The American Lady

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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Sleep, Wonderful Sleep
2007-10-02 10:59:00
Thanh Nien's daily sold out on the first day of publication, and they ran another print run. Yesterday was harder than the first because it hit everyone that the'd have to do this ad infinitum. Got home at 4 am and played hooky until the afternoon to catch up on a) sleep, b) other freelance business. I'm going back in again in about 1/2 an hour. a tropical storm is on its way.
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I Will Not Go to Work in My Pajamas
2007-09-30 22:46:00
No posts because I've been working 20 hours a day. Sleeping none. I'm working with a Vietnamese staff to launch a new newspaper--an English language daily--they already publish a glossy and a daily in Vietnamese. The other night I got home at 530 am and was back in the newsroom at lunchtime the following day. Last night I hit a wall. I got home at 11pm and sleptsleptslept. I was still sleeping (
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Bottom's Up
2007-09-24 14:00:00
I wonder what white fungus tastes like? And should I drink it with the "Turkey's Chest with Bee's Nest" I had in Slovakia?
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Exhausted
2007-09-24 02:21:00
I'm worried about Remi. The neighbors taking care of her haven't answered my emails. Only four hours of sleep. Finally went to sleep at 2, was awakened by the Saigon call to whatever--a mix of state music and weird, unpaced PA announcements that have now gone on for nearly an hour and a half. Tried ear plugs, but they aren't strong enough. I'm exhausted and the day hasn't even begun. I just
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The Hoopla Over Op Da La
2007-09-23 17:42:00
I was down in the Empress Hotel (Saigon) fitness center, which is comprised of a stationary bike, a rowing machine and a scale, crammed inside what may as well be a sauna. So I'm on the bike in the "fitness center" when the guard charges in. I continue to peddle along as he points his finger up at the ceiling and says to me "Op da la." "Op da la...." I repeat slowly, hoping he'll be cued by

Bloggus Interruptus
2007-09-16 13:29:00
In the last two and a half days, I was: •Offered and accepted a 4-week assignment in Saigon, beginning... in three days!!! ---booked flight, moved around deadlines, found care for my beloved dog (not easy!! My standards are strict!) • Told my mac has died. I need a mac while in Vietnam, so I have a busy Monday and Tuesday ahead of me--I have ordered one (need one with an international keyboard,
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Algeria Under the Radar
2007-09-12 13:20:00
Here's a look at a piece I wrote for The Guardian's website about the recent bombings in Algeria . Someone posted a response that fundamentalist terrorism is a bigger threat to Muslim countries than the rest of the world. My powerbook is still in the hospital. Just waiting for a transplant--the part hasn't arrived yet.
More About: Radar , Geri

Lessons From My Kindergarten
2007-09-08 16:09:00
Yesterday afternoon I had a massage from a large, round bombastic Yugoslav woman who pummeled me for 10 minutes and left just bits of pulp. She swears she doesn't use a meat grinder, but since I'm face down I can't really be sure. My back is bad--full of twitchy, painful clumps of swollen nerve tissue, lower back pain and a neck that would cry in relief at a neck brace wrapped around it--
More About: Lessons , Kindergarten

Cover Yer Ears
2007-09-08 15:31:00
The Hainburg Gazette, or whatever its really called, announced last week that the city will be testing the siren system today. It is completely unnecessary, since the siren (air raid siren, one of which is placed just at my doorstep) is used to call the tobacco factory workers home every Saturday at 12:10 pm. The story goes that they were meant to be called home at noon sharp, but the guy who
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A Note to Ouali and Hanafi in Algiers
2007-09-08 12:35:00
Hanafi and Ouali: If you're reading this, boys, consider it an email to you. My computer is being repaired so I don't have email addresses. I know Ouali tells me not to worry about my Algerian "brothers and sisters"--but I do. I hope everyone is okay and that no one was effected by the recent bomb attacks. I wrote a commetary about a previous attack a few months ago.
More About: Note , Hanafi , Hana

