Word: garlic
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...place of pilgrimage. Every year hundreds of Americans and Europeans visit Rumania for government-organized Dracula tours of spooky castles that were supposedly once inhabited by the Transylvanian ghoul. Many of the tourists who climb secret staircases and descend into the dank depths of dungeons wear bags of garlic round their necks-the traditional method of warding off the vampire's bloodsucking kiss. In the spirit of the occasion, local schoolchildren wave their arms like bat wings and bare their budding fangs for visitors' cameras...
...meetings. But their interaction is more than a peaceful rural California co-existence. They lease the land together, raise the money for the immense taxes together and share a belief in the dignity of their dirty nails and muddy shoes. They share a commitment to their land, although their garlic patches and herb gardens are now cultivated separately. They have signed a pact promising that if a family leaves the valley it will sell its home for only half of what it cost to build. If they do sell their land, they cannot make a profit. My contact there...
...must be a number of women whose lives have been poisoned by the conflicts Stephanie supposedly resolves. All Gray's protagonist has to offer in the way of hard-earned wisdom is a cutesy line about taking the bad with the good: "That's what life is all about...Garlic and sapphires in the mud. There's quite a bit of anguish hidden behind our placid, blissful exteriors...
...never got over the frustration of being outsiders looking in," writes Leona. Yet it is precisely the Schecters' visitors-to-a-strange-planet attitude that makes their book succeed. On virtually every page are anecdotes and vignettes that constitute a witty, indelible portrait of the Soviet Union. Sweat, garlic and tobacco are the "characteristic smell of Moscow." Shoppers use no checks or credit cards; only the privileged in this "classless society" use scrip to buy luxury groceries at bargain prices. Three bathers in Armenia show off portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin tattooed on their chests...
...most Spaniards seemed determined to go on with business as usual-except for an unusual interest in radio bulletins and newspaper headlines. Last week the bullrings and soccer stadiums were packed, as were the tapas bars of old Madrid. Late-hour diners filled restaurants, feasting on steaming plates of garlic chicken and stuffed squid swimming in its own black ink. Long queues formed outside cinemas featuring The Towering Inferno, and a Beethoven concert series played to sellout houses. Traffic blocked the capital's streets and tourists swarmed through hotel lobbies. "The only people who are nervous are those across...