When I was a kid my mother was against school uniforms.
When I was a kid we emigrated to Australia in a BOAC plane that had to stop three times to refuel.
When I was a kid my parents rented a television for one night. They watched a movie that had something to do with a leaking submarine. Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Education, Elections, Emigration / Immigration, History, Lists, Movies, Society, Technology, Television, Travel, Writing Prompt Responses
Tagged Age, Australia, childhood, history, humor, memories, politics, school, society, technology, television, the '60s, the 1960s, Writing prompt Age
Okay, it’s the end of November and that means that Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is arriving in the Netherlands, with his helpers, who have traditionally been all called Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). The Zwarte Pieten are traditionally white people with blackface. People of color in the Netherlands have gradually become vocal about not liking that and the Dutch reaction is incredibly embarrassing to me. Continue reading
Posted in American flag, black pete, Books, Cultural Differences, Education, Emigration / Immigration, Employment, Holland, Language, Montessori Schools, National Anthem, Nationalism, Pledge of Allegiance, Racism, School Libraries, Sinterklaas, Slavery, University, Violence
Tagged culture, cultuur, immigratie, immigration, Nederland, Netherlands, politics, politiek, Racism, racisme, Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, tolerance, toleratie, Zwarte Piet
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It has emigrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Charlottesville: From Patriotism to Nationalism to Malignant Nationalism”
Posted in Education, Government, History, Language, Media, Migrate, Psychology, Slavery, Society, US Politics, World War Two
Tagged Charlottesville, education, Fascism, group psychology, Indoctrination, Nationalism, Opinion, Patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, politics, society, Trump, white supremacy, writing prompt education, writing prompts
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It has emigrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Recognizing Fascism: Introducing History Education in Post-Trump America”
Posted in Education, Emigration / Immigration, Government, History, Language, Media, Psychology, Religion, Slavery, Society, US Politics, Violence, World War Two
Tagged Charlottesville, Civil War, Confederate statues, critical thinking, education, Fascism, history, KKK, Nationalism, neo-nazis, Opinion, Patriotism, Trump, white supremacists, World War Two
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It has emigrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
Posted in Education, Government, High School, History, Migrate, Religion, Science, Slavery, Society, US Politics, World War Two
Tagged Charlottesville, critical thinking, culture, education, Fascism, geography, history, KKK, moral compass, Opinion, politics, re-education, religion, Trump, white supremacists
Image: Netflix
I finished watching the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why this morning. High school in America is so vastly different from my high school experience in the Netherlands on every level, and it never ceases to shock me. Continue reading
Posted in High School, Movies, Psychology, Television
Tagged 13 Reasons Why, Opinion, rape, review, school bullying, spoiler alert, teen suicide
Image: cnn.com
This week White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer uttered what may be the most offensive garbage yet, claiming that Bashar al-Assad is worse than Hitler, because even Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons, at least not on his own people and not in their cities and villages. Continue reading
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Look at American High School History Education”
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“What Passes for American History Education is Pathetic, and Now I Know Why”
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Presidential Candidate Donald Trump and his Campaign Demagoguery”
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Fans of SRO Ben Fields and Lawsuits for Excessive Force and Racial Profiling”
Posted in Education, High School, Violence
Tagged authority, Ben Fields, Police Violence, Racism, school discipline, School Resource Officers, Spring Valley High School, SRO
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“What’s the Purpose of American Public Schools, Education or Discipline?”
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Spring Valley High School Student Violently Arrested by SRO Ben Fields”
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“Don’t Blame the Koch Brothers — American Education Was Always Awful”
Several people have pointed out–in a somewhat accusatory tone–that I’m looking at the issue of Zwarte Piet being racist from the outside. To a large degree it’s true. But first let me point out to what degree it’s not. Continue reading
Posted in Education, Holland, Society
Tagged American education, American nationalism, black pete, black peter, Dutch holidays, opinie, Opinion, Pledge of Allegiance, Racism, racisme, Sinterklaas, Zwarte Piet
Brigham Young
(image from biography.com)
Well, I’ll probably be banned from ever entering Utah for this, but here goes.
