“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...
Daphne Phelps and “A House in Sicily”
The struggle to learn the language was wearing, when study necessarily took place after long days of dealing with endless kind visitors who felt...
Donald Niebyl tells the amazing story of Yugoslavia’s pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal
In 1987 for the first and only time, my European tour itinerary included Yugoslavia. It was fascinating for all the usual reasons, and at...
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...
Not Hip & Fewer Hops: My bucket beer list is NOT served with sliced...
Originally published at Food & Dining Magazine on 27 September 2021.
Mr. Creosote: "Better get a bucket."
Maître d': "booKAY?"
I’ve often been accused of being a cynic,...
Tilda Swinton in Berlin: “Cycling the Frame” (1988) and “The Invisible Frame” (2009)
It's been at least two years since I created this draft, and it has waited patiently for me to return to the story of...
Werner Tübke, East German art, and the Americans in 1989
When the following article appeared in 2017, all of the talk in America was about building walls. Characteristically The Magnificent Trumpolini never understood that...
To hell with car-centric burdens, but long live the Trabant!
I never cared very much for automobiles in the sense of stylishness. Growing up in a transitional zone between rural and suburban, I understood...
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...
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...
Latest article
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...
