This afternoon, after returning from a day at the beach, my neighbor’s son comes to the house to say his father invites me to his house. This happens all the time – a lovely part of neighborhood life here is the various kenduris: get-togethers for weddings, graduations, funeral rememberances (tahlil) or often much smaller events. […]
Yearly Archives: 2005
Strange Fruit pt. 7: Manggis
Manggis, Garcinia mangosteena, is a lovely fruit. It has a thick purple rind with pure white fruit and bright yellow sap. Manggis is in season at the same time as Durian. It is apparently known as mangosteen in English, but this English speaker had never heard the word till I arrived here, so I just […]
Abang Long’s first grade test
Now that <abbr title=”Firstborn son”>Long</abbr> had graduated from kindergarten, the next step for us was to find a grade school for him. We decided the best option would be the Islamic public grade school, often called the madrassah around here. Lest we hastily jump to images of rows of boys rocking back and forth over […]
Abang Long’s graduation
Abang Long has matriculated. In November, having successfully completed the necessary requirements of kindergarten, Long was graduated from Taski Abim, Seri Wangi branch. And, as befits such an accomplishment, a ceremony was held for him and his classmates at the Dewan Pustaka dan Bahasa. Parents are of course suckers for seeing their kids in this […]
Footprints in the Balkans
Check out the latest installment in the continuing adventures of Anak Alam! Now, if Anak Alam is not the first Malaysian to visit Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria, he must be among very select company. He describes his travels in beautiful detail, as he stops at mosques, tombs and tekkes along the way. It is interspersed […]
James Van Sweden
Gardening With Nature by James van Sweden, the foremost american landscape architect of the day along with his partner Wolfgang Oehme. In the first chapter he describes his main influences then goes on to tell how he got started back in l971 when he asked Oehme to help him landscape the backyard of his old […]
John Steinbeck and Ailanthus
John Steinbeck, the great American author, had occassion to notice Ailanthus. He describes them in his essay “The Making of a New Yorker” for the New York Times in 1943. The very first time I came to the city [New York] and settled was engineered by a girl. Looking back from the cool position of […]
Ailanthus: a poem
By John Marin —————————————————– AILANTHUS Please take a moment and think about the Ailanthus. No-one plans it. No-one plants it. No-one waters, Or prunes, Or sprays it, Or gives it plant food or weed killer or even manure. It squeezes between tall buildings, Through sidewalk gratings, And cracks in concrete, And in angles of fences […]