Gaijin (Japanese for “foreigner”) Back in 1984, I mentioned to a friend, Don Jones, a U.S. Information Agency colleague, that I’d just been assigned to the staff of the U.S. Pavilion at Tsukuba Expo ’85.1 Don was, I’d guess, about two decades older than me. I’d first met him a few years earlier when we were […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gaijin.jpg295672Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-10-28 16:52:562019-01-05 21:14:49Wanna Learn Japanese in 10 Hours?
Honduran migrants I began writing this post two days ago after reading about the “caravan” of several thousand Honduran migrants that has been halted at Mexico’s southern border. If and when they are eventually allowed to cross into Mexico, it appears that most of them hope to keep heading north to the U.S. Presumably, most […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/migrant-caravan.jpeg8401260Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-10-21 17:32:162018-10-21 19:06:54Mentally Wrestling With the Illegal Immigration Issue
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Eiffel-Tower.jpg12281818Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-10-14 17:02:582018-10-14 17:41:20Pride Goeth Before a Fall
Cuneiform tablet This month marks the 70th anniversary of what, when I was studying there from 1966 to 1968, used to be called the Russian Research Center. Today, this modest corner of scholarship at Harvard University is known as the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and it is housed in a much newer, […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RRC-cuneiform.png9481230Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-10-07 17:01:522019-01-05 04:25:07Cuneiform and Clay Tablets — the Only Thing More Cumbersome Than 3 x 5 Cards for Taking Notes
Blowout party with cake The Supreme Court hearings in Washington have primed me for a rant. No, not a political rant. You can find those everywhere you look on the internet. What I have in mind to rant about, instead, is the passive voice. It brings out the aggressiveness in me. Not passive aggression, but […]
Fuji-san in summer, free of snow Scrolling through my Facebook feed yesterday morning, I spotted a post by my cousin Ken Kelley, who, with several friends in the Anthem Ranch Hike Club, recently climbed Colorado’s highest peak, Mt. Elbert (14,433 ft./4,399 m). Ken reported that it took them not quite five hours to ascend 5,000 […]
Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Tojo (right) Wow! I’d always believed that the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that brought the United States into World War II, was the responsibility of the aggressive military clique behind Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister. However, after recently reading an article that describes a meeting between Tojo […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Hirohito-Tojo.jpg21293278Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-09-16 17:08:212018-12-16 21:53:47Another Bombshell for Pearl Harbor?
Winter Palace, home of much of the Hermitage’s collection Two recent events — one mundane, the other calamitous — came together in my mind and prompted me to write this short piece about one of the world’s greatest museums, the Hermitage, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The mundane event is my recently begun exploration of the […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Zimní_palác_3.jpg21122816Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-09-09 17:17:532018-09-09 19:56:32One of the World’s Great Museums Is Also the Czar’s Attic
End of the “Cretinaceous” — not much fun Fun is a funny word. The dictionary says it’s a noun, which is clear in sentences like: We had fun (fun is the object of the verb had) The roller coaster was a lot of fun (here, fun is the object of the preposition of) In recent years, however, fun has also come […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2DDFC62B00000578-0-image-a-34_1446037220320-1.jpg389634Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-09-02 18:00:412018-09-02 18:00:41Is It Fun or Is It ‘Barbarous’?
Back in the summer of 1965, my friend Arlee* and I drove through several West European countries. We picked up our car – a Fiat so tiny it made VW bugs look like whales – in Milan and headed south. Driving in a new country was exciting. I remember the amusing (to me) name of […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Supercortemaggiore-78-kb.jpg563800Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2018-08-26 17:51:482018-08-26 17:58:28The Power of Supercortemaggiore
Wanna Learn Japanese in 10 Hours?
/0 Comments/in History, Language, Places I've lived, Recollections /by Howard DanielGaijin (Japanese for “foreigner”) Back in 1984, I mentioned to a friend, Don Jones, a U.S. Information Agency colleague, that I’d just been assigned to the staff of the U.S. Pavilion at Tsukuba Expo ’85.1 Don was, I’d guess, about two decades older than me. I’d first met him a few years earlier when we were […]
Mentally Wrestling With the Illegal Immigration Issue
/3 Comments/in Thoughts /by Howard DanielHonduran migrants I began writing this post two days ago after reading about the “caravan” of several thousand Honduran migrants that has been halted at Mexico’s southern border. If and when they are eventually allowed to cross into Mexico, it appears that most of them hope to keep heading north to the U.S. Presumably, most […]
Pride Goeth Before a Fall
/0 Comments/in Language, Recollections, Travel /by Howard DanielEiffel Tower (Photo: ©Howard E. Daniel, 1965-2018) Have you ever been too embarrassed to dust off your high school French or Spanish when you’re in a country where you’re actually immersed in that linguistic environment? It can be pretty uncomfortable, as I can attest from witnessing any number of such situations. Some people — even […]
Cuneiform and Clay Tablets — the Only Thing More Cumbersome Than 3 x 5 Cards for Taking Notes
/0 Comments/in History, Places I've lived, Recollections, Thoughts /by Howard DanielCuneiform tablet This month marks the 70th anniversary of what, when I was studying there from 1966 to 1968, used to be called the Russian Research Center. Today, this modest corner of scholarship at Harvard University is known as the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and it is housed in a much newer, […]
Passive Aggression
/0 Comments/in Language, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielBlowout party with cake The Supreme Court hearings in Washington have primed me for a rant. No, not a political rant. You can find those everywhere you look on the internet. What I have in mind to rant about, instead, is the passive voice. It brings out the aggressiveness in me. Not passive aggression, but […]
Climbing Fuji
/0 Comments/in Places I've lived, Recollections, Travel /by Howard DanielFuji-san in summer, free of snow Scrolling through my Facebook feed yesterday morning, I spotted a post by my cousin Ken Kelley, who, with several friends in the Anthem Ranch Hike Club, recently climbed Colorado’s highest peak, Mt. Elbert (14,433 ft./4,399 m). Ken reported that it took them not quite five hours to ascend 5,000 […]
Another Bombshell for Pearl Harbor?
/0 Comments/in History, Recollections, Thoughts /by Howard DanielEmperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Tojo (right) Wow! I’d always believed that the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that brought the United States into World War II, was the responsibility of the aggressive military clique behind Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister. However, after recently reading an article that describes a meeting between Tojo […]
One of the World’s Great Museums Is Also the Czar’s Attic
/0 Comments/in Places I've lived, Recollections, Travel /by Howard DanielWinter Palace, home of much of the Hermitage’s collection Two recent events — one mundane, the other calamitous — came together in my mind and prompted me to write this short piece about one of the world’s greatest museums, the Hermitage, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The mundane event is my recently begun exploration of the […]
Is It Fun or Is It ‘Barbarous’?
/0 Comments/in Language, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielEnd of the “Cretinaceous” — not much fun Fun is a funny word. The dictionary says it’s a noun, which is clear in sentences like: We had fun (fun is the object of the verb had) The roller coaster was a lot of fun (here, fun is the object of the preposition of) In recent years, however, fun has also come […]
The Power of Supercortemaggiore
/0 Comments/in Recollections, Travel /by Howard DanielBack in the summer of 1965, my friend Arlee* and I drove through several West European countries. We picked up our car – a Fiat so tiny it made VW bugs look like whales – in Milan and headed south. Driving in a new country was exciting. I remember the amusing (to me) name of […]