The Little Words Mean the Most

Signs of Sydney

The Welcome Wall

A moving monument to immigration, its losses and hopes; an extraordinary offer to donors; a genuine "identity-building" device ... outside the National Maritime Museum.

Sydney: The prettiest harbor on earth?

The boats of Darling Harbor, Sydney

Australia: Beating Hurricane Irene

Spent Saturday morning hooking up the generator, in preparation for reputed "monster storm," Hurricane Irene. Simone drove me to the airport. We kissed. She was left with a massively destructive weather event arriving inside 24 hours and a house to watch over. Her best friend: a generator that keeps cutting out. I boarded the first of 3 legs, flying from Rhode Island to Sydney, Australia, to speak at a conference. Mine was pretty much the last plane out; more than 7,000 flights were cancelled in the Northeast; NYC had closed its subway system down two hours earlier. ||| 1st stop: Cleveland, with its huge, sculptural tribute to paper airplanes. Then midnight at LA, a truly suck-worthy airport: filthy, no signage, a relic without mercy. Not an information booth to be seen. ||| But big fish do fly out of there, and where you're finally in the hands of Quantas business class, oh my. The flight across the Pacific is 18 hours long, but it's close to a pleasure. Check out the menu (I had the seared sea bass with herb and pine nut salsa). Check out the reclining seat controls. The icon with the little squiggle is the back massage control. The seat lies flat. They give you pajamas. I slept like an oyster in its shell. ||| My residence in Sydney is Meriton Serviced Apartments. My suite has a kitchen (I'm going grocery shopping!), washer/dryer (after a 30-hour journey in the same clothes, very welcome), and a balcony with refreshing late winter/early spring breezes.

It's over: We live under plants

Dallas AFP, I love ya!!!

We had fun. Extraordinary fun. Standing-room-only fun. Dallas AFP is special. One of the highest concentrations of CFREs on earth. But every gig has the same sad ending: the escalator. I See The Light. Sigh....

Taught creativity to the Boy Scouts

New badge. Notice that a lot of the boys aren't boys? They're moms, though.

My watches prayer busted race team

Why Simone would be perfect to succeed Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State extraordinaire