On my first morning in New York I went to this diner where I was fed pretty much a full meal before I’d even sat down — a cup of coffee, bacon, sausage and, oddly, a slice of orange. It was a weird and kind of wonderful American way to keep a line of hungry […]
Freedom, Expressed
Posted October 24th, 2011 at 12:58 pm (UTC-4)
Before I begin, a quick note: Carol and I will be off on another of our madcap excursions across the country — or part of it — for two weeks or so. One the places we hope to visit is New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I believe it has come […]
Remembering 1942, Sort Of
Posted October 19th, 2011 at 2:43 pm (UTC-4)
Last month I got a modest but much-appreciated birthday gift — appreciated because the giver knows I love brief historical adventures. The gift was a booklet, entitled Remember When . . . 1942. That’s my birth year, back in the Pleistocene Epoch. The publisher, Seek Publishing, makes editions for every year from 1920 through 2001. […]
The National Road
Posted October 14th, 2011 at 11:29 am (UTC-4)
Recently I told you about one of our meandering old national highways — U.S. Route 11, which winds from just below Montreal in Canada all the way down to New Orleans, near the Gulf of Mexico. And it got me thinking about THE National Road. The original one. It was our first interstate highway of […]
English Talk — and Other Stuff
Posted October 11th, 2011 at 6:41 pm (UTC-4)
Last year, Ozzie Guillen — who’s of Venezuelan extraction and was then the manager of baseball’s Chicago White Sox — ignited a controversy when he asked why many, if not all, Asian ballplayers in America are provided translators, while Spanish-speaking players must fend for themselves as they learn a new culture and language. “Latin players […]
The (Concrete) French Connection
Posted October 7th, 2011 at 9:49 am (UTC-4)
About 20 years ago during a short stint in management here at the Voice of America, I sent a superb reporter named Bill Torrey on a journey that I longed to make myself. As it turns out, my photographer-wife Carol M. Highsmith and I would later retrace a good deal of his route, to our […]
East is East, but Where’s the West?
Posted October 5th, 2011 at 10:55 am (UTC-4)
In “The Ballad of East and West,” British author Rudyard Kipling wrote what may be his most quoted line: “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” Part of the line was borrowed by lyricist Ray Evans in an American song made popular by Dinah Shore in 1947. “East is […]
Mostly Cloudy About the Cloud
Posted October 3rd, 2011 at 12:43 pm (UTC-4)
Everyone who railed at me for writing about something I know little about when I spouted off about Algebra II courses in school, sharpen the computer equivalent of your pencils. Every weekday morning when I fight with the alarm clock, I awaken to our local all-news station as well as a little sports talk, seeking […]
