Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Depressing in Denmark
As seen in the Copenhagen airport. Life is getting rough for us dollar earners over in Europe -- it's $1.35 to the euro right now.
Labels: dollar, euro, exchange rate
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monasteries of Bukovina
Last winter, I visited rural Romania on assignment for Smithsonian magazine. The province of Bukovina -- one of the poorest parts of Europe -- is dotted with tiny, three-room churches painted on the outsides and insides with elaborate frescoes. Despite being five hundred years old, the frescoes are really well-preserved. And since the fall of communism there's been a religious revival, filling the monasteries (and cloisters) with a new generation of Orthodox nuns and monks. It's a beautiful corner of the world, even in early December. Check out my article on the painted monasteries here.
Labels: monasteries, Romania, Smithsonian
Monday, May 14, 2007
World's largest Nazi record collection
I've been following the frustratingly slow progress of the International Red Cross' International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen for a year now. Established during World War II as a way to track victims of the Nazi regime, today it is the largest collection of Nazi-era documents in the world. The collection contains an estimated 50 million pieces of paper concerning the fates of 17.5 million people. The storage facilities in the small German town of Bad Arolsen have 16 miles of shelves. And in all that time, all those records have never been accessible to the public.
Last year I visited with Lothar Mayer, a Florida man who's been searching for answers to his family's fate for two decades. I told the story of the tracing service, the struggle to open it and the Mayers in a feature for U.S. News and World Report, out today.
Last year I visited with Lothar Mayer, a Florida man who's been searching for answers to his family's fate for two decades. I told the story of the tracing service, the struggle to open it and the Mayers in a feature for U.S. News and World Report, out today.
Labels: Bad Arolsen, U.S. News and World Report
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Battle in Berlin
One of Berlin's most famous art objects is a 3,400-year-old bust of Nefertiti. It is on display in the Egyptian section of the Altes Museum, a short walk from my house, and has been for almost a century.
Nefertiti is sort of Berlin's Mona Lisa -- not really from here, but powerfully associated with the city's cultural property and museums. Recently, Egypt asked for a three-month loan of the bust -- and was denied. I wrote about the resulting war of words for Spiegel Online.
Labels: antiquities, egypt, nefertiti, spiegel
Sunday, May 06, 2007
My British debut
My piece yesterday on the Spectator's website is my first foray into the British media scene. I hope it will be followed by others. Enjoy.
