In Tirana, 31 years between views of Enver Hoxha’s house
As of 2025, it is likely that outside of Albania, very few inhabitants of the planet Earth recall who Enver Hoxha was. This is...
A brief recounting of the Balkan getaway in February, 2025
Obsessions can be of lasting duration, as with my history of 47 pilgrimages to the European continent since 1985, or they can be more...
Lanesville Heritage Weekend is here again, and my mind is wandering (again)
On Indiana State Road 62, the main highway through Lanesville, there stands a sturdy red barn with nicely restored Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisements on...
Tirana 2025: Bunk’Art 2 and a Skanderbeg Square protest
During our recent foray into the Balkans, one of the drivers we engaged succinctly remarked, "Albania was the North Korea of Europe."
Albania emerged from...
The abstract modernism of “monuments and memory” in Tito’s Yugoslavia
Controversies over the newer monuments in Yugoslavia also came up as we talked. We discussed the memorial at Tjentište in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Ćosić argued that...
“Arthur Frommer’s Europe on $25 a Day” absolutely changed my life
At 91, Arthur Frommer still preaches the budget travel gospel, just as he did when I was converted 35 years ago. As it was...
My Beers in the GDR, Part Two: Sharing a few Pilsners with a future...
Previously: My Beers in the GDR, Part One: A working lunch in East Berlin, August 1989.
East Berlin: August, 1989.
Each Friday afternoon for three weeks...
My Beers in the GDR, Part One: A working lunch in East Berlin, August...
In 1989 I spent the first three weeks of August buffing and polishing V. I. Lenin’s shoes. The footwear belonged to a gargantuan statue...
Learn more about Käthe Kollwitz and her powerful visual legacy
Käthe Kollwitz is an artist we should know and celebrate. Controversy is the least of the reasons why, although it's something I appreciate.
Why Käthe...
An Afternoon with Santa Claus: Zürich’s Hürlimann Brewery, 1994
Exuberant excess in beer has been redefined so many times recently that I wouldn't know where to begin a survey of the territory, but...
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The abstract modernism of “monuments and memory” in Tito’s Yugoslavia
Controversies over the newer monuments in Yugoslavia also came up as we talked. We discussed the memorial at Tjentište in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Ćosić argued that...
40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 75: My shoes are filled with Volga...
Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 74: Down a rabbit hole, deep into the Belgian beer paradise (1998).
Insofar as ordinary Americans know to...
Archie’s axiom — or, beer’s ephemeral pass-through nature
Saturday evening we attended a performance of Urinetown: The Musical at Derby Dinner Playhouse in Clarksville, which is celebrating 50 years in existence; long...
