Month: January 2011

  • Scat Illogical

    “Scat Illogical” Travel is formidable; it takes our expectations and dumps them upside down. In our normal daily lives, because we’re used to controlling our environments, we have notions of “I need…” or “In order to feel right, I’m gonna have to have…”–but then travel comes along, fails to deliver on our requirements, and forces us to cope. […]

  • Myopic

    “Myopic” “Towery city and branchy between towers; Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded.”–Gerard Manley Hopkins The first indication that I’m not a visionary came when I rocked the PSAT in high school. No one had told me it was coming; no one had explained its purpose or meaning. All I remember is that a class of […]

  • Two Degrees of Separation

    “Two Degrees of Separation” If you’re able to lift up your pasty face from your work long enough–and just look at you there, triturating your keyboard, plunging your hand repeatedly into a bag of Doritos Late Night All-Nighter Cheeseburger Flavored Chips, hacking away at your deconstruction of Apple’s missteps in releasing its iOS 4 during the summer of 2010 before posting your […]

  • Remembrance of Donkeys Past

    “Remembrance of Donkeys Past” This whole endeavor has been harder on him than the rest of us. Seven years old, shy, sensitive, creative, averse to expectations, retreating in the face of pressure, Paco has not found the move to Turkey an easy one. Some might make the case that it could have been easy. He […]

  • Otantik

    On the rare occasions when I have walked into and through a Wal-mart, I’ve invariably hit the parking lot a half hour later feeling like I need a shower. The aisles feel grubby; the clientele appear unhealthy; the toxins projected by thousands of square feet of plastics induce malaise; the merchandise for sale only poses […]

  • We All Have Our Gifts, and One of Mine Is Being Juvenile

    “We All Have Our Gifts, and One of Mine Is Being Juvenile” We went to the mosaic museum in Antakya yesterday, where I found my attention riveted by a piece entitled “The Happy Hunchback.”  Thoughts of “Why was he so happy anyhow?” and “How cool of the Romans to make such a quirky and unique mosaic” ran through my head. […]

  • Public Intimacies

    “Public Intimacies” Realizing that a change of scenery in January is never a bad mental health strategy, we’ve launched ourselves on a somewhat loosey-goosey week-long trip around the Hatay region. Think Southeastern Turkey. Think near Syria. Think Mediterranean. Think renowned for food. Think no hotels booked in advance. Think buying bus tickets as we go. We left […]