National holiday, April 25

The day of the Carnation Revolution, 45 years ago. Not a shot was fired. The army officers, tired of fascism, I guess, went into the president and prime minister’s offices and said, it’s time to go. We don’t want to hurt you, so get in this tank and we will take you to the airport so you can go to Brazil. Yesterday we saw those tanks being driven on their historical route, pretty cool.

We spent the day with good Portuguese friends, two economists Joe has known for years. First to eat baby goat, I guess cabrito translates as kid. The restaurant, about 20 km out of Lisbon, was mobbed, and everyone was eating the same thing.

Then a trip to the Universidade Nova’s new building about 20 km outside of Lisbon, on the river. Pretty astonishing, They even have their own private tunnel under the road to get to the beach, and conveniently the sheds for all their aquatic sports (ocean sports to the right, river sports to the left) are right there.Read more