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 ...
I write this on July 14, France’s big day, and on the 25th anniversary of my father’s passing. He died at dawn, on the bicentennial of the uprising, as if he couldn’t bear French triumphalism over the foul event one more second. Actually he had a massive heart attack as he was preparing to ...
Island of Rhodos—When I’m on the water, I feel I was born to it. Yachting has always been a way to enjoy the sea and the nature associated with it. The motion through water, the breeze and spray on the face, the anticipation of a landfall, the sheer beauty of leaning into the wind and watching ...
To Fort Belvedere for a ball that most likely will discourage any more balls because of its brilliance and perfection. Galen and Hilary Weston, who lease the historic house, once the playground of Edward VIII and the venue where he signed the Instrument of Abdication in front of his three brothers, ...
The greatest criminal and most profitable enterprise the world over is FIFA. I write this as billions are watching obscenely overpaid footballers competing for a cup that is long overdue for a total remake. It was a very good idea long ago, but so was selective democracy and waging war with bows ...
