From Toronto to Amman, connecting through Vienna: 17 hours and 23 minutes later, 3 dry airplane meals later, 1 lost piece of luggage later: Home. Monday: Coming-home rituals: a morning inaugurated at dawn with a walk to my local mosque for the fajir prayer followed by a day spent in the kitchen listening to my [...]

1) The Black Iris will be in “Decompressing Mode” for the next few days, if not weeks to come as I undergo a significant life-altering transition. So bear with me folks (I know you’ll miss me). 2) I’d also like to apologize for not replying to Black Iris readers who have emailed me in the [...]

This says it all…

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I have an appreciation if not a fascination with great film directors who have the ability to really define a scene with a song so that every time you hear it the scene will replay in your mind. I spent the day unwinding so I popped in my [...]

There’s no doubt about it: everyone hates Amman’s sidewalks. They are steep, cracked, run like mountains and valleys, are usually very brief and are filled with obstacles like olive trees that are big enough to force you off them. So people tend to walk on the streets and there tends to be little respect for [...]