“…I intend writing a history of my wanderings in the Banda Oriental, and I will call my book “The Purple Land”; for what more suitable name can one find for a country so stained with the blood of her children? You will never read it, of course, for I shall write it in English, and… Read More The Purple Land
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” – J.R.R. Tolkein,… Read More Visiting the Shire
“Whether Moldova or Transnistria are nations is a question for 100 or 400 years ago.” – Ryan Lanham, Identity Unknown Buenos Aires – I knew nothing, truly nothing, about the nation-state of Transnistria, as it is known in English, or the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic as others know it. It’s a conflict which I’ve probably seen… Read More Declaration of Dinner
“[Cooking] is spontaneous. It’s what hits you at the moment, not the result of years of carefully crafting details. It doesn’t follow a strict formula, though you might notice similarities and consistencies of style. All the rules are open to reinterpretation. – paraphrase from Chip Camden, software developer Buenos Aires – With strains of the… Read More Argentine Modern
You know from past experiences that whenever you have been driven to the wall, or thought you were, you have extricated yourself in a way which you never would have dreamed possible had you not been put to the test. The trouble is that in your everyday life you don’t go deep enough to tap… Read More Wine Pairing
“Smoke, night, the dark lunar fortnight, and the six months of southern solstice of the sun; departing by these paths, the righteous person attains lunar light and reincarnates.” – the Bhagavad Gita Buenos Aires – What does one do to celebrate the Winter Solstice? In doing a bit of net surfing, I came across numerous… Read More Winter Solstice
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) – Vegetarians from around the world pledged Sunday to convert millions of meat-eaters by the end of the century and launched an Asian Vegetarian Union. The Bangkok-based Asian group seeks to foster the still-fledgling vegetarian movements in many Asian countries and counter a trend among the continent’s youth to ape Western… Read More Countering Carnivorous Habits
“Ultimately however, marriage is a moral issue that requires cultural consensus, and the use of social sanctions. Bearing babies irresponsibly is, simply, wrong. Failing to support children one has fathered is wrong. We must be unequivocal about this. It doesn’t help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown – a character who supposedly epitomizes… Read More Quayle vs Murphy Revisited