[miss marmelstein]

Duvall was in pretty good shape for Apocalypse Now but I'm sure you're much more handsome!

Your experiences in Germany are certainly eye-opening. My husband and I were in Pere Lacaise cemetary in Paris several years ago after seeing the grave of Maria Callas. A German couple came up to us and started yammering about (get this!) “where were the crematoriums? The crematoriums?” They apparently meant the indoor cemetery where Callas was buried. But all we could focus on were Germans carrying on about crematoriums. We had a good if awkward laugh about it.

My best friend survived the Blitz as a child of about 3-5 years. The worst fight I ever saw him get into was when his wife suggested Dresden should never have happened. But then, as a Brit, he thinks Hiroshima should never have happened. Go figure!

[In Maryland]

Sorry, but Callas isn't buried in Paris ... she was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Aegean. The urn that contained her ashes is supposedly there. Video of the scattering has been incorporated into several films about Callas (at the moment they begin scattering, a gust of wind comes up and the mourners in the boat are hit by the ashes). There may be a memorial there, but her human remains are not there.

But a great many notables, including Maria's beloved Bellini, are interred there.