Five hundred twenty-five thousandSix hundred minutesHow do you measure - measure a year?In daylights - in sunsetsIn midnights - in cups of coffeeIn inches - in milesIn laughter - in strife. - Jonathan Larson (Rent)2016 has been a weird year--quite possibly, the strangest and most disruptive year of my 33.5 years on earth. After thinking…
The past few weeks, after all the hoopla surrounding the wedding, have been a slow and steady descent back into normalcy. The tupperware full of wedding cookies is now gone, the Greek's parents have returned to Thessaloniki and the weather has taken a dramatically cold turn for October, one that we feel acutely as the…
I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. -L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) Yesterday, while texting with a friend, I mentioned that I would like nothing more than to fall into fall. Or really, at this point in time, just to fall over, preferably into a large and comfortable bed. This…
"Ifemelu, can I just say how happy I am that you're not an academic? Have you heard his friends talk? Nothing is just what it is. Everything has to mean something else. It's ridiculous...A good education isn't the same thing as making the whole damn world something to be explained! Even Shan makes fun of…
It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. -Wendell Berry When…
On a blustery day back in early December, a friend and I went into the hills for a lecture on masala chai (literally, spice tea) at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens. While chai may seem fairly self-explanatory, I was intrigued because the lecture included a tasting of a few different kinds of chai, information about its…
Among these writings was De Anima, which examined the life force in plants and animals, and it was in this book that Aristotle attempted to parse the nature of taste. He was fond of creating lists, and first and foremost on his list of tastes was sweet, which he described as pure nourishment. -Michael Moss (Salt,…
Only one place attracted her attention: a small Korean grocery with fruits and vegetables set outside on plywood stands--colorful piles of oranges, tomatoes, and cucumbers, almost unnaturally clean and bright. Nina read the sign on the box of tomatoes: SUNRIPE. She was still learning English, and every new expression seemed exciting and full of great…
On the meeting point of two worlds, the ornament of the Turkish homeland, the treasure of Turkish history, the city cherished by the Turkish nation, Istanbul, has its place in the hearts of all citizens. -Mustafa Kemal AtaturkExactly one week ago I was still firmly caught in the peaceful embrace of that beautiful creature, Vacationland.…
Every day I want to speak with you. And every day something more important / calls for my attention -- the drugstore, the beauty products, the luggage / I need to buy for the trip./Even now I can hardly sit here / among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the garbage trucks outside/ already…
Dining with Dostoevsky 