Polska? Tak!

Celebrities recollect on their experiences with Poland and the Polish people.

Hemingway's New City

This summer, NYT launched a debate on Europe's most vibrant city as a cultural hub and center of culture. Many of the critics seem stuck in a debate over London vs. Berlin. Others have considered Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, and more.

While London is definitely an economic center and global city and Berlin is certainly a vibrant city for young Germans and ex-pats seeking alternative culture, I would argue that this list should include more cities in Central Europe such as Budapest and Prague, and perhaps in Southeastern Europe Belgrade and Sarajevo. Too many Western Europeans and Americans seem to forget that the nations of Central and Eastern Europe when thinking of the European continent, and these cities have become bustling cultural hubs and havens for young people seeking cheap(er) rent, culture, and intellect in the center of Europe.

Hemingway and the other writers of the 1920s would probably be among them.

Where Would Hemingway Go?

Cross-posted to Transitions 21

Remembering 9/11

The media has been filled with commemorations of this somber tenth anniversary. For Americans, especially those of us who lived close enough to know the Towers well, the shock has never really gone away. Perhaps the world did change after these attacks, or at least the individual world for many people. Suddenly the world did not seem to secure, and the home that had always seemed safe, that had never been invaded, that was half a world away from any horrors of war-- suddenly war had come to our shores, killing thousands of innocent civilians.

We never will forget, and every five or ten years we will focus all of our energies again on contemplating this anniversary, remembering where we were and considering how the world has changed since that date. The victims and heroes will always be honored, and I hope that future generations who do not have personal memories of the horror will still keep this day hallowed. We will look back to Sept. 10, 2001, and all the days before it as the golden era, the days free from fear or threat. They were not, but with the nostalgia of hindsight, they will seem calm and serene in the chaotic decade that followed.

We'll never get over it, nor should we; the anniversary from a New Yorker's POV

The Man in the Red Bandana

Chomsky's views on 9/11 and the aftermath

Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden, book promotion interview

Remembering United 93, let's roll

The Life and Fall of the Towers, photo montage from the 28 year life of the World Trade Center

My first visit back to Ground Zero, summer 2008 before any construction on the memorial had begun