Ramandan Begins
May 26 - June 24, 2017
Young Muslims From Across the World on the Challenges and Joys of Ramadan
Time - May 26, 2017
The annual G7 Summit begins today in Taormina, a town on the Sicilian coast perhaps best known for being described as "a polite synonym for Sodom" by Sir Harold Acton, a British aesthete, scholar and writer. It became a hub for gay men after Wilhelm von Gloeden arrived there from Germany in the 1870s and pioneered the nude male photograph.
Many writers have stayed in Taormina, including Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway, who once described it as so pretty "it hurts to look" at. Looming over Taormina is an active volcano, Mount Etna, which has also made a literary appearance: Cyclops lives there in Homer's "Odyssey."
Locals hope Etna, which erupted in March, does not interrupt the G-7 meetings. "We hope everyone will put their differences aside and come together here, and we hope that Mount Etna cooperates," said Pippo Perdichizzi, the owner of an ice cream shop in Taormina. If the volcano does cooperate, Mr. Perdichizzi plans to serve "Coppa Trump," made with red, white and blue gelato and topped with an orange swirl, in homage to President Trump's "tuft."
The stories out of the White House just keep coming and coming like a snowball out of hell. Just when you think things couldn't get worse and you want to take a mental break from all of this it draws you back in. Looking at this from outside the box, what is the point? We don't really know what's behind Trump's ridiculous behavior as we sit back and shake our heads in disbelief. If the plan is to keep us confused and perhaps for some disoriented, it appears to be working. As for me I'm just sitting back and letting things unfold. Some days I watch the news ... other days I pass. Sometimes I wonder if my computer is going to crash, or go on strike, if I put up one more Trump post.
