact that is part of the problem to begin with.
Obviously Amazon knows who you are. They have to pay the right person and everybody is connected with a credit card, something they didn't have in the 19th century. They had letters of credit but not credit cards.
As far as self-publishers being a new phenomenon, think again. What about Mark Twain and Walt Whitman? What about Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press? What about James Joyce and Ulysses? It also depends what you mean by self publishing. When you get back a couple hundred years writers often teamed up with printers to publish a work. Lord Byron was published by John Murray. Social distinctions were preserved too. Murray calls Byron "my dear lord".
Linda wrote: "As far as self-publishers being a new phenomenon, think again. What about Mark Twain and Walt Whitman? What about Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press? What about James Joyce and Ulysses? It also d..."Oh yes in those days authors were very much in charge of their work and did not sign away rights. It was John Murray himself who established the primacy of the publisher by burning both volumes of the only manuscript of Byron's autobiography because he thought it too salacious.
The house I owned in Kent in which my first family was brought up, was built in 1914 by John Murray IV for his two sisters.
Linda wrote: "First of all, I haven't encountered all that many pen names. But when I do they are usually names for bestselling authors which obviously can be looked up. For instance Anne Rice is also A.N. Roque..."Oh yes very true. I think the custom was more to do with anonymity which people understood and respected, than invention, which takes place in the book. But any author who writes fiction in the first person, sometimes as the opposite sex, is is inventing themselves. Actually I often think they give more away about themselves than they realise.
By the way I have visited Jane Austen's house in Hampshire and also the Bronte house in Yorkshire. I am not surprised the Brontes died young. High on top of a hill on the moors the house had a deathly chill even in July when we visited.
When I was in high school I was a Byron fanatic. When I went to England the last time when I was in 11th grade I visited Newstead Abbey in the north by renting a private car and driver. I also visited his monument in Westminster Abbey in London. When I was in Athens at the end of my senior year in high school, we drove past the monument to Lord Byron that had been erected there. (He helped finance their revolution against the Turks.) I even belonged to the Byron Society. Even though I collected his letters and journals and read the Leslie Marchand biography, I don't remember this business about John Murray burning his autobiography. It sounds like an apocryphal tale to me. If I ever get more time, I'll look it up in Leslie Marchand who is the authority. I googled it just now and got the crazy story you just told me. For one thing, when would Byron ever have had the time or the inclination to write an autobiography? He wrote voluminous letters, true, but not an autobiography that I ever heard about. I think of the romantic poets only Wordsworth did something like that. Also I think if he had written an autobiography wouldn't he have entrusted it to somebody else who was a friend of his? P.S. I don't think Byron did half the things that are alleged about him. It was just rumor and his satiric wit.
Interesting that you have a personal association with John Murray. Do you have a photo of that house?
Of course that would make a great fictional subject to reconstruct Byron's autobiography. You could start with the scene where everybody is burning the supposed autobiography. But really Byron has entrusted the actual manuscript to somebody like Mary Shelley or Teresa Guiccioli. You could do all sorts of things with it. I don't think I would go for some obscene tract about a wild sex life, though. I would have Byron acting as a spy. But then that's what I've been doing lately anyway, spy stories.
By the way did you know that Byron wrote a poem about the famous ball held on June 15, 1815 at the house of the Duchess of Richmond in Brussels right before the Battle of Waterloo? It's something in my latest novel, and Byron came up again.
Linda wrote: "When I was in high school I was a Byron fanatic. When I went to England the last time when I was in 11th grade I visited Newstead Abbey in the north by renting a private car and driver. I also visi..."The burning story is 100% accurate and is a publishing legend in London. The publisher's HQ is still in the same house in Albemarle Street and the fireplace is still there and can, I believe, be viewed by appointment.
Linda wrote: "Interesting that you have a personal association with John Murray. Do you have a photo of that house?"No I don't have a photo but I have emailed you instructions how to view it via Google maps satellite. I tried a copy and paste link but it did not work, so I have sent you the zip code which does.
Linda wrote: "By the way did you know that Byron wrote a poem about the famous ball held on June 15, 1815 at the house of the Duchess of Richmond in Brussels right before the Battle of Waterloo? It's something i..."To tell you the truth I have never been much of a Byron fan, so I did not know that. By the way have you watched the film yet?
This issue about Byron's so-called autobiography that was supposedly burned by John Murray isn't the sort of thing I can research online. I don't think I have the Leslie Marchand biography anymore. It was one of the many books that didn't make it when I moved from Charlottesville to Tucson. The logic was that I could buy it again. I'd have to look into this matter by first buying the book again and seeing what Marchand says about it. Depending on what he says, I might have to look in other sources, preferrably firsthand sources if available. It's a minor research project in and of itself. You say it's a legend, but legends can be apocryphal and exaggerated. This one sounds to me as if at the very least it must be exaggerated. In other words, if they did burn Byron papers, was there another copy somewhere else? Was it a rough draft or a final copy? Was it something Byron himself wanted burned or disposed of? Virgil for instance wanted the Aeneid destroyed but Augustus and Maecenas didn't comply back in ancient times. In other words, there is no way I can accept this legend at face value. Did it ever occur to you that all the people who were present that day of the burning of Byron papers could have agreed to say it was his autobiography simply because they knew that's what the public most wanted to read and it was merely a burning of trivia? In other words it was a big publicity stunt.
This is my Facebook post from last night:Brussels in 1815:I want to share some more photos from my Pinterest Page for Edward Ware Thrillers about Brussels at the time of the Battle of Waterloo. A ball was held on June 15 by the Duchess of Richmond. All the British officers including the Duke of Wellington attended only to depart quickly thereafter for the battlefield. Byron wrote about the ball in his poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage:
Ah! Then there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne’er might be repeated;who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!
