Freeways, corporate efficiency experts, optical fibre internet, rapid transit, executive MBAs, electric bikes, fast food, instant fashion, and bullet trains. Everything, it seems, is moving at a velocity that’s difficult for the human soul to bear. A friend of mine listens to all audiobooks at 1.5x or 2x speed, so that it sounds like the… Read more »
From my early beginnings as a young introvert, the public library has always been a bit of a refuge. Years later, not much has changed, albeit with an additional affinity for endless hours spent scouring second-hand bookstores to add to my ever-growing “to-read” pile. From one bookworm to another, this column will be underscoring and… Read more »
At a birthday party a professional virtual reality gaming crew arrived in a van; they handed us plastic boxes to put over our heads and the entertainment began. Soon everyone was in fine digital gaming fettle, battling terrorists and rescuing damsels and defeating all comers in a wrestling ring. At first it felt weird to… Read more »
I was in Manhattan a few days ago, walking down Lexington Avenue, when I spotted one of Elon Musk’s new Cybertrucks stopped at an intersection. It looks even stupider and more bombastic in the real world than it does in the promotional images, which is really saying something. I was tempted to take out my… Read more »
From my early beginnings as a young introvert, the public library has always been a bit of a refuge. Years later, not much has changed, albeit with an additional affinity for endless hours spent scouring second-hand bookstores to add to my ever-growing “to-read” pile. From one bookworm to another, this column will be underscoring and… Read more »
Bruges is a beautiful and well-preserved city of about 120,000 in the northwest of Belgium. There were settlements in the area during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and a fort was built on the site in the 9th century. Its proximity to the coast made the city an important and prosperous centre of trade. The… Read more »
Like delicate bromeliads insufficiently misted in a dry climate, wilted and desolate and displeased as they gaze out from a sunny windowsill, we humans bear a suffering countenance on a warming planet. Unlike flora and fauna in nature, however, heat impacts us in a psychological, as well as physiological, arena. Contesting dire predictions about the… Read more »
Peking duck has its roots in Imperial Chinese cuisine. For myself, I grew up eating this only on special occasions with family and friends of family at renowned restaurants. Typically, the dish is known for its crispy, lacquered duck skin and tender duck breast meat. It is served with pancakes, sweet hoisin sauce, and fresh… Read more »
From my early beginnings as a young introvert, the public library has always been a bit of a refuge. Years later, not much has changed, albeit with an additional affinity for endless hours spent scouring second-hand bookstores to add to my ever-growing “to-read” pile. From one bookworm to another, this column will be underscoring and… Read more »
The prospect of AI proof-reading our sloppy rough drafts contains an air of excitement. Sure, a few nuggets of genius emerge as we write and re-work our various essays but, along the way, countless hours fall off the cliff of time as we dot our proverbial I’s and mind our proverbial Q’s, bearing in mind… Read more »