Bill Bryson and Bathrooms
2007-09-06 17:08:00
Bill Bryson writes this about public bathrooms in "The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid": "There was a long line of toilet cubicles and they all had those dividers that allowed you to see the feet of the people in flanking cubicles, which I never understood, and indeed still don't. It's hard to think of a single circumstance in which seeing the feet of the person next door would be to
More About: Bill , Bathrooms

Hungary's Far Right
2007-09-05 16:54:00
A commentary I wrote on Hungary's far right is up on The Guardian's website. One guy posted a comment asking why I was writing about this, since it's really nothing new and nothing can be done about it. Another guy said that Poland is worse, yet the Western press is quiet. I hate to say I agree with him. Everywhere I try to sell "foreign" pieces these days, I get told "too far off the radar."

Say What?
2007-09-04 20:36:00
Tabakstrasse (Tobacco Street), is just around the corner from me. It's at the intersection of Hacking Cough Lane and Emphysema Blvd. Note the sculpture of a cigarette in an ashtray. The tobacco factory is the major employer in Hainburg --it's been around since the 1700s, but it's recently been bought by a Japanese firm and it may soon be closed down. Tabakstrasse is nowhere near the

At the Mac Hospital
2007-09-03 09:26:00
No post for a few days... my beloved powerbook is getting old and has clocked too many miles. It needs a new component for the screen, which will take a couple of weeks (part needs to be ordered). In the meantime, I'm grateful to be using Sigi Sullivan's old ibook. Thank you, Sigi.
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Lessons to be Learned from my Little Austrian Town
2007-08-28 12:47:00
My good friend Lisa emailed me this morning and suggested I leave where I am as soon as possible. Ouch, I thought. Why would I do that. Ah hah! I'd been venting to her about various things, and realized that I always complain to her about the things that drive me crazy, and she never hears the good stuff. Over at Clive Davis' blog, I found something he'd picked up from another blog that defines
More About: Austrian , Town , Lessons , Litt , Learned

Spruce Up Algiers for Me, Will Ya Baby?
2007-08-27 13:01:00
It's a little uncomfortable taking photos in Algiers. Feel like a target. But I'm sorry I missed photos of the lights that are strung generously across the streets and boulevards. Apparently, the lights were gifts from Ghadafi, who apparently felt Algiers was bereft of festive evening lighting.
More About: Baby

The Great Escape... Almost
2007-08-27 09:32:00
During my seminar Saturday in Krems, one of the slides I used for front pages was of the Kleine Zeitung, an Austrian newspaper. The front page news of the day? Pigs escaping on the highway from a transport truck in the wee morning hours. Not once, but twice (two separate accidents). Sad to say, they finally made it to their final destination.
More About: Great , Escape , Scape , Esca , The G

Well, I'll Be, a Pig's Ear
2007-08-23 17:06:00
Just got back from the Landman Cafe. I brought my mac so I could get some work done for a journalism seminar I'm giving this weekend. Remi sat in the middle of the floor and Landman tossed her this huge thing--which delighted but also confounded her. She carried it over to me to see if I could help. I picked it up and tried to tear off a piece for her. Then realized I was holding a damn pig's
More About: Well

Raymond Burr, the Sedarises,
2007-08-23 12:30:00
My neighbor looks like the Raymond Burr character in Rear Window. The guy who whacks his wife ... ? Anyhow, similar behaviors, too. A lot of toiling in the garden, locking and unlocking doors, washing up. He's out and about now. Just locked his shed door and washed his hands one more time from the garden hose. I hear the gate creak. As the self-appointed Keeper of the Neighborhood, I guess I

