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
Plodding Along
2008-01-22 23:13:00 I know, I know, post have been scarce recently. It's been rough going here with the McCracken family and we're just trying to hold strong. Whine, whine, what can I say. Except: Wine! Wine! In any case, last month I wrote a STELLAR article (my, my) on Austrians and sex and am amused/tickled/pleased/high-fiving myself/doin' a jig now that the editor has pointed out to me that it was picked up on
Go, Smokers! Go!
2008-01-18 17:17:00 As of the new year, France towed the line and banned smoking in public places. Austria seems to be the last holdout, and proudly. A headline today in one of the country's leading newspapers: "Austria the Last Smokers ' Paradise" Excuse me while I go cough up a pretty little black lung.
Oh, To Be Intoxicated On a Wednesday Morning
2008-01-15 11:59:00 A writer friend of mine came across a language she didn't recognize and put a call out to others to see if they could identify it. Turns out it was Turkic. Then she decided she would use a translation dictionary to get the gist of the article. Good luck, sweetie. When you translate something like Out of Sight, Out of Mind into German, you get Blind, Crazy. Unless you have at least a remedial More About: Morning , Wednesday
Saturday Evening at the Local
2008-01-12 20:07:00 Remi and Max had a great time at the Danube earlier today... they ran so fast and so far and so long that their beautiful legs started to stumble, but they kept on because there was simply more running to do. When they stopped, it was to roll in something delightfully smelly. Just now Remi and I met Uncle Billy at the cafe. His cousin runs it and always lets Remi into the kitchen for a special More About: Local , Saturday , Evening
Schlimm, schlimm, schlimm
2008-01-12 00:04:00 Yep. A dirty face. Nope. She didn't get what she was after.
A First Class Life in a Coach World
2008-01-08 12:55:00 First Class or Coach . First Class or Coach. Freelancers and priests are liberated from that decision, thanks to poverty. Except, of course, when a babushka population is factored in, and then bottomfeeders like me get bumped up the social strata quite a bit. A few years back, we were in Somewhereovka, Czech Republic, trying to decide the best way to get back to Prague. We'd taken the special More About: Life , World , First Class
Mine
2008-01-07 13:30:00 "The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." -- Erma Bombeck More About: Mine
Time to Take Down the (New Year's?) Tree
2008-01-04 21:58:00 A bit late, but since we're all still wishing everyone a Happy New Year when we pass each other in the hall (or Alles Gute in the case of Hainburg), I have something to say about how a Christmas Tree transmogrifies into a New Year's Tree. When I was in Kharkiv, Ukraine a few years ago, Aleksey and his mother, Angelina, took me through the town center on a cold, cold winter's night, to show me More About: Time
Austrians Love Sex
2008-01-04 16:31:00 Here's my latest article, written for The Smart Set More About: Love
That Thar's a Peacock
2008-01-03 15:28:00 Yesterday I'm driving around to do a little stalling before finally getting back into work mode. Remi and I had already scavenged around the ruins at Petronell and we just needed a drive. Head out on the highway. Looking for adventure. So she rode shotgun while I tested the mettle of my little Renault (Sir George doesn't do snowy winters). Putt, putt. Coming out of Rohrau, I came 'round the
A Have-Done List
2008-01-02 18:54:00 I'm back. During the last week, I: Bought a Christmas tree. Decorated a Christmas tree. Wrapped gifts. Made a lot of Christmas cookies Unwrapped gifts. Thanked people for gifts. Stomped in the English rain. Missed my dog. Feigned knowledge/interest of nephew's games. Worried about nephew's apparent addiction to games. Reminded nephew that his virtual friends were not real. Inexplicably flew More About: List
The North Pole of Austria
2007-12-21 17:43:00 A few years back, Sir George and I lumbered on over to the Christkindl post office to see what all the fuss was about--why so many little kids were sending their letters to Santa Claus there. I wrote it up in the Baltimore Sun. By Patti McCracken Christkindl, Austria --It is a tiny little hiccup of a place. The wee dot th it is on a map shows not even the faintest squiggly line of road going More About: North , Pole , North Pole
Franz Josef is a Bird
2007-12-20 22:20:00 Last night I dreamt that a bird was following me. It was yellowish brown and had a walrus mustache, like Franz Josef, Austria's last emperor. I asked the bird "Did you grow the mustache to be like Franz Josef?" But he didn't answer me. More About: Bird
Sir George and the Big "L"
2007-12-19 22:24:00 A sick dog (she's better), a disappearing editor (she's not), and a rush to knock over the small children standing with their mittens and stocking caps on the Christbaum lot has kept me away for oh too long. There is an organization I belong to (to which I belong, I know) that started a thread along the lines of How You Stand Out from a Crowd... the things about you that are unique. The post More About: George
Driving, Romanian-style
