The Last of the Best
The text came when we were in St. Croix. My 97-year-old aunt, my father’s sister, had been admitted to Lawrence…
Letter from St. Croix
On the north shore of the Caribbean island of St. Croix, two miles before you reach Cane Bay, there lie…
The Wall I Knew
On a cold Sunday afternoon in January of 2019, a day after the end of the longest government shutdown in…
Wallis, This One’s for You
Finally, some good news for a change. Amidst the debacle of “tax reform” and what appears to be rampant sexual…
Where We Come From
A family history is a collection of stories, stories told and retold and made old not so much by the…
Spread the Word
Venice is a city of illusions: illusions of water and light, of time and space, of stillness and movement. Looking…
Persistence
In our elementary school, we start teaching children about character traits in the third grade. We teach them to recognize…
To The Barricade
I never marched in a demonstration before yesterday. I don’t like crowds much, or noise, or commotion. I’m a stay-at-home-with-a-book…
2017: Brace For Impact
At the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, there was a period of time, eight months and one…
Where You Can Put Your Putin
No one could love Russia more than I do. You have to love a country where the cabbie taking you home…
A Little History
They say if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it and this certainly seems to be what’s…
Venice
Imagine a city where the taxi journey from the airport so satisfies your desire for adventure, your longing for beauty,…
Lists
As another year draws to its close and the next one edges near, there seems to be in both the…
The Bitter Pill
When I was a university student of Russian History in the mid 1980’s, the Iron Curtain was still drawn tightly…
Sevastapol
I’ve always found that when I want to understand something that’s happening in Russia, it helps to hit the books….
The Sochi Saga
You have to feel sorry for the Russian people. Or you don’t have to, not if you don’t want to,…
The Devil is in the Details
Well, there’s so much good news to choose from, I hardly know where to start. The Obamacare web site debacle?…
Road trips
Crumbling provincial towns, the Gypsy wedding of a fourteen year old, the dismal condition of the M10 which connects Petersburg…
What’s in a Name?
When Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the alleged Boston bombers, said this last week that she was sorry the family…
Gimme Shelter
The sign is still there on the side of the school. It has a piece missing from the bottom left…
Remember Gorbachev?
I was reading an article about Gorbachev the other day. Gorbachev, remember him? I’m embarrassed to say that until I…
Island Of the Clouds
Let me just get it over with and explain where it is we are. On an island called Bequia which…
Shorefront Anyone?
When I was an undergraduate at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England, there was a lecturer there by…
It’s Not a Riot Any More
The trial was over. The appeal had failed. The world’s press had gone home when last weekend, Maria Alyokina, age…
Spanish Flames
As if they needed anything else to go wrong, the country of Spain has this last week been battling yet…
Washington in Botswana
What do you think would happen if someone produced a film about George Washington filmed in Botswana with a local…
The Russian Orthodox Church – It’s a Riot!
Let me be very clear, I agree with Madonna, Paul McCartney and Stephen Fry that the three members of the…
Carcassonne: Land of the Cathars
One summer when I was about ten years old, my mother went to the library to get some novels for…
Aragonese Pyrenees: What Spanish Crisis?
There are fires to the east of us in Catalonia after one of the driest winters on record in the…
Independence Days
Countries really don’t leave each other alone, do they? They are always bothering each other, invading, claiming sovereignty, imposing annoying…
Russian Reformers Old and New
The demands of the Russian reformers seemed reasonable enough to me. They wanted the Russian government to stop being so…
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is an African-American holiday officially celebrated in 41 states of the United States. It commemorates the final abolition of…
Don’t Go to Gibraltar!
“Whatever you do, don’t go to Gibraltar.” This was what our friends and neighbors down on the Costa del Sol…
Blame the Germans
They’ve been muttering about them in Greece, and in Spain, in Portugal and in Italy. All the countries of Europe…
Putin Party Politics
Why did Putin win the Russian elections? He won due to election fraud. Well, yes, there was election fraud, buses…
