We almost missed them. But after lunch at the cafe on the grounds of the Topkapi Palace, I glanced over the site map and couldn’t believe what I read: “Relics of St. John the Baptist” in the Treasury section of the museum where you can see huge gems and jeweled daggars from the Ottoman Empire. [...]

The Basilica Cistern is haunting. Built in 532, it is a piece of engineering genius for its time. It served as a reservoir for Constantinople’s water, brought by aqueduct from the Belgrade Forest. 336 columns stand in darkness in a few feet of water. Many of the columns were salvaged from other ruins (yes, ruins [...]

At our wedding our good friend Michael Bess led a champagne toast with this wonderful poem by Yeats:
The Lover Tells of The Rose In His Heart
ALL things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,
The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,
The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing [...]

A while back my mom sent one of those chain emails with jokes that I usually delete instantly because I don’t find them too funny. However, this one was actually amusing. It was a series of photos of interesting packaging. Being interested in and appreciative of clever ads and clever design — and having lived [...]

This is weird. Not more than two days ago I mentioned the cultural criticism journal The Baffler to Sara when she asked who Thomas Frank is (whose name I mentioned in conjunction with his book What’s the Matter with Kansas?). Frank founded The Baffler in 1988 in Chicago while I was a grad student there. [...]

Two years ago today an entry on Valentine’s Day appeared on Goyablog, relating my somewhat jaded feelings then about the holiday and explaining the historical origins of it (which are kinda neat). I’m more positive about Valentine’s Day now and wish Goyareaders the happiness that becomes the day. Guys — be sure to offer gifts [...]

The last post about the demon-burning and recent ruminations about my own human frailties brought to mind the Cowboy Junkies song “To Love Is to Bury” (which contains the lines “They say to love is to bury/Those demons from which we all hide”). It’s a sad but beautiful song of a widow lamenting the [...]

While shopping for wine at Ralph’s this afternoon it occured to me how socially at home I feel here in Cerritos, despite all the things I could complain about the place as a city. I feel naturally comfortable among the varieties of Asians and Hispanics and few African-Americans that render white folks the minority here, [...]