Rolf describes the heady rise and wistful fall of expat life in South Korea.
Staring Off Into Space is an Investment in the Soul
Poetry: “Looking at a steer and / imagining balls is not / nearly so hard as / looking at balls and / imagining a bull.”
A look back at the Korean presidential election of 1997
Political commentary: Dissident politician Kim Dae-jung was not (as Time declared upon his inauguration) “Destiny’s Choice” to lead Korea into the new millennium, but the beneficiary of mudslinging, opportunism and circumstantial luck amid a wacky 1997 election season.
Ignorants abroad
An American expatriate weathers the slings and arrows of learning another language.
The Mystical High Church of Luck
Rolf goes to Las Vegas with $5 in his pocket, discovers the Mystical High Church of Luck — and ends up losing $100.
Letter from Korea: September 1997
Commentary: Simon Peter once found that a relatively small amount of faith allows a man to walk on water, but he was never faced with the more relevant prospect of navigating intersections in a city where 15.5-ton Hyundai buses careen four abreast down streets originally designed for oxcarts.
A review of Robert Bly’s The Sibling Society
Book Review: Robert Bly’s The Sibling Society is the latest doom-oracle for those born after the advent of polyester clothing. Conveniently, society is never as good as it was during the time when a given doomsayer came of age, and everything since has been a slippery slide on the downward spiral.
Paul Theroux on reading, teaching, and slow travel in Mexico [encore]
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Paul Theroux on aging, slow travel, and the inherent complexity of Mexico
How inexpensive countries are the secret to prolonging the journey [encore]
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Planning long-term journeys around the world’s cheapest destinations, with Tim Leffel
Lost in the Valley of Death: The life and disappearance of Justin Alexander
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Journalist Harley Rustad on the mysterious disappearance of Justin Alexander in India.
A mixtape (of sorts) about mixtapes: Music as intimate communication
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Rolf and his friends recall the bygone rite of making cassette mixtapes to share with friends