Balkan Barbie

Greenskeepers - Lotion - Lyrics I'm looking down the hole You're looking up at me You're cold and tired that is easy to see Lower the rope to you a bucket and a light Your membrane will be soft and smooth and your heart will be mine. It rubs the lotion on its skin Or else it gets the hose again It rubs the lotion on its skin Or else it gets the hose again Yes Precious, it gets the hose . . . Wooooooo, oooh, oooh. Wooooooo, oooh, oooh. The look inside your eyes drives me from control Evoking visions of my favorite casserole. And if I eat your heart I'll also bite your soul And when I'm done with that I'll use your skull as a bowl. It rubs the lotion on its skin. Or else it gets the hose again. It rubs the lotion on its skin. Or else it gets the hose again. It gets the hose. It puts the lotion in the basket. It puts the lotion in the basket. It puts the lotion in the basket. Yes it does . . . Put the lotion in the basket Put the lotion in the basket . . . Put the...

Radovan Karadzic. Captured. Riding a city bus. In Belgrade . July 21, 2008. He had been practicing alternative medicine there under the name Dragan Dabic. He gave a lecture, “How to nurture your own internal energy” and contributed to Healthy Life magazine. Karadzic organized the 43 month long siege of Sarajevo 1992-1195. Karadzic organized Srebrenica, 1995. I heard on the radio this morning, NPR, that, in Belgrade , the indicted war criminal “disguised himself with a beard.” Yes, I suppose he went unnoticed in Belgrade . Just another bearded man with an instinct to kill. “This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade. It is also an important day for international justice,” Serge Brammertz, head prosecutor at The Hague . I am sure that the victims stopped waiting for the arrest years ago. Karadzic’s arrest took 13 years. It seems only the “international community” has been waiting for the arrest for over a decade. Actually, they have be...

During a layover in Chicago's O'Hare Airport, waiting to return from Boston, I passed some time in the bookstore. I usually pass my layover time here. It is not a fancy bookstore, but it does have a good selection of good, contemporary works, and here is where I picked up my first Jose Saramango book, Balthasar and Blimunda . I read this book in 2004, on my way to Dubrovnik, where I finished reading the book and left it behind for the next visitor to the guest house. Saramango is now one of my favorite writers. This time, I found Christopher Buckley's "Boomsday" (2007). I read in the writer's notes that he finished writing in July 2006, so two years before I picked it up. The book lay on a table of current fiction. I often find that the voice and story of current fiction can be too pseudo-spiritual and moralistic for me. For example, I liked "Little Children" but it is a haunting critique, and although it might be dead-on and maybe even needed ... ca...

This is the best tree house ... ever. It is in the front yard of my parents' across the street neighbors. It was new to me on my recent visit home. I saw it and understood I would climb up to the tree house. I didn't ask any questions, not if or why, not how and when, not about the neighbors. I understood the moment would reveal itself. I was up to the occasion. It was 2am on a Saturday and I was barefoot and wearing a short dress. The finale to a social evening. Let's take a minute to put the picture together. I used the wood planks nailed to the tree to climb up to the tree house. The nail on the top plank came loose as I was pulling myself up. A force stronger than gravity pulled me up on deck. My heart pounding. I was in the tree house now. Yah, my instinct was right on about this. Sorry, this is not the best photo ... ever. The tree house is a large "deck" built around the trunk and a large branch. They say a contractor built it.

Happy Canada Day! (July 1). I heard on the radio that today is Canada Day. It has already been a few weeks ago that I was in Boston to present research at a marketing/advertising professor/graduate student conference. At dinner with two of my good friends who live in Montreal and Toronto, Z and M, when discussing Z's upcoming move, the topic came up of how people heat homes in Canada - forced air, radiators...they said Canada runs on hydroelectric power, mostly. Then we were wondering if Canada has nuclear capabilities. Well, the answer is yes (ie Toronto). If you dig a bit deeper, you will find out the secret of our quiet neighbor to the North. Canada has vast uranium resources. I'm just sayn'.