June 2004

Alexandra Polier says that all that nonsense about her having an affair with John Kerry is wrong in today’s Guardian. I met Kerry for the first time in January 2001, in Davos, Switzerland. I was living in Manhattan, stop-gapping at a public-relations firm and wondering if my application to the Columbia University graduate school of journalism was going to be accepted. At heart, I was a politics junkie. I would scour the Economist, cutting out articles for my “current affairs”…

Ed: Well, my Tales of a Toubaab catching up didn’t really happen at the pace that I had hoped. But hopefully I’ll fill out all the stories that didn’t make it into writing yet this summer. This is Part IV of the Mali trip, continued from here. This episode describes the arrival into Bamako and our first day. Takes Place: March 31 2003 Written: January 15 2004 & June 3 2004 Bamako. The final destination on the fabled railway that…

Today after going to do an interview in the Mission district today I had lunch at a Mexican restaurant on 18th/Mission. I almost didn’t go in, because I saw it was so crowded, but then I realized that everyone was watching a Mexican soccer match on TV and thought that it would be interesting to watch with them. I sat down and observed. It was Guadalajara vs. Toluca (I looked it up, it was a semifinal match — Toluca won…