Day of the Dead

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The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman

classic study, Day of the Dead, experimental subject, fear of failure, hedonic treadmill, Kibera, Lao Tzu, meta-analysis, Mikhail Gorbachev, Paradox of Choice, science of happiness, security theater, selection bias, Steve Jobs, summit fever, Supply of New York City Cabdrivers, traveling salesman, World Values Survey

It would be entirely wrong to give the impression that the Day of the Dead - or Mexico’s approach to memento mori in general, for that matter - represented any kind of shortcut around the inescapable and scarring realities of grief. The participants in the cemetery vigils were not, by and large, those still reeling from the impact of having recently been bereaved. The idea, in any case, was not to adopt a rictus grin in the face of death. That approach is surely the ‘cult of optimism at its worst’: it doesn’t work, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be an appropriate response to loss. The Day of the Dead is not an effort to remake something horrifying as something unproblematic; it is, precisely, a rejection of such binary categories.

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By common agreement, it was one of the few countries that still had an active tradition of memento mori - rituals and customs designed to encourage regular reflections on mortality - and, according to several recent international surveys, it was also one of the happiest; perhaps even the happiest or second happiest nation in the world, in fact, depending on the measures used. The most famous example of this attitude towards death is the annual celebration known as the Day of the Dead, when Mexicans toast those who have died - and death itself with copious quantities of tequila, and bread in the shape of human remains; people build shrines in their homes, throng city squares, and conduct all-night vigils at the graves of deceased relatives. But this way of thinking runs deeper than a national holiday each November.

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But since it is such a disagreeable fact, contrary to all our concepts and to the very meaning of our lives, the philosophy of progress … pretends to make it disappear, like a magician palming a coin.’ In Mexico, Santa Muerte was where you turned if the circumstances of your life made this sleightof-hand impossible - if the constant fear of violent death removed the option of ignoring your mortality. I did visit Tepito during my time in Mexico, a few days before the Day of the Dead itself, though it didn’t prove the most successful of assignments. I had been warned not to get there by hailing a taxi from the street, because of the risk of kidnapping; as a reporter, I have no real thirst for danger, and arguably I shouldn’t have gone at all. ‘Foreigners for obvious reasons never go to Tepito!’

Lonely Planet Cancun, Cozumel & the Yucatan (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet, John Hecht, Sandra Bao

Bartolomé de las Casas, carbon footprint, colonial rule, Day of the Dead, illegal immigration, income inequality, low cost airline, mass immigration, Skype, sustainable-tourism, trade route, traffic fines

October Cooler climes and slightly less rainfall. If you visit during the last days of October and the first days of November it’s interesting to compare Halloween to Day of the Dead celebrations. Halloween Playa del Carmen is the scene of a wild, all-night costume party that draws more than its fair share of inebriated zombies. November The rainy season has passed and temperatures are subsiding. Some accommodations drop prices by as much as 50%. Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead; November 2) Families build altars in their homes and visit graveyards to commune with their dead, taking garlands and gifts. Theme park Xcaret in the Riviera Maya arranges beautiful altars.

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July to March You can get lobster year-round on the coast but this is the time of year when fisherfolk are bringing in fresh catches daily. August The Jats’a Já festival in Mahahual celebrates the town’s fishing tradition with culinary exhibits and Maya ceremonies right on the beach. October to November Pibipollo (chicken tamales) are cooked underground for Day of the Dead festivities in many cities throughout the peninsula. November The Taste of Playa International Food Festival (www.tasteofplaya.com) is held on Playa del Carmen’s main plaza on the last Saturday of November with Riviera Maya chefs offering samples of their latest creations. Food Experiences Meals of a Lifetime » La Chaya Maya, Mérida Extraordinary yucateco fare in a precious downtown colonial building.

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Ceviche and cerveza (beer) are a winner on a warm day. » Fusion With so many Americans, Italians and other transplants living in these parts, you get some interesting blends of international and Mexican cuisine. Maya dish of shrimp, peppers and goat cheese PAM MCLEAN / GETTY IMAGES © Campeche » Pibipollo Chicken and pork tamales cooked underground and usually wrapped in banana leaves; a popular Day of the Dead dish. » Chocolomo A hearty stew made of beef, kidneys, brain, tongue, liver etc. You get the point – nothing goes to waste. Chiapas » Coffee Optimal growing conditions (high altitude, good climate, rich soil) produce some of the finest coffee in the country. » Tamales If you haven’t tried a tamale with the aromatic hoja santa herb, wrapped in a banana leaf, you’re missing something truly special.

Frommer's Mexico 2008 by David Baird, Juan Cristiano, Lynne Bairstow, Emily Hughey Quinn

airport security, AltaVista, Bartolomé de las Casas, centre right, colonial rule, Day of the Dead, East Village, gentrification, glass ceiling, haute cuisine, indoor plumbing, low cost airline, Maui Hawaii, out of africa, Pepto Bismol, place-making, Skype, sustainable-tourism, the market place, urban planning

See p. 494. • Don Emiliano (downtown San José del Cabo; & 624/142-0266): Don Emiliano wields farm-fresh ingredients laced with Mexican tradition and emerges from the kitchen with modern delights such as stepped-up chile en nogada for Día de Independencia and lemon atole with candied pumpkin for Day of the Dead. Apart from holiday menus, don’t miss the regular menu, which combines the likes of locally made cheeses with roasted tomatillos and dried hibiscus flowers with beef tenderloin. See p. 704. 2 Planning Your Trip to Mexico A little planning can make the difference between a good trip and a great trip.

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The central part of the state, a land of lakes, is the homeland of the Purépecha or Tarascan Indians. The villages throughout this area specialize in crafts for which the region is well known. Farther west lie the hot lands and the coast. Tourists largely neglect Michoacán, except during the Days of the Dead. OAXACA & CHIAPAS This is the southern land of the Zapotec, Mixtec, and Maya cultures. Most people fly around this region, but a toll highway from near Puebla to Oaxaca City makes the area more accessible by car. The valley of Oaxaca is one of the grandest places in Mexico: fascinating Indian villages, beautiful ruins, and a wonderful colonial city.

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., Tempe, AZ 85282 (& 888/783-1331 or 480/730-1764; fax 480/730-1496; www. mexicanarttours.com) offers unique tours focusing on the authentic arts and cultures of Mexico. Groups are accompanied by compelling speakers who are themselves respected scholars and artists. Itineraries include visits to Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Veracruz, and other locales. Special tours include a Day of the Dead tour and architecture and interior-design tours. Mexico Travel Link Ltd., 300-3665 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5R 5W2 Canada (& 604/454-9044; fax 604/4549088; www.mexicotravel.net), offers cultural, sports, and adventure tours to Mexico City and surrounding areas, Baja, Veracruz, the Copper Canyon, the Mayan Route, and other destinations.

Frommer's Mexico 2009 by David Baird, Lynne Bairstow, Joy Hepp, Juan Christiano

airport security, AltaVista, Bartolomé de las Casas, centre right, colonial rule, Day of the Dead, East Village, gentrification, glass ceiling, haute cuisine, indoor plumbing, low cost airline, out of africa, Pepto Bismol, place-making, Skype, sustainable-tourism, the market place, urban planning, young professional

SPECIAL EVENTS The island of Janitzio has achieved international celebrity for the candlelight vigil that local residents hold at the cemetery during the nights of November 1 and 2, the Days of the Dead. Tzintzuntzan, a village about 15km (91⁄3 miles) away, also hosts popular festivities, including folkloric dances in the main plaza and in the nearby yácatas (pre-Hispanic ruins), concerts in the church, and decorations in the cemetery. If you 12 285619-ch08.qxp 7/22/08 11:07 AM Page 263 PÁTZCUARO 263 Tips Festival Hotel Crunch Make hotel reservations months in advance for Holy Week or Days of the Dead. Most hotels require a 3-night minimum stay during these events. There are some other, less popular festivals in Pátzcuaro and surrounding towns; check with the tourist office to see if any will occur during your visit.

