The American LadyThe American LadyI'm an American freelance journalist living in rural Austria with my London Black Cab and my adopted Jack Ruseell. If we aren't transporting sheep in the London taxi, we're stumbling across Vietnam, Armenia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, North Africa. Co Articles
Pup Worries
2008-03-10 10:02:00 My little one is ill. She awoke at 3:30 a.m. and was clearly uncomfortable. After a strange and hurried walk up and down the darkened street (a coat over my pjs), we stayed awake through the night, me resting a hand on her back or side, her resting but not sleeping. We got back from the vet an hour ago. He said she has swollen lymph glands and a sore throat, a virus that will pass. She got a
30% Bravado, 70% Quivering Weakling
2008-03-09 11:38:00 Finally. Something that shows the excessive bravado and cowardice packaged into a Jack Russell. I always think Remi suffers from early pup trauma, but the answer might be: She's a Jack. This is a commercial airing in Britain. If it's also showing in the US, I just might move back.
Everything Old is New Again
2008-03-07 18:08:00 Here's an article I wrote last month on buying "ostalgia" in the former Soviet bloc.
You've Been Invited to the Codfish Ball
2008-03-06 14:25:00 My nephew put this video together. Just, you know, created a video. On his own. Because he wanted to. No training in drama or film or anything like that. Just a curious kid who had an idea. His mother says about him: My 10 year old who reads Shakespeare and watches documentaries about Stephen Hawking. My kid who thinks about how the plumbing works in the house as he falls asleep. His other More About: Ball
Dig Remi
2008-03-05 19:17:00 Remi went hunting for what must have been a lizard. It was 25 minutes of furious digging, but this small bit was shot at the end, when she had exhausted herself. Although she wasn't too tired to then enter a high speed chase trying to catch up with four jack rabbits. Anyhow, here's a Jack Russell following the call of the wild. More About: Remi
The Education of Little Fraud, and Now This
2008-03-04 22:07:00 Forrest Carter, a.k.a Asa Carter, a.k.a., white supremacist, racist speech writer for George Wallace, wrote The Education of Little Tree, an alleged autobiography about a half white/half Native American kid growing up in 1930s America. Not a lick of it was true. Many others have done the same since, and here's the latest crackpot. More About: Fraud
Vienna is not Las Vegas
2008-03-04 20:57:00 A few years back, A.A. Gill wrote a hilariously scathing column on Las Vegas (Celine Dion bore the brunt of it, as one would hope). Full of hyperbole, I can't say, since I've only been to Las Vegas courtesy of A.A. Gill's words about it. Here is his take on life in Vienna
Talk About Blowing the Roof Off...
2008-03-03 18:34:00 Over the weekend, we had what I would have called a severe windstorm, but the Austrians elected to name it and call it Hurricane Emma. Having grown up dancing in the wake of hurricanes, I scoffed at the Austrians, storm virgins that they are. But when I pulled up to my chiropractor's house this afternoon, this is what I saw: Yep, no roof. Debris piled high all over. The More About: Talk , Roof
A Dicey Walk
2008-03-03 11:07:00 Once I was safely padlocked into the FireHazard Hotel in Tbilisi, this was the view from my window. Up those rickety stairs is a pretty normal house. And a peak inside when the front door was open showed that the family living there, if not of means,were certainly middle class by anyone's standards. Please. Fix. The. Stairs. More About: Walk
Isn't She Lovely
2008-03-01 14:39:00 My sister. By this time I'd come along, but just barely--not enough for Joellyn to realize just how much her life would be turned upside down by a tag along. This adorable little mite of a thing--sitting here propped next to a dolly I would soon replace with myself--would make me feel... what's the word... safe. And understood. She's still a tiny mite of a thing. Still makes me feel the same. In More About: Lovely
Check Out This Check Out
2008-02-29 19:28:00 A couple of hours before I checked out of the HotelFirehazard in Tbilisi, I wanted to be sure of the final bill. We'd vaguely agreed on a sum for two weeks--oh wait-- there was no "we," as I was not part of the negotiations between the hotel clerk and my Georgian counterparts. So I needed to be sure that what I was TOLD was accurate. And that there wouldn't be any extra charges for, I dunno, the More About: Check
Glamour Girl
2008-02-28 12:08:00 This is my mother in the 1940s, presumably taken at her parents' house in Java, Virginia. Before she met Everett, before she had six children, after the war, and when it was still okay, in her mind, to put your feet on the table. I wish I could see the bulletin board better, to find more clues about Ellen Lee Arendall before she was Mama. More About: Girl , Glamour
More Tbilisi
2008-02-27 14:39:00 I didn't venture down into this part of Tbilisi until this trip--I only remember going once, in 2001, when Joyce was showing me a carpet shop. I don't know what's housed in this domed building, but it's obviously been recently refurbished.
