I really shouldn’t be weighing in on this for a couple of reasons (there probably are more than a couple), but things have been kind of quiet around here and…
Category:
PERSONAL HISTORY
One of the very first phrases that are learned in my high school French class was a response to the simple salutation, “Comment allez-vous?” The (presumptuous) response offered in my text was, “Je…
And I am writing this to clear up any confusion on the matter. Why? You wonder, as clearly you can quickly discern that James A. Clapp (see below) is far…
In 2004 I was giving lectures on the subject of American public administration for the California State University system to four universities in Beijing. Supposedly, they wanted their students to…
Me, Count Vronsky? Ridiculous. And she, a middle-class government worker, was no Anna. But sometimes there is no stopping literary allusions from asserting themselves when the circumstances seem to align.…
Pelagic ruminations on a birthday at sea It’s my first birthday at sea and it arrives in “Blood Alley,” somewhere about 1240 W and 340 S, off Wenzhou as I…
I am of an age that one hears of the inevitable passing of old friends and acquaintances. Being in what I call the “red zone” (not the “golden years”) of…
Most people, as you know, have physical examinations, often annually, to learn how they are physical health is doing. Far fewer, by my reckoning, have their metaphysical well-being––they are spirits,…
When trains first became a mode of intercity travel they opened a new world to those who could afford to travel in them. But it was still a time, before…
These days the image that springs to mind when one thinks of French trains is that of the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse). The sleek silver and blue 185-mph passenger…