May 19th, 2018 | Europe, General, Popular Culture, Travel
I don’t like Rick Steves’ television persona. I find him sanctimonious, arrogant and supercilious, veneered with faux naiveté and faked authority. I don’t like his insistence that the primary and dominant function of travel is “getting to know” the locals—whether or...
May 19th, 2013 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General, Popular Culture, Travel, Women
The only available time slot for the trip fell after exams, papers and final grades and before my Young English Friend’s presumed departure on Monday. The Cubbies were in town hosting the Mets and there were games on Friday and Saturday afternoon. The best flights on...
November 8th, 2011 | General, Travel
The change in terrain is almost overwhelming. Gone are those rolling hills of Lorraine and the flat expanse of the Pas-de-Calais. Here the Grand Morin winds through a deep valley, a location appreciated by neolithic tribes in the millennia BCE, centuries of farmers...
July 2nd, 2010 | General, Popular Culture, visual arts
Shock takes center stage in this episode of Work of Art—or at least it was supposed to. The celebrity du moment was Andres Serrano whose Piss Christ, a large-scale photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine, sent various members of the religious right and United...
