Douglas Dalrymple considers American attitudes to genealogy and knowing one's place... Uncle Marv numbers his socks with permanent marker, “1” for left and “2” for right. That way he gets each one on the correct foot and his toes are happy. He’s retired now but used to work on computers for ... Read More...

Rita discovers that the town where she used to work has been voted the second snobbiest in America... The dog days of summer are traditionally silly season for the news media here as soaring temperatures drive political discourse into the stratosphere of the absurd and inspire heat-stressed Americans to act out ... Read More...

Rita discovers the story of a little Quaker town that became the capital city of the U.S. for just one day... The charming little town of Brookeville is nestled in the suburban sprawl of Washington D.C. as it once nestled in the green and pleasant Maryland countryside. But suburban sprawl maintains ... Read More...

British ex-pat Rita faces up to just how American she has become... I celebrated my birthday this month and realized that I have now lived in the U.S. for exactly two thirds of my life. My early years in England seem, well, a lifetime away. My England was the England of ... Read More...

Of course Michael Gove didn't actually ban any American books from schools, but that didn't stop a good argument about British and American literature. Rita weighs in... Two contrary news stories from Britain caught this librarian’s attention recently as they both have to do with books. First was education minister Michael ... Read More...

We may like to think we're savvy travellers, not typical tourists, but things can go horribly wrong... I’ll never forget the moment we realized we were lost – in rural Mexico, neither of us with a word of Spanish, our cruise ship a long bus and boat ride away and due ... Read More...

Rita on Arianna Huffington and the American religion of self-improvement... The first self-improvement book I ever owned was a gift from my mother. She was obviously worried that I was turning into a bluestocking Women’s Libber. The cover featured a photo of a young woman who looked like a throwback to ... Read More...

For a British ex-pat, even the weather in America is bigger and badder... There is a new four-letter word in the vocabulary of Washingtonians: SNOW.  This winter has been remarkable for a continual onslaught of snow and ice storms and record breaking cold.  There was no respite.  Every week, even as ... Read More...

There's something cyborg about these early explorers of the meld between man and machine, all part of this week's weird wikipedia article... John Murray Spear (September 16, 1804 – October 5, 1887) was an American Spiritualist clergyman who is most notable for his attempts to construct an electrically powered Messiah which ... Read More...

In his early 20s Douglas Dalrymple followed a romantic notion to work in a salmon cannery in Alaska. It turned out to be tough. Here is his story... It’s a romantic notion. By way of explanation for a summer’s grubby employment on a steamer bound for Alaska in 1923, E.B. White ... Read More...