An Old Town
2008-02-26 12:52:00 A look at Tbilisi. The city sits in a small valley. Note the mix of architecture. More About: Old Town , Town
Close Your Eyes and Hold On
2008-02-26 08:28:00 Tires For Sale. Spin nicely on ice or any other surface. More About: Eyes , Close , Hold
Brides of Tbilisi
2008-02-25 14:11:00 On my last day, Margie and I wandered around Tbilisi, getting in the way of weddings. Here there were four or five brides gathered. I'm sure they didn't appreciate me clomping through in my jeans, and whipping out my camera. But that's what tourists do. More About: Brides
Not the Marriott
2008-02-21 17:15:00 I'm writing this from the cafe inside Marriott in downtown Tbilisi. To get online here, I had to go to the front desk to get a voucher. "Are you a guest here?" "Uh, no m'am." "And where are you staying?" "At the Hotel Gorda." Blank stare. The Hotel Gorda? Near the river? Overlooking the highway? Has a padlock on the front entrance so that every time I come and go, a bouncer guy goes with me
Ugh
2008-02-15 07:14:00 Stuck with a flu bug. In Tbilisi. Hotel didn't have electricity or heat last night, so I went to a colleague's apartment. I'm checking now to see if the hotel is up and running. I fee miserable and I want to go home.
Country Dog in the City
2008-02-09 20:59:00 Dropped Remi off in Vienna, where she'll stay for two weeks, seeing the sights, peeing on park benches, sniffing city dogs' poo and having a jolly good time slummin' for crumbs at cafes--while I haul off to icy Tbilisi. It's 55 degrees here and sunny. It's below freezing there and snowy. Pack the pullover. It should be SHE that's going--it's HER birthplace. But no, she prefers Vienna. She's More About: Country , City , In the City
McCrackenashvili Packs Like a Georgian
2008-02-08 20:36:00 One wee morning hour when we'd been hauled off a plane and herded into Tbilisi airport, so many of us had to stand in line to report that we had black luggage, about yay big, with wheels, and oh, here's our local contact in Tbilisi and we'll get a call when the bags appear. On a direct flight from Vienna, my luggage did not show up the first three out of four trips to the Republic of Georgia. And More About: Packs
News Flash: There's Been a Fire at.
2008-02-05 11:29:00 I've got one eye on Bill Maher (guest on Larry King) while answering emails. I see the news ticker flash across the screen: Baby Thrown From Burning Building. How long do I have to watch to find out... IF. THE BABY. WAS CAUGHT. More About: News , Flash , Fire
Big Sister
2008-02-04 23:46:00 I used to wet on her lap. I used to chew on her hair. I used to lick my lips before I kissed her goodnight. I used to make her stand outside the bedroom door and, in a babysitter's fury, say through clenched teeth: "Not. Another. PEEP out of you two!!!" (My sister Joellyn was the second part of "you two.) peep. I used to come to her, crying, when I'd scraped my knee. I used to watch her More About: Sister
HaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!
2008-02-04 13:19:00 Still really feeling under the weather. It's been an unhealthy start to the new year for me, so I'm hoping things get back on track--soon. In any case, one thing that gets me to stop feeling sorry for myself is laughing at other people. Babies, to be specific. Here's an uproariously funny clip of a baby having a helluva good time. I dare you not to bust a gut. d
A Counting Jack
2008-01-29 19:31:00 Remi is very intelligent. She knows a couple a dozen words, knows to look at the light when she wants it turned out, and I keep finding a paper trail of schemes and diagrams on how to catch the cat next door. I believe she drags out a diorama to work on when I'm not at home, placing the cat in our yard and the model showing various quick exits from the house to the yard. In any case, she can't More About: Jack , Counting
About John Kascht
2008-01-26 20:25:00 After I moved to Chicago, John Kascht used to call me at the Trib and pretend to be my allergist: The madman, out-of-control, There's-a Pill-For-Everything-and-If-Not-There's -Always-Surgery allergist John and I both went to back when I lived in DC. Ringring. "Hellooo. Paddymccracken" "Hi Pat (he knows how much I hate "Pat"). Hi Pat. You have asthma. That's the bad news. The good news is, we
Danube and Dog
2008-01-25 14:38:00 Remi and I were in the woods again this morning, this time down near the Danube , where it forms a small beach. She hasn't like it before because of the noisy tugboats and cargo ships that creak through there. Today she was delighted. Lots of frolicky running, delight at broken sticks, heightened delight when I broke them in front of her, investigation into areas that only small dogs can fit.
Daytime TV, Thai Style
2008-01-25 10:05:00 The only TV more entertaining than your own film stars dubbed into another language, is watching local TV. After an earthquake in Moldova, I watched the news the following night, in which a 5-foot tall military man with a square head, dressed in full regalia, crabwalked across the platform to demonstrate what to do in the event of another earthquake. No standing in doorways was mentioned, only More About: Style , Thai , Daytime
Born to Run? Really?
2008-01-24 20:36:00 Remi and I breezed across the bridge this morning to get in a morning romp through the woods in Stopfenreuth before I settled in to work. I popped in a CD that I hadn't listened to in ages. Years. I used to listen to it on my late night drives from DC to Baltimore. Crank it up and feel the American dream of breaking out wash over me. So I'm here to declare that Thunder Road doesn't have the
Ah, To Be Young Again. And Full of Piss and Wind.
More articles from this author:2008-01-23 16:25:00 When I was a kid growing up in Virginia Beach, snow days were announced at the last possible second. My schoolteacher mother, ever the optimist, wouldn't get out of her pjs, JUST IN CASE, and on the off chance that our trace of snow actually did get us a Get Out of Jail Free Card, we'd all do a little jig together and my mom would celebrate by making us a big breakfast. Since mom never More About: Wind , Young , Full , Piss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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