SHANGHAI We next flew to Shanghai, though the largest city in the country it is not in its core area historically Chinese. Shanghai was a small town until 1842, when just north of it two large concession enclaves were carved […]
Personal
Our China Journey, Part I – Singapore and Guangzhou
SINGAPORE David, Roberta, and I started our adventure in Singapore, which is a 75% Chinese city but was ruled by the British from 1818 to 1957 and after 1965 by the late great Lee Kwan Yew, who established English as […]
Our Adventure in Ethiopia
In March of 2015, our family and some friends took a 3½ week trip through Ethiopia, one of the most unusual of sub-Saharan African countries. Ethiopia is exceptional in two ways; It became a Christian culture in the 300s, whereas […]
‘Beach People’ vs ‘Brunch People’ – the Eternal Struggle
I have concluded that there are two kinds of people, ‘beach people’ and ‘brunch people’. The first are those that like outdoor activities; the second are those that like to sit in one place for hours and read, or study, […]
How Michael Dell Ruined My Vacation
For seventeen years my wife and I have been going to the Four Seasons Hualalai, on Hawaii Island [known as the Big Island] for a month every winter. The beach in front of it is full of lava rock and […]
Where I’ve Been, And Why I Haven’t Posted In A While
I apologize to my Gentle Readers for my long silence. I’ve just been on a long road trip around the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia; up from Copenhagen to the top of Sweden, then down through Finland, then […]
Urbanist Observations On A Bachelor Spring Break
[I apologize that I have not gotten pictures for this post, unlike the one about my San Andreas road trip two years ago. That I took with three friends; this one I went by myself. So I took very few […]
You’ve Seen Dan Morain’s Article…
You’ve seen Dan Morain’s article. For those of you who are interested, here’s the link to the actual answers I wrote! And you’ll get to find out what NTSEBREE and NESEBREE are. Related: “Howard Ahmanson, now a conservative Democrat, holds forth” by Dan Morain […]
Byzantium on the Pacific, A Visit to Alaska
This summer, for the first time, my wife and I made a visit to America’s largest state, Alaska. In her case it was especially poignant, because she had passed up a chance to go there with her parents at age […]
Proposition 14
I decided to vote for Proposition 14, which makes the general election a runoff between the two highest polling primary candidates even if they are in the same party. I decided that the effect of the proposition might be to […]