In 1963, President John F Kennedy expressed solidarity with the people of Berlin by stating “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Depending on how strictly you apply the rules of German grammar (which Germans apply quite strictly), this means either “I am a Berliner” or “I am a jelly donut.” In spite of this cute faux pas, no one ever confused JFK or any other American president with pastry. I know what you are thinking but Cheetos are not really pastry.
Author: klmalcolm2014
OohLaLa, Avery and Bella in Paris
You should plan to get all the way through this posting because the ending is worth waiting for. But here is the beginning. I am in Paris, which would be heaven all by itself but I am in Paris with Avery and Bella. Who are Bella and Avery? If you don’t actually know them, you just need to know they are 12-year old girls with wildly different personalities who are nevertheless fully sync-ed with each other pretty much all the time. Continue reading
Yee-Haw. Vee Bar Ranch, Wyoming
Wyoming is cowboy country. Yeah, we all know that but being here puts an exclamation point on the concept. And speaking of punctuation marks, lifelong friend, Sarah, and I are here for a six-day writing retreat with author Page Lambert and a dozen other people who, in this part of the country, would be called “dudes.” We all came to write but, since you can do that pretty much anywhere, we also came for the horses, knowing they would be a huge distraction. Continue reading
Carnaval San Francisco!
Growing up in greater Los Angeles (it’s greater than San Berdoo, I guess), I lived near communities that were Chicano, Latino, Hispanic and cholo, so I felt a special kind of nostalgia seeing dozens of low riders lead yesterday’s Carnaval parade in San Francisco’s Mission District. Continue reading
Proust. And What (I Think) Every American Should Know about the Rest of the World
I have always wished I had the intellectual acuity to read In Search of Lost Time, the 4,000 page novel by Marcel Proust about, er, refer to the book title. And this easy-to-read article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tldr-prousts-in-search-of-lost-time_us_559e8cb1e4b0967291558d31. One of these days, I will commit. In the meantime, I am happy enough with Proust’s wonderful observation about travel:
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Blowin in the Wind
I have been nomadic for most of the past three years, and some days I don’t know where I will be next month. Since I don’t have a home, I am forced to decide where to land on a continuing basis. My friend Emily asked me at lunch the other day how I decide where to go. And I guess I make decisions the same way most travelers do — except more often. Continue reading
Airbnb — Fantastic If You Know the Ropes
My Airbnb cottage on the Greek Island of Lesvos where I awoke to clanging sheep bells and made friends with local chickens.
Airbnb has changed the way I travel. I have stayed Airbnb apartments, houses, farms and cottages all over the world, in places as far flung as Japan, Armenia, Peru, and Sweden. Traveling with Airbnb, I have lived in neighborhoods that most tourists never see. I have cooked and shopped like a local. Best of all, I have met wonderful people I never would have met if I had stayed in a hotel.
Cielito Lindo, Mexico
“Cielito Lindo” is that song we all know with the refrain “ay ay ay ay….” I heard it every night in Guanajuato, as the three part harmony of local singers and happy visitors wafted up the hill to my house in Cerro Del Cuarto. “Cielito lindo” is a term of endearment that will always remind me of my six weeks in Mexico, where I leaned a little Spanish and did a little writing and, most important, met a lot of wonderful people. Continue reading