I will look up the photo of your old house and Murray's house ASAP as soon as I get my email straightened out. As I mentioned yesterday by email, right now I can send email but I can't download or read any recently sent.
The film about Waterloo is something I'm buying for Christmas. I didn't want to watch it until I had finished the first draft of my novel, which I did just yesterday afternoon. My working title is Inn at the Crossroads. The inn in my novel is modeled after a 19th century inn we actually stayed at in Belgium on the way to Waterloo. This is going to be a Christmas devoted to books, films, and music. I learned that there is a Beethoven “Battle Symphony” for one thing. And Goya painted a portrait of Wellington. It was a very high culture war.
When I was in Venice in high school I saw Byron's Palazzo Mocenigo in Venice. You said you liked Venice. It's on the Grand Canal. I forgot to mention it.
Linda wrote: "This issue about Byron's so-called autobiography that was supposedly burned by John Murray isn't the sort of thing I can research online. I don't think I have the Leslie Marchand biography anymore...."This link will tell you all in the fourth paragraph under History.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mu...
Linda wrote: "This is my Facebook post from last night:Brussels in 1815:I want to share some more photos from my Pinterest Page for Edward Ware Thrillers about Brussels at the time of the Battle of Waterloo. A..."
Good. Well done!
Linda wrote: "The film about Waterloo is something I'm buying for Christmas. I didn't want to watch it until I had finished the first draft of my novel, which I did just yesterday afternoon. My working title is ..."You will enjoy the film because it is historically very accurate (for a film).
Yes, I know what it says on Wikipedia about John Murray. But Wikipedia isn't Leslie Marchand. Also if Murray really had burned the only copy of Byron's autobiography, somebody would have had to look at it ahead of time to see what it said. I'm not aware of rumors about what was in the burned manuscript. Inevitably rumors about it would have spread. We would know the details even if there was no extant manuscript. For example historians think that the mother of the Emperor Nero and the wife of the Emperor Claudius, Agrippina the Younger, wrote an autobiography. They even have the title of it. But it didn't survive. However later historians made reference to it. Some of the details about what is in it are known and this was something written 2000 years ago, not just 200 as with Byron.
I saw a photo of Christopher Plummer in the movie when I was looking up Pinterest photos about the ball at the house of the Duchess of Richmond. Did you know that they supposedly hold the ball every year including this year? I read that the British Embassy sponsors it. What a nutty idea!
Linda wrote: "Yes, I know what it says on Wikipedia about John Murray. But Wikipedia isn't Leslie Marchand. Also if Murray really had burned the only copy of Byron's autobiography, somebody would have had to loo..."No I do not agree with you on this. English family histories passed down the generations are very accurate. The Murrays, who are a very distinguished family, would never claim such a thing if it had not happened.
I have said before you rely too much on what other people write. Yes Marchand is the doyen of Byron biographers but just because he does not mention something does not mean it did not happen.
Even Churchill's history of WWII of several volumes leaves out critical stuff which he thought might reflect badly on him or people he liked.
And they did look at Byron's manuscript. That's why they burned it.
Linda wrote: "I saw a photo of Christopher Plummer in the movie when I was looking up Pinterest photos about the ball at the house of the Duchess of Richmond. Did you know that they supposedly hold the ball ever..."Oh that's very English. Do you know the UK will keep a 2 minute silence tomorrow at 11am to commemorate the end of WWI? It has happened every year since the armistice was signed at the 11th hour of the 11th month in 1918.
We have loads of ceremonies, clubs and celebrations of historical events. It would not surprise me if the current Duchess does something locally. They only live ten miles from me as the crow flies.
Also did you know that the original Duke of Richmond was an illegitimate son of Charles ii?
I am not sure you were reading the right entry on Wikipedia. This one is edited by the Murrays. I have copied and pasted it for you.On 17 May 1824 Murray participated in one of the most notorious acts in the annals of literature. Byron had given him the manuscript of his personal memoirs to publish later on. Together with five of Byron's friends and executors, he decided to destroy Byron's manuscripts because he thought the scandalous details would damage Byron's reputation. Opposed only by Thomas Moore, the two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at Murray's office.[3] Unfortunately we do not know what was contained in the memoirs.
Hope this helps.
When you say I rely on what others write too much I don't understand. Obviously I must rely on what others write. I didn't know Byron. I wasn't around in the early nineteenth century. I haven't collected all the firsthand sources and analyzed them myself (even this would be relying on written sources at this point since the event is way out of living memory). I've purchased a used copy of the Leslie Marchand Biography. We could try to get it at the University Library, too. We may still have to do this if the copy we bought is all beat up with missing pages or something. If after looking at the Marchand biography I still have questions I might try finding current Byron scholars online. I might try emailing them to see if I get a response about this issue.
You have to rely on what scholars have written. They are the authorities on the subject. To rely on legends could be misleading. I suspect this Byron story is a legend.
P.S. Your Churchill example isn't totally valid. He was a politician. I know he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which is incredible. But he wasn't an historian.
Linda wrote: "When you say I rely on what others write too much I don't understand. Obviously I must rely on what others write. I didn't know Byron. I wasn't around in the early nineteenth century. I haven't col..."
I Agee with you about Churchill, but biographers make judgements too about what to include.
The Byron ms story is really an inside story known only to the publishers family for years, so it may be off the scholars' track.
Sorry if this a bit disjointed but working from my phone
I don't write nonfiction but I should write a book about all the pitfalls of insurance and all the liabilities involved.