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See p. 665. • Don Emiliano (downtown San José del Cabo; & 624/142-0266): Don Emiliano wields farm-fresh ingredients laced with Mexican tradition and emerges from the kitchen with modern delights such as stepped-up chile en nogada for Día de Independencia and lemon atole with candied pumpkin for Day of the Dead. Apart from holiday menus, don’t miss the regular menu, which combines the likes of locally made cheeses with roasted tomatillos and dried hibiscus flowers with beef tenderloin. See p. 710. 06 285619-ch02.qxp 7/22/08 10:51 AM Page 23 2 Mexico in Depth by David Baird D espite the long and porous border Mexico shares with the United States, it’s a world apart from its northern neighbor.

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The villages throughout THE GULF COAST This region is probably Mexico’s least this area specialize in crafts for which the known, yet the entire coast, which region is well known. Farther west lie the includes the long, skinny state of Ver- hot lands and the coast. Tourists largely acruz, holds marvelous pockets of scenery neglect Michoacán, except during the and culture. Highway 180 leads from Days of the Dead. Matamoros at the Texas border and OAXACA & CHIAPAS offers a few glimpses of the Gulf of MexThis is the southern land of the Zapotec, ico. Highlights of this region are the ruins Mixtec, and Maya cultures. Most people of El Tajín, near the mountain village of fly around this region, but a toll highway Papantla; the mountain town of Xalapa, from near Puebla to Oaxaca City makes Veracruz’s capital and home of the magthe area more accessible by car.

Lonely Planet Cancun, Cozumel & the Yucatan (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet, John Hecht, Lucas Vidgen

Bartolomé de las Casas, carbon footprint, colonial rule, Day of the Dead, illegal immigration, low cost airline, mass immigration, off-the-grid, Skype, sustainable-tourism, trade route, traffic fines

October Cooler climes and slightly less rainfall. If you visit during the last days of October and the first days of November it's always interesting to compare Halloween with Day of the Dead celebrations. 6Halloween Playa del Carmen is the scene of a wild, all-night costume party that draws a sizable crowd of inebriated zombies. November The rainy season has passed and temperatures are subsiding. Some accommodations drop prices by as much as 50%. zDía de Muertos (Day of the Dead; November 1) Families build altars in their homes and visit graveyards to commune with their dead, taking garlands and gifts. Many cities place giant altars in their main squares.

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Trapping season for lobster actually runs through February. In small fishing villages, that usually means you're getting the fresh catch of the day. The Jats'a Já Festival in Mahahual celebrates the town's fishing tradition with food stands in August. Autumn (Sep-Nov) Pibes (chicken tamales) are cooked underground for Day of the Dead in many cities throughout the peninsula, while bakeries make pan de muerto (colorful seasonal bread). Winter (Dec-Mar) The Mérida Fest in January brings food vendors to the main plaza; in late February or early March you'll find tasty street eats during Carnaval festivities in Cozumel, Chetumal and Campeche.

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When to Go AThe Riviera Maya Film Festival in April screens local and international films on the beaches of Playa del Carmen; several weeks thereafter the fest tours to nearby Tulum, Puerto Morelos, Isla Mujeres and Cancún. APlaya del Carmen hosts a wild Halloween street bash, then you can stick around for colorful Day of the Dead festivities in and around the Riviera Maya. AThe Riviera Maya Jazz Festival in Playa del Carmen features beachside performances from Mexico and abroad. The annual event is usually held in November, so good hotel deals can be found. Best Beaches A Punta Allen A Puerto Morelos A Tulum A Xcacel A Playa del Carmen Best Places to Eat A Posada Margherita A Taquería Honorio A Al Chimichurri A Los Aguachiles Riviera Maya Highlights 1 Marvelling at Maya ruins dramatically situated on a rugged cliff in Tulum, then going for a swim down below. 2 Hanging out at chic sidewalk restaurants and beachside bars in Playa del Carmen, or if you're feeling inspired, taking a Spanish course. 3 Diving into the waters of Puerto Morelos and exploring a colorful barrier reef. 4 Splashing around or doing some serious diving at impressive cenotes in Tulum's surrounding areas. 5 Renting a bike at Cobá and following trails that lead to amazing Maya ruins, then going for a dip in nearby swimming holes.

Frommer's Memorable Walks in San Francisco by Erika Lenkert

Albert Einstein, Bay Area Rapid Transit, car-free, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Day of the Dead, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, high-speed rail, retail therapy, South of Market, San Francisco, three-masted sailing ship

But if you take the stairs to the right of the lobby, they’ll lead you to the second-floor art gallery, which exhibits local works that change monthly. The room gets especially festive around the end of October when the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration is honored with altars and traditional decorations displayed throughout the room. Along with the Day of the Dead celebration, the Mission Cultural Center plays a large role in other community activities and organizes a variety of events for the residents of this neighborhood. As you exit the Cultural Center, go left on Mission. Cross 24th Street, and when you get to 23rd Street, cross to the southeast side of Mission Street.

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., 14, 70, 71–72 Crown Point Press, 111–112 Cruisin’ the Castro, 170 Curran Theatre, 9 Danilo Bakery, 49–50 Dark Passage (movie), 64 Davidson, George, 98–99 Davies, Louise S., 91 Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), 123 Dean, Mallett, 62 Death at Dagton’s Folly (Rath), 89 De Goni, Dominga, 101 Delaplane, Stan, 150 Demarest, Pop, 88 Demarest Compound, 87–88 Dentists, 166 Department Store (mural), 63 Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), 123 Dianda’s, 122 Diego Rivera Gallery, 93 Diller, Phyllis, 43 DiMaggio, Joe, 52 Discolandia, 119 Doctors, 166 Doda, Carol, 46 Dominguez Bakery, 121 Driving rules, 164 Drugstores, 166 Folk Art International, 19 Fontes, Dan, 118 Fort Mason, 152 Fort Point, 155–156 Franklin, Benjamin, statue of, 52 Fugazi Bank, 40 Funston, Frederick, 78 Earthquakes, 124, 125, 143, 167 1906, 14, 18, 25, 39, 42, 71–73, 87, 96, 126 1989, 9, 16, 153 Edward Coleman House, 100–101 The Embarcadero, 160 Emergencies, 167 Engine Company no. 5, 60, 61 Enrico’s, 44 Eppleton Hall (tugboat), 150 Eureka (ferry), 148 Exploratorium, 157 The Eye of the Cat (movie), 99 Galeria de la Raza, 120 Galleries, 17, 19, 33, 43, 44, 93, 103, 111, 112, 120, 123, 153 Galvez, Daniel, 118 Garcia, Jerry, 134 Garfield Square, 122 Geary Theater, 9 George Sterling Glade, 91 Ghirardelli chocolate company, 42 Ghirardelli Chocolate Manufactory, 151 Ghirardelli Square, 150–151 Giannini, A.

Lonely Planet Mexico by John Noble, Kate Armstrong, Greg Benchwick, Nate Cavalieri, Gregor Clark, John Hecht, Beth Kohn, Emily Matchar, Freda Moon, Ellee Thalheimer

AltaVista, Bartolomé de las Casas, Burning Man, call centre, clean water, colonial rule, company town, Day of the Dead, glass ceiling, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, informal economy, language acquisition, low cost airline, Mahatma Gandhi, New Urbanism, off grid, off-the-grid, place-making, Rosa Parks, Rubik’s Cube, Skype, sustainable-tourism, trade route, traffic fines, urban sprawl, wage slave

Gays and lesbians rarely attract open discrimination or violence, and there are large, growing and confident gay communities in Mexico City (which recently legalized gay unions), Guadalajara, Monterrey and Puerto Vallarta. Tradition remains powerful. Holidays for saints’ days, patriotic anniversaries and festivals such as Semana Santa (Holy Week), Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead, November 2), the Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe (Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, December 12) and Christmas are essential to the rhythm of Mexican life, ensuring that people get a break from work every few weeks and bringing them together for the same processions and rituals year after year. * * * Mexico City’s Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) was the only Latin American university included in Britain’s Times Higher Education 2009 list of Top 200 World Universities.

