I stop. “Wha’dya’ got?  Is it good?”

        “Is it good?  Hell, yes, it’s good.  D’you think I’m gonna’ get you some Mexican carnicero to snake the drain that’s gotta’ process all those hamburguesas, man?  It’s the real thing, hombre…

        “Cuanto cuesta?”

        “Are you a gringo?

        “Claro…

Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto, Quinto, and… and… Sixto, ahhhh…  And the sixth time was a charm (not that the first five weren’t), and Sixto Diaz (Jesus) Rodriguez came into this world on July 10, 1942, the sixth son of Mexican immigrants working in war-time Detroit, more than three years…

See video Voices United for Mali - 'Mali-ko'

It’s horrible, of course, the war currently going on in Mali, the desecration of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu, and the disruption of lives in a place where life doesn’t allow much margin for error.  Maybe the most ironic aspect of it all is that Mali has been…

Author's blog 

Being number two is not much better than coming in last.  How many people know that the second-tallest mountain in the world is the dismally-named “K-2?”  Quite a few, no doubt, but everybody, literally everybody, knows that Mount Everest is the…

North Korea is like the urban legend of the Japanese soldier still fighting WWII out on some lonely island in the remote Pacific.  In his mind, it’s all still very real for him.  When he starts shooting at us, then it’s real for us, too.  At first I didn’t know if they were even going to let me in the country, something about journalists not allowed in…

China’s cities are so large and mas sively developing that it’s sometimes frightening, and as hard as ever to travel independently.  There’s scarcely a word or destination written in pinyin (Romanized Chinese)—much less English—in the typical Chinese bus or train station, nor counter help equipped to deal with it verbally, something common in most of the world these days,…

The good news is that it feels good to be in Thailand, a place I once lived for some ten years or so, depending on how you count it. The incorrigible wackiness and petty racial nuisance of being a “farang” in a foreign land where such things matter is easily overcome by the gentleness of the culture and handsomeness of its people… where such things matter. What I don’t…

For pictures, see author's blog here

(part 1)  We Americans have our Wild West just like Mexico has its “norte bárbaro,” and they’re the same place of course, that vast expanse of land bounded by two mountain ranges and stretching from Utah to Jalisco, Mexico.  It’s home to cowboys and Indians ranging from Utes to Aztecs, vaqueros to buckaroos.  Where…

I’ve woken up partially several times throughout the night, starting as we entered Austria and the ticket checker wanted to see tickets.  That must have been Villach.  That’s when the bozos got on and started reading something in German that must have been hilarious, since everybody was laughing so hard.  I don’t know why getting on a train means it’s party time.  I just wanted to sleep.  That’s not easy when the seats don’t lean back and all the lights are on.  Fortunately no one’s sitting…