"How many telephone poles have we passed in the last quarter hour?"

Note: Inner ear infection symptoms can include chewing gum.

Christmas was all airplanes and war, until a side-trip changed everything.

The Berlusconi attack: Who says you can't milk real blood from a slick stone?

Caligula would have loved the feral, comic book caricature by which impropriety swears.

Even a compressed history of Afghanistan shows a cycle of illusion and despair.

Down to the sea in ships in an age when hype actually meant something.

Afloat in a Saragossa Sea of caprice, Italy extracts noise-makers and howls.

When first impressions are the lasting ones, life can turn thoughtlessly instant.

In the time of The Lost Time, a pretend life was yours for the taking — if you could dream one up.

American "exceptionalism" and nation building, when they lose steam, are broken mousetraps.