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The fizzle
Questions about love, dating, and relationships are frequently tossed my way. Never mind my own less-then-perfect [...]
A large and troubled piazza
Piazza Vittorio: an enormous rectangular space not far from Stazione Termini, Rome’s central train station, surrounded [...]
Creature of Habit
Like many, I am an abitudinaria, a creature of habit. When friends suggest we go out [...]
Long before Luke
Z aragoza (or Saragossa) was a name to conjure with, once upon a time. I first [...]
Puritans like me
It's commencement speech season. I have never been under the illusion that any educational institution would [...]
Peace through Taiko
I recently heard a performance of Japanese "Taiko" drumming that had a very strange and unexpected [...]
The Emissary
Set in a future Japan that along with the rest of the planet has endured a soil-sickening eco-environmental [...]
A short history of catnip
There's a big white and grey cat that every so often comes out of my crawl space. Herman [...]
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The fizzle
Questions about love, dating, and relationships are frequently tossed my way. Never mind my own less-then-perfect [...]
A large and troubled piazza
Piazza Vittorio: an enormous rectangular space not far from Stazione Termini, Rome’s central train station, surrounded [...]
Creature of Habit
Like many, I am an abitudinaria, a creature of habit. When friends suggest we go out [...]
Annhilation
In "Annihilation," long-time British paranormal devotee Alex Garland boards the cellular mutation express and doesn't get [...]
Whimpers before roars
Reverse American history for a moment. Think of a country composed of a few dozen states, [...]
Long before Luke
Z aragoza (or Saragossa) was a name to conjure with, once upon a time. I first [...]
Paese dei miracoli, redux
Flip the roles of Mike Pence and Donald Trump and — with a bit of poetic [...]
Bringing back politics
Policymakers often try to hide their work. Perhaps still under the spell of Ronald Reagan's dictum [...]
With the Tuscan… male
DESPERATELY DELUSIONAL Elisa Vittoria Scarton Detti, nearing 30, seeks stereotypical tall, dark and handsome Italian man. [...]
Honoring words
Casual borrowing of meaingful political and ideological concepts can push sane debate toward ill-advised fringes and [...]
In Darkness
In Anthony Byrne's dimly lit thriller, Natalie Dormer is Sofia, a blind concert pianist who at [...]
The Emissary
Set in a future Japan that along with the rest of the planet has endured a [...]