‘Plip plop plip plop plip plop… plink!’ She’d been accustomed when idling in a bath steeped in Epsom salts to predict when the surface tension of a swelling drip could no longer hold the water behind it. Give or take a fraction of a second she’d been correct. The drop had broken from the faucet’s… Continue reading Señor Quispe’s Predicament and the Imperfection of Contentment
Is there anything more satisfying, in a culinary sense, than sucking the paella rice from a clam shell?
It’s cold and raining here in Spain, and not only on the plain… so I took time-out from sanding down the doors and windows of my hilltop house and read that equally frosty Finland, like Ukraine, is considering joining NATO. Though both Finland and Ukraine would share the longest NATO borders with Russia, until 1999… Continue reading
The Anatomy of Disconnected Lines
I first noticed him on the other side of Westbury Avenue, as we both made our way to the bus stop. Even through heavy traffic I saw his brogues had an economy of movement: raised enough to avoid tripping over uneven paving stones or stepping on cracks. Later, he’d say it amused him to think… Continue reading The Anatomy of Disconnected Lines
Shaming the Diabolos
To wash away the blood of bulls and heretics, a trio of Hispano-Bretones draw six tons of bronze from the Casa de Campo. The drayman’s bow legs curl around the bay’s barrel chest, urging the team forward with both shouts of, ¨¡Arre!¨ and his battered straw sombrero, that he waves over their shoulders. The other drayman drives… Continue reading Shaming the Diabolos
Cockerels That Turn in the Wind
I would stand at the top of Hillfield Park and idly watch the clouds drift across me, picking those I could from the sky. Sometimes far below I saw migratory swallows returning from a winter in Africa, flying past in perfect Euclidean formations. I’d look down on terraces of Edwardian houses and their roofs tumbled below… Continue reading Cockerels That Turn in the Wind
The Metaphysical Diorama of a Fisherman
“The crabs cut ‘em … or plastic!” I nod understandingly. “Everything that comes to net ‘s not all fish!” he adds—delivering at first hand how inadequate waste management and irresponsible packaging impacts fishing. I sense it’s a counterargument to the accusation the industry itself is the main culprit in polluting the oceans. Giant luths that… Continue reading The Metaphysical Diorama of a Fisherman
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