We were in Mexico City, enjoying coffee and a bite to eat at a corner restaurant just a block off the expansive Parque de Mexico, in the popular Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc, neighborhood.
The young and athletic hostess Ayse Lang, who had seated us at the sidewalk table of Barrio Café, stopped by to see how our late-morning coffee break was going.
Continue reading
“Bob,” many of my Google-adverse friends ask at this time of year, “what does the word ‘crèche’ mean?”
Well, my little Wikipedia-bereft amigos, crèche comes from the Latin word cripia which means crib or cradle.
Unless you are British. The British, being British, have a completely different meaning for the word, mainly, I suppose, so they can have another excuse to complain about North American English. The British sided with the French on this one and think that a crèche refers to a day-care center.
Continue reading
Once more, the Mercado de San Juan de Dios is transformed into a wonderland as the Christmas marketplace is open for business.
Extra booths have been erected around the market and they are filled with ornaments, Nativity figures and accessories, decorations, Baby Jesus figurines of many hues and sizes (and gorgeous gowns of swaddling clothes), garlands, pines, sparklers, elf costumes, devil’s pitchforks, cuetlaxochitls, Santa caps, treats, and holiday fantasies.
Continue reading
Even as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hedrick Smith was navigating “the road ahead for American Democracy” during his i3 talk on Tuesday, even more Bozos were being added to the Trump Clown Car up ahead.
A once-respected doctor turned TV pill-shill was nominated to oversee Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.
The empress of a studio wrestling empire was nominated as Secretary of Education.
And the hits keep on a coming.
Continue reading
OK, I can sit here all night and write about the beautiful Catrinas and Catrins. About the amazing make-up jobs and costumes. About how people came from all over the world just to parade from Calle Cordo to the Ancha to the Jardin in Centro.
Did I mention this is San Miguel de Allende, the most magical city in the world?
No, I didn’t. And I won’t go on because this is one time, my friends, when pictures speak way louder than words.
Continue reading
The Day of the Dead has begun, in the most beautiful ways imaginable.
This morning dozens of people, young and old, arrived at the Jardin Principal to build large public oftendas, the altars that pay tribute to family, friends, classmates, motorcycle and Rotary club members — our loved ones who have passed away.
It is a beautiful and heartwarming thing to watch.
Continue reading
Tonight in the public park (The Jardine) there will be scores of kids in costume, each carrying a satchel or plastic pumpkin. Arrayed around the park will be ex-pats with bags full of candy.
The twain shall meet.
Halloween is becoming bigger every year, much to the consternation of the grumpiest among us. Perhaps rightly so, there is some concern that the holiday will dilute Mexico’s own customs.
Continue reading
The bifurcated psyche of a world-class athlete who grew up in a literary household.
Now, that has all the makings of a great novel.
Not coincidentally, these are the circumstances that led world-class athlete Ivy Pochoda to become an excellent novelist, with six titles and counting. But getting those two lives – high-powered athlete and high-powered novelist – working together, well that was the topic of a most entertaining talk by Pochoda on Tuesday as the inaugural headliner of the Art of the Story conference.
Pochoda’s life story fits in quite well with the overall theme of San Miguel de Allende’s newest literary festival. That is – if I may interpolate from the list of fascinating workshops and events scheduled – inspiration is all around us, if you know how to look for it.
Continue reading
The Catrina face-painting tag team, Efrain Gonzalez and Laura Cerroblanco, launched their season with a party on Friday at Restaurante Lolita at Salida a Celaya #52.
It was a chance to learn a little about Dia de Los Muertos, watch the dynamic duo paint some faces, hear some fine music from Gabriela Espinosa and Sharon Itoi, enjoy a dinner prepared by Chef Fernando Guarneros, and reconnect with some old friends and make some new ones.
Continue reading
We love our mojigangas.
The tall, human-fueled street puppets have been around San Miguel de Allende since 1924. They are of as many varieties as there is of life.
They can be comic, satirical, political, nuptial, magical, tragic, whimsical, mystical, surreal, fantastical, scary, devilish, angelic, familiar, historical, sexy, skeletal, ethnic, gypsies, tramps and thieves, and even, ordinary.
Like those images above from a recent parade in San Miguel.
Continue reading
Musings, Magic, San Miguel and More 
