A Trek Through the Odds and Ends of Europe
By Jesse Leon
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, February 6, 2010
Bill Bryson is the author of such acclaimed nonfiction as A Walk in the Woods and A Short History of Nearly Everything. His new book, At Home: An Informal History of Private Life is scheduled for release May 2010. Until then, catch up with one of his old favorites…
It takes a writer as clever as Bill Bryson to turn something as mundane as crossing a street into an exhilarating experience. Then again, it could just be that he was trying to cross a street filled with French motorists.
At least, that’s his hypothesis. “I don’t care how paranoid or irrational this sounds,” Bryson writes. “I know for a fact that the people of Paris want me dead.”
Bryson took plenty of opportunities to poke fun at the French… and the Austrians, and the Dutch, as well as many other European groups, in his 1992 travel diary Neither Here Nor There, an account of his mid-life-crisis inspired European tour. In between the jokes and everyday perils, Bryson also touches on the issues of the meaning of travel and the burdens of life on the road.
It’s not just Bryson’s play on stereotypes that makes Neither Here Nor There a good read, but his witty treatment of nearly everything, including himself. Bryson is quick to admit when he’s done something stupid, and his humor often comes off as very self-effacing.
In fact, some of the best moments in the book stem from his humorous self-deprecation combined with good old culture shock. When he tries to cross that street in Paris, he’s confronted with a “do not walk” signal that is ignored by a flock of nuns, elderly couples, and children who cross before cars that don’t move an inch. Bryson stands there fearing that crossing against the light will get him killed, but knowing as soon as the signal turns green for him all of those drivers will instantly speed forward.
Bryson skewers every European national group for its quirks. The Swiss don’t know how to have fun, the Italians are passionate and emotive to an extreme, and the Swedes are just terminally unhappy. Nevertheless, throughout the book Bryson immerses himself in their culture: eating their food, visiting their national monuments and museums, and blindly walking around just exploring cities.
This is where Bryson’s only fault lies; he obsesses too much over the food. He’s very detail-oriented in his descriptions of everything and his explorations are interesting, but very often he places too much focus on his attempts to find some lunch. Some of these searches are quite funny, like when he chooses to forgo a meal in Germany because of their off-sounding names (“shpear-of-shpittle”) and what he is told by some not-so helpful locals (“It is vat the little cow thinks vith” says one waitress), but it is at times overdone.
To write Neither Here Nor There, Bryson left his family and traveled around Europe in almost perfect isolation. Towards the end of his trek, he loses his cavalier attitude towards travel and misses the comforts of home and company. But despite that dip into homesickness, Bryson finishes the book with no regrets, and 245 pages of good stories to tell his family and whoever picks up his book.
The Knight News - A Trek Through the Odds and Ends of Europe
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Knight News - Former QC Students Arrested in Terror Plot
Former QC Students Arrested in Terror Plot
By Jesse Leon
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, February 5, 2010
Months after Najibullah Zazi's arrest for suspected terrorist activity, two former Queens College students were arrested in connection to his plot, reported “The Queens Courier.”
Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were brought up on charges related to Zazi’s alleged terrorist activities.
Medunjanin, a U.S. citizen from Bosnia who graduated Queens College in June, was charged on Saturday, Jan. 9, with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving training from a terrorist organization.
Ahmedzay, an Afghan who attended QC between spring 2005 and fall 2009, was charged a day earlier for allegedly lying to federal agents.
Both pleaded not guilty.
Mendujanin earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at QC, according to YourNabe.com, and Ahmedzay took classes but did not graduate. Mendujanin, Ahmedzay and Zazi were all former students of Flushing High School.
Investigators had kept a close watch on Medunjanin and Ahmedzay since Zazi’s arrest for terrorism-conspiracy charges in September, reported “The New York Times.”
On Thursday, Jan. 7, two FBI. agents appeared at 25-year-old Medunjanin’s door with a search warrant for his passport. Medunjanin voluntarily handed over his passport and then fled his apartment in his car, followed by F.B.I. agents, according to “The Times.”
Medunjanin crashed his car near the Whitestone Bridge, where authorities captured him and brought him to the hospital to treat minor injuries, after which he was interrogated.
24-year-old Ahmedzay was picked up in his taxi in Manhattan around midnight and questioned.
Zazi was arrested and charged in September with attempting to use weapons of mass destruction. Zazis’ arrest was sparked by his drive to New York City from Denver, Colorado in a rental car, reported “The Times.”
Zazi admitted to investigators that he received training from al-Qaeda in weapons and explosives during a 2008 trip to Pakistan. Zazi denied that he was involved in a bomb plot, and plead not guilty to the charges against him, reported the “Courier.”
The pair’s apartments were searched in the days leading up to Zazi’s arrest in September, and authorities are saying the two flew with Zazi from Newark Liberty International Airport to Peshawar, Pakistan, to receive training from al-Qaeda, said the “Courier.”
If Medunjanin is convicted, he faces a sentence of 35 years to life, and Ahmedzay faces a possible eight years for allegedly lying to investigators.
The Knight News - Former QC Students Arrested in Terror Plot
By Jesse Leon
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, February 5, 2010
Months after Najibullah Zazi's arrest for suspected terrorist activity, two former Queens College students were arrested in connection to his plot, reported “The Queens Courier.”
Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were brought up on charges related to Zazi’s alleged terrorist activities.
Medunjanin, a U.S. citizen from Bosnia who graduated Queens College in June, was charged on Saturday, Jan. 9, with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving training from a terrorist organization.
Ahmedzay, an Afghan who attended QC between spring 2005 and fall 2009, was charged a day earlier for allegedly lying to federal agents.
Both pleaded not guilty.
Mendujanin earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at QC, according to YourNabe.com, and Ahmedzay took classes but did not graduate. Mendujanin, Ahmedzay and Zazi were all former students of Flushing High School.
Investigators had kept a close watch on Medunjanin and Ahmedzay since Zazi’s arrest for terrorism-conspiracy charges in September, reported “The New York Times.”
On Thursday, Jan. 7, two FBI. agents appeared at 25-year-old Medunjanin’s door with a search warrant for his passport. Medunjanin voluntarily handed over his passport and then fled his apartment in his car, followed by F.B.I. agents, according to “The Times.”
Medunjanin crashed his car near the Whitestone Bridge, where authorities captured him and brought him to the hospital to treat minor injuries, after which he was interrogated.
24-year-old Ahmedzay was picked up in his taxi in Manhattan around midnight and questioned.
Zazi was arrested and charged in September with attempting to use weapons of mass destruction. Zazis’ arrest was sparked by his drive to New York City from Denver, Colorado in a rental car, reported “The Times.”
Zazi admitted to investigators that he received training from al-Qaeda in weapons and explosives during a 2008 trip to Pakistan. Zazi denied that he was involved in a bomb plot, and plead not guilty to the charges against him, reported the “Courier.”
The pair’s apartments were searched in the days leading up to Zazi’s arrest in September, and authorities are saying the two flew with Zazi from Newark Liberty International Airport to Peshawar, Pakistan, to receive training from al-Qaeda, said the “Courier.”
If Medunjanin is convicted, he faces a sentence of 35 years to life, and Ahmedzay faces a possible eight years for allegedly lying to investigators.
The Knight News - Former QC Students Arrested in Terror Plot
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