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E. Glimpses of Predeparture (intro.)
Introduction: Numerous excerpts from old journals kept in Tanzania and Zimbabwe where I once sojourned have already been posted on this site. These include pieces in ‘Scraps from Tanzania Notebooks’, ‘Scraps from Zimbabwe Notebooks’ and in ‘Scraps of Memoir from Afar’. In taking a second look at the transcripts of journals from those years, I…
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L. Snippets of Striving (con’d)
Although not the least interested in home renovation, I paid close attention to last night’s episode of “This old house” on PBS. It featured remedies for upgrading the energy efficacy of heritage homes. In the American can-do spirit, craftsmen breezily showed options for converting drafty old places into modern homes, cozy through the most bitter…
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L. Snippets of Striving (intro.)
Introduction: In ‘The Happy Isles of Oceania’, Paul Theroux comments on the published diaries of the cultural anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski: “…They were harmless enough–– just trivia, ranting, loneliness, insecurity and self-pity…” That comment is surely cautionary advice for anyone who keeps a diary. Even if the only potential reader of one’s words is some great-grandchild…
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P. Political Scraps (con’d)
As difficult as it is to be charitable to the vicious Christian right in America today––it is understandable that many white Christians long for a simpler past. Yet they seem willfully blind to any conflict of the mighty sword and the mightier dollar with old Protestant virtues. Nothing less reflects thrift and frugality than splendorous…
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P. Political Scraps (intro.)
The news of the death of Ian Smith struck me with an unexpected ambivalence. The obit in the online Guardian (no doubt prepared years in advance) stated what was well known: that Smith had been a WWII fighter pilot and a farmer before becoming leader of the ultra-conservative Rhodesian Front. Then as Prime Minister of…
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N. A Few Snapshots (con’d)
Bringing these old negatives to light in such an utterly different time and place felt a bit like recovering bodies from centuries embedded in ice… In some photos, the girls of Weru-Weru (circa 1980) are shown in the classroom or posed in extracurricular duties. Other photos show the girls in their day of rest from…
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Coprolites in Amber (etc.) 