A year or two ago, Iraq changed its rules so that citizens of many countries can get a visa-on-arrival at the airport. This is always the easiest procedure. One time, I went to Syria. This was before the war. We could not get visas on arrival at the airport in Damascus. We had to be… Continue reading Passport control when flying into Baghdad
Here is a series of five videos that show what Baghdad looks like during midday. The route is roughly as follows: Going from the Mansour neighborhood, to the Royal Private Hospital It's a very simple route, and though the streets were sometimes choked with cars, it wasn't so bad and we got back and forth… Continue reading Driving through Baghdad
I was going from Pasadena to the West Los Angeles Regional Branch library -- they were having an arts program. You have to cross most of Los Angeles to do this. And I don't have a car, so I took four buses and light rails, and needed all the connections to work just right so… Continue reading The Los Angeles metro was on time
Spruce Pine is a little town in the mountains in North Carolina. They have Oak St, which is the main street. But off of Oak St is Low Street, which is just what its name implies, lower down the mountain slope. And even lower than Low Street is the Riverside Park. We were there in… Continue reading Riverside Rumble in Spruce Pine
We went to the Dellinger Mill. It's "in the middle of nowhere" but nowhere is very beautiful, very lovely. It's in the North Carolina mountains close to Tennessee; it's on a long winding road and nestled in trees. And it's been there since 1867. The man who owns it, Jack Dellinger, is 94 years old… Continue reading Old mill in North Carolina mountains
One day I was riding around in the mountains, and we passed a sign for "Crossnore, 5 miles." I sat and thought, Crossnore, Crossnore ... where have I heard that before? The only thing I could think of was reading the book "The Suitcases" in middle school, which I had really, really loved, and re-read… Continue reading Crossnore
AGU is a conference held in December each year, about a week before Christmas. AGU stands for American Geophysical Union. It's more interesting than it sounds, promise! Usually it's held in San Francisco. I've been a couple of time. This past December, I had three talks at AGU. Two were invited. I felt very special.… Continue reading My 2019 AGU talks
I think bus #84 is my favorite in Houston. It goes to many comforting places: two movie theatres, the Ikea, and the Houston Arboretum. To be fair, it doesn't exactly go past the Ikea. It goes instead to the Northwest Transit Center. The Northwest Transit Center always struck me as a lonely, ugly, heartless spot.… Continue reading Bus #84 in Houston
I once wrote about finding Carl Larsson cards in Berkeley, California, and in Davis, California. Well, I have found some more Carl Larsson artifacts in the US. First, you can go to Solvang, California, and there's a store there that sells magnets with Carl Larsson paintings on them. I don't want to mention the name… Continue reading Carl Larsson in the US
I wrote once about the first time I ever found bokmärken in the US. It was such a wonderful occasion. I went back to Payn's Stationary story when I visited San Francisco again in December 2019 for a conference. He was still selling bokmärken, and there were different varieties than the last time I'd been… Continue reading More bokmärken in the US
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