The Road to Basra
For the British and American oil company families, Iraq in the 50's was a time of cool drinks around the club pool, carried by uniformed waiters who bore brass trays to the pale crowds gathered under the trees.
Lois Peterson

 

Cycling in the City
I bike because bikes have no seatbelts and they do what I want them to do, rapidly. No other mode of transport in New York is so freeing, exhilarating or threatening. I ride a $1,500 Specialized Allez Pro 16-speed that weighs not much more than a bowling ball. On this sleek sliver of a machine, I wear Spandex--the fabric of superheroes and supermodels--an 8-ounce helmet and dark sunglasses.
Jeremy Simon

 

Shakespeare. And Company
The place is a real dive. I was about to use a different, more direct word which loosely speaking means "outhouse," but I just read the chapter in A Moveable Feast where Gertrude Stein chides Hemingway for his "silly" use of "inaccrochable" language in his work, so I'll resist.
Kevin McGowin