Oh Paree, I Thought I Knew Ye

by | Sep 21, 2009 | 0 comments

Any one who thinks they have the ability to understand a culture other than their own is a fool.  I remember an old asian hand, who after several miso wari’s (scotch and waters for you non-old asian hands), opined about a common malady of expats who had stayed too long.  We called it asian fever, and it happens in other areas of the world as well.  He told me that perfect comprehension of the Oriental culture came only when one finally realized that he would never understand. It’s relatively easy to apply that wisdom to eastern cultures, where things really look different, but we often fail to understand that it applies equally to places where things on the...

In Paris They Speak French, Don’t They ?

by | Sep 17, 2009 | 0 comments

Let me sum up Paris for you in a word.  C’est magnifique.  Well, that’s two words I guess.  No, really it’s three words.  And that’s part of the problem.  They speak a very funny language here.  It’s sounds good, but it’s impossible to understand, and, god forbid, don’t try to speak it to them. Those of you who know me well, know that I am a bit of a striver for languages, particularly French. I’ve spent more money and time conjugating irregular verbs and trying to understand the subjunctive vs. indicative moods than anyone I know.  Alas, it’s all been for naught.  My two semesters of college study. My eighteen months of twice weekly tutoring by a very comely...

A Bad Start to a Good Trip

by | Sep 16, 2009 | 0 comments

I don’t know who decided to put JFK at the south eastern end of Long Island, but he surely doesn’t have many friends in those who have had to brave the impossible traffic of the Grand Central and Van Wyk Expressway to get there. Our American Airlines flight was scheduled to depart at 5:45 so I figured, what the hey, leave in plenty time…say 2:30 and don’t sweat it.  Great plans of mice and men, or something like that.  Our limo was late; only twenty minutes, but that put us dangerously close to the magic 3:00 window for making it through the mid-town tunnel.  I debated telling the driver to hit the FDR and the Tri-Borough Bridge (now the RFK), but I...

Speaking in Foreign Tongues

by | Mar 16, 2009 | 0 comments

I’ve long had a love affair with languages, and the fact that I have no ear or particular talent for languages not my own has deterred me not one whit.  My first encounter with another language was on the playground in elementary school in San Angelo.  Of course the words I learned, or maybe just repeated, would make your average parson blush. They, in English, ran to “Do you want to fight” or worse, “f***k your mother”.  I, of course, knew not what I was saying, but if they could say it to me,  I could say it to them, and I sounded really good. For some mysterious reason, I took Latin in the 8th grade and can still recite the opening passage of Caesar’s...

It All Fits Together

by | Mar 1, 2009 | 0 comments

I’ve had gratifying response to my recent blog Cruising Down Under wherein I recited some comments on the homo sapien behavior we observed while cruising the Antarctic climes.  I thought it was pretty clever myself, but many of my readers…..well, some of my readers……actually one of my readers (who may be accused of literary gluttony) said that he was disappointed that I didn’t comment more about the animal life of the region.  Fair enough, I should have taken the opportunity to report more extensively on the rare and majestic creatures we encountered.   WORK IN PROGRESS

Cruising at the Bottom of the World

by | Jan 20, 2009 | 0 comments

Everyone within the sound of my voice in the past several months knows that the darling wife (DW) and I scratched a long term itch by taking a voyage from Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Argentina through the Drake Passage to the mysterious and pristine continent of Antarctica.  My descriptive language fails me, and I can only say that what we found exceeded any expectations we had.  During the course of the cruise, in addition to setting foot on the seventh continent, we saw and learned about 2000 year old glaciers and the icebergs they spawn, four species of penguins, four species of seals, five species of whales, and fifteen species of birds (many...