Links

Here are some links you might like to explore:

• Our Digital Fridge displays pictures from Becca’s early years.

• Here’s a list of books and authors Becca and Laurie and I enjoy and recommend, with links to their official and unofficial websites.

• Here’s an assortment of favorite artworks and artists.

• Here you’ll find home pages for some of my favorite musicians and bands.

• “There are places I remember — some are gone, and some have changed....”

• Here’s a visual listing of some of my favorite movies.

• Eat, drink and be merry . . . around the world.

• Here’s a guide to some of my favorite sights in Washington, Baltimore, and southern Maryland.

• On November 10, 1972, while the US was still deeply embroiled in the Vietnam Conflict, I bought a POW/MIA bracelet from a student who was selling them to raise money for the families of soldiers who’d been captured by the Viet Cong or reported missing in action. Mine -- which has never left my wrist in the more than 35 years since I put it on -- reads “S/SGT. JOHN JAKOVAC 5-29-67,” which is the rank and name of one MIA and the date (incorrect, as it turns out) he was reported missing. I never researched Jakovac’s history -- although it’s pretty easy to do so -- because, to me, the bracelet has always been more a memorial to the 2500 Vietnam MIAs than to Jacovac alone. On July 31, 2008, though, I received an email containing a link to an 11-minute film which high-school student Allison Johnston made about Jakovac’s life and final mission and tragic death. I watched it, fascinated and in tears most of the way through, and learned a lot about this brave young man whose name I’ve carried around on my wrist for well over half my life. Allison’s video used to be available online, but it has apparently been taken down due to a copyright violation. I have, however, posted small photos of John and his gravesite here.

• On the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama, the Kuna Indian women hand-stitch my favorite folk art, the mola. I have one hanging in my office at home, and you can learn about the artform and see dozens of others here.

• I don’t often read English-language comic books any more, but there are three series I love reading in Dutch: Asterix, Suske en Wiske, and Donald Duck. (For Christmas of 2008, Laurie gave me a gorgeous slipcased eight-volume set of the adventures of Herge’s Tintin in English. There’s an official Tintin website in English here, and a lovely fan site here.)

• One of my favorite albums of all time is Theodore Bikel's Bravo Bikel, on which, in addition to singing folk songs in half a dozen languages, Bikel does a brilliant reading of Robert Nathan's hilarious story "Digging the Weans," which originally appeared in the November 1956 issue of Harper's magazine. You can read the original story here and listen to Bikel's version of it here Enjoy!

• Here is a link to 101 Zen koans. Koans are the tiny little stories through which the wisdom of Zen Buddhism is expressed.

• The Landmark Forum is a weekend personal-development seminar I did and learned from.

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