I just read The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. It tells the somewhat parallel stories of two nineteenth wives: Ann Eliza Webb, wife of Brigham Young, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints’ second leader in the 1870s, Continue reading
Posted in Books, History, Religion, Slavery, Society, University
Tagged Ann Eliza Webb, Ann Eliza Young, boeken, books, Brigham Young, Briham Young University, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, David Ebershoff, godsdienst, Joseph Smith, LDS church, Mormonen, Mormons, opinie, Opinion, polygamy, religie, religion, The 19th Wife
Image from http://www.fanpop.com
Evolution of X just had a post about her memories of 1978. She invited readers to do the same.
So, let’s see. Not in chronological order: Continue reading
Posted in Books, Emigration / Immigration, High School, History, Holland, Lists, Movies, Music, Society, Writing
Tagged 1970s, emigration, Gerrie Knetemann, high school history, immigration, memories, movies, music, Peace Treaty, World CUp Soccer 1978, Writing
(Image: charlesdickenspage.com}
Since I’ve been blogging about Victor Hugo’s stories, let me jump over to England and Charles Dickens.
This winter break I had the bad luck to get the flu. For days I could barely get out of bed. But every cloud has a silver lining, and this cloud’s lining was that I got to read Martin Chuzzlewit in a few days. Continue reading
Posted in Books, Education, History, Society, Travel, US Politics
Tagged 19e eeuw, 19th century, America, American, Amerika, Amerikaans, books, Charles Dickens, Engelse literatuur, English literature, maatschappij, Martin Chuzzlewit, Opinion, society
That signs like this are necessary outside schools is already ridiculous enough.
So you would like to see teachers walking around with assault weapons slung over their shoulders. Your focus is on the idea that those teachers would shoot the killer.
You’re overlooking several aspects of the issue. Continue reading
Posted in Education, Society, US Politics
Tagged community, education, firearms, guns in schools, letters, Newtown shooting, Open Letters, Opinion, politics, School Shootings, teachers, vuurwapens in school
This is what I dreamed last night.
I was in a school gym, remembering how we would be made to run laps around a gym just like that in high school in the Netherlands. And I remembered that I could. I’d be tired, and I’d be protesting loudly like any self-respecting un-sporty teenage girl should, but that’s all. And I resented–in this dream–that I can’t run for two minutes now without having a gimpy knee for the next two weeks (this is real; I ran for two minutes last weekend, and now it hurts when I walk down steps). Continue reading
Posted in Dreams, Education, Emigration / Immigration, Healthcare, Holland, Society, Sports, US Politics
Tagged America, American dream, conservatism, construction, dreams, Dutch, education, emigration, health, humor, immigration, Opinion, politics, prudishness, sports
Cartoon by O’Farrell
One of my readers asked me a while ago to give my take on the apparent ambiguity between the American “melting pot” diversity and America’s dissociation from the rest of the world. Well, here it is. My take. I’m fully aware that I’m generalizing the heck out of this, but the question itself is generalizing, so that makes it totally okay. Continue reading
Posted in Education, Emigration / Immigration, History, Society, Travel
Tagged american dissociation from the world, culture, education, emigration, immigration, politics, travel, world
And now for something completely different.
In the 1960’s, Australian public school was still very much based on the system for preparing future factory workers from the Industrial Revolution onward, churning out good little citizens who didn’t question authority, followed instructions and didn’t make waves. Continue reading
Image: Wikipedia
Another question I got from my funk post was: What do European kids learn about American history. Well, I can only talk about what I learned, but feel free to add to it in the comments, Dutch readers.
I had History several times a week, from seventh through eleventh grade, and from Mesopotamia to the Vietnam War, more or less. I seem to remember that we started learning about America in tenth grade, and it would have continued through eleventh grade, whenever America came up in relation to a certain period. This would have been around 1977-1978. I’ll just describe what I remember; trying to be systematic after all those years wouldn’t work.
Posted in Education, Emigration / Immigration, High School, History, Holland, US Politics, World War Two
Tagged America, American history, Amerikaans, culture, Dutch, education, emigration, history, immigration, Netherlands, onderwijs
It’s summer vacation again. Schools are closed for about three months. A quarter of the year. No, this is not a post about the ridiculous length of American school vacations. Continue reading
Okay, for those of you who think I’m too negative about America, let me confuse you again.
