Light Touch
Stories with a light touch: from crabs,
to bats, to ugly ducklings.. and beyond.
Beyond
With Screwdrivers in Hand, a Magic Man Does Battle With the Spirits
LAU, Indonesia,
August 27, 2001 : Where did that crab come from? With a casual flourish, Sukari Yasir pulled his hand from under his patient’s gut and held up the crab, wet, whitish, ...
A Presidential Daughter Tells All… and All…
MANILA, the Philippines,
May 3, 2003 : She’s a fool for sweet-and-sour pork. Her son has big feet. She collects Swatch Bijoux bracelets. She likes to walk around the house naked. The best colors for her skin tone are aqua blue...
Swooping and Dipping: A Ballroom Craze Sweeps Through Asia
MANILA, the Philippines,
November 14, 1996 : What was former Senator Rene Saguisag doing on the dance floor at the Inter-Continental Hotel, twirling a woman who is not his...
Bat Guano Sprinkles on their Heads, but the Ancient Statues Keep Smiling
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia,
August 7, 1998 : The mystical statues of ancient Angkor, with their enigmatic smiles, sit in the damp and almost empty National Museum here...
An Ugly Duckling Story with a Twist: Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder
BANGKOK, Thailand,
August 28, 2002 : When Sirinya Winsiri was a child, she knew she looked peculiar; people told her so. ”I’d be walking down the street and people would basically point their fingers...
The Wisdom of the Zippo Lighter, Tiny Missives from the Vietnam War
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam,
December 7, 2006 : “Off the record,” Bradford Edwards said, though this seemed an odd thing to say when stating the obvious. “Off the record I’m a little obsessed ...
The Many, Many Lives of a Nice Young Man from Colorado
ELISTA, Russia,
June 12, 2004 : Telemarketing, factory work, a job in a restaurant, a job as a customs inspector. ”If I wrote down everything on my résumé, people probably wouldn’t...
A Terrorist Escapes and Singapore Freaks Out
SINGAPORE,
March 14, 2008 : The big mistake, officials here say, was letting the terrorist suspect make a trip to the bathroom. Mas Selamat bin Kastari, alleged by the government to be the...