Srpska salata It’s been a few days of rich and bountiful eating, so I decided to go for something lighter, not to mention the cucumbers and tomatoes, so fresh a few days ago, were in danger of getting overripe. It’s immediately obvious to me what to do with these two delicious and cooler summer vegetables …
Category Archives: Balkans
Literary Lunches: Rebecca West
Today we’ll kick off what will hopefully be a literary lunch series, in which I’ll showcase a (usually) simple meal from a great book. All I had time for today was a quick lunch — a couple of slices of prosciutto di parma (Citterio, aged 420 days, Trader Joe’s; $6.49 for 4 oz.) on a leftover hunk …
Review of Peter Hessler’s River Town
Peter Hessler was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sichuan in 1996-1998 and his book chronicling his life there, River Town, is an excellent Peace Corps memoir. Even though I can’t think of a place more different from Macedonia, where I served, than China, he still has many of the same or similar experiences living in a …
Face-to-Snout with Our Meat?
If you want to eat meat, do you have to kill it yourself? Some people say yes. I’m less convinced and explore the reasons why in this piece for the American Interest, out today.
Thoughts on Militarism on Italy’s Day of the Republic
Italy rarely has national holidays that anyone cares about. Milan My building is pleasantly empty at the moment, with most denizens having gone away for a long weekend. Militarism is rarely on display for secular holidays here, although this year has seen a bit more than usual, with the 150th anniversary of unification. Jasmine Tesanovic, …
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Vlastimir Đorđević at the Hague
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw7gNPJI7BY] (Video primarily in Serbian although the judge speaks in English.) Readers of yesterday’s post, which quoted Rory Stewart questioning the ability of the UN and similar organizations to do much of anything, might’ve detected a hint of disappointment. This view was informed in some measure by the inability of the UN to prevent …
Friday AM briefs
There’s way too much news this week, from the Libya to the milleproroghe, from Macedonia’s electoral crisis to the role of social media in the events that have shaken the Arab world. Fini’s proclamation that the PM was not ‘anointed by the lord’ may hint at the beginning of the end on this side of …
Friday AM Roundup
What’s great about Friday morning? Having the Economist placed at your feet. And even though this is a blog, sometimes it takes having the paper placed in your hands to do a good scan. Premesso’s not-quite week in review, drawn from the weekly of record: 1. On February 15, La Padania interviewed Pier Luigi Bersani, …
More Zungu Zungu, less Bunga Bunga
This site isn’t meant to break news. But there’s been a near-perfect storm of events — so much excellent newsworthy material on Italy, the Balkans and international relations in general, and not nearly enough time to bang out a coherent thought with me being swamped with both typical and atypical end-of-year responsibilities. Some points: Berlusconi’s …
Organ Harvesting in Kosovo
It’s such a common urban legend that it’s almost the stuff of jokes. But organ theft is, apparently, alive and well, and right here in what’s loosely called “Europe.” Carla del Ponte caused a minor stir a couple of years ago when she alleged that the Kosovar Liberartion Army had been secretly harvesting organs from …