Do I seem schizophrenic to you? Well, that’s because I am. Not clinically, but being Dutch in America, I can’t help being in a permanent schizophrenic state of mind. Depending on what I’m Continue reading
Photo: motivators.com
Although I’ve lived here for 18 years now, and although there are a lot of things I’ve gotten used to and in some cases even adopted, there are some things that, by now it’s safe to say, I’ll never get used to. Here are ten of them.
1. Bobby socks for men. Yep, men here (including T) often wear socks that barely show above the shoe, just like girl bobby socks in the fifties. The only difference is the absence of pompoms. I know they’re considered perfectly normal here, but to me they will always look ridiculous. Sorry, guys. Continue reading
Posted in Education, Food, Healthcare, History, Language, Lists, Media, Society
Tagged ankle socks, atheism, creationism, Dutch apple pie, emigration, Fox News, geography, Glenn Beck, humor, immigration, Lists, obesity, The Flintstones
This is the thirteenth and last (for now) post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
Photo: historietilburg.nl
Any member of the resistance who was captured, was interrogated/tortured first to get names of more resistance members, and then shot. Sometimes in the dunes on the coast, sometimes in the street, as a deterrent.
Photo: Joh. van Bueren
Photo: rijksoverheid.nl
This is the eleventh post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
Photo: sg7cz6o.edu.glogster.com
This is the tenth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
This is the ninth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
My mother and my aunt on my aunt’s first birthday
This is the eighth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
Photo: smith-wessonforum.com
This is the seventh post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
This is the sixth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
“The resistance” was anyone who thwarted the German occupation and the German war effort in any way.
They could be teenagers, like high school boys and their teachers who organized into gangs, or men spying and communicating by illegal radio with the government in exile and with the allied forces.
This is the fifth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions on a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
This is the fourth post in a series about American high school students’ impressions of a presentation I gave on the Netherlands during World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation. Continue reading
Posted in High School, Holland, World War Two
Tagged America, Bezetting, Dutch, education, German occupation, Headwaters School, history, Khabele School, Nederland, Netherlands, onderwijs, tweede wereldoorlog, United States, World War Two, WWII
Photo: http://www.members.home.nl
This is the third post about impressions of American high school students of a presentation I did on the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
Posted in High School, Holland, World War Two
Tagged America, Anne Frank, Dutch, education, Headwaters School, history, Jews, jodenvervolging, Khabele School, Netherlands, onderwijs, tweede wereldoorlog, United States, World War Two, WWII
This is the second post in a series about American high school students’ impressions of a presentation about the Netherlands in World War Two. Click here for the introduction to said presentation.
My son B.’s ninth-grade class is learning about World War Two right now, so I offered to give a presentation about the Netherlands during WWII. Not because, in itself, the Netherlands’ history is so important in the big picture, but because I suspected that otherwise the students probably wouldn’t learn too much about how it was for Europeans to be occupied by the Germans.
The demography and geography of the different countries in Europe may vary greatly, but the stories of German occupation, resistance, and living in constant fear and uncertainty have much in common.
And, of course, the occupation of countries, the killing of Jews and the constant intimidation and terror all over Europe is what American soldiers were fighting, even though they may often not have been aware of it, since they were mainly in battle situations against other soldiers. But when they were fighting for freedom, this is what it meant.
photo: http://www.zazzle.com
Brace yourselves!
I am going to commit one of the biggest faux pas you can commit in America. I’m going to correct your grammar, Americans!
Yes, my Dutch friends, it’s considered impolite at best to correct anyone’s grammar here.When you do, people think you’re pedantic, rude, or a “grammar nazi”.
I will write about the inflation of the word “nazi” some other time.
So back to you, my American readers. Let me explain myself. Continue reading
Did I mention that my Dutch library degree isn’t recognized in America, and that that was pretty much the end of my pretty good career? Well, you can take the librarian out of the library, but can’t take the library out of the librarian.
