Trying to forget my stomach (for at least one afternoon), we headed further east to genteel Pasadena, where the stunning Huntington Botanical Gardens are located. With the handsome peak of San Antonio rising high into the distance, we needed at least a couple of hours to explore the sixteen themed gardens – and to walk off the Reuben and Skipper sandwiches.
California dreaming Read More »
The more I’ve read around the subject and listened to lectures, the more I understand there’s a Myth of the Resistance. Sure, millions did resist the Nazis, and there are many reasons French people can stand tall and celebrate this history of Resistance. But there’s something about the June 18th anniversary which doesn’t quite work when you read Charles de Gaulle was seen as rather an oddball himself.
Vignettes in what used to be Vichy France Read More »
The words, the single units, are overpowering scents of cheese. To my ear, the sentences are most troubling. They’re occupied provincial markets. Other times, they consist of warring articles and prepositions, hooting at one another as if they’re busily competing to reach the coast.
Looking back, looking forward Read More »
This last week, I regulated use of social media just a little bit. I felt I had time to catch my breath. I also sat with my emotions even when they were that bit harder to confront. No topless men to waste minutes ogling on Instagram; no tweets to foam and fulminate at.
The danger of the single story Read More »
It would be more romantic to keep staring at it, late at night, when most of the world is asleep; not to ever reacquaint myself to its dull campsites or experience adult day-time disappointment
I’ll stick to night Read More »
On her rising and dropping vowels, I’m carried in a soft embrace. I’m an infant laid down by their parent onto newly washed sheets; into a mid-afternoon sleep.
The filter of time Read More »
I hope this is one lesson we can all learn not just in the midst of this pandemic, but 75 years after Hitler died and 75 short years after (we thought) Nazism did too.
75 years ago (and what suffering might teach us) Read More »
Paris has to be one of the most enthralling, and yet somehow enervating places on earth. Every single step for Parisians drains them of life as they complain about life itself.
Calling all free Frenchmen (and women) Read More »
On a personal level, the absurd brings moments of light relief amidst the gnawing frustration and deep desire to escape
The funeral home’s jingle Read More »
Nothing seemed especially different that day, except perhaps the dissonance between the honeyed glow of the sun in people’s smiling faces and the intuition none of us could afford to be complacent.
With a bit of perspective Read More »