Free email notices whenever a new article is posted. And unsubscribe anytime.
Here is a link to a radio show I did yesterday talking about Iran.
Up early today, my favorite time of the day. It’s still dark and I sat downstairs, and got a chance to read Jim Neill’s “Under the Noho Dome,” blog where he said he was losing his blog mojo. Well, no wonder! He writes pages and pages for each update, and […]
This guy was dressing up his son for some sort of parade. Or maybe they just work as a team as a way of collecting pesos. Medellin, Colombia
I like these two paragraphs from a new article I wrote. After a break for tea and cakes, we made our way back to the town square of Aran, where in the shadow of a giant mosque, lit up in bright lime green, we switched back to the comfortable modern […]
I love this idea. A man named Mike Mitchell has come up with a perfect way to make thousands of people’s lives better. He’s bringing 2000 soccer balls to give out to kids in Togo. Here’s how he explained it in a story in the SF Bay Area San Mateo […]
When I was in the Amsterdam airport yesterday, I bought a copy of the WSJ and read a review of a new book about learning to play one of the most difficult instruments in the orchestra. The book is called “A Devil to Play,” by British journalist Jasper Rees. Writer […]
I had a lot of fun sharing my trip to Iran with you, my devoted and beloved blog readers. I can’t think of anything that’s more fun than having good stories to share with friends and readers who will become friends some day. Hi Peter! On the plane I sat […]
On my last day in Iran, I listened to the sounds emanating up from the street. The wail over loudspeakers of the call to prayer, a man singing in Farsi about Mohammed and about Allah.Even though the mosque where the speakers are is far way and I’m way up […]
My final day here in Tehran, another day without real responsibilities, just waiting for my 5 am flight. It’s funny being someone who is so busy and who usually on trips is following a very set itinerary, bags in the lobby at 7, city tour at 9, dinner at 8 […]
I woke up uncharacteristically late, it is a Sunday after all, and I finally have absolutely nothing I need to do. On trips like these, that’s a rare thing indeed, so I leisurely read the Tehran Times (lots of photos of Mr President grinning and accepting awards), and ate my […]
Tehran has a population estimated at between 8 and 12 million, and sprawls out from the north, butted up against Damovan mountain with lots of snow and a cablecar to the top, spreading and growing every year far, far out. I was told that North Tehran, where the shah once […]
The mosque in Aran, Iran, the complex dominates the dusty town, south of Qom the most holy city of Iran. We stopped at a caravansary, a fortress built 400 years ago to defend the camel caravans along this important trading route. Iranians took the Friday holiday to picnic on the […]