I have always had the urge to arrange books systematically. This may be traced back to my very earliest youth, when rearranging books was strictly forbidden. I have been making up for that cruel Continue reading
I know I write a lot about American education. I freely admit it’s one of my pet peeves. It began when I worked at a high school in south Texas, because I was absolutely appalled at the level of education there, the ignorance of most the teachers, the self-serving politics of the administration which hampered the few good teachers in their work, and all the time spent on things other than education. Continue reading
Posted in Education
Tagged American education, charter schools, education, education Austin, Idea Academy, Idea schools in Austin, Onderwijs VS
The other day I was talking with an elderly man while we were both waiting at the garage for our tires to be fixed. He told me his son is a football coach and a teacher—I don’t know what subject he teaches. He worked at a charter school for years until it went under recently. So a little while ago he worked as a substitute at a regular public school for a week. A public school here in Austin in what’s considered a good neighborhood, so it’s a reasonably well-rated school. Continue reading
Posted in High School, Sports, University
Tagged college football, Dutch P.E. teachers, education, Football, high school football, Opinion, Paterno, Sandusky, seksuele kindermishandeling, sexual child abuse, sport op Amerikaanse scholen, sport op Amerikaanse universiteiten, sports, sports in American schools
image: nationalebeeldbank.nl
I usually took the bus and the train from my home in Eemnes to my high school in Bilthoven. But in early summer of my senior year, if the weather was nice, I would cycle to school. It was a 45-minute bike ride.
On the way back from school I often battled a head wind so then it could take almost twice as long. Continue reading
In America everybody is elected. Not only members of the local, state and federal governments, but also sheriffs and judges. The election for local sheriff here was made more interesting because of a small scandal.
This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism, where it resides under the title:
“American History Education and Me: Broad Strokes, Please!”.
Posted in Education, Employment, Technology
Tagged house painting, South Texas, vakopleidingen Verenigde Staten
Notes From a University Student 14
A few months ago a debate was organized between one of my professors in the English department who’s a Croat, and an American professor in the political science department, about the situation in Kosovo and whether or not America should intervene.
Posted in University, US Politics
Notes From a University Student 12
In order to be a teaching assistant, I had to take a course on how to teach writing. Other than that it was annoying that students in Mexico were taking the course long-distance and that the technical difficulties were interrupting the flow, I have no memory of learning how to teach writing. But I got an A and now I’m a teaching assistant.
In the English department of this university being a teaching assistant doesn’t mean I assist anybody. I just teach. I teach two classes of university students Remedial English.
Posted in High School, Language, University
Tagged American, Amerikaans, bachelor's degree, Bushisms, college English, education, ESL, remedial writing, taalonderwijs, universiteiten, Verengide Staten
Notes From a University Student 11
Pieter Breugel The Tower of Babel
Not everything related to education here can be easily translated into Dutch. To American standards I’m studying at a university, but to Dutch standards that’s a rather big word.
Notes From a University Student 10
Sir Philip Sidney
Right now I’m doing a course about the development of the English novel, from the Renaissance to halfway the eighteenth century.
The professor is a nice guy and a specialist in the eighteenth century. Every now and then it’s embarrassingly apparent that he doesn’t know much about the Renaissance, but once we had arrived in the eighteenth century it started to be fun.
Notes From a University Student 9
I started taking two courses for a master’s degree in English last month, but I’ve already dropped the Bible as Literature class.
First of all it turned out that my baby boy will only let me do one course a semester, and second of all it was boring as all get-out. Not at any higher level than the average undergrad class that I took. More infantile tests, and everything we had to read at home was discussed again in class.
Posted in University
Tagged American master's degree, comedy, English literature, Shakespeare
Notes From a University Student 7
Notes From a University Student 6
Illustration Kate Greenaway
One of the first days on my job as librarian at that small high school, I was sitting behind my desk, sorting catalog cards – yes, cards in 1995!—and some students were sitting at a table near me, showing each other pictures.
One girl who couldn’t have been more than fifteen asked me if I wanted to see pictures of her son. I started to laugh, and then remembered that America has a problem with teen pregnancies. I quickly turned it into a cough. She wasn’t joking.
