When you think of a hero — a soldier, firefighter, or Marine — what image pops into your head? Do you think of a shaved chest, chiseled abs, and vein-covered arms? Or do potbelly, 12-inch …
April 16, 2008
Go Abroad!
Looking Deadly
Coalition Forces
When a phrase is constantly used over time to the same audience, it ends up losing some of its original significance. So when we first got wind of the “coalition” the United States put together …
April 9, 2008
A Smile from a Veil
I am dumb when it comes to girls. My friends are quite good at involvement with them, but their company hasn’t had a great deal of effect on me; they often think I am not …
March 12, 2008
Peshawar or Bust
Four years back, while I was living in Tarbela Dam, a friend of mine asked me to accompany him to have his computer upgraded. I said, “Fine, let’s hit the road to Peshawar tomorrow.” He …
March 5, 2008
Leica Spirit
During off hours while working as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange before the outbreak of the Great War, the young André Kertész took photographs and began to nurse ambitions about making it his …
February 6, 2008
Some Brazilian Dude
Name: Antonio Azambuja Lives: Bahia, Brazil Surfing: Thomas Street, Pacific Beach For ten years, Antonio Azambuja has traveled from Brazil to San Diego each winter to surf. “I like the people of San Diego very …
February 6, 2008
Plain and Simple
And now for something completely different. Persepolis, from France and in French, is a cartoon recap of the comic-strip memoir by Marjane Satrapi, covering her childhood in Iran under (and then out from under) the …
January 16, 2008
Southpaw Cats, Pakistan, and Farts
Matt: Is my cat left-handed? Whenever she plays with her toys or her food, I've noticed that she uses her left paw more than her right. Do animals have a dominant side like people do? …
November 8, 2007
Swede Life
There is no such thing as a weird human being; it's just that some people require more understanding than others.-- Tom Robbins I gazed out the rain-streaked window and watched a colorful collection of birds …
November 1, 2007
Lamerica, Sacred Silence, Hands Over the City
Pasquale VerdicchioProfessor, UCSD department of literature and board member, Cinema Sud Italian Film Festival The South of Italy figures prominently as a setting in Italian cinema. The Cinema Sud Festival is particularly important because it …
October 18, 2007
French Fashionista
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. Mark Twain She looked amused. Or terrified. It was hard to tell. I had only spent three, maybe four hours with her, …
October 18, 2007
Thais That Bind
She's holding on to his little tusks with both hands. She nuzzles her face right into his trunk, between his eyes. You can tell they're in love. The picture of the shaved-head girl monk and …
Turning Viennese
Austria is not Mexico. That's the slogan Ron and I devised after our third day in Vienna. The whole slogan goes, "Hey, settle down, man. This isn't Mexico," which means: There are rules you aren't …
October 11, 2007