Qasr Al Sarab

Husband and I decided on a splurge during our visit to Abu Dhabi – a splurge underwritten by some research monies he has for an article he’s working on (seriously! About Arabian Sands, a book written by an Englishman who wanted to map the part of the Arabian Desert...

Happy Birthday To Me…

Okay, my birthday was last month, it’s true. But for the last few months, I’ve been going in and out of the Village Tannery eyeing (and yes, occasionally fondling) their leather bags because the satchel I use on my teaching days (my “grownup”...

Dinner and a Movie? Nah.

They announced the Oscar nominees yesterday and on that list of ten (10!) best picture nominees I’d seen exactly…one.  The animated one with all the balloons.  (Shockingly, the two other movies I’ve seen recently,  “Cloudy with a Chance of...

You Say Bricolage, I Say Mash-Up

“It’s a badguy warship coming in…shphfffththththpphfff POW but WAIT here comes the rescuers with the light saber and now the camel will ride across the planet and argh… ” And thus do Caleb’s battles commence, every evening after...

Dionysus At Madison Square…

The god Dionysus, as most of us know, is the god of wine. In mythology, he is also the inspirer of ritual madness, ecstasy, and theater, as well as the god of the epiphany. He is sometimes known as “the Liberator” because he frees us from our normal...