The synagogue a few blocks from where I live looks at first, with it Paladian architecture and stained glass windows, like a former Catholic church. But on closer inspection…
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BOOK REVIEWS
The 1997 “handover” (actually repatriation) of the erstwhile British Crown Colony of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China was an event that, in addition to its many political…
Before she died of a heart attack in 1961 Anna May Wong had “died a thousand deaths” on screen. As America’s first Asian lady of the movies, Wong was…
Fr. Matteo Ricci was, as were many Jesuits of his time, a man who combined “street smarts” with high native intelligence. A missionary needed those attributes, and a healthy…
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal…
As a rule, I prefer hanging out in cities rather than the natural environment. But I make an exception for rivers. It may be because rivers are so…
Remember the eponymous Alien in the movie? Remember when the Alien attached himself to that guy’s face, then grew in his intestines and gnawed his way out? Yuk! He…
“It is as though the gods that made the continents had a great deal of material left over and cast it helter-skelter into equatorial waters.” [1] So write Louis Fischer in…
The last time I saw Paris / Her heart was warm and gay I heard the laughter of her heart / In every street café Jerome Kern Forget…
Australia has long been known as a place with an exotic menagerie. Flipped down-under-wise, its bestiary exhibits an antipodean cockeyedness. One almost expects creatures to be not only…