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You’ll find good links to Mexico news providers, including blogs, twitter and national newspapers, on mexico news wiki (http://mexiconews.wikispaces.com). The Latin America Network Information Center (LANIC; http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/mexico) website links to dozens of local as well as national newspapers. * * * COMMUNING WITH DEPARTED SOULS Mexico’s most characteristic and perhaps oddest fiesta, Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), has its origins in pre-Hispanic rituals honoring and communing with the dead. Probably all Mexico’s pre-Hispanic cultures revered or worshiped their dead and believed that death did not represent the end of a life but the continuation of life in a parallel world. The Aztecs held a festival for the dead during July and August, presided over by their queen of the underworld, Mictecacíhuatl.

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Tamales, fruits, corn and salt were placed in front of the arch on an altar, along with containers of water (because spirits always arrived thirsty after their journey). Traditionally, the spirits of departed children visited on the first night and dead adults came on the following night, when they joined their living relatives to eat, drink, talk and sing. The Catholic festivals were easily superimposed on the old ‘day of the dead’ traditions, which shared much of the same symbolism – flowers, candles and offerings of food and drink. Día de Muertos persisted in the guise of Catholic celebration throughout Mexico’s colonial period, when the idea of death as a great leveler and release from earthly suffering must have provided comfort for the overwhelmingly poor populace.

Frommer's Irreverent Guide to San Francisco by Matthew Richard Poole

Bay Area Rapid Transit, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, Day of the Dead, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, game design, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute cuisine, Loma Prieta earthquake, Maui Hawaii, old-boy network, pez dispenser, San Francisco homelessness, sensible shoes, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, Torches of Freedom, upwardly mobile

See Diversions Avenue Cyclery, 132 Babysitters, 222 Baker Beach, 134–135 Ballet, 210 Bambuddha Lounge, 180, 192 Bars with DJs, 179–180 drag, 189 gay, 190 gender-blender, 189 lesbian, 190–191 neighborhood, 187 BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), 221, 222–223 Excursion Ticket, 114 Baseball, 212–213 Basic Brown Bear, 158, 163 Bay Area Theatresports, 209 Bay Meadows, 213, 214 Bayporter Express, 222 Bay Shuttle, 222 Bay to Breakers, 130–131, 226 Beach Blanket Babylon, 204, 209, 214 Beaches, 133–135 The Bead Store, 155, 163 The Beats (beatniks), 1–2, 109–110, 158–159 Belden Place restaurants, 57 Berkeley Marina Sports Center, 137 Bicycling, 131–133 Bimbo’s 365, 181, 189, 192 Birkenstock Natural Footwear, 163 Biscuits and Blues, 182–183, 192 Black and White Ball, 226 Blazing Saddles, 131, 132 The Bliss Bar, 179, 192 Blues joints, 182–183 The Booksmith, 158, 163 Bookstores, 158–159 Boom Boom Room, 182, 193 Botanica Yoruba, 155, 163 Bottom of the Hill, 180, 193 Boudin Sourdough Bakery, 104, 117 Brautigan, Richard, 74 Brewpubs, 187–188 Brooks Brothers, 163 Buddha Lounge, 101, 187, 193 The Buddhist Bookstore, 159, 163 Buena Vista Cafe, 49, 98 Buffalo Exchange, 153, 163 Buffalo Paddock, 128 Bullitt (movie), 27 Burberry’s, 163 Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia, 109, 117 Buses, 223 Cable Car Museum, 106–107, 117 Cable cars, 4, 6, 223 233 Cronan Artefact, 153, 165 Cruisin’ the Castro, 115, 118 Crystal Way, 155, 165 Curran Theater, 214 Dal Jeets, 153, 165 Dalva, 184–185, 193 Dance companies, 210–211 Dance House, 204, 210–211, 214 Dancers Group Studio Theater, 210, 215 D&M Wine and Liquor Co., 158, 165 Danilo Bakery, 158, 165 David Stephen, 153, 165 Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos), 227 Dentists, 224 Department stores, 152 De Soto, 230 Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), 227 Dianda’s Italian American Pastry, 158, 165 A Different Light, 159, 165, 190 Discolandia, 159, 165 Discos, 184 Diversions, 94–124 the Beats, 109–110 Chinatown, 100–102 family attractions, 114–115 for first-time visitors, 97–99 free, 107 morbid landmarks, 103 sunset viewing, 102–103 walking tours, 115–116 Doctors, 224 Dog Eared Books, 159, 166 Door-to-Door Airport Express, 222 Dottie Doolittle, 158, 166 Drag bars, 189 Driving, 225 SAN FRANCISCO Earthquake of 1989, 2 Earthquakes, 7 Edinburgh Castle, 187, 193 El Rio, 191, 194 Embarcadero promenade, 140 Embarcadero YMCA, 133 Emergencies, 225 The EndUp, 183, 194 Enrico’s Sidewalk Cafe, 51, 182, 194 Entertainment, 202–218.

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Know what the curb colors mean: Red means no stopping or parking; yellow means all commercial vehicles may stop for up to a half-hour; yellow-and-black means only commercial trucks during business hours; green-yellow-and-black is a taxi zone; blue is for cars with California disabled placards; green means all vehicles may stop for up to 10 minutes; white means all vehicles are limited to a 5-minute stop while the adjacent business is still open. Also keep an eye out for those sneaky street-cleaning signs. Emergencies... Like anywhere else, call 911, but don’t be Festivals & Special Events From the crowning of Japantown’s Cherry Blossom Queen and the Gay Pride Parade of self-styled queens to Chinese New Year and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), San Francisco’s extraordinary diversity is celebrated year-round in one festival after another. A complete monthly listing is published in the HOTLINES & OTHER BASICS surprised if you get put on hold. Other emergency/information numbers: Ambulance (Tel 415/931-3900), Poison Control Center (Tel 800/876-4766), and Suicide Prevention (Tel 415/781-0500). 226 Bay City Guide, free at information racks in the airports and at most hotels.

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Opera in the Park (Tel 415/ 861-4008), a free opera in Golden Gate Park, kicks off the San Francisco Opera’s fall season. OCTOBER: Fleet Week (Tel 415/705-5500; www.fleetweek. com), gather along the Marina Green, Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf, and other great vantage points to watch incredible aerial performances by the Blue Angels, flown in tribute of our nation’s marines. NOVEMBER: Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican fiesta and parade in the Mission District designed to honor the dead and entice their spirits to return for the party. DECEMBER: The Nutcracker (Tel 415/865-2000) and Sing-It- Gay and lesbian resources... The lesbian and gay com- munities in the Bay Area are very well organized and have countless resources at their disposal.

San Francisco by Lonely Planet

airport security, Albert Einstein, Apple II, back-to-the-land, banking crisis, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Burning Man, California gold rush, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, David Brooks, David Sedaris, Day of the Dead, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, G4S, game design, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, Joan Didion, Larry Ellison, Loma Prieta earthquake, machine readable, Mason jar, messenger bag, New Urbanism, off-the-grid, retail therapy, San Francisco homelessness, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, transcontinental railway, urban sprawl, Whole Earth Catalog, Zipcar

SF Jazz Festival Minds are blown by jazz greats and upstarts during the SF Jazz Festival (www.sfjazz.org), from Grammy-winning singing bassist Esperanza Spalding and saxophonist Joshua Redman to danceable acts like Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, and the bluesy pop-star India Arie; held late September through November. November Party to wake the dead and save the planet as San Francisco celebrates its Mexican history and green future. Día de los Muertos Zombie brides and Aztec dancers in feather regalia party like there’s no tomorrow on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead; www.dayofthedeadsf.org), paying respects to the dead along the way; held down 24th St on November 2. Green Festival Energy-saving spotlights are turned on green cuisine, technology, fashion and booze during the three-day, mid-November Green Festival (www.greenfestivals.org). Street performers on a float, Lunar New Year Parade (Click here) ROBERTO GEROMETTA / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © Competitor in costume, Bay to Breakers (Click here) GREG GAWLOWSKI / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © With Kids Rainforest dome, California Academy of Sciences (Click here) SABRINA DALBESIO / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © San Francisco has the fewest kids per capita of any US city and, according to SF SPCA data, about 19,000 more dogs than kids live here.