2007-12-14 20:38:00 This whole Trabi thing has me thinking about Bucharest. The first time I went there was about--wow--13 years ago (eek!). It has improved 1000 percent since then. But I remember tooling around town with the driver, Gabriel, and something just seemed off. Looking through the windshield and there was something missing. Definitely missing. What's missing? I asked him. Probably the windshield wipers More About: Driving , Style , Romanian
Trabi Kult
2007-12-13 15:25:00 You had to mix the oil in with the gas-into the same tank, and the manual gave instructions as to how many parts oil to gas was sufficient. And when the fuel was low, you had to manually flip to the reserve tank, which held enough gas to go about 20 km. But once it was dry, it was dry, and there was no little light that came on to remind you. In fact, some Trabants didn't even come with blinkers
I'm Not Kidding About This Yoga Thing
2007-12-11 18:05:00 So this is what I was confronted with after turning on my yoga tape. But I thought: She's little and I'm big and she'll surely get out of the way. But I was wrong. This is the arrangement she apparently felt was suitable. Nary a budge of the butt from her. And me, well. Yoga 's probably overrated anyway. More About: Kidding , Thing
Algeria Under Fire
2007-12-11 16:31:00 Thinking of my Algeria n friends. Each time this happens, they tell me not to worry because they're used to it (I KNOW, Ouali, but I can't help it). When it happened back in April (and again a few months later), I wrote about it for Worldpoliticsreview. Anyhow.... Heres Algeria on a happier day: On the left is Ouali, who gets mixed up between rappers and rapists; then there is Hocine, the More About: Fire
Fog on a Winter's Day
2007-12-10 16:01:00 It took awhile for this fog to burn off today. This photo was taken from my kitchen at about 1030 this morning. Does remind me of something from out of "The Others." Pretty, with a dash of creepy.
Keep Your Hands Off My Wheelbarrow
2007-12-07 13:50:00 When I was complaining to Frau Deischler about not having a lawnmower, she said it would be best if I borrowed Gloria's pet sheep to do the job. It would be pretty easy for me, she said, because I could just load them in my London taxi to haul them over to my house. I decided to go ahead and buy a lawnmower. But whether its sheep keeping the lawn trim, or farmers pulling up to the front door More About: Hands , Wheelbarrow
The Beautiful, Beautiful Human Spirit
2007-12-06 01:42:00 Wow. More About: Human , Beautiful , Spirit
An Undoubting Mind
2007-12-03 21:01:00 Reminds of Dubya:"He couldn't doubt. Doubt demanded a mind capable of entertaining two thoughts at the same time."--Patricia Highsmith More About: Mind
Foxy, Moxy or Just Off Your Rocksy?
2007-12-01 20:34:00 My sister has been attending assemblies at her kids' Cookham school for something like 13 or 14 years (they aren't stupid children, she simply has three that have attended over that span of time). I've attended a few, too, but only for the occasional Christmas pageant, esp. the one where Luca played Joseph. Last week I was in Cookham and the school was having another assembly, in which my More About: Foxy
Down Dog or Doggy Go Away?
2007-11-29 23:11:00 Remi has decided that we don't have enough togetherness, enough closeness, and seems to be brainstorming ways to improve the situation. The last two nights it involves yoga. She plants herself on the mat, just as I make to do the sun salutation. So when I'm doing Down Dog (hands and feet on the floor, butt high in the air), she's the dog beneath me. And when I go to do the counter-position,
10-Year-Olds Kill The Beat in Cookham
2007-11-27 15:27:00 It's quite clear that if Cookham needed calypso for anything, it could only be used as some sort of weapon of mass destruction. I was so utterly destroyed--completely crippled--I could certainly not hold the camera steady during the school assembly, and breathing was hard. Nearly split a rib. My nephew is singing here, along with the other sad group of whities--who all seem to be suffering some More About: Beat , Kill , Year
Rabid Baby Bites Unsuspecting Grandmother
2007-11-23 22:54:00 Wendy, Wendy, Wendy. We know those little butterflies on Grandma's glasses really piss you off, but must you sharpen your fangs on her soft skin? And Grandma... wake up! Ain't no time for sashaying in your pretty new dress. Run!! Hoof it!!! More About: Baby , Grandmother , Suspect , Bite
Muddy Muddy
2007-11-23 15:43:00 I wrote on the Thanksgiving email that accompanied this photo that she got all muddy out chasing a turkey. But she was chasing deer. A gorgeous family of them out in the fields. She caught sight and took off. They, too--and must have been shocked, as I imagine they'd never been run down by a Jack Russell before. They ran so fast and were so beautiful and elegant. Her beauty was in her joy, her More About: Muddy
The (big, fat) Turkey Has Landed (in Algiers)
More articles from this author:2007-11-21 15:00:00 In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm re-running Part I and II of the obese turkey story from last year. Enjoy! I'm in the back seat heading downtown while Nadir (interpreter) is in the front seat discussing with the driver details about the turkey. Jim and Shari are having Thanksgiving at their place and have given the driver the task of getting a turkey. Jim said he wanted a big one ("and dead and More About: Turkey , Turk 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
|
 |
|
 |
