Rita weighs into the gun debate, and finds an unlikely hero in Piers Morgan... Well, I’m going to bite the bullet and write about guns, a topic that leaves me feeling trapped in a Hall of Mirrors where everywhere you turn you see a distorted, nightmarish vision of America. But this ... Read More...
Dispatches from the Former New World
Posh British soap Downton Abbey is a worldwide television phenomenon, but could the introduction of the 'vulgar' American character Martha kill the US's love affair with the show...? As dawn broke over Washington D.C. on Monday January 7th area residents were divided into two camps. No, not Democrats and Republicans this time, ... Read More...
Exiled in the US, Rita attempts to import an English Christmas... We don’t have Boxing Day in America, but it’s probably just a matter of time before we adopt it as we have so many other English Christmas customs over the years I’ve lived here. Christmas was a rather sad time ... Read More...
A tale of ancient bones and living relics - Rita goes fossil-hunting in Maryland and finds a dinosaur of 1950s glamour... Thanksgiving was a busy time chez Tull as members of the far-flung Byrne clan flew in from London and San Francisco. We gave thanks for the end of the political ... Read More...
Rita recalls the most embarrassing incident of her life... Americans still hear my English accent, but in England people think I’m an American. In truth my accent must be hovering somewhere in the mid-Atlantic after so many years immersion in the American dialect. It takes a long time for an accent ... Read More...
The Pledge of Allegiance, penned by a socialist who wished it to be accompanied with a Nazi-style salute? Surely not! Rita investigates... I pledge allegiance to the Flag, of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation under God Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice ... Read More...
Education standards are in the news on both sides of the Atlantic. In today's dispatch, Rita wonders whether America really values its teachers... On my first day of student teaching I exchanged my hippie duds for what I thought was a suitably sober, professional outfit: a plain grey skirt and a ... Read More...
Rita explains why librarians are at the forefront of the battle for intellectual freedom in the USA... My favorite superhero is able to leap tall bookcases in a single bound! It’s the Librarian action-figure sitting on my desk, finger raised in the shushing gesture that I’ve never seen performed by any ... Read More...
Do American and English parents do everything the opposite way round? Rita investigates... I usually side with linguistic purists who consider "verbing" a sign of the collapse of civilization. But in the case of the word "parenting" it is surely appropriate, for Parenting is now a competitive sport of Olympic proportions. ... Read More...
Today's Dabbler letter from America finds the site of America’s first experiment in religious liberty in an unexpected place.. John Pendleton Kennedy’s 1848 novel Rob of the Bowl has all the hallmarks of overwrought Gothic historical fiction. A haunted chapel, mysterious blood stains, an evil pirate named Cocklescraft, the beautiful daughter of an ... Read More...
