More than a decade ago, while heading home from work in Washington, DC on the metro, I heard the unmistakable sound of Armenian being spoken. Since this does not happen every day and as it had never happened before, I
A Ukrainian Thanksgiving
It was dark by the time I arrived in the vicinity of my friend’s home. In my haste I had not looked up the address, and all the neighborhood houses, in the dusk, seemed eerily similar. But I need not
Le Carré and Jefferson
A friend’s recent Facebook post charmingly insinuated that Thomas Jefferson’s love of books and reading could, in part, be attributed to the absence then of the Internet and other electronic distractions that plague us in our time. Later the same
On Rereading a Book After Decades
Being under the weather is never a pleasant experience, but one advantage, if it can be called that, is that it magically puts extra time on one’s hands which was never there before. So, when I found myself housebound in
O Afghanistan!
Kabul has fallen. Lacking cable TV at home (a conscious decision), I woke up before the crack of dawn this morning (August 16, 2021) to be able to watch the 5:00 AM news on the BBC (my only reliable international
An Apple and A Samsung
It was with some hesitation that I packed an apple and a banana (there was not going to be any in-flight service because of the pandemic) in my laptop bag before heading for the airport at the crack of dawn.
Kafka and Hawthorne in the Time of Covid – A Personal Experience
One of the most poignant scenes in literature is in Kafka’s Metamorphosis, where Gregor Samsa’s parents, who are heartbroken and embarrassed by his physical transformation into a disgusting insect, take the painful decision of confining him to his room in
Aram-W6JY – the Armenian-American Radio Pioneer
As many of you know from my recent social media posts, I am striving to resurrect the marvelous hobby of amateur radio that I regretfully put into cold storage sixteen years ago due to other demands on my time, mostly
さようなら、私の友人、河野さん！ Goodbye, my friend, Kono-san!
さようなら、私の友人、河野さん！ [Sayonara, watashi no yujin, Kono-san!] Goodbye, my friend, Kono-san! I still remember that evening at a restaurant in Hiroshima in 1995 when, in complete ignorance, I causally placed the plastic-coated menu at the center of the dinner table, only
Nature – the Spurned Gift
While traveling in an eastern nation some years ago, I marveled at how even something as insignificant as a business card, was received with both hands and a bow, with respect and gratitude, quite in contrast to the cursory manner