Say you find yourself in Florence for about 36 hours. Art, architecture, gardens, libraries and specialty shopping abound in what National Geographic calls a “city-size shrine to the Renaissance.” A city with Roman origins that flourished during the Middle Ages, Florence, “the Athens of the Middle Ages” has been ruled by Medici, served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy and continues to serve as the capital of Tuscany and the providence of Florence. It is a majestic city lying in the basin of the Arno and three other rivers between seven hills – Rome has nothing on this place. Continue reading “Firenze”
The Biographizers
Lauren Green, on Fox News during her discussion with Reza Aslan, mentioned to preposterous idea of a democrat promoting democracy by writing about a republican. The badly done infographic (the good version has disappeared, I’ll be recreating it this weekend) below lists a random grouping of Republican Presidents from the most famous (Lincoln) to the un-famous (Coolidge), based on the top three rated books on Amazon, and a look at who wrote them. Continue reading “The Biographizers”
Fantastic Fail at Fox
One of the things I really appreciate about being a journalist is that you can cover many different topics. I’ve covered random things from pee-wee sports to international development to eyebrows to recovering lost pets. Yes, when you pay your dues you have a strict beat – the school board, a certain neighborhood, a losing hockey team in the third poorest city in the country.
But after a while your beat grows into a Dave Brubeck covered by Miles Davis jazz riff, rather than the metronomic dictation of death by excel. If you get high enough up the journalism food chain, your beat becomes a very vague or large concept, like my brother’s – which is parts of MENA or, say, religion. As of 2010, 84 percent of the world’s population (5.8 billion people) was religiously affiliated, mainly divided among 8 groups which included Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and others, including indigenous faiths.[1] Continue reading “Fantastic Fail at Fox”
A new twist on locative gastronomy
For the last year, I’ve been working with the International Institute of Buffalo,whose mission is twofold: to provide critical services to refugees and immigrants and promote global understanding and connections in Western New York, on creating a map of restaurants in the city. At first, we were creating a map of restaurants started by those emigres/immigrants with connections to The Institute. But then, the list of international food providers and restaurants serving foods from many different cultures grew to be even more inclusive. Continue reading “A new twist on locative gastronomy”
The Good Wife/Bad Woman?
She’s got a name for headlines, and her politician husband a strange knack for keeping them in the limelight. No , no time machine flashback, not Hillary, but her former aide de camp – Huma Adebin. The Humanity, the Humaliation, the Humar of Wiener’s Wee-Wee-peat – the list could go on and on, but surprisingly, even the UK’s Daily Mail has been circumspect with “Huma Adebin Faces Backlash For Standing By Her Man.” This from a paper that has called Pippa Middleton’s 34b’s lolling and sagging, clearly not known for its restraint. The New York Post, also not a harbinger of tact and decorum, went with “Pained Huma Backs Husband, Marriage.” A blog for New York Magazine went with “No Longer Flawless, Huma’s Been Humanized.” Ironically, Harper’s Bazaar, in an article penned by Adebin and printed previous to Anthony Weiner’s latest sexting scandal, opted for “The Good Wife.” Continue reading “The Good Wife/Bad Woman?”
azimuths compass 