La Dolce Vita

Posting has been weak here because I've been spending too much time at the pool. I've been trying to get out there every day for my five minutes of swimming aerobics and after lolling in the lounge chairs to warm up after the cold water and watching the teenagers flirt for an hour or so, I'm so muy tranquillo that I feel like I'm on vacation and don't do any more blogging.

I suppose I'll get over that eventually as I get more inured to Mcpartment life but in the meantime, here's a funny drug war link I meant to post yesterday. I don't know why these European countries are so fond of doing these studies. This one reminds me of the one done in England where they found traces of cocaine and other drugs in the Thames.

This time Italy weighs in on air quality in Rome. I loved the lede on this story.

Scientists have discovered particles of cocaine and marijuana, as well as caffeine and tobacco, in the air of Italy’s capital, they said on Thursday.

The concentration of drugs was heaviest in the air around Rome’s Sapienza university, though the National Research Council’s Dr. Angelo Cecinato warned against drawing conclusions about students’ recreational habits.

Like anyone needs a study to draw conclusions about college students' recreational habits?

I imagine if they had included more substances, they would have found traces of pasta, pizza and chocolate in the air too and at concentrations of only 0.1 nanograms (1 nanogram is one billionth of a gram) per cubic meter at its height during winter months, I don't think anyone is in danger of getting high on the air in Rome - at least not from coke.

[Title stolen from Michael J.W. Stickings]