FROM PETRA WITH STYLE

Petra was amazing but my guide — funny and wise — made it unforgettable.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 21, 2025Petra, JordanComment

ODE TO A CONTINENT

Though best-known for his romantic poems, Pablo Neruda poured his life into Canto General. Then he fled Chile with his poem in his pack.

ATTIC PLANETBruce WatsonNovember 20, 2025Pablo Neruda, Canto General, Il Postino, South American poetry, Chilean poetryComment

GRIOTS -- WEST AFRICA'S LIVING HISTORY BOOKS

Storytellers are everywhere, but West Africa’s griots are the true keepers of the culture.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 20, 2025Griots, West African culture, Storytelling, African storytelling, GuineaComment

MIND BOMBS AND METTLE

Others marched and protested. Then a half century ago, the “mechanics and mystics” of Greenpeace put their lives on the line. And changed the world.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 20, 2025Greenpeace, Whaling, Whaling ban, International whalingComment

WHERE PLASTIC IS PROHIBITED

Despair once ruled Rwanda but hope is now contained in bags — made of everything except plastic.

ATTIC PLANETBruce WatsonNovember 20, 2025Rwanda, Rwanda plastic ban, Plastic pollutionComment

HOW THE WORLD SAVED THE PLANET

When ozone depletion threatened the whole earth, the whole earth responded. Here’s how.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 18, 2025Ozone layer, Environmentalism, Green living, Ozone bansComment

FROM ALL ENDS OF THE EARTH

1911: In a white supremacist world, the Universal Races Conference faced down “the problem of the color line.”

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 18, 20251911, 1911 Race conference, First Universal Races Congress, W.E.B. DuBoisComment

STROLLING WITH THE FLANEUR

Anyone can go for a walk, but the flâneur makes an art of urban strolling.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 18, 2025flaneur, flaneuse, walking, urban walkingComment

WELTSCHMERZ AND THE WORLD'S WISDOM

From za to shibui, from sabsung to tao, the world’s languages have words to make you feel better.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 18, 2025World languages, Unusual words, They have a word for itComment

THE RALLY AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

Dreaming of the open road? The wildest and most rugged race awaits in the annual Baltic Sea Circle Rally.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 11, 2025Baltic Sea Circle Rally, Car rallies, Adventure Club HamburgComment

THE PILOT AND HIS LITTLE PRINCE

Everyone knows The Little Prince. Now meet the pilot, novelist, and adventurer who dreamed him.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 11, 2025Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little PrinceComment

TV'S SMART AND SHINING SERIES

Scientist, poet, and storyteller, Jacob Bronowski was also TV’s greatest teacher. Remembering “The Ascent of Man.”

ATTIC PLANET, TeachersThe AtticNovember 11, 2025"The Ascent of Man", Jacob Bronowski, Best TV Shows, Best TV documentariesComment

NAMING THE UNIVERSE

All those comets, craters, exo-planets. . . Who names them? And why is there a crater on Mercury named John Lennon?

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 7, 2025Astronomy, Astronomical names, International Astronomical Union, Names in spaceComment

CYCLING THE COLD WAR'S CUTTING EDGE

Where once barbed wire and minefields stretched, a miracle now spans the former Iron Curtain.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 7, 2025Iron Curtain, Iron Curtain Bike Trail, European cycling, Cold WarComment

THE TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA

The West marvels at Marco Polo. But the rest know that no one traveled farther and wider than Morocco’s ibn Battuta.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 7, 2025Ibn Battuta, Travel, Marco Polo, Islamic cultureComment

IN THE WONDER ROOMS

In an age of dogma, Europe’s Wunderkammern celebrated a world of wonders.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 7, 2025Wunderkammern, Cabinets of Wonder, Museum of Jurassic TechnologyComment

HOW RUMI SPREAD HIS JOY

Almost eight centuries on, the Persian poet’s euphoric call is heard around the world.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 7, 2025Rumi, Poetry, Sufi PoetryComment

AFLOAT ON TIME AND TRAVEL

Adrift for centuries on Lake Titicaca, the Uros Islands pay tribute to endurance and human engineering.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticNovember 7, 2025Uros Islands, Lake Titicaca, South American tourism, Peru tourismComment

STEVENSON IN PARADISE

His stories took us on high seas of adventure. But how did Robert Louis Stevenson end up buried “under the wide and starry sky” of Samoa?

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticOctober 28, 2025Robert Louis Stevenson, Sevenson in Samoa, Stevenson Museum in SamoaComment

ZARAFA

In 1827, when Egypt sent a giraffe to France, there was only one way to get her to Paris.

ATTIC PLANETThe AtticOctober 27, 2025Zarafa, Giraffes, French giraffeComment

KINDER, COOLER, SMARTER

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