The Adventures of Shylock Holmes

Tell me what you infer about Chilean government from this photo. My answer below the fold

Sometimes when I travel, the things that are striking are the absences compared with my home (adopted, in this case). America is very much t...

It is interesting to compare the fate of two St Paul’s Churches. The one in London was famously and mercifully intact and mostly unharmed a...

-If you want to see how long-lived civic effects can operate, just compare Mannheim and Heidelberg. Both have quite famous universities. One...

-I never tire while in foreign countries of seeing the subtle differences in appearance of people. German men often have a certain demeanor ...

-One of the most striking things about New Orleans during Mardi gras, oddly enough, is the attitude of the police. (Okay, lest you be quest...

There comes a point in one’s life where one surrenders to the lure of the practical, rather than the romantic. Bit by bit, the arguments fo...

So I'm back in The 'Hagen. Thoughts from last time are here . A surprisingly large effect of being on holiday is the impact of no ...

-One of the classic experiments in psychology to indicate overconfidence is to ask people to self-rate their driving ability. Nearly everybo...

Jwz recently posted  about this blog called ' She's a flight risk ', which ran from 2003 to 2006 and is diary of sorts claiming...

I'm now back from my sojourns abroad, and in the brief period where one is reminded of what is different about one's adopted country...

The most striking feature is the grim look on the faces of all the local men, particularly the young men. It's rare to see them smile at...

If anything captures the 'forced equality at the cost of anything resembling efficiency' aspect of Scandinavia, it's unisex publ...

- If I had to give it a shorthand description, it would be ‘halfway between Helsinki and Amsterdam’. This holds on a number of dimensions be...

-It's very refreshing to see people smoking outdoors in restaurants. Not because I smoke. Nor because I like the smell of smoke while ea...

Apologies for the lack of updates, I've been travelling around a fair bit recently. Here's my sociological travelogue. Miami -To...

From the latest Bon Appetit issue , a thoroughly under-utilised strategy: "In the summer of 1970, my mom, Helen, went to visit a frien...