International Women’s Day in Cuba
The magazine’s reception desk was empty when we arrived, but we could hear voices not far away. My former partner and I had come to Cuba during the heady days of Obama’s second… Continue reading
Tag Archive: holidays
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Nourishment
Thank goodness for the dog. My couchsurfing host in Vitoria, in the Spanish Basque country, was taking a class on medieval iconography whose final field trip was the next day, and she wanted… Continue reading
King’s Day Anyway
The Dutch sky hadn’t decided if it was going to rain or not when I snuck out of the hotel around six in the morning. The student staff of the best hotel in… Continue reading
Thanksgiving
Turkeys, football, and construction paper imitations of pilgrim shoes and Indian headdresses, that’s where childhood’s Thanksgiving began. Oh childhood. Oh 1980s. Then I learned about genetically modified turkeys that can’t reproduce naturally,… Continue reading
Yes, Valentine’s Day kinda sucks. But.
Can we all agree: Valentine’s Day sucks? Okay, not completely. Some wonderful love stories will begin or advance today, some wonderful memories celebrated and refreshed. But outside of the outliers, it kinda blows.… Continue reading
Christmas Eve in Vietnam
The food vendors stood out. But they’re a salient part of Vietnamese streets and downtown districts every other day of the year too. The piles of bright strawberries or tart green mangos, heaps… Continue reading
What to say about 2016?
2016. Whew. What to say about this year? A year of plotlines that would have made dubious fiction, played out in the newspapers instead. I tried to make a concise list of the… Continue reading
I’m just gonna keep Thanksgivinging
So…how’d it go? Anybody get in screaming matches about TrumpCo? Mashed potatoes remashed against the glass of family portraits that were hung in a tidier time? I wonder how many people gave thanks… Continue reading
Happy new year! From a crotchety and grateful old man.
I don’t automatically care all that much about New Year’s Eve. I’m not much of a drinker, and I get queasy if I’m not in bed by about 3:00 AM, so not a… Continue reading
There are worse things than having been racist
The contractor was measuring the ceiling in my lady’s house when he noticed he’d tracked dog poo all over the kitchen floor. It was awkward, but he helped clean it up, cleaned his… Continue reading
