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You’re Bashar al-Assad and it wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Your dad spent decades confounding the Americans and he sent you away to London to become an eye doctor…and now here you are, the ruler of your country since 2000 and no matter where you turn, things are […]
We waited a long time for our chance to take off down the 20 kilometer course that wound its way through downtown and through Montreal’s docklands. It was almost 8:30 pm, and more than 17,000 riders would follow this course, on streets blocked off and staffed by green-shirted volunteers, who […]
“Let me begin by dispelling a few myths about Montreal,” Ruby Roy, our confident and Montreal-born guide told us, as we stood in front of our bus about to depart for the city’s Old Quarter. First, it’s not just French, it’s more than 100 nationalities, and people here speak a […]
I will never forget the time my mother rhapsodized to me in the 1970s about a drive she and my dad took through the New Jersey Meadowlands, en route to New York City. What stood out and what amazed her then was how lovely that dreadful scenery looked to her […]
I’ve got the itinerary in front of me and a new composition book to fill up with notes. I have stocked up on business cards, printed out my Google Map, and remembered to charge my devices. I have nothing here to worry about, and I’m happy to report I’ll be […]
I chuckled as I read a very long account of how Goldman Sachs lost 98% of the money invested by Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, at the very start of the financial collapse in in 2008. A story in the WSJ revealed how the firm tried to compensate Ghaddafi and his […]
I am proud to say that I like to lead. By that I mean, I am willing to be bold and venture into the new areas of publishing, travel, business and commerce that others may hestitate to move into. One venture that I’m pleased to report on this morning is […]
Who’s gonna beat Bill Dwight in the race for city councilor at large? Nobody! It was evident tonight as I joined a throng who gathered at the Florence Community Center to kick off his campaign to get back the office he once held, along with his regular gig working in […]
If I read as many books as I do book reviews, I’d never get anything done. In honor of Memorial Day yesterday I read an essay in the NY Times book review of a selection of books about the Big One, WWII, by Adam Kirsch. He opens with the sad […]
The blurb on my Facebook page took me aback. RIP Bob Paquette. What? Bob, as everyone in the Valley knows, was the voice of the morning. His familiar calm tone and steady delivery has graced our kitchen for decades. I cannot imagine turning on that familiar 88.5 fm signal and […]
I have been writing this blog, Readuponit, since November 2004. A friend quoted me from a February 2006 post the other day when I was on my way to Cyprus. It’s a slightly exotic place that few people visit, and when I read the quoted text, I thought about how […]
I’ve reached a milestone, and forgive me for blogging about this once already. But I thought I had a deal to keep the GoNOMAD Cafe open, and alas, like many things in life, it was not to be. With the combination of recalcitrant landlords and shaky finances, the deal went […]