Fiction, Essays, and Other Things

Well, it’s back! After seven years the Greatest Show on Earth rises from the ashes of bankruptcy and delights us again. I had to make the pilgrimage to Amica Pavilion this weekend to mark this happy occasion. Of course, in many ways it is no longer the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus I remember from my youth. This came about gradually. By the early 2010s the elephants were gone (the surviving pachyderms sent to a sanctuary in Florida) and then the lions and tigers were also retired. I was hoping the circus would survive without performing animals and I was always of the mind that the clowns and the acrobats were worth the price of admission alone. Yes, there is a primal thrill dating back to gladiator days of seeing the beasts under the big top but if the survival of this piece of Americana meant performing without animals and, more importantly, if entertainment could be delivered humanely, the Ringling Bros could do without animals. The show this Sunday confirmed my belief....

It’s been nearly a decade since I climbed Machu Pichu and visited Cusco but, somehow, I feel as if the effects of heightened elevation would still affect me to a similar degree. It must be said, of course, that in Peru I benefited from a knowledgeable guide who prepared my team well for the trek. The hotel where we stayed offered oxygen masks and at least one of my fellow travelers made use of them. I made but one miscalculation which fortunately resulted in nothing more serious than the need to take a seat in the lobby until my illness passed. After eating substantially to prepare for the higher altitudes I, upon returning to the hotel after a day in Machu Pichu, sat down to a plate of tough alpaca steak which did me in. And yet, I feel confident that my over-forty constitution can tolerate another visit to the land of the Incas. In part, though, this explains my unpreparedness for Los Nevados of Colombia late this March. Los Nevados is at a higher altitude than both Machu Pichu and ...