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Today, a one-block walk down Balmy Alley leads past three decades of murals, from an early memorial for El Salvador activist Archbishop Óscar Romero to an homage to the golden age of Mexican cinema. Precita Eyes ( Click here ) restores these murals, commissions new ones by San Francisco artists and leads muralist-led tours that cover 50 to 70 Mission murals within an eight-block radius of Balmy Alley. On November 1, the annual Mission parade Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead; Click here ) begins here. 826 Valencia Cultural Site Offline map Google map ( 415-642-5905; www.826valencia.com; 826 Valencia St; noon-6pm; 18th St) ‘No buccaneers! No geriatrics!’ warns the sign above the vat of sand where kids rummage for buried pirates’ booty. The treasures are theirs for the taking, if they offer barter for it at the front counter – a song, perhaps, or a knock-knock joke.

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Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Classes Offline map Google map ( 415-643-5001; www.missionculturalcenter.org; 2868 Mission St; 5-10pm Mon, 10am-10pm Tue-Fri, 10am-5:30pm Sat; & 24th St Mission) Join a class in tango, capoeira or Afro-Peruvian dance; make arts and crafts with the kids; or create a protest poster at the printmaking studio at this happening cultural center. Teachers are friendly, and participants range from niños (kids) to abuelos (grandparents). Check the online calendar for upcoming gallery openings; don’t miss Day of the Dead altar displays in November. Potrero del Sol/La Raza Skatepark Skating Offline map Google map (www.sfgov.org; 25th & Utah Sts; & 24th St Mission) An isolated, scrubby park that had been abandoned to gangs became NorCal’s hottest urban skatepark in 2008 with support from the city’s Recreation and Park department.

San Francisco by Lonely Planet

airport security, Albert Einstein, Apple II, back-to-the-land, banking crisis, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Burning Man, California gold rush, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, David Brooks, David Sedaris, Day of the Dead, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, G4S, game design, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, Joan Didion, Larry Ellison, Loma Prieta earthquake, machine readable, Mason jar, messenger bag, New Urbanism, off-the-grid, retail therapy, San Francisco homelessness, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, transcontinental railway, urban sprawl, Whole Earth Catalog, Zipcar

SF Jazz Festival Minds are blown by jazz greats and upstarts during the SF Jazz Festival (www.sfjazz.org), from Grammy-winning singing bassist Esperanza Spalding and saxophonist Joshua Redman to danceable acts like Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, and the bluesy pop-star India Arie; held late September through November. November Party to wake the dead and save the planet as San Francisco celebrates its Mexican history and green future. Día de los Muertos Zombie brides and Aztec dancers in feather regalia party like there’s no tomorrow on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead; www.dayofthedeadsf.org), paying respects to the dead along the way; held down 24th St on November 2. Green Festival Energy-saving spotlights are turned on green cuisine, technology, fashion and booze during the three-day, mid-November Green Festival (www.greenfestivals.org). Street performers on a float, Lunar New Year Parade (Click here) ROBERTO GEROMETTA / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © Competitor in costume, Bay to Breakers (Click here) GREG GAWLOWSKI / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © With Kids Rainforest dome, California Academy of Sciences (Click here) SABRINA DALBESIO / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © San Francisco has the fewest kids per capita of any US city and, according to SF SPCA data, about 19,000 more dogs than kids live here.

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Today, a one-block walk down Balmy Alley leads past three decades of murals, from an early memorial for El Salvador activist Archbishop Óscar Romero to an homage to the golden age of Mexican cinema. Precita Eyes ( Click here ) restores these murals, commissions new ones by San Francisco artists and leads muralist-led tours that cover 50 to 70 Mission murals within an eight-block radius of Balmy Alley. On November 1, the annual Mission parade Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead; Click here ) begins here. 826 Valencia Cultural Site Offline map Google map ( 415-642-5905; www.826valencia.com; 826 Valencia St; noon-6pm; 18th St) ‘No buccaneers! No geriatrics!’ warns the sign above the vat of sand where kids rummage for buried pirates’ booty. The treasures are theirs for the taking, if they offer barter for it at the front counter – a song, perhaps, or a knock-knock joke.

…

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Classes Offline map Google map ( 415-643-5001; www.missionculturalcenter.org; 2868 Mission St; 5-10pm Mon, 10am-10pm Tue-Fri, 10am-5:30pm Sat; & 24th St Mission) Join a class in tango, capoeira or Afro-Peruvian dance; make arts and crafts with the kids; or create a protest poster at the printmaking studio at this happening cultural center. Teachers are friendly, and participants range from niños (kids) to abuelos (grandparents). Check the online calendar for upcoming gallery openings; don’t miss Day of the Dead altar displays in November. Potrero del Sol/La Raza Skatepark Skating Offline map Google map (www.sfgov.org; 25th & Utah Sts; & 24th St Mission) An isolated, scrubby park that had been abandoned to gangs became NorCal’s hottest urban skatepark in 2008 with support from the city’s Recreation and Park department.

The Art of Paper Cutting by Henya Melichson

Day of the Dead

Mexico features a distinct form of paper cutting known as paper picado or punched paper. In this technique, artists use a hammer and chisel to punch designs onto stacks of thin colored paper. They may produce tens or hundreds of paper cuts at one time. The paper cuts are often cut into long banners, and used for decorations during Day of the Dead celebrations, and other holidays. Europe Paper cutting arrived in Europe during the fifteenth century, and was quickly embraced by craftspeople in several countries. Known as scherenschnitte in German, the craft became very popular in both Germany and Switzerland by the 1600s. It was used to cut stencils for furniture, embroidery, and lace patterns.

Everything Under the Sun: Toward a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet by Ian Hanington

agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, Anthropocene, biodiversity loss, Bretton Woods, carbon footprint, carbon tax, clean water, Climategate, Climatic Research Unit, Day of the Dead, disinformation, do what you love, energy security, Enrique Peñalosa, Exxon Valdez, Google Earth, happiness index / gross national happiness, Hedy Lamarr / George Antheil, hydraulic fracturing, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Medieval Warm Period, ocean acidification, oil shale / tar sands, planned obsolescence, precautionary principle, stem cell, sustainable-tourism, the scientific method, University of East Anglia, urban planning, urban sprawl

EVERY AUTUMN, TENS of millions of monarch butterflies take wing in southern Ontario, embarking on a miraculous three-thousand-kilometre, two-month journey, arriving in central Mexico in late October and early November. The indigenous people of Mexico believe the returning butter-flies carry the souls of ancestors, and November 1 and 2 are celebrated there as the Day of the Dead. Catholic tradition has been syncretized with indigenous observance, so November 1 is All Saints’ Day, when the spirits of children return, and November 2 is All Souls’ Day, the main Day of the Dead, when the spirits of adults return. It’s a time of celebration, as many Mexicans share a belief with people around the world that a veil is lifted between the living and the dead at this time of year, allowing ancestors to visit for a brief time.

Culture Shock! Costa Rica 30th Anniversary Edition by Claire Wallerstein

anti-communist, bilateral investment treaty, call centre, card file, Day of the Dead, Easter island, fixed income, Kickstarter, liberal capitalism, out of africa, Silicon Valley, sustainable-tourism, trade route, urban sprawl

Historically, Ticos lived in isolated mountain hamlets, where they had to rely, above all, on their relatives for working the farm, emotional support and socialising—to the extent that the family is described in the constitution as the ‘natural basis of Costa Rican society’. If you become extremely good friends with a Tico, they will probably describe you as being como un hermano (like a brother). Meanwhile, Mother’s Day is probably one of the most extravagant holidays in the country, and Father’s Day is also seriously celebrated. On the Day of the Dead, graveyards are full of people bringing flowers to relatives’ graves and cleaning headstones. Until very recently, most people lived in the village where they grew up and even now, family members rarely live far apart from each other. A plot of family land is often divided up so that offspring can build their houses right next to their parents.

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This massive party mixes Tico fiesta traditions, Afro-Caribbean music and hordes of outlandish, often skimpily-clad Riostyle street paraders. Fiesta del Maíz, Upala, Guanacaste (12 October) A celebration of all things related to corn. The highlight is a pageant, with the local beauty queens parading in outfits fashioned from the crop. November Día de los Muertos (2 November) As in most of the Latin world, on the Day of the Dead, Tico families visit their deceased relatives in graveyards around the country and stage religious processions. Enjoying Costa Rica 207 December Día de la Pólvora, San Antonio de Belén and Jesus María de San Mateo (8 December) This celebration, during which fireworks are let off, honours Our Lady of Immaculate Conception.

