Paul Theroux’s The Last Train To Zona Verde reviewed by Guadamour

by Guadamour
Writer, Dandelion Salad
September 10, 2013

Image by MegMoggington via Flickr

Paul Theroux has long held the title of Dean of Travel Writers, as well as being an accomplished novelist and insightful literary and social critic. He started off his career in Africa where he taught for six years, and wrote about his travels around the continent. In his most recent travel book, The Last Train To Zona Verde—Overland From Cape Town To Angola (The Penguin Group, 2013), Theroux brings a thoughtful perspective unavailable to anyone without his experience in Africa.

Gulliver’s Travels in Food, Gardening and Cooking: Chronicle One by Joseph Natoli

by Joseph Natoli
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Sept. 28, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

My maternal grandmother grew tomato plants in huge coffee cans on a rooftop veranda in Brooklyn. Before that in a town called Patti (Greek for “on the shore”) on the Bay of Patti in Sicily, she made bread for the burgher class and pastries for the Baron and his family, a Sicilian version of Downton Abbey. The “contadini” made their own bread. She owned a filbert grove (nocciolanoc; namesd after St. Philibert whose feast day coincided with the ripening of the nut) and fed a neighbor’s hog which she received half of at butchering time.

Hope for the Gentiles: The Gospel of Mark

Dandelion Salad

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

Mark 15:39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Our Daily Bread on Jan 6, 2022

Travel to Rome and Israel with host Michael Card to explore the life and character of Jesus through the experiences of Peter as captured by Mark. You’ll visit the Mamertine Prison, Circus Maximus, the Roman Forum, and significant landmarks in Israel that help to reveal the struggles, suffering, and pain endured by non-Jewish believers who followed Jesus.

Iraq: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
London, England
19 June 2012

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

“A rock,
Breathing with the lungs of a lunatic,
That is it,
This is the twentieth century.”
(A Mirror for the Twentieth Century: Adonis – Ali Ahmad Said, 1930 – )

Recently a contradictory, but in important areas, remarkably sunny opinion poll on “progress” in Iraq, conducted in April, was released.(i)

Naples, Italy votes to Condemn Pizzarotti for involvement in Israeli High-Speed Train

Sent by Stephanie Westbrook
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Italy
15 February 2012

Image by Takver via Flickr

The Italian Coalition Stop That Train celebrates the news that the City Council of Naples, Italy has approved a motion condemning Pizzarotti for its involvement in a project in blatant violation of international law, the Israeli high-speed train cutting through the occupied Palestinian territories. The decision of the Naples City Council, which follows that of Rho (Milan) on November 30, 2011, is a strong sign for responsible action by local authorities, in this case one of Italy’s largest cities.

Stop That Train: Victory! Italian city votes to condemn Pizzarotti

Sent by Stephanie Westbrook
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Italy
Dec. 7, 2011

http://stopthattrain.org/?p=521

Rho City Council (Milan) approves resolution condemning Pizzarotti

The Italian company condemned for involvement in the Israeli high-speed railway that crosses the occupied Palestinian territories

On 30 November, the City Council of Rho, in the province of Milan, approved a resolution expressing “moral and political condemnation of Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A. for its participation in the project for the construction of the A1 Jerusalem – Tel Aviv railway”.

Travels of a New Gulliver: Chapter 3 by Joseph Natoli

by Joseph Natoli
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Sept. 13, 2011

Chapter III

The Author is drawn up to the Floating Island of Babel

I spent a day and a night in a ditch, alternately shivering in the cold and scorched by the sun, which suddenly was eclipsed by a dark mass a hundred meters directly above my head. A grappling hook was lowered and I, too confused to fathom the event, was drawn up, rail, tar and feathers.

After several days I can report that I was again myself in body but my mind, having gone through a humiliating assault at the hands of the Trickle Down barbarians, was not as it had been on the day I had set out on my voyage. But as my own self-esteem was grounded as the blind Bard says on the just and right, I did not allow the injustices and lack of charity of others to abide with me for long.

Travels of a New Gulliver: Chapter 2 by Joseph Natoli

by Joseph Natoli
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
August 5, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Chapter II

In which the Author and his young companion Ned arrive in the village of Trickle Downs and there find that anything is possible, words are never pawns, personal choice matters most, exclamations of “Whatever” replace jumping back, and there are no speed limits.

Travels of a New Gulliver: Chapter 1 by Joseph Natoli

by Joseph Natoli
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
July 27, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Chapter I

In which the Author introduces himself and then sets out

What follows here is a very loose account of my voyages into the world of talk as found, often accidentally, often against my own will, and seldom as I hoped.

I took with me only a few presumptions, for as Lao Tzu advises, a good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Cuba: The Anomaly in the Caribbean by Cameron Salisbury

by Cameron Salisbury
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Opedinfo.com
July 16, 2011

Image by Cristóbal del Castillo Camus via Flickr

Canada’s travel advisory for Cuba:

Cuba — There is no Official Warning for this country. …Normal security precautions should be observed while in Havana and other Cuban cities….

U.S. State Department’s travelers advisory for Cuba:

No place as paranoid as the U.S. by Cameron Salisbury

by Cameron Salisbury
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Opedinfo.com
July 4, 2011

Image by M.V. Jantzen via Flickr

My plane was taxiing into the gate at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport when the end-of-flight announcements came on. Seatbacks in upright position, trays closed and locked, baggage under the seats, you know the drill. On an in-bound international flight, I was headed for my second trip through TSA security in 3 hours.

The Dawning: Christianity in the Roman Empire (no longer available)

Image by jakebouma via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Day of Discovery

Take a closer look at the struggles faced by early Christians and their driving force to endure, as Dr. Joseph Stowell, President of Cornerstone University, takes you on an amazing journey to modern-day Rome. You’ll also visit Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ephesus, and other significant locations that reveal the formation of the Christian faith in the Roman Empire from a social, economic, and political perspective.

Tourism Boycott for Egyptian Reforms by Joel S. Hirschhorn

by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
February 13, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

How wonderful that the Egyptian dictator Mubarak has finally stepped down.  But there are considerable uncertainties about when and how a fully functioning democracy that benefits ordinary Egyptians, especially the poorest, will be formed.  Restoring the Egyptian economy and ensuring that it benefits not just the existing upper class that supported Mubarak is a key challenge.  Economic reforms, however, are hardly mentioned by all those talking so much about the wonderful transformation in Egypt.

Amtrack, Hitler and Lunch in Paris by Daniel N. White

by Daniel N. White
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
December 31, 2010

Reading too much lately, too much time, not enough work, not enough money in the bank to travel or start a project.  That’s Christmas for you.  Picked up and read Waiting on a Train, by James McCommons.  Short, well-written first hand account of the author travelling the entire length, near as I can figure it, of the Amtrak passenger rail system.  Did so over a two year spell, and during so went off and interviewed most of the important players, both political and rail industry, on the passenger rail issue here in the US.

James Babb: We Won’t Fly, interviewed by Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds

by Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
23 December, 2010

James Babb recounts the creation of the grassroots effort We Won’t Fly, and how he and cofounder George Donnelly, two regular dads, founded the group to oppose the full-body airport “porno”-scanners on grounds of privacy, ineffectiveness and health, and demand that the airlines make their maximum lobbying effort in support of customers’ rights and liberties. He discusses the ineffective and dangerous aspects of the TSA Security Theater as a top-down and lumbering bureaucracy, and the intimidation and humiliation of passengers for this false sense of security. Mr. Babb talks about the goal of his group, alternatives to flying, their next Opt Out project, and more!