Luxury prisons – rent your cell

I was quite titillated by an IHT article last week (April 30) entitled “For $82 a day, a cozier way to do hard time.” This article opened my eyes to the concept of how wealthier prisoners in certain California prisons (ex Santa Ana) are able and allowed to...

Queen’s Day in Amsterdam

Queen’s Day is a weekend of extravagance in Amsterdam. Concerts, orange shirts, beers and garbage sprawled across the streets. It is a moment of tremendous frivolity, much aided by the glorious sunny weather on this weekend. On this trip, I was spoiled by two...

Travel pleasures… another improvement on the road

Sometimes, when traveling, you want to just be able to pick up all the good things and bring them back to your home country… like food specialties or quaint cultural traditions. So, on this trip, speaking as a frequent traveler, I found yet another “good thing” to...

Biker’s lane – a French right?

When driving in France — whether in cities or on highways — there is an invisible bikers’ lane. You drive as far over on the left side of the lane you are in to let motorcyclists pass. In France , the bikers have now come to expect this from all...

Taxi! What’s up, Doc?

The other day, on Long Island, I was driven to the airport by the chauffeur of a rather nice sedan. With his latino accent, rapper hat (despite the warm weather) and small stature, I must admit I didn’t pay much attention at first. After a few miles, the...

First impressions of Sweden

As is my wont on any first time in a country, I love to jot down the first impressions that hit me… if only to confirm some generalizations and, probably, regurgitate very obvious observations. First surprise, the “noise free” Stockholm (Arlanda)...

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