The Nice Thing About Strangers

Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.

A Love Story in Eight Bus Stops

This is perhaps the only time in recorded history when a woman has given a double-take to a man in a beige running suit and fanny pack. He boards the … Continue reading

December 5, 2011 · 10 Comments

To Say it’s a Nice Day is Difficult…

“What moves lives. What is said endures. There’s nothing in life that’s less real for having been described. Small-minded critics point out that such and such a poem, with its … Continue reading

December 3, 2011 · Leave a comment

The Integral and Differential Maverick

The math professor rose above the desire to be a crowd pleaser. Sure, it was an interdisciplinary conference of colleagues, but he’d had a lifetime of receiving precisely these blank … Continue reading

December 2, 2011 · 2 Comments

Self-Sufficient

An elementary-aged girl pushed the button for the tram to stop, then turned to her birdcage, which she had propped on a nearby seat. She exhaled and prepared herself with … Continue reading

November 30, 2011 · 6 Comments

Not a Drop of Worry

A tall father rushed to keep his tiny daughter under their umbrella, trying to watch the fellow pedestrians so as not to gouge them, and also trying to watch the … Continue reading

November 28, 2011 · 5 Comments

Can we (at least) slow the pace of disappearing?

This moment, he thought, would not be remembered by anybody but him, and one day it would vanish from his memory too. -Aleksandar Hemon. Nowhere Man. (Book finished in Südbahnhof, … Continue reading

November 26, 2011 · 4 Comments

Swiss Miss

The Zürich airport thinks it is better than you.  It refuses to be a mere place for waiting to depart, refuses to be a bus stop–it hosts a Hermes boutique.  Other … Continue reading

November 25, 2011 · 5 Comments

Holiday Travel

The crowd of people at the gate wore looks suited for various executions. They wore sneers of people leaving vacation behind. Even the crowd of pilgrims who climbed through Medjugorje … Continue reading

November 23, 2011 · 2 Comments

Carry On

Several members of the Hajduk Split soccer team coalesced outside the airplane. Since the players were spry, many were the first out. They wore matching tracksuits. A few punched at … Continue reading

November 21, 2011 · 3 Comments

The Guy in Sunglasses

He was his sunglasses.  He could see perfectly well, but these were as much a part of his outfit as his long black ponytail. Reasonably, he wore the sunglasses while … Continue reading

November 18, 2011 · 13 Comments

To Health

In a café on the Dalmatian coast, a middle-aged waitress leans on the bar and takes coffee and unceasing cigarettes for breakfast. The music on the radio is lively so … Continue reading

November 4, 2011 · 9 Comments

Tram Nap

The Kabataş tram sighs through an intersection and a boy stops short to let it pass. He waits with some annoyance, until he discovers something in the last car. A … Continue reading

November 2, 2011 · 5 Comments

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