Bull City = Durham, North Carolina. If you’re curious, read how Durham got its nickname. Me, I’m more interested in what’s happening here now. Look at the title image again. I can hardly imagine a more ordinary building. Let’s call it ‘unpreposessing.’ The address is 1107 West Main Street, and it... read more
When I land in a new country I like to ask the locals who their famous sons and daughters are, if I don’t already know them. Well, I just returned home to North Carolina after being abroad for 4 months, and it occurred to me to make a list of... read more
Before flying to JFK, I had the day in London to do what I wanted, and what I wanted was to visit the neighborhood right next to Heathrow airport, namely Hounslow, where I had chosen my hotel. Title image: A British Airways plane on its approach to landing near the... read more
Today I’m leaving Bucharest. The title image is the International Departures board today at the Henri Coandă (Otopeni) Airport in Bucharest. I’m waiting for my Check-in counter to be posted. Leaving Bucharest First stop: London where I’ll spend the night and the next day. I bought my business class ticket... read more
Love and sex. This is a March 2016 blog I am reposting in the context of the Ford-Kavanugh hearings in Washington, DC this week and in response to all the high school “boys will be boys” nonsense some people have been bandying about. There are many disconnects in modern American... read more
This blog is on Bucharest churches. However, the title image is a work from Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi with an image of Casa Poporului ‘The House of the People’ in the background and the legend ‘A Small Population With Such a Large House’ (1995). It is from the Post R... read more
Lately I’ve been reading memoirs and have already written a post on them. Now I have more memoirs to share. More Memoirs: Trevor Noah Born a Crime (2016) Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, offers a gripping account of his childhood and young adulthood... read more
If you’re curious why the Empire State Building is the title image for a blog on claustrophobia, read on. Claustrophobia: I suffer from it. I don’t feel it much in movie theaters, and I can tolerate being on planes (just barely – check out these tips), but the image, below,... read more
I’ve done Famous Romanians and Illustrious Romanians. Now it’s time for Infamous Romanians. The inspiration for this blog came from a court ruling earlier this week in Alba Iulia, Romania. For the title image I chose Vlad Țepeș (Vlad the Impaler), who was the model for Dracula. It’s from a... read more
Urban Spaces Title Image: From the collection Dan Perjovschi Post R (1995) at the Nasher Museum, Duke University. Gift of Kristine Stiles. The caption reads: Always Between Two Empires Perjovschi is making a political point about Romania’s always squeezed position in the world. If you do not know his work,... read more