“It’s strange that in a country where ads depicting near-naked women wearing skimpy lingerie is permitted on buses that we can’t run ads about atheism,” Villella said.

That’s actually one of the least strange things about this country.

Exhibit A, from The Origin of Species, by C.R. Darwin, 1st edition, 1859, pp73-4:

I am tempted to give one more instance showing how plants and animals, most remote in the scale of nature, are bound together by a web of complex relations. ... The number of humble-bees in any district depends...

It was going to be just an ordinary Sunday morning walk, but we were planning on about double the normal distance because our appointment for coffee was an hour away. The air was wonderfully fresh, a fine contrast to the night before’s heat which had mired me in lethargy. The streets were just abo...

It had been a long, besuited day. I escaped and, being downtown already, wandered off in search of amusement. And then, as I was walking down towards the Piazza di Sant’Ignazio, I heard music. Not standard street-busker fare, but something nostalgic, something essentially English. A brass band. P...

Seldom have I been so keen to rush home and Google something. We were on a weekend jaunt away, and what with one thing and another found ourselves driving between Sansepolcro and Arezzo with a Los Angelena in the back seat. We were giving her a ride to the station, and exposing her to a bit of the o...