Context of the 2019 Chilean Protests October 2019 saw the worst civil unrest since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile from September 1973 and 1990. Blaming the breakdown of democracy and the economic crisis under Socialist President Salvador...
Travels & Adventures
The Exquisite, Sensual Chaos that is Rome
One of the beautiful bridges crossing the Tiber River in Rome. Rome drips. The city cannot neatly contain everything it holds. It spills forth with its dizzying spirals of neighborhoods, sculptures, cars, mopeds, strolling people, relics, cafe tables angled on cobble...
Sea, Silk, Cafes and Other Delights in Bursa, Turkey
My friend Serhat lived for a year in Bursa, tucked next to Mount Uludağ in western Turkey near the Sea of Marmara, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire after its capture from the Byzantines in 1326, and the last stop on the Silk Road, a vast trade route starting...
A Texas Wedding
My friend Alysia, an Italian-American from Old Forge, PA had moved to Texas. She had met her fiancee, Clay, who was in the Navy, on a June weekend in Scranton when he was in for a mutual friend’s baby shower. Clay was living in San Antonio at the time, and this...
A Patagonia Dress Tale
I have loved Patagonia products since I was a kid in the early 80’s. I loved leafing through the catalog imagining myself having various adventures wearing stylish yet functional outdoor clothing. My parents had instilled in me early on a free spirited love of...