Tashkent, Uzbekistan
May 22, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Now here's a delightful stroll:

The broad, shady walkways around Independence Park are lined with university halls, government buildings, flower gardens and rose bushes. A statue of Marx has been replaced by a suitably patriotic statue of Amir Timur on horseback. At Independence Square, the new senate building is guarded by a tall gate with good-luck pelicans at the top. Near the gate, Lenin gave way to a large statue of a seated Uzbek woman gazing into the eyes of her infant child.

At the far side of the park is another woman, The Crying Mother Monument. The monument was built in 1999 to honor the four hundred thousand Uzbek soldiers who died fighting for The Soviet Union in World War II. In front of the statue is an eternal flame. *

The names of the fallen soldiers are engraved on brass plaques that swing like pages of a book. Many, many books. These books of the dead are attached to the walls of two parallel arcades. The Crying Mother cannot bear to face these pages...

Bukhara, Uzbekistan
June 1, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

I love oriental rugs. I grew up with them. My parents had one in the dining room in our apartment in the Bronx. My grandparents also owned a few. Eventually I inherited them all. And I bought more.  Like members of the family, the thick rugs of earth tones and deep red and warm blue were always an important element in the interior of my home.

Did you know that I was a rug salesman in Boston? In one of my late "careers" I worked for Newton Oriental Rugs and Able Carpets. On the job I learned that Americans love a "story" and I was good at story-telling. To my attentive customers, I told fabulous tales about each intricate, "unique" hand-made rug imported from some exotic place somewhere. And, could I "hondl" and negotiate!

So when I realized that the city of Bukhara was on my itinerary in Uzbekistan, my first thought was "Bukhara!! That's one of the more popular patterns of oriental rugs."

Allendale, South Carolina
October 10, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,

Phil Harris was a charismatic singer and an energetic band leader back in the "Big Band Era." I can recall his (black and white) TV appearances on the Jack Benny Show and on his own program with his wife Alice Faye. Phil Harris could really put over a song, especially his signature number, "That's What I Like About The South."

Jordan
Ontario
Canada
September 28, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Now, I do know my geography and, when necessary, I can read a map. But from New York to Southampton to Hartford to Boston to Spencertown, I never even looked at one. Only up here in Jordan was I utterly confused.

Datong
Shanxi Province
China

January 23, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

My "salad days" and marathon days were over long ago. My knees have wilted. Now I am a take-a-leisurely-walk kind of guy. But in Northern China, I endured another day-long deep-freeze travel marathon, including chilled teeth, iced nose and puffy lips. Why did my lips puff up? My guess is that it only felt that way. In reality, I think my jaw shrank!

Datong
Shanxi Province
China

January 24, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

The documents of the Polatschek Family record that I was born on a Wednesday morning, the 18th of September. According to the twelve-year Chinese Zodiac, I was born in the Year of The Dragon.

The Dragon is magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, zealous, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, ambitious, generous and loyal. The Dragon can be arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, eccentric, grandiloquent, bombastic, prejudiced, dogmatic, over-bearing, violent, impetuous and brash.

My Zodiac element is metal (gold or silver). Metal personalities are tough and loves to take risks. They like to help others but have to be careful not to become hard-hearted! *
Am I a Dragon? Am I a Golden Dragon? Silver?