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

"there is no alternative" (TINA), 15-minute city, AlphaGo, An Inconvenient Truth, anti-fragile, Asian financial crisis, basic income, Bernie Sanders, Boris Johnson, butterfly effect, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, car-free, carbon tax, central bank independence, clean water, cloud computing, colonial rule, contact tracing, coronavirus, COVID-19, Credit Default Swap, David Graeber, Day of the Dead, deep learning, DeepMind, deglobalization, Demis Hassabis, Deng Xiaoping, digital divide, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, Edward Glaeser, Edward Jenner, Elon Musk, Erik Brynjolfsson, failed state, financial engineering, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, future of work, gentrification, George Floyd, gig economy, Gini coefficient, global pandemic, global reserve currency, global supply chain, green new deal, hiring and firing, housing crisis, imperial preference, income inequality, Indoor air pollution, invention of the wheel, Jane Jacobs, Jeff Bezos, Jeremy Corbyn, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Snow's cholera map, junk bonds, lockdown, Long Term Capital Management, low interest rates, manufacturing employment, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Martin Wolf, means of production, megacity, Mexican peso crisis / tequila crisis, middle-income trap, Monroe Doctrine, Nate Silver, Nick Bostrom, oil shock, open borders, out of africa, Parag Khanna, Paris climate accords, Peter Thiel, plutocrats, popular capitalism, Productivity paradox, purchasing power parity, remote working, reserve currency, reshoring, restrictive zoning, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, secular stagnation, Silicon Valley, social distancing, software is eating the world, South China Sea, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Pinker, Suez crisis 1956, TED Talk, the built environment, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, The Spirit Level, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas L Friedman, Tim Cook: Apple, trade route, UNCLOS, universal basic income, urban planning, Washington Consensus, white flight, Works Progress Administration, zoonotic diseases

“At the end, regardless of whether you are white, dark, rich or poor, we all end up as skeletons.” Drawing on this morbid idea, Posada’s most famous creation, an etching titled La Catrina, depicts an elegant female skeleton in a large plumed hat, a macabre figure in Victorian finery that has become associated with Mexico’s Day of the Dead. He first crafted this indelible image around 1910, when cholera remained rampant. Indeed, another of Posada’s works from the same year is called The Skull of Morbid Cholera. But for all of its equalizing impulses, the Catrina image is also very much about inequality. By dolling up a skeleton in high-society fashion, La Catrina serves as a sendup of the class and wealth gaps not only within Mexico, but also between Mexico and much richer Western European nations—between what we have come to think of as the developing world and the developed world.

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Forster, Howards End (London: Edward Arnold, 1910). Lesson Seven: Inequality Will Get Worse 147 “death is democratic”: Adriana Gomez Licon, “Mexican Day of Dead ‘Skeleton Lady’ Spreads Look,” Associated Press, October 31, 2013. 147 La Catrina: Simon Ingram, “La Catrina: The Dark History of Day of the Dead’s Immortal Icon,” National Geographic, October 18, 2019. 147 The Skull of Morbid Cholera: José Guadalupe Posada, La calavera del cólera morbo (1910), accessed via Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/99615954/. 148 “a very big problem”: Richard Wike, “The Global Consensus: Inequality Is a Major Problem,” Pew Research, November 15, 2013, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/15/the-global-consensus-inequality-is-a-major-problem/. 148 narrowing over the same period: Taking on Inequality: Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016, The World Bank Group, 9, 81, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/25078/9781464809583.pdf. 149 forty-two saw rises: “Table 4.1: Trends in the Within-Country Gini Index, 1993–2013,” Taking on Inequality: Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016, The World Bank Group, 86, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/25078/9781464809583.pdf. 149 two where it fell: Ibid, 88. 149 twelve of the sixteen: Ibid. 149 gap has widened dramatically: Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, “World Inequality Report 2018,” 46, https://wir2018.wid.world/files/download/wir2018-full-report-english.pdf. 150 highest level since 1928: Markus P.

Belgium - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture by Bernadett Varga

Airbnb, Black Lives Matter, centre right, coronavirus, COVID-19, Day of the Dead, high-speed rail, lockdown, Peace of Westphalia, trade route, women in the workforce, work culture

All Saints and All Souls Halloween is not a Belgian tradition, but British and American influence means you will see jack-o’-lanterns, witches, and ghosts around, particularly in shops. Much more happens on All Saints’ Day, when people bring chrysanthemums and candles to the graves of their dead relatives, and November 2, the Day of the Dead, when soul cakes are eaten to save souls from Purgatory. WEDDINGS AND OTHER RITES OF PASSAGE Belgians generally like to take their time to find the right partner to settle down with. In 2018 the average age for a first marriage was 33.7 years for men and 31.4 years for women. In early 2020 there was a 9 percent increase in the number of marriages compared to the previous year, but the overall number of marriages was 26 percent down.

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Boot

American ideology, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, bread and circuses, Charles Lindbergh, colonial rule, cuban missile crisis, David Brooks, Day of the Dead, desegregation, disinformation, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, drone strike, electricity market, European colonialism, facts on the ground, failed state, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Golden Gate Park, Herman Kahn, jitney, land reform, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, Potemkin village, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Seymour Hersh, South China Sea, Steve Jobs, Suez canal 1869, Suez crisis 1956, War on Poverty, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration

Norton & Company INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS SINCE 1923 NEW YORK • LONDON FRONTPIECE: Lansdale arrives at Tam Son Nhut Airport in Saigon, August 29, 1965, to begin his second tour in Vietnam. His embassy rival, Philip Habib, is at left. (AP) To Sue Mi Terry, for supporting me And to the Council on Foreign Relations, for supporting my work CONTENTS Maps Dramatis Personae PROLOGUE: The Day of the Dead: Saigon, November 1–2, 1963 INTRODUCTION: The Misunderstood Man PART ONE • Ad Man (1908–1945) 1. In Terrific Flux 2. Enfant Terrible 3. An Institution Run by Its Inmates PART TWO • Colonel Landslide (1945–1954) 4. The Time of His Life 5. In Love and War 6. The Knights Templar 7. “A Most Difficult and Delicate Problem” 8.

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Any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. —GEORGE ORWELL1 Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burns himself to death in Saigon, June 11, 1963. One of the most famous and influential photographs in history, it helped to bring down Ngo Dinh Diem. (AP) PROLOGUE The Day of the Dead: Saigon, November 1–2, 1963 We are launched on a course from which there is no respectable turning back: The overthrow of the Diem government. —HENRY CABOT LODGE JR. WHAT caused the tragedy of the Vietnam War? Historians can always point to deep forces to explain that defining event in twentieth-century American history: geography and demography and environment, ideology and economics and sociology, race and class and religion.

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Big Minh had wanted to be sure that Diem would not stage a comeback. He got his wish—and the entire world would have to live with the consequences. The Diem regime ended, along with the life of its leader and his brother, on the morning of November 2, 1963—All Souls’ Day. Or, as it is known in some Catholic cultures, the Day of the Dead. WHEN WORD of Diem’s death reached Washington, President Kennedy was meeting with his senior advisers in the Cabinet Room. The Kennedys over time have acquired a reputation for cultivating a tough-guy persona, but there was nothing hard about the president’s reaction to this unexpected news.

The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget (Travel Guide eBook) by Rough Guides

Airbnb, Albert Einstein, Atahualpa, banking crisis, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, centre right, colonial rule, Colonization of Mars, company town, Day of the Dead, discovery of the americas, Easter island, Francisco Pizarro, garden city movement, gentrification, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, it's over 9,000, Kickstarter, mass immigration, Nelson Mandela, off grid, openstreetmap, place-making, restrictive zoning, side project, Skype, sustainable-tourism, the long tail, trade route, urban sprawl, walkable city

Early October Oktoberfest. Ten days of drinking in the country’s most German town, Villa General Belgrano. First Sunday in October Our Lady of the Rosary, Iruya. Around October 20 Fiesta de la Ollas, or “Manca Fiesta”, La Quiaca. A crafts and music festival. November 1 & 2 All Souls’ Day and the Day of the Dead, Quebrada de Humahuaca and Antofagasta de la Sierra. November 10 Fiesta de la Tradición, San Antonio de Areco. Gaucho festival. December 24 Christmas Eve, Buenos Aires. Big fireworks displays in the capital. walking tiny dogs on Chanel leads. If you grow weary of the people, noise and buses of the capital you can head out of the city to the waterways of the Paraná Delta, the quiet streets of La Plata or San Antonio de Areco, home of Argentina’s gauchos.

