I don’t like to be nude around other people. After swimming lessons as a lad, I’d take off my bathing suit in the toilet stall; as an adult, I’ve mastered the art of changing underwear with my pants still on. I’m half Jew, half WASP, and while the Jew in me is beseder with the […]
We stand atop an extinct volcano watching a bomb detonate in a town just across the Disengagement Zone. We’re in the Golan Heights, where UN observers monitor the Israel-Syria border. This frontier was last defined in 1973, at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War; currently, another war rages just across it, in territory now […]
I am effectively homeless. As such, I’ve been developing a healthy appreciation for facial hair, cheap booze, and crack. Not really (I still hate facial hair), but this Birthright trip is the ideal segue into the nomad life. We’re mostly off the grid, we’re not staying anywhere longer than a night, and last Monday, we […]
The Dead Sea is gross. Gross in the most incredible way, but gross. If I were more prepared, I would have brought the following: a bottle of sunscreen a large chicken Sunscreen because I couldn’t tell if my skin was burning thanks to the sun or the salt water (correct answer: both), and a very […]
We hiked Masada before sunrise. From the Roman Ramp, you can see how the Jews were able to hold the city for six months: the climb is steep and narrow, the climbers are exposed to the elements and (though it wasn’t the case this Monday) to projectile fire from the battlements above. My traveling companions […]
Peace is an odd concept. I’m not sure who came up with it, when, or how, but it’s strange that something unheard of in nature should be coveted so strongly by so many. There is no peace for the rabbit; there is no peace for the wolf. Why should there be peace for us? On […]
This week concluded the first chapter of my adult life, or the last chapter of my youth. Or neither. I’m starting to think there are no chapters. You just do shit, and then you go somewhere else and do different shit. But that doesn’t make for a good story, and since writing stories is my […]
Over 1000 kilometers from mainland Portugal, the island of Madeira enjoys summer temperatures around 22°C and winters around 16°C (and I’m American so none of those numbers mean anything to me). This is a hot climate for wine, and while a few weirdos are out there planting Vitis whatever-the-American-species-is*, most winemakers on the island are […]
Pico is an island in the Azores archipelago famed for its fortified wines and named for its volcano—at 7713 feet, the tallest in Portugal, and the tallest island mountain in the Atlantic (there are taller ones underwater). “Lajido” is the name of the solidified lava into which the vines on Pico are planted; it’s also the […]
Ramisco (pronounce the “R” like an “H”) is a picky varietal: it only likes sandy soils, it demands to be planted deep, and it requires lots of aging to open up. There are only 10 hectares of Ramisco remaining on this planet; there was more planted not long ago, but Colares, the Lisboa appellation that […]
