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I'm settling in slowly, hanging unto the magic as long as I can, after returning from almost a month in my native land. The mixed feelings invading my heart and mind in the aftermath are not unfamiliar to me; it has always been like this whenever I leave my Turkey… Read full post »

The student movement which reached its 100^th day on May 22^nd  was attended by half a million protesters including students, educators and people from many communities and businesses in and outside of the province was a strong movement that echoed its message in ot/… Read full post »

Image

Alright. I admit. Ducking the US Customs maybe slightly misleading, because I actually did not sneak in nor was I smuggled through the border – since that is what I may have inadvertently implied. It's not my intent to sound tabloid'ish to garner readers. Nor is my writing racist./… Read full post »

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime,” Judge Robert Maranger stated as he listened to the jury's verdict, Guilty of premeditated murder, rendered on three members of an Afghanistan-born Montreal family on Sunday, January 29, 2012.

Ever since four bodies… Read full post »

AMBITION: Teacher and Author

PROBABLE DESTINATION: Authorizing excuse slips.

These two sentences from the year book of my senior year of high school must have found a permanent place somewhere in the depths of my psyche to have a silent but very effective voice in mapping out my career, and prove… Read full post »

“Revolution consumes its own children.” G. Büchner 

I am a tail-end Baby Boomer. I became familiar with that term in my later life as its implication bonded many of my generation, regardless of our origins, in a life time's worth of nostalgic reminiscences or sad memories which,/… Read full post »

Had the Argentine poet, philosopher, and writer, Jorge Luis Borges lived long enough, he'd be celebrating his 112^th birthday today. Instead, if you turned on your Google page, you will have seen an homage paid by the giant search engine to the man whose work is considered to be ahead/… Read full post »

Taffeta evening gown of panther design was embroidered in beads -took 1060 hours of embroidery work

Taffeta gown with panther design

-claw detail with rhine stones and pearl beads-

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has devoted an enchanting exhibition to t/… Read full post »

During my year as a docent volunteer at the Newfoundland Museum in St. John's, Newfoundland, I discovered hooked rugs. Although the museum displays quite a number of these art pieces left from the bygone times, I had neither seen or heard of them before – until I found myself learning/… Read full post »

BABACIM

I don't know if it was the fact that my father grew up without his own father who died when Babacim was barely a year-and-a-half old, or the hardships he lived through as a young boy, or just who he was that made him the kindest, wisest and the… Read full post »

To Babacim, who would have been 86 years old today. 

May 19th  is also celebrated in Turkey as the National Day of Fitness and Sports, dedicated to the nation's youth by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic. 

shady trees 

… Read full post »

My sister and I decide it's time to take a break from painting her cozy den to a fresh layer of pale apricot. The act of moving the brush up and down and the color we selected together brighten our spirits and strengthen a bond we've had all our lives/… Read full post »

In many languages, the word "Lent" actually means "fast". Although their interpretation of Easter and its traditions may differ, after a long Lenten fast, people around the world would agree that at least one thing is in order : A sumptious meal.

The foods, as well as the style in… Read full post »

                 Dame Melba

As history shows, some of the gastronomic creations that conquer our tastes as well as our fancy are results of either pure coincidence or sheer luck. Often times, what we have come to t/… Read full post »

Montreal under the magic of night 

My first Transatlantic flight was a pleasant but brief distraction from the grief of leaving behind a life - to which little did I know if I’d ever return. As a teen my immediate concern was missing out on the bonding experiences/… Read full post »

Stepping on Turkish soil after my first six year separation was full of mixed emotions. On one hand I felt as if I had never left my country. My eyes swallowed the sights simultaneously as my ears guzzled the sounds I had missed so much: the language, the familiar street noises… Read full post »

This is my version of Yogurtlu Kebab in which I used lamb cubes served in a piquant tomato sauce on pita, and topped with plain yogurt. You can find another version with the recipe here .

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Yogurt has been the soul food in my family ever since I can remember,/… Read full post »

Ever since I saw the Marilyn Monroe movie "Niagara",  in 1962 when I was in Turkey, I had a longing to see the impressive falls in real life. My childhood desires were fulfilled many times over in life. Niagara is a magnificent place, a wonder of nature. With its Botanical/… Read full post »

Part 3 is here

Agony in Motion

~ Part Four ~

~ Secenes from Atlantic Canada - pictures from my album ~

I had been feeling dizzy for a while, as if the world was turning around me. I was familiar with vertigo – a condition related to the inner… Read full post »

My daughter already forgave me by the time she was twenty. Until then every year around the holiday season I was reminded of the meanness of the act pulled upon young two souls, and questioned, “How could I?” - even though my intentions were pure and well-meant. But I… Read full post »

It is amazing how small events can impress young minds and anchor themselves as triggers associated with bigger emotions - later in one's life.

I grew up in a world which did not inculcate hero worship or celebrities, whose lives were exposed for imitation. My only heroes, role m… Read full post »

"There's a certain Slant of light,

Winter Afternoons--

That oppresses, like the Heft

Of  Cathedral Tunes--

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us--

We can find no scar,

But internal difference,

Where the Meanings, are."

~Emily Dickinson~

Like some other creatures of… Read full post »

I still have the dollar store ceramic cat. I think it was Nathan who gave it to me - one hand extending the awkwardly wrapped box, the other holding a “Mery Christmas Miss I'll miss you” card. Hand-made. Obviously. Like the cards from the thirty-two other boys and girls I had le/… Read full post »