the worst thing about this street

There’s actually a Harley-Davidson dealership around the corner and a few blocks away. The Egyptian Harley riders like to circle on a course of several blocks, and for geographical reasons, right in front of my place is where they always choose to rev the engines at all times of day and night.

So, if I had to reconstruct a soundtrack of my Cairo apartment in later years, it would have to include not only scratchy calls to prayer from sidestreet mosques, and chants from embassy protestors, but also the sound of Harley-Davidsons revving. Seriously, that is among the five most frequent sounds I hear in this place.

correcting the proofs for…

“Realism Without Materialism,” to appear in SubStance #125, Vol. 40, No. 2. Not out until late August, though.

This is a streamlined version of my Zagreb lecture from June 2009.

October night

That’s what it feels like in Cairo. Not only did we get served up a cool, crisp evening, we also have piles of dead leaves all around Zamalek. That tends to happen in April here. I almost expect to see kids in costumes trick-or-treating.

forgot how good Faulkner is

He’s great. One of the greatest novelists.

In fact, I’m going to help myself to another, it being Spring Break and all.

two bad stories in the Middle East

There may well be more than two, but here are the two that caught my eye immediately:

*33 KILLED IN SYRIA

*DOCTORS AND PATIENTS TARGETED IN BAHRAIN (this story has been out there for awhile, though)

Bulls up 3-0 on Indiana

Just one more win to eliminate the Pacers. But all three of the games have been squeakers, and I’m unnerved a bit by that fine trap defense Indiana unveiled against Derrick Rose for Game 3. Any scout worth his salt will be recommending that to the Bulls’ upcoming opponents, and I’m not sure I trust Luol Deng to be Rose’s Scottie Pippen yet. (Deng did a nice job in Game 3, however.)

There will probably never be another Jordan, but we’re seeing flashes of Jordan-like intensity and determination from Rose in this series.