When people write about their own professions or subjects of particular interest to themselves, we call it “inside baseball.” There’s a danger that only others who share those interests will appreciate and enjoy the discussion. Others may find it esoteric or, gasp!, boring. This is not exactly what we mean by “inside baseball.” Ours is […]
Michigone?
Posted December 12th, 2008 at 8:26 pm (UTC-4)
This is written on Friday: Blacker than Black Friday in Michigan, after the U.S. Senate failed to muster enough votes to approve a $14-billion bridge loan to the reeling Big Three American automakers. People in that cold North Central state are dejected, frightened, and angry. But unlike the fictional TV anchorman Howard Beale, who famously […]
Lost Wages
Posted November 17th, 2008 at 8:30 pm (UTC-4)
The City of Las Vegas, individual casinos, and airlines that serve the city want your visit and your money. Repeat visitors with lots of it get exceptional deals and VIP treatment They say that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” True, true, true. Many’s the time I’ve left my money in Las Vegas. […]
Mall of Americans
Posted November 7th, 2008 at 6:02 pm (UTC-4)
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work in an ordinary office or veterinarian’s clinic or wine shop next door to some historic landmark, say the Leaning Tower of Pisa. What would it be like to walk to work each day past the Taj Mahal, or live in a little cottage half a […]
Texians
Posted October 24th, 2008 at 6:03 pm (UTC-4)
President Bush has frequently vacationed at his Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford. Like former President Ronald Reagan at his Western White House, Bush relaxes by clearing brush. On the January day that he becomes our former president, or soon thereafter, George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, will leave Washington for their ranch near tiny […]
N’Awlins
Posted October 17th, 2008 at 5:47 pm (UTC-4)
It’s been 23 years since I left New Orleans, and still, to quote the Eddie De Lange and Louis Alter song of half a century ago, I know what it means to miss “New Orleens.” Oh yeah, I know. This old postcard view captures the Pontalba Apartments, built by Baroness Michaela Pontalba, who also convinced […]
Featherisms
Posted October 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pm (UTC-4)
The other day I needed an aphorism, a nourishing nugget of wisdom, ideally couched in wry wit. I found some by the usual suspects: In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes, by the brilliant statesman Benjamin Franklin, who slipped apt adages into his yearly Poor Richard’s Almanack. Always […]
Where the West Begins
Posted September 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pm (UTC-4)
A family poses before their Custer County, Nebraska, sod house in 1886. A “soddie” was one of the few options on the plains, where trees were scarce. In “The Ballad of East and West,” Rudyard Kipling wrote what may be his most quoted line: “East is East and West is West, and never the twain […]
Bloggin’ in…
Posted September 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm (UTC-4)
Here and now, Ted Landphair, who writes twice-weekly Only in America essays on VOA’s American Life page, begins a blog designed to connect your curiosity about the United States with his experiences, insights and quirks gained from forty years of reporting. World, meet Ted, whom we affectionately call “Mr. America Without Muscles.” This was my […]
