Hello, again, Blogonauts! Since I have already abandoned the dubious virtue of chronological blogging, let's try a topic. What's one of the best ways to manage the awkwardness of getting involved in the conversations with the locals in the UK? My answer? Pub Quizzes! Now, I cannot speak for everyone. Putting your accumulation of clever on display for judgment and potential ridicule is not everyone's cup of tea. But on the two occasions I sought out a pub quiz ...

I finally arrived today in London at 6:00 PM. While eating a luscious lasagna supper, on a whim I decided to head to the Apollo Victoria Theater in an attempt to make the 7:30 performance. Hint: ���� So I just made it as the show began! "Wicked" was wonderful!

Hello, again, Blogonauts! (I ask that you allow me to play a little loose with the time-line fiction. Most readers know that I've returned to the US six days ago, on October 4. But for a brief moment, let's pretend that it is last week, and I am just finishing visiting two walled, ancient cities.) Here's a question: Do good fences make good neighbors? The Romans may have argued over this Frostian quote. Romans in Britain built mortared battlements because they...

Hello, again, blogonauts. When I was a teenager, I remember seeing my first Shakespeare play ("A Comedy of Errors," I believe). Its dialogue surprised me, because even though it employed Elizabethan English, it could still thrill and entertain a naive teenager. The Bard nearly perfectly employed the common denominator of human experience. Even in an era that now incorporates astronauts, antibiotics, and Android phones, we still can identify with his characters ...