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July 16 Virgen del Carmen (public holiday in La Paz department only). Processions and dances in honour of the Virgen del Carmen, the patron saint of many towns and villages across Bolivia. August 6 Independence Day (Día de la Patria). Parades and parties throughout the country, notably in Copacabana. November 1–2 All Saints (Día de Todos los Santos) and Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). December 25 Christmas Day (Navidad). Festivals Bolivian festivals include, but are not limited to, the public holidays listed. The big ones are Carnival, Easter and New Year. Others include the Feria de Alasitas (Jan 24) in La Paz, the Virgen del Carmen (July 16) in many towns and villages nationwide and a public holiday in La Paz departamento, the Fiesta Patronal (July 31) in San Ignacio de Moxos, and San Bartolomé (Aug 24) in Potosí.

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January 1 New Year’s Day (Ano Novo) March/April (varies) Good Friday April 21 Tiradentes Day (Dia de Tiradentes) May 1 Labour Day (Dia do Trabalhador) September 7 Independence Day (Dia da Independência) October 12 Feast Day of Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Our Lady of Aparecida, patron saint of Brazil) November 2 Dia dos Finados (Day of the Dead) November 15 Republic Day (Proclamação da República) December 25 Christmas Day (Natal) Festivals and celebrations Carnaval is by far the most important festival in Brazil, and when it comes, the country grinds to a halt as it gets down to some of the most serious partying in the world. The most familiar and most spectacular celebration is in Rio, one of the world’s great sights, televised live to the whole country.

Wrap It In A Bit Of Cheese Like You're Tricking The Dog: The fifth collection of essays and emails by New York Times Best Selling author David Thorne by David Thorne

Day of the Dead, Minecraft, pink-collar, telemarketer

“It’s not an Acapulco hat though is it? It’s just an anywhere in Mexico hat.” “It says Acapulco along the brim. How about this one? It’s a cactus.” “Is it an Acapulco cactus or an anywhere in Mexico cactus?” “An Acapulco cactus.” “No it isn’t. I’m getting this one, the llama.” Seb purchased a ceramic skull painted with Day of the Dead graphics and a salt & pepper set shaped like breasts. He paid full price but the seller threw in a wooden backscratcher and a pen. While my recollection of the rest of the night is fuzzy, I do remember the driver dropping us off outside a bar shaped like a pirate ship. It had the Jolly Roger flying from a mast and Pitbull blasting from towering speakers.

Top 10 Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp & Ghent by Antony Mason

Day of the Dead, glass ceiling, haute couture, Mercator projection, walkable city

Late Apr (next in 2015) Festival van Vlaanderen An impressive programme of classical music – as well as jazz, world music and dance – takes place across Flanders every summer and autumn, with performances in the main venues, as well as in churches and other historic buildings. www.festival.be Jun–Oct Toussaint, all Belgium All Saints’ Day is followed by the Jour des Morts, the Day of the Dead – a time when Belgians honour their departed by tidying up the graveyards and filling them with flowers – over 50 million, apparently, mainly chrysanthemums, which glow softly with autumnal colours. 1–2 Nov Fête de Saint-Nicolas, all Belgium The Feast of St Nicholas (Sinter-klaas in Dutch) is celebrated by children with even greater enthusiasm than Christmas.

Lint by Steve Aylett

Day of the Dead, death of newspapers, Dr. Strangelove, Mahatma Gandhi, Norman Mailer, rolodex, Schrödinger's Cat

Raw value was spreading surflike, the endless accident of the universe including the etheric angst of those become conscious of it. “The flavor of obliteration wasn’t so bad,” he wrote later. “A bit like boiled sprouts.” Lint’s zebra heart broke at angles to the stripes. Lint and Elsa traveled on together and enjoyed Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, “a vaudevillian skull amid prophecy and pastries.” But it was amid the sugar heads and fortune music of New Orleans’s Mardi Gras, snapshot flowers leaving stains on his eye, that Lint realized he was in love with Elsa. “She had one of those smiles that went upside down, using all the muscles,” said Lint.

Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action That Changed America by Writers For The 99%

Bay Area Rapid Transit, citizen journalism, collective bargaining, Day of the Dead, desegregation, feminist movement, gentrification, Glass-Steagall Act, income inequality, independent contractor, intentional community, it's over 9,000, McMansion, microaggression, Mohammed Bouazizi, Occupy movement, Port of Oakland, We are the 99%, young professional

It was around this altar that members of the public and the Occupy Wellness Group (including MedMob, Occupy Yoga, the Interdependence Project, and other groups) organized and maintained 58 days of continuous prayer, twice daily meditation, music, interfaith practices, worship, and community discussions. Occupiers and visitors alike contributed a myriad of objects to the altar: sage, flowers, candles, Buddha statues, Hindu deities, Day of the Dead decorations, peace signs, crucifixes, Balinese masks, rosaries, rose petals, malas, stones, feathers, shells, crystals, incense, candles, figurines, Buddhas, photos of spiritual teachers, signs and art work. In the daily life of OWS, the Sacred Space offered a refuge from crowds and chaos, a place for occupiers to pause and reflect on their feelings and priorities.

Lonely Planet Pocket San Francisco by Lonely Planet, Alison Bing

Albert Einstein, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, bike sharing, Blue Bottle Coffee, Burning Man, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, Day of the Dead, edge city, G4S, game design, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, Larry Ellison, machine readable, Mason jar, messenger bag, off-the-grid, San Francisco homelessness, Silicon Valley, stealth mode startup, Stewart Brand, transcontinental railway, Zipcar

(www.viracochasf.com; 998 Valencia St; noon-6pm Wed-Fri, to 7pm Sat & Sun; 18th St, 24th St Mission) 35 Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Classes Offline map Google map Take a class in Afro-Peruvian dance, learn to make authentic mole (spice mix), or create a silkscreened protest poster at this happening cultural center. Teachers are friendly and multi­lingual, and participants range from niños to abuelos (kids to grandparents). Check the online calendar for upcoming events; don’t miss Day of the Dead altar displays in November or Christmas posadas (parties). ( 415-643-5001; www.missionculturalcenter.org; 2868 Mission St; 10am-10pm Tue-Fri, Mon 5pm-10pm, Sat 10am-5:30pm; 24th St Mission; ) 36 18 Reasons Classes Offline map Google map Go gourmet at this local community food organization affiliated with Bi-Rite ( Click here ) offering artisan cheese and wine tastings, knife-skills and edible perfume workshops and more – check the website for upcoming classes and frequent family friendly gourmet events. ( 415-252-9816; www.18reasons.org; 3674 18th St; events 7-9pm; Church St, 18th St; ) Top Tip Mission Street Smarts Bars and restaurants make Mission a key nightlife destination, but it’s not always the safest area to walk alone at night.

Yucatan: Cancun & Cozumel by Bruce Conord, June Conord

Beryl Markham, British Empire, colonial rule, company town, Day of the Dead, feminist movement, if you build it, they will come, land reform, Mahatma Gandhi, Pepto Bismol, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Yogi Berra

Beginning of an eight-day memorial observance. Flowers and candles are placed on graves of relatives. Boo! Last week Oct-first week Nov: Orange Festival in Oxkutzcab, Yucatán. n NOVEMBER n DECEMBER Nov 1-2: All Souls’ Day/All Saint’s Day/Day of the Dead. Graveside and church ceremonies honor the memory of departed loved ones. Instead of a somber occasion, the Day of the Dead is a happy celebration with a fiesta atmosphere highlighted by sugar skulls and candy skeletons. A family meal is eaten at the gravesites and favorite food is left for the departed souls. A haunting experience. 1st week Nov: X’matkuil Fair is hosted at a former henequen hacienda eight kms (five miles) north of Mérida.

