I Know Of No Wars Started By

America Loves The Representation Of Its Heroes To Be Not Just Larger Than Life, But Stupendously, Awesomely Bigger Than Anything Else. If Blue Whales Built Statues To Each Other They'd Be Smaller Then These.

Curiously, It Is Hard Not To Be A Little Optimistic About The Future For Zimbabwe (as Nobody At All Calls It Yet, Except In Political Speeches). The Fear Is Not That There Will Be Mass Slaughter Of The Whites, Followed By Their Flight To South Africa And The Collapse Of The Economy, But That The Need To Retain White Confidence May Mean That The Blacks Are Badly Disappointed.

I've Been Intrigued By 'le Monde' Ever Since Work Took Me To Paris Once, And I Noted That On A Day When There Was Some Huge Worldwide Story, The Paper Led Its Front Page On Some Cabinet Changes In Turkey. It Implied A Magnificent Disdain For The Quotidian Folderol Of Mere News.

In Washington, The First Thing People Tell You Is What Their Job Is. In Los Angeles You Learn Their Star Sign. In Houston You're Told How Rich They Are. And In New York They Tell You What Their Rent Is.

When You Visit A Foreign City You Are In It, But Not Of It, Separated By A Glass Wall. Once, While A Student, I Was Getting Dressed In My Ground-floor Room When A Family Of Italians Crossed The Grass To Watch, As If I Were Laid On For Their Amusement And Instruction.