An American friend who is very well connected in Washington, D.C. was telling me he's worried about Europe. So what else is new, I said. "No, I really mean it, future generations could grow up under Islamic rule." It was a John McEnroe moment, as in you can"t be serious. He assured me ...
Gstaad—Can somebody tell me when was the last time America got it right? Uncle Sam’s track record in selecting leaders in faraway places reminds me very much of my own, where libel is concerned: Plaintiffs 5, Taki 0. Let’s see, the good Uncle overthrew Mohammad Mossaddegh in Iran back in the ...
Gstaad—In this freewheeling Swiss village of the 1950s, the unconventional was the norm, monumental drinking commonplace, but the manners of the players were always impeccable. Yes, there were ladies of lower-class parentage and of a dubious past, but they covered it up with a grand manner and an ...
Porto Cheli—Nothing is moving, not a twig nor a leaf, and I find myself missing the cows, the mountains, and the bad weather. The sun has become the enemy, a merciless foe who can only be tolerated when swimming, something I do daily and for close to an hour. Nothing very strenuous, mind you, ...
Porto Cheli—I have been thinking about my children and my own strange boyhood as I gaze up at the clear blue skies of summer. Summers lasted an eternity back then, and by the time one got back to school there were new friends, new loves, and new discoveries of things unknown the previous May. For ...
Ask any Greek about the Turks and the best you"ll get is a grimace. More often than not the answer will be a swear word and the word "barbarians" thrown in for good measure. Ditto the Congolese when the word "Belgium" comes up, not to mention the Algerians when discussing la ...
I am looking out my window at the green landscape and forested mountains rising beyond, as peaceful a scene as there is in this troubled world, but this is Switzerland, a country that hasn’t fought a war in 700 years, resisting both Napoleon and Hitler through friendly persuasion and by having ...
I wagered a Takimag writer that the New York Times and its international excuse for a newspaper would report on anti-Semitism in Europe the minute the civilian dead in Gaza reached 1000. I won the bet exactly two days after I made it, and two days after the glorious Israeli army managed to kill ...
One event I regretted missing on my last visit to London was a party at the Polish Club, which has been refurbished and has a new Polish prince as its president and has good Poles and active members such as Ladies Belhaven and Hamilton, both friends of mine, keeping the home fires burning. I have ...
Boo to the C.I.A.! It got caught spying on Germany and its top man in Berlin has been sent home. What I"d like to know is, what's so important about Berlin's open-book policies that we had to play dirty with them? Maybe our ex-top man in the German capital should now concentrate on weeding out ...
