 I think Herb was asking something about how much a flight to Puerto 
Rico was. I know very little Spanish as I took 2 years of it way back 
in high school. It was amazing how similar Italian and Spanish are. I 
grew up with my mother and Italian grandmother babbling away in 
Italian.  As a postal worker I run into many spanish speaking people 
here in Florida. Like Herb, they are sometimes amazed at me when I 
answer them in Spanish, although very broken I'm sure. One of my 
favorites:  Escriba tu nombre aqui, por favor. 

-- Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net> wrote:
No, Herb.   I stumble through German.   I've taken that over and 
over  
three or four times.    I can read a French menu and can read the  
essential signs in French.   I've taken the French language in high  
school and again two semester's as a course at York College over  
lunch hour about 15 years ago.  About all I can do in Spanish is 
find  
the men's room.   I'll let you translate it into English.

I truly admire those people who are natural linguists and take to  
multiple languages like ducks to water.   I wish I could.   If I  
could, I'd be speaking German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish  
and Hindi by now.

I remember I chap I met on a streetcar one night in Warsaw, Poland,  
who wanted to talk to me.  He started in what he thought was the  
right language and progressed through several until he got to  
English.   Turns out he had learned a half dozen tongues fluently  
under the communist regime (a government that really didn't support  
him) simply by reading books.   When he finally got to English, it  
was almost flawless.

On Jan 27, 2007, at 9:07 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> I will look for that book. There are two stores in Tower City  
> (Terminal Tower) which always have many Cleveland history books 
and  
> also Wings Hobby Shop carries about everything on Cleveland history.
> Did you figure out the question at the end of my original email?
>
> Herb Brannon
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org
> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:47:49 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard
>
>
> A lot of this nation is Hispanic today, Herb and I have no
> objection.   The difference between then and now is who the current
> immigrants are or where they came from or to be more blunt, who it 
is
> we feel we must hate in this decade.    And I for one don't believe
> in hate.   I like diversity.   We are the nation that we are because
> we have people who came from everywhere ... Polish, Italian, German,
> English, Scotish, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Iraqi,
> Arabic ... oh yes and Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian,
> Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim ... and White, Black, Asian, Native
> American.   The only shame is that we need laws to protect people
> instead of doing it out of care and love for others.
>
> By the way, I just found and purchased a nice book today in the
> Baltimore Streetcar Museum book store: Cleveland's Towering 
Treasure,
> A Landmark Turns 75, by James A Thoman and Daniel J. Cook, published
> by Cleveland Landmarks Press, Inc.,  13610 Shsker Blvd., Suite 503,
> Cleveland, Ohio 44120-1592, ISBN 0-936760-230-6, price $18.50.
> Copyright date is 2005 so it apparently has been around for at least
> a year.   It is the story of the Cleveland Terminal Tower and
> associated buildings on Public Square.    Very few pictures of
> trains ... a Nickel Plate passenger train with Alco PAs, a NYC
> Niagara on a clearance test run, the usual picture of a CUT electric
> motor, and a poor head-on picture of the streamlined NYC Pacific on
> the Mercury.   And there are a few pictures of Cleveland trolleys.
> But a lot of pictures of the terminal under construction and through
> the years and several of the Van Swerigen brothers.   If you are out
> to buy everything ... like I do ... go ahead and buy it.   Seems
> pretty well done.   Pefect binding.
>
> I should have said, Herb, that the rapid transit equipment in San
> Juan is absolutely spotless ... I watched car cleaners coming 
through
> after every trip.   But then, the people who ride the line are the
> upper crust of the that area and the west end of the line serves and
> area which is probably to San Juan as Shaker Heights would have been
> to Cleveland in the old days.
>
> I want to go back ... not to spend more time on transit.   It's my
> hobby and you all know that but only one of many interests.   I've
> done that now and you can only spend so much time photographing an 8
> mile (my guess) heavy rail line.     But I would like to spend a 
full
> week just looking at San Juan, Ponce, and driving around the island.
>
> On Jan 27, 2007, at 7:33 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
>> WARNING WARNING The word Cleveland is used in this email.
>>
>> The link to Caribbean Natl Park was very good. Thanks for that. One
>> of my buddies at work, originally from Puerto Rico, always wants me
>> to go there. He is also into rail transit and says I would
>> appreciate the new rail transit system. Maybe now I will take him
>> up on the offer.
>>
>> As far as the speaking Spanish goes.....I'm glad I took two years
>> of it in school, kept up on it, and lived in Florida and Texas.
>> Here I use Spanish frequently. Just today in fact on the 79-Fulton.
>> The near westside of (WARNING bad word ahead!!!!) Cleveland is
>> Hispanic. This includes advertising signs in Spanish on stores,
>> billboards, and on RTA buses inside and out. It seems to be the
>> 'second language' of the U.S. now.
>>
>> ?Cuanto cuesta un boleto de ida y vuelta a Puerto Rico?
>>
>> Herb Brannon
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net>
>> To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org
>> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 11:36:47 AM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard
>>
>>
>> Enjoyed Puerto Rico ... want to go back!  The city is clearly a mix
>> of well-to-do and those of lesser means.
>>
>> I found the territory rather curious.   Of course many Americans 
like
>> to consider them not part of us in spite of the fact that Teddy
>> Roosevelt took Puerto Rico from Spain in the Spanish American War 
in
>> 1898.   It's a rather curious place with Spanish as the primary
>> language but with many corporate names in English ... with Waste
>> Management trucks with admonitions warning you that the back
>> frequently in English, with familiar stores ... Ponderosa, 
Wal*Mart,
>> Walgreens, Holiday Inn, Hilton, and thousands more and English 
words
>> peppering the language like muffler.   .   It's just
>> the part of us or U.S. that speaks Spanish.
>>
>> They have some of the same problems we have.   Just like the people
>> up here don't want to speak Spanish, they have people whose pride
>> causes them not to want to learn English.   There is stubbornness
>> everywhere!
>>
>> .   We rented a car and drove east along
>> the beaches.   Fantastic azure water with nothing built along them
>> for miles.   Then we drove up into the Caribbean National 
Forest ...
>>
>



