The Girl by the Side of the Road
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by admin in Articles, Personal essays
The Girl by the Side of the Road Thirty years on, searching for the girl whose eyes said “I’m going to surprise you.” LADAKH, India In 1979 I took a black and white photo of a young girl in Ladakh. She was perhaps ten. She wore a rough robe of homespun wool, she carried a [...]
Read MoreChina’s Emperor is Tanned, Rested and Ready
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by admin in Articles, Personal essays
China’s Emperor is Tanned, Rested and Ready Homeless Hawaiian heir to the throne seeks financial support to restore Ming Dynasty greatness HONOLULU, Hawai’i I had naively thought that China’s 2,000 year old imperial system ended when 12-year-old Pu Yi, the last emperor, was overthrown in 1912. “Not so,” declares Elmer. “I’m the last emperor.” I [...]
Read MoreAlmost a Knight to Remember
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by admin in Articles, Personal essays
Almost a Knight to Remember I rather liked being called “Sir Paul” SOON-TO-BE-NATION OF SAVANTIS, Can’t-tell-you-where I turned down a knighthood recently. It was a tough decision – I liked the sound of “Sir Paul.” I had replied to a notice in the International Herald Tribune that had offered “an economically available, State Sanctioned Hereditary [...]
Read MoreAunt Sarah Rather Liked Her Original Childhood Name
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by admin in Articles, Personal essays
Aunt Sarah Rather Liked Her Original Childhood Name Popping balloons instead of Chinese firecrackers; “mystic influence to the center” HONOLULU, Hawai’i I filled out the forms and wished my ancestors had been Burmese or Chinese. I was changing my name to my grandfather’s original, and Win or Wong would have been a lot easier to [...]
Read MoreSearching for Enigmas
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by admin in Articles, Personal essays
Searching for Enigmas I know where the dinosaurs are; not far at all EN-ROUTE TO PULAU VALSE PISANG, Indonesia Some guys with stardust in their eyes and too much red wine in their veins spend their lives searching for Atlantis or Eldorado. Other adventurers windsurf across the Atlantic. Yet other men and women seek an [...]
Read MoreGo For the Goals
Posted on 12. Feb, 2010 by admin in Articles, Personal essays
GO FOR THE GOALS A modest proposal to save football/soccer BANGKOK, Thailand I write this shortly after Luis Suarez of Uruguay was quoted as proudly declaring that his blatant handball, with which he deflected a certain last-second Ghana goal in the 2010 World Cup, exceeded Diego Maradona’s famous ‘Hand of God’ goal which helped eliminate [...]
Read MoreKill Mosquitoes ‘Til They’re Dead
Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by admin in Personal essays
Choreographing the singing chicken, goat and twin rabbits JAKARTA, Indonesia Incense is far from a simple commodity. It’s an essential component of Indonesian meditation. But add a swig of insecticide, manufacture it into coils that emit an insect-defying smoke, and you get that wonderfully Asian invention dubbed the mosquito coil. Ridding the world of little [...]
Read More“Find ze kom-plee-ci-teh”
Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by admin in Personal essays
Wearing a red nose helps business leaders love their inner warrior and avoid the “b” word NEW YORK “Take me out to the ball game…” I sing while approaching 17 other workshop participants who stare at me, partly in collegial encouragement, partly out of voyeuristic pleasure that it is me up on stage and not [...]
Read MoreImmortality: The Kid Could be the Key
Posted on 30. Aug, 2008 by admin in Personal essays
Designer sperm banks; nature vs nurture DALAT, Vietnam The creation of Dolly the Cloned Sheep a few years ago stirred our imagination – we were suddenly closer to cloning people than anyone had imagined. Since Dolly, cloning technology has advanced with such staggering speed that she seems almost anachronistic. The latest news in the cloning [...]
Read MoreThe Detective, the Suburbanites, and the Kid who Failed Mugging 101
Posted on 30. Aug, 2006 by admin in Personal essays
WASHINGTON, D.C. I almost got mugged the other night. After dinner with a friend in the Washington, D.C. area, I took the Metro to Friendship Heights. It was about midnight and I decided to walk back to the house where I was staying. I strolled through one of the better neighborhoods of the well-heeled Northwest [...]
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