My summer vacation this year was a trip to Switzerland, with a side trip to the Netherlands to visit some friends who live there, and a side trip to Barcelona to spend time with friends who were vacationing there. Switzerland was the main part, though. The trip was organized by…

People Will Show You Who They Are If someone tells you they’re unreliable, believe them. If someone tells you they’re going to harm you or others, believe them. If someone tells you about their lies, assume that lying is OK with them and that they’ll do it again. If someone…

The Ripple Effect of the Woody Allen Culture When I was a teenager, Woody Allen movies were the available cinema for a small-town kid with hopes of becoming an intellectual. But, looking back, I wish I had never heard of him. I think Annie Hall had something good going on…

People Will Show You Who They Are If someone tells you they’re unreliable, believe them. If someone tells you they’re going to harm you or others, believe them. If someone tells you about their lies, assume that lying is OK with them and that they’ll do it again. If someone…

Toilet Town Every once in a while an aircraft mechanic has to deal with Chapter 38 — water and waste. The water’s no big deal; maybe a tap that won’t turn on or off, or a coffee maker that pees all over the galley. The waste is another matter. So…

Goodnight Airplane If you’re ever at the airport late at night, or early in the morning, you may have noticed that a lot of planes spend the night at the gates. Have you wondered what is going on with these airplanes? Usually they’re on what’s called a “remain overnight,” where…

My Summer Vacation — Foreign Extraction Edition, Part X By the end of the last installment, we had departed Manila and were on our way to Tokyo (actually Narita, a suburb of Tokyo). The check-in process at Manila, and the flight to Narita, were a blur. I remember having a…

One of the humps I have had to get over as I become a better fiction writer is the idea that I must keep an iron grip on any words I have committed to paper — that once I hit a certain word count I can’t let any of it…

When I was in college I had a conversation with a guy once that went like this: Him: “It’s so strange, XXX (a mutual friend) knows who all the fashion models are. …