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 […]
Travel
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 […]
Art Epiphany, Part II: the Millennium Bridge
I write this, and the previous post, from London. One of the newer features of the city, finished in 2000 [opened for two days, shut down for repairs, and reopened in 2002], is a pedestrian bridge called Millennium Bridge. It […]
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 […]
Little Europe?
The coastal strip west of the Cascades, including the large cities of Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, has a very similar climate to that of Western Europe away from the Mediterranean. The area is much smaller; a drive from Seattle to […]
Portland Public Loos Are The Best
Here’s an article from The Atlantic Cities explaining why Portland, Oregon’s, public loos are the best. In response to: “Why Portland’s Public Toilets Succeeded Where Others Failed” by John Metcalfe at The Atlantic Cities
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 […]
New York City Transit’s Inconvenient Pricing
New York City, much to my disappointment, has discontinued its transit one-day unlimited ride ticket. [You can still get such a ticket for a week, but I’m never in town that long.] What you can get is cards with $10.70 […]
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 […]
The Continuing Presumption of Airlines
I am prepared to admit that the California Bullet Train may prove to be a failure, even though France, Spain, Germany, and China have them! I voted for the train originally, not so much to eliminate automobiles, but as an […]