Post-Valley of the Beautiful Women

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    Greetings from post-Valley of the Beautiful Women.  The Valley is know for its red wines--particularly Bull's Blood--but I found the whites to be better.  Madge Simpson looks good right about now.
    I have no idea if Hungarian is or is not a Slavic language.  The first thing you're told is that it's Budapesht, not Budapest.  Then you're told that Hungarian is not a Slavic language.  There's my tour guide, the driver, plus one Hungarian speaking tourist (she's been away 30 years).  She told me that there are Hungarians in Nepal, and that she could understand the Nepalese alphabet.

--------------------------------------------------------
PINK DOLLARS

   The FINANCIAL TIMES, September 23-24, 2000, pg. 28, has a column about gay Australia, "Sydney in the pink."  Col. 2:

   Gyms, shops, bars and cafes buzzed as coveted "pink dollars", an estimated A$100m (Ł39m) were spent on workouts, souvenirs and parade outfits...

--------------------------------------------------------
MATTANZA

   There's a review of MATTANZA: LOVE AND DEATH IN THE SEA OF SICILY by Theresa Maggio in the FINANCIAL TIMES, September 23-34, 2000, Weekend, pg. 5.
   Mattanza is the annual slaughter of the bluefin tuna off the Sicilian island of Favignana.
   OED?

--------------------------------------------------------
FASHION TIMES

   From the FASHION TIMES section of the same FINANCIAL TIMES:

BOURGEOIS CHIC, pg. 30, col. 2.  From British VOGUE, and mentioned here before.

SLEEK CHIC, pg. 45 headline.

"D" BAG, pg. 36, col. 2.  "...honey-coloured leather tote or 'D' bag..."  What could "D" mean?  Surely not the term we all used in grade school?

BUM BAG, pg. 53, col. 3.  Americans call it "fanny pack."

--------------------------------------------------------
MISC.

   Not only is this place too dark to type my Hungarian food list, but there's belly dancing going on right now!

BUBBLES--Used instead of "water with gas."  As in, "water with bubbles."  Am I getting Michael Jackson's monkey, Bubbles?

THE SECRET OF EGER--this dish is "pork chops with mushrooms, in red wine, with 'longos.'"

  You know, she really does look better than Madge Simpson...