City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World by Catie Marron

Berlin Wall, carbon footprint, Day of the Dead, deindustrialization, do-ocracy, fixed-gear, gentrification, Jane Jacobs, late capitalism, Lewis Mumford, Mark Zuckerberg, megacity, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Occupy movement, plutocrats, the built environment, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the High Line, too big to fail, Twitter Arab Spring, urban planning

Mostly, these days the plaza is a staging ground for protest demonstrations—indeed, the entire expanse is often covered for weeks with the tent cities of protesters from other states. This year in particular, there has been no lack of subject matter for protests: The economy refuses to grow, underemployment is the best most people can find, China manufactures even the traditional Mexican crafts with which we decorate our altars for Day of the Dead, electoral fraud is suspected in almost every election, everyone knows someone who was a victim of violence, and one day in September, forty-three students were brutally kidnapped by local police in the town of Iguala, never to be seen again. In the sorrowful demonstrations that filled the Zócalo not once but four times, demanding that the students be found, one question seemed to linger: What happened to the Mexico we used to know?

Coastal California Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

1960s counterculture, Airbnb, airport security, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Apollo 11, Apple II, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, bike sharing, Burning Man, buy and hold, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, company town, Day of the Dead, Donner party, East Village, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, flex fuel, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, income inequality, intermodal, Joan Didion, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, low cost airline, Lyft, machine readable, Mason jar, military-industrial complex, New Journalism, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, off-the-grid, Peoples Temple, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, South of Market, San Francisco, starchitect, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, trade route, transcontinental railway, uber lyft, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban sprawl, Wall-E, white picket fence, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional, Zipcar

LitquakeLITERATURE (www.litquake.org; h2nd week Oct) Stranger-than-fiction literary events take place during SF's outlandish literary festival, with authors leading lunchtime story sessions and spilling trade secrets over drinks at the legendary Lit Crawl. Día de los MuertosFESTIVAL (Day of the Dead; www.dayofthedeadsf.org; h2 Nov) Zombie brides and Aztec dancers in feather regalia party to wake the dead on Día de los Muertos, paying their respects to the dead at altars along the Mission processional route. RESOURCES SFGate (www.sfgate.com) San Francisco Chronicle news and event listings. 7x7 (www.7x7.com) Trend-spotting SF restaurants, bars and style.

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A new food hall, the OC Mix, is shaking it up even more. There's some distance between all of these destinations, but combined they make Costa Mesa one of the OC's most interesting enclaves. 5Eating oTaco MesaMEXICAN$ ( GOOGLE MAP ; %949-642-0629; www.tacomesa.net; 647 W 19th St; mains $3-13; h7am-11pm; c)S Brightly painted in Mexican Day of the Dead art, this out-of-the-way stand is a local institution for fresh, healthy, sustainably farmed tacos of steak, beer-battered fish and more, with an awesome salsa bar. We like the tacos blackened, with cheese, chipotle sauce, cabbage relish and crema fresca. The niños (kids) menu offers quesadillas and such.

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It's easy to find a local craft beer in town, or you can venture out to one of the 100 breweries or vineyards in the Temecula area. Little Italy El CaminoLOUNGE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %619-685-3881; www.elcaminosd.com; 2400 India St; h5pm-late Mon-Sat, from 11am Sun) We’re not sure what it means that this buzzy watering hole has a Día de los Muertos (Mexican Day of the Dead holiday) theme in the flight path of San Diego Airport – watch planes land from the outdoor patio – but whatever, dude. The clientele is cool, design mod, the cocktails strong and the Mexican victuals fabulosos. WaterfrontBAR ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %619-232-9656; www.waterfrontbarandgrill.com; 2044 Kettner Blvd; h6am-2am) San Diego’s first liquor license was granted to this place in the 1930s (it was on the waterfront until the harbor was filled and the airport built).

I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Day of the Dead, East Village, index card, young professional

A five-foot chain of palm-sized skeletons cut out of shiny tin and linked hand to hand like a chain of paper men. Each skeleton is painted in a different multicolored pattern, and several are ornamented further with cutout tin top hats, or bow ties, or twisted colorful pipe-cleaner boas, or brightly dyed feathers arranged and glued together like an evening gown. Mexican Day of the Dead ornaments. The chorus line of grinning garish skeletons sags across the top of the bed, slightly fluttering in an undetectable breeze coming from the open balcony door. When the sunlight hits one directly, a ray of iridescent color streaks across the room and disappears as quickly and silently as the breeze that caused it.

Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture by Justin McGuirk

A Pattern Language, agricultural Revolution, dark matter, Day of the Dead, digital divide, Donald Trump, Enrique Peñalosa, extreme commuting, facts on the ground, gentrification, Guggenheim Bilbao, Hernando de Soto, housing crisis, illegal immigration, income per capita, informal economy, it's over 9,000, Jane Jacobs, Kickstarter, lateral thinking, Leo Hollis, mass immigration, megaproject, microcredit, Milgram experiment, neoliberal agenda, New Urbanism, off-the-grid, place-making, Silicon Valley, starchitect, technoutopianism, unorthodox policies, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, value engineering, Washington Consensus

For lunch, Cárdenas takes me to a bright-orange street stand that does the best tacos in town. Chomping down on a taco with roasted pepper, shrimps and pineapple salsa, I notice the display the owners have laid out on the pavement – a couple of horned skulls, marigolds and candles. I forgot that today is the Day of the Dead. I was looking forward to this, because it seemed an outrageous piece of luck to be in Mexico on its most famous holiday. But I expected to see revellers in skeleton costumes. There’s nothing like that, it’s just an ordinary day. ‘Hey, at least you had a Día de Muertos taco, my friend!’ Learning from Tijuana If the US–Mexico border marks the collision of the global North and South – of the formal and the predominantly informal – then that line is less clear at Tijuana than it used to be.

This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev

4chan, active measures, anti-communist, Bellingcat, Berlin Wall, Black Lives Matter, call centre, Cambridge Analytica, citizen journalism, data science, Day of the Dead, desegregation, disinformation, Donald Trump, Etonian, European colonialism, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, feminist movement, illegal immigration, mass immigration, mega-rich, megacity, Mikhail Gorbachev, post-truth, side hustle, Skype, South China Sea

There, the icons of Jesus are decorated with real hair so they seem at first glance to be sprouting, and the priests command vast congregations not to follow the ever more popular cult of Our Lady of Holy Death, the Lady of Shadows, Santa Muerte, the patron saint of the narcos, who carries a scythe and a globe at her great festival on the Day of the Dead, when the whole city dresses up in skeleton masks. Alberto is a great admirer of Srdja Popović. He’s never been to any of the workshops, but he and his friends would pore over Srdja’s manuals as they planned their own protests, all united in their hate of the casual police beatings, drug hits, stuffed ballot boxes and rigged deals which enabled the awful chasm between the black-glass-fronted boutiques and security fences up in posh Polanco and the toothless, impoverished people sleeping in piles in the baroque squares, a difference not so much between rich and poor as between different eras.

Wanderland by Jini Reddy

Airbnb, country house hotel, Day of the Dead, Google Earth, invisible hand, Nelson Mandela

The village, which was once called Lanata, apparently took its name from her but her fate is shrouded in mystery. Was this her church? I try my best to be engaged and interested in the story and in the history of the place, but all it does is weigh me down. I find the skeleton sundial outside the church far more interesting. It reminds me of those quirky Mexican Day of the Dead figures, and the shadow it casts reminds us of time passing and the need to get going. The first proper leg of our walk is hiking gold. It takes us back in the direction of St Ives along the South West Coast Path. There can be few more delightful walks in all the land: birds of prey hover above us, swifts carve up the sky.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Bonfire of the Vanities, Day of the Dead, fear of failure, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, old-boy network, pink-collar, telemarketer, traveling salesman, War on Poverty

Aunt Ethelyn had read it to her aloud a month or so before she died. Mom’s eyes went from Dave to me, Dave to me, Dave to me. She had gone from one hundred and sixty pounds to about ninety. Her skin was yellow and so tightly stretched that she looked like one of those mummies they parade through the streets of Mexico on the Day of the Dead. We took turns holding the cigarette for her, and when it was down to the filter, I put it out. “My boys,” she said, then lapsed into what might have been sleep or unconsciousness. My head ached. I took a couple of aspirin from one of the many bottles of medicine on her table. Dave held one of her hands and I held the other.

