occasional posts by risa aratyr
thoughts, news, and items of writerly interest
New York – Round 1 was a 3-day stay with travel at both ends. In the middle was a completely free, no-plans day, ideal for the side-trip I had hoped, but never dreamed we’d be able to take. Wednesday 17 May, we boarded a train for Princeton, to see Uncle Dan. By all rights, Uncle … Read more A Proper Goodbye
When your travel-holiday starts with a huge leap, it’s nice to land in a spot that allows you to pause and acclimate. First leg of our 2011 “Land of Our Fathers” tour, for example, we took a massive leap from California to the Netherlands that landed us in semi-familiar territory: English-speaking, tourist-friendly, cultural-cousin Amsterdam, where … Read more New York – Round 1
We’re off on a 33-day, cross-continental journey, my husband Roy and I. (I’d call it a “grand tour,” but I believe that term is reserved for a different continent.) Whether this is a brilliant idea or a questionable one, time will tell. It’s ambitious, certainly, especially for a couple of old folks like us. Broad … Read more On Holiday
Science . . . is an imperfect science. Scientists are people, after all. People bring their biases to work. In the work-place, personal biases affect hiring/firing, promotion, pay, what tasks are prioritized, to whom they are delegated, how productivity is assessed, which behavioral and interpersonal standards are applied, and job expectations. In the lab and … Read more Scientific Americans
Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood career – spanning decades and marked by more than 50 films – was on the down-slide by the time I came into the world. For me, he was simply the host of Death Valley Days. And a pretty bland host he was, too. Two years after DVD went off the air, Reagan … Read more Seeing is Believing