In her latest letter from America, ex-pat Rita discovers a place where all the country's problems seem very far away... When I heard the bells I knew. After so many years in the New World I had finally found it: America’s Shangri-La. At first I thought it was the bell chimes ... Read More...
Why on earth did he call the feather 'macaroni' anyway? Or was he talking about the hat?... In recent years I’ve spent a lot of time singing nonsense songs to my grandsons. Nursery rhymes and traditional children’s songs, often imperfectly remembered. So sometimes I make them up and improvise pure nonsense ... Read More...
Rita goes country - and finds a haven from modern America... but not, alas, from the tax man.... It was supposed to be a simple outing to an ice cream store to treat the little boys. I never could have imagined that by late afternoon I would be bottle-feeding a baby ... Read More...
The logic of America's ongoing culture war can lead to some very strange places, finds Rita... It has come to this. Americans are arguing over... cakes. Every now and then, as the culture wars rage on, one side or another backs itself into an absurdist rhetorical cul-de-sac from which no amount ... Read More...
The sight of escaping llamas in Arizona reminds Rita of a time when she discovered a slice of English village pathos in America... The llamas made a break for freedom. And freedom-loving Americans everywhere were captivated by the live video feed from suddenly diverted traffic helicopters. It was the most exiting ... Read More...
As an exceptionally cold winter grips the east coast of the US, Rita watches the country's infrastructure start to crack under the ice... It’s Pothole Season here in Maryland and pretty much everywhere in the U.S. this year, including states that rarely saw snow or ice in the past. Some people like ... Read More...
Rita decides to take a leaf out of the book of NBC's Brian Williams and jazz up her anecdotes a bit. So here's the story of Rita's Life in America: the Dramatic Version (with fact checking supplied by a scrupulous research librarian)... On my first flight out of New York the plane made a ... Read More...
Rita turns her attention to every parent's worst nightmare: the bad babysitter... “I’m fine Mom, I’m in the basement building a laser machine,” said my ten year old son when I phoned home to check on him. It was the first time I left him home alone. That was back in ... Read More...
Jousting may have gone out of fashion in the Old World some time in the seventeenth century, but here in Maryland it is still going strong, in fact it is the official State Sport... I discovered this unlikely fact in a serendipitous way. Browsing a neighborhood flea market one day I ... Read More...
Is Francis the anti-American Pope?... I’m not sure that I believe in a God, but I do believe in Pope Francis. The man known as “the Bishop of the slums” in his native Argentina represents a brand of Catholicism I recognize from the era of Pope John XXIII. As a student ... Read More...