Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 272 entries, all of them here in full.
May 19, 2009 · 511 words
According to Posner
Distinguished appellate judge, law lecturer, and public intellectual Richard Posner has taken on the current economic crisis in his new book.Surprisingly for someone appointed by Ronald Reagan, Posner blames not speculators, or regulators, or greed for the current problem, but capitalism itself.This from the NYT review
Read entry →May 15, 2009 · 81 words
Pamukkale
Pictures of the famous travertines of Pamukkale.These small ponds are natural mineral formations. They’re only a couple inches deep, which made me wonder why they’re so darned blue, as well as why the shade of blue is a distinctive turquoise. I remember that last year in Canada we saw a number of glacier lakes that [&h
Read entry →May 15, 2009 · 322 words
Sacred Pool
You might think I’m smiling in this picture because I’m looking at Melinda’s chest. This wouldn’t be true. While I’m sure Melinda’s chest is worth smiling at, I really couldn’t see it from this angle. I’m smiling because, Dude, I’m diving the ancient ruins of Hierapolis! Hierapolis was an ancient spa town built on a [&
Read entry →May 12, 2009 · 391 words
Trek: A Military Analysis
You’ve probably already read a hundred reviews of the new Trek movie, and you don’t need mine. (Short form: liked the characters, winced at the baaaad science and coincidence-heavy plot.) But over at Danger Room, we find the take of a genuine military analyst.* The villainous Romulan ship pulverizes Federation vessels
Read entry →May 8, 2009 · 204 words
The Future of Streaming Video
Comic/TV/RPG writer John Rogers has an interesting post about the future of TV over on Kung Fu Monkey. Now what’s kind of interesting here is that everybody in TV looks at the music industry collapse as the Bad Story and iTunes as the plausible premise for digital entertainment distribution. iTunes makes money. QED, th
Read entry →May 7, 2009 · 858 words
Street Scenes
This is a street scene, sort of. It’s a view from the breakfast room of the Hotel Spectra, looking across the old Roman hippodrome to the Mosque of Sultanahmet, better known over here as the Blue Mosque. Beyond is the Sea of Marmara. I highly recommend the Spectra. It’s a small hotel with nice rooms, […]
Read entry →May 7, 2009 · 1,092 words
Bodrum
On the tenth of April we came down from the Anatolian highlands to Bodrum, where we met the Aegean for the first time— we had seen blue water here and there, but we were never on the shore, and always en route to one place or another. Bodrum was the place where we ended up […]
Read entry →May 3, 2009 · 366 words
Little Caps
Because I was in the mood to do something tasty and elaborate, last night I cooked a meal for our friends, Peggy and Kevin. For primi I made capelletti, “little caps,” in this case pasta stuffed with chicken, parmesan, parsley, a little nutmeg, and some cream to hold it together. You start with a 2×2-inch [&hellip
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