Posted in Society, University
Tagged America, American, Amerika, Amerikaans, Dutch, education, Netherlands, opleiding, sex education, teen pregnancies, universiteit, university, Verenigde Staten
Santa Anna
You would think that for a Dutch person living in South Texas, taking a History of Contemporary Mexico course would at least be useful, right?
I was even looking forward to it.
Posted in University
Tagged Amerikaanse universiteiten, college history courses, education, history, Mexican history course
Notes From a University Student 4
The registrar, after telling me that the courses I took in middle and high school in Holland didn’t count, had then turned around and given me credit for a few, so in the second summer session I took two history courses, all the courses I needed to have a minor in history.
I couldn’t be a librarian, but after these two five-week courses I could conceivably teach history in high school.
The first course was World History, for 90 minutes a day. World History is also taught in high school here, but you can get around it, and anyway, in high school it’s usually also just one semester.
Since history isn’t taught properly in high school, you have to take it again in college, where it also isn’t taught properly, because how on earth can you teach world history from Mesopotamia to the present in one semester or in a five-week summer course?
Notes From a University Student 3
The second summer course was Survey of English Literature from the Romantics to the Present.
That was a great course. It was largely a survey of poets and poetry, but since I hadn’t had much poetry in high school, most of this was new to me.
Notes From a University Student 1
High School Report 6
High School Report 5
Posted in High School
Tagged achievement tests, America, American, Amerika, Amerikaans, education, exams, high school, kwaliteit, middelbare school, onderwijs, quality, testen, United States, Verenigde Staten
High School Report 4
There is often a change in the daily planning at the school because of “activities”. During football season there’s a game against another school every Friday night. The South Texas schools are divided by size. Since our school is tiny, we play against other tiny schools. Sometimes these are very far away.
High School Report 3
Posted in High School
Tagged America, American, Amerika, Amerikaans, curriculum, education, Football, high school, middelbare school, onderwijs, sport, sports, United States, vakken, Verenigde Staten
High School Report 2
Posted in High School
Tagged America, American, Amerika, Amerikaans, education, kwaliteit, onderwijs, quality, United States, Verenigde Staten
High School Report 1
For the students the school year begins on Wednesday (sic), August 16. It ends on Tuesday (sic again), May 28. The Christmas vacation began on Thursday, December 21 and ended on Monday, January 8. More than two and a half weeks. Instead of autumn break there’s Thanksgiving in November, which means three days off, and sometimes a whole week. At Easter only Good Friday is a holiday. Instead of Easter break there’s Spring Break in March. For the rest there’s a long weekend in September for Labor Day.
Posted in High School
Tagged America, American, Amerika, Amerikaans, education, hours, kwaliteit, onderwijs, onderwijs uren, quality, school jaar, school year, United States, Verenigde Staten
In the late 60s Richard Proenneke built his own cabin in the Alaskan wilderness with only a few simple tools. He spent most of the rest of his life there. Sam Keith fleshed out Proenneke's diary of his first 16 months, when he was making his home by a lake. I love these kinds of books!
An old Oji-Cree healer and her nephew canoe down a river in Canada, away from the world of white people. They both have to come to terms with their past. The woman has lost most of her tribe and the young man is traumatized from his recent experience in the Belgian trenches of World War One. My second book by Boyden. Can't say enough about him.
An incredibly comprehensive history of everything related to slavery in the Southern United States, from the beginning of the colonies to the end of the Civil War. Over 700 pages and I took over 30 pages of notes. I will be sharing over many posts to come!
Hamid's debut novel. I love this author. A young man in Lahore, Pakistan, is the victim of love, drugs, obsession, the class system and his complete lack of self-awareness.
A golem, created in Poland and brought to life on a ship to America, and a jinni who was trapped in a flask a thousand years ago and released in New York -- the most unusual immigrants you'll ever meet.
The only part of her life a Korean woman can control is her body, so she withdraws into it. Harrowing.
Autobiography lightly disguised as a novel about the son of Southern migrants growing up on the streets of Harlem, New York City, in the 1940s and 50s. Written like you're hearing the whole story in a bar. Quite a feat.
