Defunct railroad tunnel to Lebanon at Rosh Hanikra, on Israel’s northern border. (See below for the rest of the story.) Following up on my December post about traveling in Italy and Burma, today I’m presenting several memories from my travels in Israel. This was on the same adventure I had in Italy with my friend […]
Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon, from my 1971 visit to Burma As anyone who has followed this blog is surely aware, I did a fair amount in international traveling in decades gone by. In this episode I’m presenting a few recollections from some of those travels. Today, an odd pairing of destinations: Italy and Myanmar (formerly known […]
Hovercraft crossing the English Channel, the White Cliffs of Dover in the background A cold nearly tripped up our trip to Michigan for our daughter Naomi’s wedding last month. The day before we were to leave (on Thursday before the Sunday wedding), Sandra felt the classic symptoms coming on and was hoping it was just […]
February 24 will long be remembered as the day when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Awful as I feel about this appalling act of aggression in a part of the world of great interest to me, February 24, 2022, will for me also be the date of a more personal loss. It’s the day […]
A year or so ago, I published two posts (here and here) related to wine, beer and another, quite exotic, alcoholic beverage in the former Soviet Union. Previously, I’d created two other posts (here and here) about experiences with vodka in the USSR. Today, I’ll briefly return to the subject in a sort of “hair […]
This is me in traditional Indian garb. The garment tied around my waist, a dhoti, is almost identical to the lunghi (sarong) about which please see below …. Judging by the number of ads for mattresses and sleep medications shown on our TV screens every evening, you could be forgiven for wondering if the country’s current ill […]
About six months ago, I had an “entertaining” airline experience — not to be confused with in-flight entertainment — which led me to write to “Dear Mr. Delta.” This past week, I had another experience — not quite so entertaining — which prompts me to pen this “Dear Mr. United” missive. The experience in question […]
Sonoma County Wine Country (photo by Howard E. Daniel) Last week, I wrote about our escape from the Kincade Fire. Actually, our experience was more like an unplanned family gathering than a helter-skelter flight of refugees. But if you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably also seen that the fire triggered the evacuation of roughly […]
Niagara Falls — Horseshoe (“Canadian”) Falls with Hornblower boat as close as it dares It’s back to the East Coast (well, almost — we didn’t get much past Lake Erie) this week, as I wind up this intermittent series on what Sandra and I did on our summer vacation.1 After an al fresco breakfast at […]
World’s first oil well, drilled in 1859 by Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania Reflecting on my visit to Pennsylvania1 last month, I had an epiphany — that there is a special connection (though of course not a geographical one) between the Keystone State2 and the Aloha State. Let me begin with the conclusion I’ve reached about the […]
