Cool Hand Luke is my favorite film. The unrepentant Luke is locked in the work house, his mother comes to visit. She sucks the smoke from a cigarette and…
Strong for his age, tanned and weathered, Diego. A man with four rental cabins on a bluff, their balconies pointed to the infinite expanse of the cold Pacific…
Agus and I were sitting on his front porch drinking Balinese coffee around midday. His three year old daughter had just wondered off and I had something on…
Like all the other tourists in Thailand we rented a fleet of scooters. I have a motorcycle license and I’ve been riding for years. I’m the exception. Most…
I left Russia the same way I came, friendless. I’ve thought about that time often. Is the Russian culture non-conducive to friendship? Did I do something wrong? Do…
Every day hundreds of people, like Michael here, partake in a South East Asia ritual: they learn to drive a scooter. Like your first legal drink it’s a…
I met Joseph when he came over to use our WiFi. He brought some thank-you-beer and we kickstarted the night. Later, at the bar, Omri asked, So Joseph,…
Misha is a Ukrainian from the historic city of Lviv. We met online on a language exchange website. You find someone interesting, exchange your Skype names then practice…
Sam has cool tattoos, I don’t think he’ll regret them when he’s fifty. But it’s impossible to know for certain because I’ll never see Sam again. He is…
Denmark is ranked as the happiest country often enough that they get to brag about it. The way Americans brag about their military or Brasil their football teams. Unfortunately,…
Captain Major lives in Key Largo on a sailboat called Sea Remedy. He’s a retired airline mechanic, grandfather, and the man I wrote about in my college entrance…