Dhammika’s Family
This trip had some crummy travel, the outbound flight arriving past midnight and the return leaving in the wee hours of morning, but Sri Lanka is still a unique place to shake off the grit and slip into the silk jammies of the jungle. So, I saw a herd of a hundred elephants in Kaudalla, […]
A Nun in Berlin
I arrived in Berlin just in time to see the cottonwood trees shed themselves for the summer making it look like a fluffy snow storm, God blowing a late-season dandelion over the whole city. Along the curbs, dust bunnies gathered for a minute before a breeze would come along and shoo them away. I suppose […]
Colombia
Bogota
Buffet sushi in Bogota. Raise your hand if you think that’s a good idea. What? No one? I’m always so careful with what I eat on trips. Cheese and french fries and scrambled eggs. Oh, and pasta with cheese. You can find that stuff almost anywhere, right? But while I was reading up on my […]
Only Two Years In
I celebrated my second anniversary of my move to NYC last night with a large man cooing in my ear while riding the packed 4 train from Grand Central to Wall Street. My earbuds in place, I listened to Howard Stern play a phony phone call. The woman squeezed at my side had a pointy […]
Camel on the Beach
Orson Welles made Essaouira world famous when he filmed Othello in this bleached white fortress that’s stood guard for centuries against possible invaders from the Atlantic. The entire town is punctuated by weathered wooden cobalt blue doors. It’s gorgeous. Mustafa’s herd of camels is nine strong, all looked well-tended, and I rode on Lawrence of […]
The Payphone
I haven’t seen her in weeks. She’d sit on one of those padded walker-chairs, huddled next to the pay phone. Every day on Lexington Avenue a block from my office, I’d side glance her, not wanting her to feel self-conscious. Her hair was a short shock of blonde curls in the back, the front straight […]
Love is all around
I only saw her for a second, but I’ll never forget when she looked straight at me, smiled a famous smile, and said hello. My old friend, Marc let me crash at his apartment on 72nd between Central Park West and Columbus while I looked for a place for Billy and me to live. It […]
Cairo – Giza and Beyond
Crossing the street
I learned quickly after a cab clipped my hip. When you want to cross the street in Cairo, find a short woman in full burka, hunch down and follow her closely, but not too closely that it would cause an international incident.