Around the world with Pan Am, 1948

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Pan Am ad from 1948

My grandparents took their first overseas trip in 1948, the same year this Pan Am ad came out.

While they sailed across the Atlantic for that inaugural trip, they later flew on airlines like Pan Am and TWA to most of the continents portrayed in this ad.

I love [...]

Gearing up for the Mid-Autumn Festival!

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Last weekend I took my oldest son to Chinatown to meet friends for dim sum. On our way out, we stopped in a Chinese grocery and bought a box of mooncakes in preparation for the Mid-Autumn Festival, my favorite Chinese holiday. Not only are mooncakes a treat at this time of [...]

Serving the Crown

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Sikh policemen in Hong Kong, pre-1915

I’ve always been fascinated by the Sikh community in Hong Kong.

In this old postcard (and by old, I’m talking 100 years), these Sikh policemen are standing over a couple of criminals who look like they’ve seen better days.

A long time ago I read how the British [...]

Book of the week–Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man

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Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man

The grass is always greener. People always want what they don’t have, right?

In Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man (Little, Brown, 2010), literary agent Bill Clegg seems to have it all: a rise so quickly through the New York literary world that by [...]

Approaching Kai Tak

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The scene in this postcard was so familiar to me when I lived in Hong Kong.

The round-about, the little park, the double-decker buses. I remember Kai Tak from the 1990s, but this postcard was printed in the 1950s, even before my mom and her family first traveled there.

Little seems [...]