This blog commenced on March 10, 2008. Ten years ago today. It was four days after I had been fired by the Los Angeles News Group, and I wanted to let co-workers and other journalists know what had happened, with as many specifics as I could recall pertaining to the (then mostly novel) concept of […]

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Well, in theory, they could be killers. But they are more likely to make your dog or cat sick. Caterpillars! Processionary caterpillars, they are called. They are some nasty customers who live here in the south of France, and in southern Europe, in general. They are destructive to pine trees, where they spend much of […]

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This part of France is given over almost entirely to vines. A smattering of olive trees. A field of grain, here and there. Almost zero significant industry. In terms of consumption, this ought to be wine country, and it is … but not as uniformly as it might have been a century ago. Beer is […]

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We are in Southern California, where the weather has been a bit raw. It snowed a bit in the mountains. Yikes! But nothing like it has been back in the south of France. Where we live has been getting inches (inches!) of snow. This does not happen there. Certainly not to the extent we have […]

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We once lived decades in southern California. We feel like we know the place pretty well. Certainly from the Mexican border to, say, Sacramento. We had been outside the country for more than a year, and what we found here on our return yesterday has been … astounding. When did California prices get out of […]

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Here are the kickoffs for the NFL’s conference championship games tomorrow. That is, if you live under the umbrella of Pacific Standard Time. New England at Jacksonville, 12:05 p.m. Philadelphia at Minnesota, 3:40 p.m. Convenient, as a viewer, no? Well, yes, and you should know it is not like that everywhere. If you have lived […]

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A very French story. A crime involving cheese. A heinous crime, then. Nearly 700 wheels of soft, pungent Saint-Nectaire cheese, a favorite of King Louis XIV and worth about $12,000, were stolen in the dead of night from a village in the Auvergne, a mostly rural region of south-central France. The heist is the latest […]

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This is a guy thing, pretty much, isn’t it. Or maybe a slob thing. Wearing things forever. Until they break or split or go to pieces and fall off your body. Or, perhaps, until your significant other gets sick of looking at your rags and throws some of them out when you are not paying […]

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This was something celebrated on at least one Facebook account: Seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi today, a day before Everyone Back Home had a chance. Movies in France tend to open on Wednesday. In the States, an opening often is Friday, especially for big movies like this one. So, at least one of us […]

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We have watched the mixed herds of sheep and goats in our little town over the past year and a half. Usually from our balcony while they are cropping the grass or leaves in the open land behind the house. Never was I close enough to them to at least consider how I might evade […]

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