BACK IN BUENOS AIRES, HOWIE TRIES OUT--AND FLEES--THE BEST HOTEL IN TOWN

Back from "the rigors of Tierra del Fuego," Howie reports in hIs Around the World blog on his (brief) stay in "a temple of conspicuous consumption."



AND IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS FINAL NOTE
FROM TIERRA DEL FUEGO--

Howie added this comment to the post about AOL's "Give Bush a Grade" poll:

Today's my last day in Tierra del Fuego before heading back up to Buenos Aires. Ushuaia has one main street, San Martin, and it is lined with gawdy tourist shops selling junk--like all tourist streets anywhere in the world.

Did you ever wonder who the hell buys this stuff? T-shirts that say "Ushuaia" with a photo of a drunken penguin sipping a yerba mate? Well, I met them on the hotel shuttle into town today. They were just salivating over the crap I can't imagine anyone bothering with--the kind of stuff that would go right into a trashbag if someone gave it to me.

Maybe there's some correlation between people who buy this kind of crap and people who give Bush an "A" or a "B," although, to be honest, how could anyone even give him a "C"? I mean what does someone have to do to merit an "F" from these people? Lose a major American city? Oh, scratch that. Um . . . start a thermonuclear war?