Too often, civilization means not thinking about the things that preoccupied earlier humans for centuries. Maybe the greatest example is water, which enters our house at the twist of a …
Notes from Lisbon: Small Bills: The Eurocrisis and the Gelato Crisis
Before I flew to Lisbon, Portugal, I exchanged dollars for euros and held, for the first time, the crisp bright paper money – blue twenties, deep pink tens, green fives, …
Notes from Lisbon: Where Improving Relationships gets a Piece of the Public Works Budget
The year before I was born, 1974, Portugal saw the Carnation Revolution. The dictatorship masterminded by Antonio Salazar (dead since 1970) finally fell, and democracy rolled in after a no-shots-fired …
Notes from Lisbon: Earthquake Enlightenment
On November first in the year of our Lord 1755, All Saints Day fell upon Sunday, and devout Catholics across Lisbon walked to church for worship services that would end …