Two incredible wrongs were done, two crimes committed. Two men are in prison, charged with these crimes, but I am confident that not everyone who is guilty will be charged. Aiding and abetting takes many forms. I am speaking of the murder of Khalid Jabara, a 37-year old man, on August 12 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, […]
Continue reading
When I learned that Marion Osgood was going to Lebanon, I controlled my jealousy by asking her write a story for me about her trip. She did, and here it is. Marion is British, and I have preserved her slightly different spelling of a few words. Also, in case you have not been to London […]
Continue reading
News in my email box this morning reminds me of how fortunate I am and prompts me to do something I have never done before—use this blog space to brag about it. It’s fair, I think. After all, this website relates to my memoir, In Borrowed Houses, and so does the news, indirectly. Aliki Barnstone […]
Continue reading
The Solution We Are Afraid to Try A relative of mine who had earlier divorced in his wife, created a scandal in our family with his relationship to another woman. There were two horrifying things about the relationship. First they were a man and a woman living together and not married. Second, she was black […]
Continue reading
On the Fourth of July my husband and I happened to be in Dallas, Texas, where we were visiting a young couple from Lebanon. We have known the wife since she was a cute little seven year old. Now she has a hospitable husband and two handsome little boys. That evening we all drove […]
Continue reading
At the publishing house I directed for 24 years in Lebanon our chief translator and editor had unusual editorial skills. As a translator he never wrote a word until he was sure he understood the intention of the English author, and in the end the work seemed to have originated in Arabic. The classical […]
Continue reading
Recently, while traveling, circumstances beyond my control caused me to become uncommonly hungry. Hunger is something I cannot endure well, because of a tendency to hypoglycemia. I have on occasions become dysfunctional, unable to think, and afterwards could not remember what I had done. But on the day I am speaking of, I just […]
Continue reading
Memorial Day is a perfect time to commend and defend the soldiers whom we as a country have burdened with tasks risky to their bodies and souls. It goes without saying that, if our country is at war then the people on the front edge of executing that war deserve our love. This does not […]
Continue reading
In the last ten or more years of her life my mother was quite deaf. The results of her deafness were fascinating once I learned to step back and think about them. First, she tended to fill her silence by talking a lot, a thing she had never done before. Second, she interrupted other […]
Continue reading
This morning, April 26, I opened the online Beirut Daily Star and looked for items of special interest to me. The one that caught my eye was an opinion piece headlined like this: “A manifesto to end our dysfunctional politics.” I jumped on this article quickly, eager to learn how Lebanon is going to […]
Continue reading