Burlaki on the Hudson

… we have our own princesses…
 

Pictures

Remember my editorial of several years back on the curiosity of British street naming practices? It occurred to me the other day that the Brits do not have monopoly on making weird decisions in regard to street names.

Not far from where we live, if you travel eastward on Lafayette Mills Road, you will eventually pass intersection with Robertsville Road going off to your right. If you continue straight on Lafayette Mills, then in roughly 200 meters you will pass another intersection with Robertsville Road, now going off to your left. You may or may not notice at that point that you are now traveling on Wyncrest Road.

Here is the map:
 

 
The same road changes its name for no good reason, and in the same vicinity two roads not too far but not too close to each other share the same name. Who comes up with these rules?

Suburbia

About a month ago, we had a family photo-shoot, the outcome of which is now ready for public consumption.

Here is the picture of all of us:
 

 
Three dozen selected pictures can be found at this address or via navigating through the “Picture Gallery” link on the menu.

Pictures, Website Bulletins

In the middle of the night, needing to put gas in my car, I ended up paying over $4 per gallon for the first time that I can recall. I was unpleasantly bothered by that fact.

Rewind a few years back, and I used to pay nearly £5 per gallon while living in the UK. During the height of the exchange rate imbalance, that translated to roughly $10 per gallon. Furthermore, expressed as a percentage of my salary, every £5 gallon of gas took roughly twice as much a bite out of my earnings than every $4 gallon I’m buying now.

And yet, I do not recall being bothered by high fuel prices in my three years in Europe.

I wonder why. What is so different in my mindset now, compared to then, that a relatively smaller outlay bothers me so much more?

Re-pat's culture shock

There is nothing especially striking about this picture. Simply beautiful azure skies pierced by a graceful spire.

Just the way I happen to like it.
 

New York City & Environs, Pictures