Position: 44°03’32.6″N 121°18’54.6″W Compared with the Byzantine Empire, the city of Bend, Oregon, has had a short history. For millennia indigenous peoples lived, gathered and hunted the wide plains and foothills surrounding the “Towarnehiooks” river. They also fought each other …
Position: 44°3’31.4″N, 121°18’43.1″W In films, a good transition heralds a change without confusing the audience or disrupting the narrative. Sometimes that’s a simple cut from one speaker to another. Sometimes it is a slow cross-dissolve, where one scene fades in …
Position: 35°10’51.4″N 103°43’34.5″W America’s answer to Timbuktu is Tucumcari, a small town in eastern New Mexico. Before Route 66 was the main road west to California, Tucumcari had already gained notoriety. Founded as a construction camp for the Rock Island …
Position: 46°11’37.5″N 123°58’28.5″W One of Oregon’s autumn fixtures is the annual Portland Book Festival. Hundreds of readers head downtown and take in the perspectives and wisdom of both local and internationally known writers. Staged interviews are congenial and leave plenty …
Position: DRUG-INDUCED AMBULATORY COMA I have been a foreigner for much of my life. It has its advantages. Let me clarify. By the time my dad landed a decent job with tenure at the University of Chicago, he had dragged …
Position: 24°20’42.8″S 30°57’56.8″E Hoedspruit is not pronounced “hoed’ sprout” as you might imagine. Rather it is “who’d’ sprit”. Such are the variances between modern Dutch and Afrikaans (broadly based on 400-year-old Dutch). Twenty years ago, Indians in India were still …
Position: 24°23’44.1″S 31°46’29.4″E Visiting South Africa is a bit like entering a gated community. Once inside, safe behind the security guards and barbed wire, you can leave reality behind. In Kruger National Park, the tourists are almost all white, and …
Position: 24°03’02.7″S 31°43’46.1″E “Hello! I’m Wonderful”, announced our driver. “I’m fantastic”, I replied. “Actually, my name is Wonderful.” “Fantastic”, I repeated, not fully understanding that people in this part of the world have names like Wonderful, Sensible, and Surprise. For …
Position: 25°09’20.4″S 31°11’53.4″E Leaving Kruger National Park via the Numbi Gate isn’t recommended. At least not for foreigners. A result of its proximity to the hard-knock township of Numbi and the 2022 murder of a German tourist in a carjacking …