The story of a man struggling to make a living in Morocco. No plot, no clearly defined characters, but fascinating in its authenticity.
Pakistani man tells an American about his experience as a college student and employee of an assessment firm in America years ago. Smart, nuanced and pretty darn honest considering the unreliable narrator.
Wow! The answer to the inane platitudes about how all parents love their children and how children should always respect their parents. The protagonist must come to terms with his deeply flawed immigrant parents in order to change himself.
Seven short stories about life during the Kim Il-sung regime, by a writer who still lives and works in North Korea, were smuggled out of the country and translated. Mind-boggling stuff.
A 15-year-old autistic narrator wants to know who killed a neighbor's dog, and ends up much further out of his comfort zone than he planned. Wonderful read!
In politics, education, religion, agriculture, business--it turns out that dumbing down has been here from the start.
Fifty years of Istanbul seen through the eyes of a street vendor who migrates to the city as a young boy. It's also a window into the complicated dance between men and women in Turkey.
Hey, don't laugh, at least I'm trying.
A Norwegian immigrant is cooped up with six other people on a tiny island off the coast of Maine all winter in 1873. A woman in the present researching the Norwegian immigrant is cooped up with three other people on a tiny sailboat. What could possibly go wrong?
A man stuck between two worlds in more ways than one. Fascinating!
Historical novel about early contacts between first nations and the French in Canada. Beautifully written story that doesn't pull any punches. I bought his other two novels right away.
Beautifully written. By my children's favorite English and Creative Writing teacher! It's got rave reviews and we're all very proud of her.
Suki Kim is a Korean-American journalist. She poses as an evangelical Christian posing as an English teacher at a school for the sons of North Korea's elite. Her experience and the information she manages to get via writing assignments are incredible. Definitely a lot more eye-opening that any CNN special.
This. Explains. Everything!!!
Why has Islam not undergone a reformation like Christianity? Why is it so easy for Islamic extremist groups like IS to recruit young muslims? What would it take for Islam in fundamentalist Islamic countries to enter modernity? Does the West have a role to play?
Amazing! A man wanders endlessly through a dreamscape, becoming other people, himself in the past, everything is fluid. Kafkaesque disconnect between people and their different needs.
A multi-layered novel about the history of Libya. A fast read, but one you can repeat and find something new each time.
Twelve Americans go missing in Burma/Myanmar during a tour. Touching and hilarious, but mostly hilarious.
The most unusual murder mystery I've ever read. Incredible writing. It haunted me for days.
The quote on the front mentions that these stories are exhilerating. I couldn't disagree more. They are almost unbearably painful to read, and yet I couldn't put them down. Very well done, apart from the third story, which is written in the second tense. Please let me know if you know of ONE story that works in second tense.
Rants, essays, and diatribes.
Fascism, Nationalism and Authoritarianism in U.S. History
He was in India. I was in Ireland. Now we're in Paris. New posts every week.
Making Sense of a Vexing and Perplexing World
Cogito Ergo Sum
daily gadfly
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Longreads : The best longform stories on the web
making sense of the news one week at a time
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Words by RRN
The journey of a Graphic Design graduate
Explore Scotland through my stories, photos and videos. She's a beauty!
Wanderers on two wheels!
Quintin Lake's photographic Journey walking around Britain's Coast
Adventures in the world of history
Amsterdam days and nights
196 countries, countless stories...
Postcards from afar: Immersion Travel, Cultural Travel. Currently in... Singapore!
Adventures in absurdity
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Art + Photo + Words
art design & oddities
Historian, Folklorist, Writer, Re-enactor, Museum Professional. Follow me on Twitter: @stuartorme
“I have tried my best to keep my country alive by writing about it.” - Nuruddin Farah
Trimming the bush of life...
een amerikaanse schrijft over liefde, ouderschap & volwassen worden in nederland
I write books--cuz I love words. Sometimes they love me back.
the past in pop culture
a place to showcase
When will we ever learn?: Common sense and nonsense about today's public schools in America.
Rising from the ashes of domestic violence
a chronicle of recollections
There are 5 sisters. She's the middlest.
Visual Arts from Canada & Around the World
Resident Alien -- Being Dutch in America 