Most of this post was written before Hurricane Gustav came into being, but these first paragraphs are written from my very couch, with the help of electricity restored by workers from northern Texas! Other emergency workers I saw were from Kentucky, Indiana, and Oklahoma, and of course from here. There must have been many more, … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Charles Barber, Helen Redmond
Hier ist ein important post. It is about sexism and gender discrimination. That was going to be all I said today, but I have read about knowledge and also tried to cook, so this post has had to be renamed for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and philosophy “done” in the kitchen. * Here … More Juana de Asbaje
The owner of the bus company HORNA, in whose vehicle I was riding when it hit a truck and then crashed into a car, said that he had no way of controlling whether or not the drivers had accidents. He was therefore not responsible for anything that happened, so that it was not his duty … More Yet Another Coda
This is very good. H/T Hattie. As a side note, it alludes to one of my main themes: the fallacious idea that it is more healthy and “natural” (or “genuine”) for women to be irrational than for us to be logical. As we know, that idea is central in Reeducation. Axé.
Where I wanted to be was at the Lima Film Festival, a truly good thing, but so did everyone else. I could not get in, I was too late in trying to buy my ticket, so I went and got my bangs trimmed. Manicurist: Do you want a manicure? Professor Zero: No, thank you, not … More An Authoritarian Conversation
I saw in Sunday’s La República that the Archbishop of Cuzco is canceling the lease the traditional and beautiful Café Allyu, on the Plaza de Armas, has held for decades, so as to lease the space to Starbuck’s. This will of course hurt a high quality Peruvian small business in favor of a mediocre transnational … More Complete Boycott of Starbuck’s and the Catholic Church
Many Peruvian internet cafés are covert porn theatres, and others are de facto ones, because they are primarily used that way. You can tell some of the seriously pornographically oriented ones because they have curtains around each computer. I avoid such places, and here in beautiful Huamachuco, where I am (I walked to Markawamachuko today!) I … More Mais regardez
Now some long distance buses in Peru play videos. The choice of videos, however, is really shocking, they are so violent. I am wondering whether this is just my luck or whether it is a generalized phenomenon. Yesterday, while driving through for hours through some of the most depressing industrial slums I have ever seen, … More On Movies on Buses
Everyone knows not to be in Lima in winter, because of the weather. I would add to this that if you are traveling (as opposed to renting your own apartment), not to be in Miraflores in the month of July because it is inundated with “backpackers” and other people you left Europe and the United … More Your Travel Guide Speaks
If you have spent any time at all in Lima in winter – and I suspect the poverty of the early 20th century, although different from the current poverty, was about the same – you see why Vallejo was able to write such depressed poems about this city. The pollution, the traffic, the general deterioration, … More Esta tarde en Lima llueve
coldhearted scientist وداد 