Category Archives: USA

My predominant memory of Florida is of miles of asphalt and concrete, overlooked by garish neon signs for noisy bars, and gaudy billboards promoting guns and gambling, escort clubs, the bible and ‘pro life’; a landscape punctuated with plastic theme parks and lined with strip malls, drive-throughs, and featureless clumps of condominiums gathered around kitsch […]

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On a long, circuitous drive that my husband and I made around the United States, we managed to hit the southernmost point of Key West (see: Mile Zero and Hemingway’s Cats). As much as I would have loved to stay in that delightful, laid-back island-city, it was far too expensive! A motel room in the […]

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Key West: the land of tropical breezes, fruit cocktails, legendary sunsets and dreams; the home of famous writers, artists, naturalists and presidents; the island city just 144 kilometres (90 miles) north of Cuba, and the southern-most point in the continental United States. Mile 0! We made it! My husband and I hadn’t driven the whole US 1 […]

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Once upon a time, long, long ago, we told fanciful stories about a moon made of cheese, and about a man who lived there. Then, fifty years ago this week, while we all watched on our flickery black-and-white television screens, American astronauts Commander Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exited their Apollo Lunar Module Eagle and walked on the surface […]

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Nashville wears its love of music – especially country music – on its sleeve. The moment you arrive at the International Airport, you know you are in country-music country, with exhibits and installations tipping their Stetsons to local stars and luminaries: mostly from the country music scene. Turn on the rental-car radio, and the the pre-sets […]

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