Foreign Native

Volkswagen stopped making its traditional Beetles four years ago (Mexico was the last holdout for the ubiquitous little cars), but since they were easily the most popular in the country’s history, there are still plenty of them on the roads. The bugs were always versatile vehicles, and particularly useful as taxis for short hauls around [...]

It occasionally happens that just as you’re getting into a good book and building up an imaginary rapport with its long-departed author, someone makes a disparaging comment about the writer which you can’t then get out of your head, tainting the entire read. One way to avoid this popular ad hominem tactic for spoiling other people’s [...]