Archive for December 2019
Parochial: “limited or narrow outlook”
One of the interesting aspects of traveling outside the US is to look at our country from a distance, through others’ eyes. Here is a thought-provoking example from London written by Terry Eagleton in his review of two books, The Madness of Crowds and The Problem of Everything. “Because the US is a deeply parochial society, not much…
Read MoreVisiting Germany
What do you think of when you think of Germany? We spent several weeks there in October—so Octoberfest tends to come to mind. We did see lots of beer, but no fests. In fact, some cities have their Octoberfests in September. Other connections we Americans might make about Germany is to cars (German engineering, etc.)…
Read MoreMy Uncle Phil
My mother had one brother, Philip. Earlier this year, I traveled kitty-corner across the country to sit in a hard plastic folding chair on a jetty at Cape Canaveral Florida staring 14 miles north toward the Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A for five and a half hours. Why? Because a tiny capsule containing a…
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