The Agony of an Untold Story
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” —Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928-May 28, 2014) Read more about Maya Angelou. Read Angelou’s “Still I Rise.”
Gather ye rosebuds…
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he’s …
Clem Taylor’s Ode to Joy
“Beauty has a way of turning up in places where you’d least expect it.” Our friend Clem Taylor, who died last month, won the Peabody Award for this story he produced for 60 Minutes. “Joy in the Congo” originally aired on …
Gabriel García Márquez – Responding with Life
While visiting Cartagena last month, we had the opportunity to see the seaside home of Gabriel García Márquez. At the time, we wrote our own, humble, homage to the great Nobel Prize-winning Colombian writer and journalist who died yesterday at age …
The Chemo Versus Sex Ratio
“So… how often do you get it?” asked a friend in an e-mail. “More often than sex? You better not have to get chemo more often than sex.” I received that e-mail six years ago this week, while sitting in …
Luna de Miel (The Honeymoon)
It was a sultry night in Cartagena de Indias. The prostitutes were lazing on benches and pretending to talk on their cell phones in the shadow of the Puerta del Reloj, where the three wide arches of the main …
Tagged with: travel
On the Road: Cartagena
“It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there’s not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality. The problem is …
Tagged with: travel
Winter, Through the Looking Glass
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer …
Down the Hatch, Over the Counter, Under the Knife
How writers write seems to be an endlessly fascinating subject (at least for writers). Recently, Olivia Laing has been getting good reviews for The Trip To Echo Spring, a book about famous writers who found inspiration in the bottle. A …
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Midnight, Atlantic Standard Time
Originally published in the St. John Sun Times In typical island fashion, it was hard to tell when the old year ended and the new one began. The party was at Skinny Legs in Coral Bay where the unadvertised festivities (New …