Helpful votes received on reviews:
91% (52 of 57)
Location: Santa Fe, NM USA
In My Own Words:
A list of random objects on my bulletin board: 1. An Irish 10-punt note featuring the opening sentence of 'Finnegans Wake.' 2. A quotation clipped from a magazine: 'Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.' 3. A tin milagro with a pair of eyes. 4. A picture of my father taken in 1951, sitting on the rear bumper of our old Ford in a Raymond Chandler-ish hat and coat, smoking a pip… Read moreA list of random objects on my bulletin board:
1. An Irish 10-punt note featuring the opening sentence of 'Finnegans Wake.'
2. A quotation clipped from a magazine: 'Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.'
3. A tin milagro with a pair of eyes.
4. A picture of my father taken in 1951, sitting on the rear bumper of our old Ford in a Raymond Chandler-ish hat and coat, smoking a pipe.
5. A 'Credentials of Ministry' card from the Universal Life Church.
6. A postcard with an Egyptian tomb painting of 3 dancing Anubis figures.
7. Santa Fe Indian Market volunteer badges for the last 7 years.
8. A vintage postcard with the verse, 'As you ramble on thru life, brother,/Whatever be your goal,/Keep your eye upon the donut/And not upon the hole!'
9. A Flash Gordon postage stamp.
10. My favorite Gary Larson cartoon: three hawks in a tree wearing sunglasses, one listening to a Walkman, with the caption, 'Birds of prey know they're cool.'
11. A photo of myself wielding a trowel on an Earthwatch archeological research project in Britain.
12. A copy of the check for the one and only article I ever sold to 'The Santa Fean' magazine.
13. A button in neon pink and green saying, 'My reality check just bounced.'
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Reviews
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Morris' perspective on Trieste is unique on several counts: a seasoned and sensitive traveler, she has a deep affection for a city that doesn't rank high on most people's lists of favorite places; she's experienced the city as both a young man and a middle-aged woman; and she's well-read about the city's history and literary associations, but she uses her learning as the backdrop for direct experience of life in Trieste, rather than as an end in itself. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, both as an appreciative visitor's impressions of the city and as an account of Morris' elegiac musings late in an eventful life. On the other hand, having recently read Claudio Magris'… Read more
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This is a wonderful, in-depth exploration of a corner of Europe that most people don't know exists. Over the centuries, Trieste and the surrounding region have been a cultural crossroads; as the border between Italy, Slovenia, and Austria shifted, the city was transformed from a rather sleepy backwater to a major port, and back again. This amalgam of cultural influences has made the region unique, and, as a native son, Magris offers an insider's perspective. But this isn't your average travel book; in a series of (mostly) short essays, he vividly portrays aspects of regional life ranging from the whimsical (the bear that never appears) to the gently ironic (Cafe San Marco) to the grim… Read more
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I found this book especially interesting because my city recently passed a "living wage" ordinance (and local business groups are, predictably, squawking). To those reviewers who sneer that Ehrenreich's research is biased because "nobody can live on $7 an hour in Key West," may I point out that tourist areas attract unskilled workers precisely because they provide thousands of low-wage service jobs; but if you can't afford a car on your salary, and your other transportation options are limited, you're constrained to live near your job and are likely to end up sharing a motel room with 4 other people. Or there's the all-too-common dilemma that blue-collar workers who… Read more
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