Actually, I prefer the never-ending day. The day when you take the long jet ride west, and it’s only a few hours later, in terms of clocks, when you arrive, than when you left — 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 miles ago. But the lost day has something to be said about it, too. It’s a sort […]

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The city of Long Beach comes in for a lot of criticism. Some of it from me. But it has some things going for it. Particularly down by the Pacific Ocean. We spent our last night in California in Long Beach, and were glad to do so. Some scenery, some dinner, some Christmas lights.

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For most of my time in Southern California, Irvine was a place you drove through on the way from Long Beach to San Diego. When I was young, we knew Irvine as a lake, not a city. Where the eighth-graders got to spend a day skylarking. To us, it was deep in the country, somewhere […]

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And I know a hare-brained sports scheme when I see one, having inflicted several dozen on myself over the past 30-some years. This one is crazy enough not even I would have done it in my youth. Probably not. Well, maybe not. And it involves 48 kids from the ages of 10 to 16. Check […]

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In journalism, we have a concept known as the “toe touch”. In brief, it means a reporter/writer making an appearance at the city/country he or she is writing about. It almost literally can be a toe touch. Off a plane, through passport control and customs, and right back to a waiting lounge for the next […]

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It had been more than 14 months since I had been in Paris, and the city continues to change, of course. Some good changes, some bad, some neutral/just different. Let’s look at 10, in list form.

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It was in August of 1944 that Paris was liberated by the Allies. In particular, by the 2nd Armored Division of the Free French government in exile, based in London. That was 70 years ago, and the event is being reexamined at the Carnavalet Museum, the official museum of the city of Paris, here in […]

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Already noted: We are in an unusual apartment, here on the edge of the Marais. Angels on the wall; a bathing area where a person cannot stand; low, skull-threatening beams throughout the washroom, a tiny toilet room. And perhaps the smallest elevator in Paris. Or in France.

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Since Saturday, we have stayed in an unusual place on the edge of the Marais, across the street from the Pompidou, a top-floor apartment where the elevator deposits you directly into the living room. The living area is a very fine space, with couches and a dining table for six. The kitchen is well-appointed and […]

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It was One of Those Days in Paris. When the sun is breaking through cottony clouds and everyone is smiling and the world is a wonderful place — or at least it is as viewed from the little park named Square Jean XXIII on the tip of the Ile de la Cite. Let’s take a […]

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