A Bible Made to Measure Every writer has had that moment when reality starts behaving like a badly edited novel. The characters contradict themselves, the plot swerves without warning, and someone in the audience is clearly reading a completely different book from everyone else. My latest article was born from that feeling. We tend to…
In an age when American culture seems to permeate and even obliterate traditions around the world, it’s refreshing to local traditions hold strong against the ceaseless tide. Here in Spain they have incorportated Santa Claus and the mass consumerism of America into their Christmas season, but the main event is still the Three Kings Day…
This ain’t John Brim’s seminal Ice Cream Man and perhaps little more of David Lee Roth’s take on it. In this week’s Camino a Ítaca Christmas and what it means for the oldest city in the world. Will it turn into a Turkish colony? Will the Israelis make a huge land grab or simply annex it?…
War on Christmas concentration camp It’s the big loooong weekend here in Spain, the equivalent of their Thanksgiving travelwise, and even though the season started a long time ago, it seems like Christmas is in the air. Company parties are out in full force and the streets are filled with holiday shoppers (if you’re looking…
‘Tis the season on the Camino a Ìtaca or at least the streets are starting to look like it and it comes earlier every year. Click over on the Christmas lights to read the original piece in Spanish published in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Once upon a…
Bi Ali, Yemen In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a Christmas adventure on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula from several years back. Click over to read the original published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Behind us, a blanket of blinding white sand drifted…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, travel returns. But it’s a return like no other…a dystopian world of conflicting messages that alarm and confuse the traveler, mostly for no reason. Click over to read the original in el HOY in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It always catches me…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’m starting to hear voices. Not the scary ones that tell you to do naughty things nor those deep and ominous tones informing you that you’ve become the…
One of my interests, other than traveling and music is teaching…and teaching English. Around this time of year (Christmas), teachers are often looking for something seasonable but perhaps without the mistletoe. Here I try to combine my three main interests. Macmillan International published one of ideas recently on their teaching site, Onestopenglish.
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I write this from a cold damp grey dormitory city on the outskirts of Cologne, Germany. My wife, being as persuasive as wives tend to…