I don’t know why the complete transformation of one distinct thing to another thing is so fascinating. Maybe that is why RuPaul does so well with the drag thing, Really, if I wanted to know about how a place can be transformed completely I could just ask someone from the Little Traverse Bay Band of […]

My Ukrainian friend Taag, 2007 I doubt if Elena Filatova ever met my Ukrainian friend Taag, although they certainly were in proximity in the newly independent state at the same time. Elena was born in 1974, in the Soviet Union, and she gets around. Taag was born in 1997, in what had become Ukraine. He […]

It is hard to stay focused on the disasters of other years when we have one in progress this very morning. I raise my coffee to the memory of a brave, or foolish, politician. I have a pile of stuff about the past that I want to sift through with you, some interesting notes on […]

Plaque near the tomb of Immanuel Kant, Kaliningrad I got completely turned around this morning. It is difficult to have a foot in more than one decade. I have some current business to do with the Ukrainian Embassy, involving the translation of some post Soviet-era documents. That is how I got- vicariously- to the Kaliningrad […]

Palace of the Soviet, Kaliningrad Oblast Maps lie. What appears to be true on a flat surface is not what exists on a round world. Mostly it does not matter, since we are limited to views of trees here, but as you climb up the flights of stairs in Big Pink, the truth beckons. From […]

Vesuvius in Winter The weather was crappy, but the Jugs were determined to get the Admiral and his party back to their ship in order to get the heavy cruiser Des Moines underway on schedule. The port visit was scheduled for four days, and four days only. Leaving on the 23rd gave her plenty of […]

Felix Dzerzhinsky I’ll get to something heartwarming and quirky for the season, I promise. But it is year-end, and time to contemplate some of the things that have happened in this strange and unsettling year. I was watching Michigan State play Texas in college hoops last night with the Boys. They came by Big Pink […]

The White Palace, Belgrade It is December, 1951 in the northern Adriatic Sea. It is approaching Christmas, and the Heavy Cruiser USS Des Moines (CA-138), Flagship of the SIXTH Fleet, is sliding into a berth downtown in the splendid Adriatic port of Rijeka. It is a mountain of gray steel bristling with guns, and it […]

USS Des Moines (CA-134) in the Adriatic, 1951 Did you ever hear of Slivovitz? It is a plum brandy that is made in Eastern Europe, and notably Yugoslavia. Rene LaPlante could have told you about it, since it is one of the tools of the trade. “Plum brandy” sounds like something your great aunt might […]

The LaPlants entertain at home, in Belgrade, 1946 There are those who feel a fondness for the old Bolshies who terrorized and murdered their people. You hear a lot of that from the Osties, the East Germans who yearn for the good old days when the Stasi- the secret police- recruited your husband or your […]