Author: darkpassport

• September 27, 2026

  #63: The Smallest State

  At just over 1,000 square miles of land area, Rhode Island is the smallest of the 50 states in America.  Yet despite its size, Rhode Island and its capital city of Providence have much to offer.  Providence in particular carries the stereotypical New England college town vibe with its colonial era homes, adapted and reused…
• August 24, 2026

  #62: Tìpängkxo Lelì’fya

  Tìpängkxo Lelì’fya means “Language Discussion” in Na’vi, the native tongue of the inhabitants of Pandora in the 2009 science fiction epic Avatar written and directed by James Cameron. It could easily be argued that Star Trek’s Klingon, the Elvish tongues of Tolkien, and Na’vi are not real languages.  All were created to add depth to…
• July 16, 2026

  #61: Milwaukee

  The area known as Milwaukee in present day Wisconsin was first inhabited by Native Americans – primarily the Algonquian peoples – prior to the arrival of French explorers in the 17th century.  The city became incorporated in 1846 and quickly became a destination for immigrants seeking to escape the German revolutions of 1848-1849.  Interestingly enough,…
• May 17, 2026

  #60: Montego Bay

  In late October 2025, a Category 5 hurricane roared into the Caribbean with an intensity that had only been seen in the Atlantic Basin one other time in history.  The sustained 185 mph winds of Hurricane Melissa made it the strongest storm on record to ever hit Jamaica.  Damage to the island nation was catastrophic: …
• April 12, 2026

  #59: Farewell NYC (Part II)

  This is a continuation of Blog #58: Farewell NYC (Part I). New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it-once you have lived in New York and it…
• February 19, 2026

  #58: Farewell NYC (Part I)

  “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”  -Georgia O’Keeffe Three years ago I was walking along the cobblestone roads that line the affluent Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, D.C. when the most enchantingly curious scene unfolded: A man had his car pulled over on the side of the street,…
• December 28, 2025

  #57: Swarovski

  This blog is a continuation of #56: The Heart of the Alps in which we visited Innsbruck, Austria. To begin, a relevant and humorous scene from the popular series Yellowstone:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tprs0QrUthg In the early 1890s, Daniel Swarovski registered a patent for a state-of-the-art machine designed to cut crystal with unprecedented precision.  Born into a glass…
• November 29, 2025

  #56: The Heart of the Alps

  Success was found in Zurich, Switzerland in Blog #45, but unfortunately there was a bust in Hallstatt, Austria in Blog #48.  What do you say we return to Europe and give Austria a second chance?  After all, large foreign countries are no different from the United States in the sense that there are multiple regions…
• November 9, 2025

  #55: An Absence of Appropriations

  The federal government of the United States of America has been closed for 40 days.  This ongoing shutdown already set the record as the longest in history, and it is still going.  Approximately 670,000 federal employees remain furloughed while another 730,000 continue working without pay.  Those of us working in the latter category are known…
• September 29, 2025

  #54: UNGA 80

  In September 2023, my coworkers and I experienced our first United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).  To those unfamiliar with the foreign affairs conference that takes place annually in New York City, I wrote in Blog #27 about the opportunity I was given to explain the event to a curious young man and his family while…