Cetatea Fagarasului (photo: Ileana 2015)
We found Cetatea Fagarasului half-way between Brasov and Sibiu, an hour drive off the beaten path for foreign tourists. I would venture to say that we were the only overseas visitors on that drizzly morning. The fortress was surrounded by a fosse populated by black and white swans, perfect sentries for a castle that was often under Ottoman siege. Weeping willows lined the street leading to the entrance. Continue reading
Prejmer Citadel Walls Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
Leaving our hotel in Brasov and barely avoiding two collisions from impertinent drivers who seem to be in so much hurry that they triple and quadruple pass other vehicles close to dangerous curves and impassable hills, we made our way a few kilometers north to the neighboring Saxon villages of Prejmer and Harman. Continue reading
Brasov Rally 5-21-15
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
On a beautiful sunny morning, May 21, 2015 when the Orthodox celebrated Ascension Day and Sf. Elena, we walked in the beautiful park downtown Brasov set at the foot of Timpa Peak, where a crowd had gathered in front of a large cross and several tombs of the young men and women killed on December 22-26, 1989, during the Revolution that toppled Ceausescu’s brutal communist regime. Some of them came to a rally and some were simply walking through the park. Continue reading
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
The plane was rocked violently on the tarmac at Dulles by a freak storm. The ten passengers and crew that had managed to board were wide-eyed, praying that the shaking of the Boeing 767 would stop soon and the boarding would resume. My husband was still in the terminal with the rest of the passengers. Lightning and wind gusts were so intense that boarding had been temporarily suspended.
The seven and a half hour flight to Zurich finally took off two and half hours late amid scary dark clouds and soul-rattling sudden altitude drops. Fortunately, as we reached a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet, everything calmed down and we settled into a routine of getting up, stretching, bathroom trips, and watching movies for seven and half hours. I can’t sleep on planes; all my limbs go numb rather quickly. Continue reading
Tomato Lab Research
Photo: Wikipedia
Hydroponic tomatoes have finally arrived in Romania. A video from Antena 3 entitled,”Pofta Buna la Otrava,” (Good Appetite for Poison), describes how an entrepreneur from Reghin, Mures County, has grown last year nine huge tomato plants per square meter, the size of “tropical arbors.” The plants grew out of a special bed without soil. The seeds were treated with a special fungicide designed to resist disease, grew roots in a bed of cotton and other materials, and each root was fed by a tube. The abundant, perfect tomato crop was and is guaranteed all year long. Continue reading
“We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism.”
– Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev, 1959
Having made tremendous progress throughout history, advancing, protecting, and promoting freedom of speech, we find ourselves at a threshold when book burnings, forbidden free expression of ideas, and printing for the elite consumption, not the masses, do not seem like such a thing of the past, even though we have the Internet for now. Continue reading
Mom in Catoctin Mountain
It’s Mother’s Day 2015. We drove by Catoctin Mountain, Maryland. It’s a verdant late spring with a balmy bathed-in-the sunshine day. It is a bittersweet Mother’s Day for me. Mom and I used to come to Fredrick in the fall to pick apples and other fruits from the many orchards in the area. Local small farms would sell their preserves, honey, and home-made pies. The trees were so laden with fragrant apples that the branches would almost touch the ground in some parts. The bees were kissing the sweet nectar of rotting apples on the ground and the apple cider dripping from the barrel’s spout outside. If you were there, samples of cider were free for the taking. Continue reading
Dacian bracelet from Sarmizegetusa
Photo: Wikipedia
Historians agree that some of the Roman military campaigns were motivated by the need to find and control ore reserves required for coinage. Monetary payments were made for a while using un-coined bronze called aes rude and cast bronze ingots called aes signatum.
Rome eventually built its own mint and coined silver denarii and smaller coins of bronze. Continue reading
The 2015 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) was released on April 27. According to the website, it is “a blueprint for U.S. foreign policy.” Following the 2010 review, the 2015 version identifies priorities and reforms needed to “advance the U.S. interests articulated in the 2015 National Security Strategy.” Continue reading
Larry Pratt, Executive Director, GOA
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
On May 1, 2015, a well-attended meeting of Virginians listened to arguments against the Article V Convention of States. Continue reading