Bird Squawks, Dog Growls.
2007-08-22 21:08:00
Remi and I went for our walk through the farmers' fields. She was busy hunting mice and lizards, when a bird--a grouse or a pheasant (I couldn't see, it was too quick)--came up out of the corn stalks, squawking, and flew off in loops until it was out of sight. It scared the crap of out Remi. She started hightailing it in the other direction. Then she stopped and looked at the sky. Then she
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Misunderstood America
2007-08-21 13:30:00
In Algiers, one of the interpreters (not Nadir) was a conservative Muslim woman (again, not Nadir). She was under the impression that America ns were not allowed to practice religion. That it was against the law. Jim and I tried hard to tell her otherwise.
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Welcome Home, Luca Piercey
2007-08-21 10:16:00
My nephew arrived safe and sound, back from Honduras. He was there doing some sort of "humanitarian" work... We'll see what that really is. In any case, I've been through my share of hurricanes, altho no C5's. It's nice to have Luca out of the path. And back at home, harrassing his brother and sister.
More About: Home , Pierce

Bad Dreams
2007-08-20 17:03:00
I dreamt last night that I was driving in Algiers and attempted to cross six lanes of traffic to make a U-turn. I was really dizzy with the whirring of the car and my stomach was upset from fishtailing everywhere. I woke up and realized I was dizzy and my stomach was upset. I have a fever. I don't feel well.
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Along the Blue Danube
2007-08-19 15:43:00
Went for a walk this morning along the opposite side of the Danube with a neighbor. We drove over into Stopfenreuth, only about 3 miles from Hainburg, but there is a small, sandy beach I wanted to introduce Remi to. Saw this old sign announcing the ferry boat and its costs. The ferry doesn't run anymore, because now there is a bridge. But pre-bridge, there was just an old rubber raft that would
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How to Tell a Bosnian From Anybody Else in the World
2007-08-19 15:35:00
I was waiting for my flight in the Vienna airport at an overcrowded bar/cafe. A guy sat down at my table and ordered an espresso and a Coke. Then he lit a cigarette. "Are you Bosnian?" I freaked him out by the question. "How did you know?" "It wasn't the cigarette, or the expresso, or the Coke. But all three together are a dead giveaway."
More About: World , The World , Tell

Fire This
2007-08-18 00:30:00
The fire department in Hainburg gets a week off to prepare for the drunken festival they're hosting this weekend.I love socialism.
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The Miracle Hiding in Your Trash Can
2007-08-17 09:24:00
It pays to root through your trash can in Austria... or maybe not. A judge has yet to decide, but this woman found a medieval cross in her garbage can.When I was a kid, my sister gave me a beautiful cross. It's the strangest thing, but it's this cross that gets bizarrely lost and then comes back, sometimes years later.It has happened often, but there are two times that stand out.Once we saw it pop off my necklace in a friend's home (as I was taking off my coat) and we looked everywhere for it, but never found it. The cross turned up in my own house a couple of years later as I was moving.Another time I was riding with my boyfriend on his motorcycle in Chicago late one night. When I took my helmet off, the cross (which had been turned into an earring) fell out of my ear and we couldn't find it. My bf called the next day to report that he found the cross on the seat of the bike--it had made it all the way across town on the motorcycle without falling off. I've managed to lose it ...
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Little Hainburg and the Iron Curtain
2007-08-17 00:03:00
The town of Hain burg is the last stop before Slovakia (besides tiny Wolfsthal, but a village so small you could fit it in your pocket doesn't count). During the Cold War, there were 3,000 Austrian soldiers stationed here to control the border, since the Iron Curtain was hanging right there. Along the side of the highway was a pathway that had been beaten down by "runners"--mostly Roma trying to make their way across in the dead of night. Orders to the Slovak and Russian soldiers were to shoot on sight. That beaten pathway is now a popular bicycle path that stretches along the Danube in both Slovakia and Austria.
More About: Litt

What's In A Name
2007-08-16 16:29:00
Is it vandalism if you're writing in your own book, or at least the ones you authored?

Cities, Dogs, Old Castles, Shooting Stars
2007-08-16 00:26:00
I came back from Vienna later than expected, then back from a "hunt" with Remi and the neighbor's dog through what's left of the corn fields (they look for mice), and then on home.Stepped outside onto the patio in the dark and sat out on the lounge chair with a cranberry juice. The castle lights light up the back part of the yard. Shooting stars lit up the sky, thanks to a meteor shower.
More About: Stars , Dogs , Cities , Castles