In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food by Stewart Lee Allen

anti-communist, British Empire, clean water, Day of the Dead, East Village, European colonialism, Filipino sailors, Golden Gate Park, haute cuisine, trade route

Historian Reay Tannahill seems to believe that the Greeks let their fields go fallow rather than plant the haunting vegetable. Equally interesting is how the rise of Christianity shaped the culinary treatment of the bean. Early Christian Romans cooked fava or broad beans with sage and then tossed them in olive oil on the Day of the Dead (November 2). A distinctly adult, serious dish and quite delicious. But as the pagan gods became the stuff of fairy tales this dish morphed into a sweet called Fava alla Romana o dei morti because sweets, like fairy tales, are the provender most associated with childhood. It was traditional to leave a bowl of these morti out overnight for the spirits, with the children inheriting whatever the ghosts left.

This Chair Rocks: A Manifiesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite

affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Airbnb, Albert Einstein, Atul Gawande, Buckminster Fuller, clean water, cognitive dissonance, crowdsourcing, Day of the Dead, desegregation, Downton Abbey, fixed income, follow your passion, ghettoisation, Google Hangouts, hiring and firing, income inequality, informal economy, Internet of things, invention of the printing press, job satisfaction, labor-force participation, life extension, longitudinal study, Mark Zuckerberg, Naomi Klein, obamacare, old age dependency ratio, radical life extension, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, sensible shoes, Silicon Valley, Skype, smart cities, Snapchat, stem cell, the built environment, urban decay, urban planning, white picket fence, women in the workforce

“Then maybe as a society we would figure out how to treat dying as a natural transition.” It would serve us better. People with intimate and prolonged exposure to death in settings where it’s viewed as a normal part of life, like hospice staff and suicide prevention workers, are less anxious about it. Mexican culture celebrates the Day of the Dead, a ritual that dates back nearly forty centuries. Based on the cycle of life and celebrating rather than fearing death, this festival joyfully connects the living to those they love who have passed on. Another important piece is to develop new end-of-life rituals and traditions that bind generations, and even nurture communities.

Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David Robertson, Bill Breen

barriers to entry, Blue Ocean Strategy, business logic, business process, Clayton Christensen, creative destruction, crowdsourcing, Day of the Dead, Dean Kamen, digital divide, disruptive innovation, financial independence, game design, global supply chain, Jeff Bezos, Kickstarter, Mark Zuckerberg, Minecraft, Rubik’s Cube, Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs, subscription business, systems thinking, The Wisdom of Crowds, Wall-E, work culture

The team’s working name for the proposed line read like the title of a B movie from the 1950s: Bone Heads of Voodoo Island. As Holm remembers it, Kristiansen and Plougmann were somewhat taken aback by the presentation’s scale and over-the-top setting. But the expressiveness of the Bone Heads characters, which evinced some of the ghoulish humor of Day of the Dead figurines, elicited the go-ahead to keep developing the concept. Prior to the toy’s launch in 2001, no other LEGO development team had encountered quite as many hurdles as the team that created Bionicle. Not only did the Bionicle design crew have to meet the challenge of conjuring an entirely new kind of toy, but the writers had to compose the Bionicle narrative, the Web team had to conceive new digital content, the marketing team had to create a movielike campaign, the packaging team had to fashion the soda-can-style Bionicle canisters, and the licensing group had to coordinate with a multitude of companies that wanted a piece of the Bionicle brand.

Virtual Light by William Gibson

Alvin Toffler, Day of the Dead, edge city, Jaron Lanier, late capitalism, Mondo 2000, telepresence

He watches television. After midnight, at the intersection of Liverpool and Florencia, he stares out at the Zona Rosa from the back of a white Lada, a nanopore Swiss respirator chafing his freshly shaven chin. And every passing face is masked, mouths and nostrils concealed behind filters. Some, honoring the Day of the Dead, resemble the silver-beaded jaws of grinning sugar-skulls. Whatever form they take, their manufacturers all make the same dubious, obliquely comforting claims about viroids. He's thought to escape the sameness, perhaps discover something of beauty or passing interest, but here there are only masked faces, his fear, the lights.

App Kid: How a Child of Immigrants Grabbed a Piece of the American Dream by Michael Sayman

airport security, augmented reality, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Cambridge Analytica, data science, Day of the Dead, fake news, Frank Gehry, Google bus, Google Chrome, Google Hangouts, Googley, hacker house, imposter syndrome, Khan Academy, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Menlo Park, microaggression, move fast and break things, Salesforce, San Francisco homelessness, self-driving car, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, skeuomorphism, Snapchat, Steve Jobs, tech worker, the High Line, TikTok, Tim Cook: Apple

People weren’t downloading countless apps like they used to. So, I’d been toying with putting BFF on indefinite hold. One fall afternoon, after a day of meetings at the Google campus, I decided to treat myself to dinner and a movie in my old neighborhood, Redwood City. Across from the theater in Courthouse Square, a Day of the Dead celebration was in full swing. I wandered into the thick of the festival, past food trucks and the smell of sizzling tacos carnitas, children zigzagging through the crowds in colorful skeleton masks, and hundreds of elaborate altars that people had made to celebrate loved ones who’d passed on.

Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together by Andrew Selee

Berlin Wall, call centre, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, Day of the Dead, Donald Trump, electricity market, energy security, Gini coefficient, guest worker program, illegal immigration, immigration reform, income inequality, income per capita, informal economy, job automation, low skilled workers, manufacturing employment, oil shale / tar sands, open economy, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, payday loans, public intellectual, Richard Florida, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Steve Wozniak, work culture , Y Combinator

Meanwhile, in October 2017—just as NAFTA negotiators took a break because they couldn’t reach agreement—the Motion Picture Academy announced a special achievement award for Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritú, the first such award the academy had given since John Lasseter received one for Toy Story in 1996. The following month, Coco, an animated film based on Mexico’s Day of the Dead, swept the box office ratings over Thanksgiving, and then The Shape of Water, the cinematically rich film by Guillermo del Toro, took home seven Golden Globe nominations in December. The connections between the film industries of the two countries remained intact—and growing—despite the turbulence in Washington.

The Stolen Year by Anya Kamenetz

"Hurricane Katrina" Superdome, 2021 United States Capitol attack, Anthropocene, basic income, Black Lives Matter, contact tracing, coronavirus, COVID-19, crowdsourcing, Day of the Dead, desegregation, disinformation, Donald Trump, East Village, emotional labour, ending welfare as we know it, epigenetics, food desert, George Floyd, glass ceiling, global pandemic, helicopter parent, informal economy, inventory management, invisible hand, Kintsugi, labor-force participation, lockdown, Mark Zuckerberg, Maui Hawaii, medical residency, Minecraft, moral panic, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, Ponzi scheme, QAnon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, RAND corporation, randomized controlled trial, rent stabilization, risk tolerance, school choice, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, social distancing, Thorstein Veblen, TikTok, traveling salesman, trickle-down economics, universal basic income, upwardly mobile, wages for housework, War on Poverty, white flight, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration

Although Jeannie had pretty much given up on virtual schooling in the spring, she regained the energy to give the girls their regular summer enrichment lessons in the tidy dining room. The walls were lined with bookshelves full of workbooks, and with Jeannie’s many photographs of the children posed in fanciful costumes—as sunflowers, Einstein, or in Day of the Dead makeup. She took some of the family grant money sent by the Cherokee Nation and set up a playhouse in the backyard with the girls. They decorated it in a mid-century modern style, with a cat motif. They also got a new trampoline. Things were tenser with the boys, her teens. When they were home, they were in their rooms.

USA's Best Trips by Sara Benson

Albert Einstein, California gold rush, car-free, carbon footprint, cotton gin, Day of the Dead, desegregation, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Donner party, East Village, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, if you build it, they will come, indoor plumbing, Kickstarter, lateral thinking, McMansion, mega-rich, New Urbanism, off-the-grid, Ralph Waldo Emerson, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, side project, Silicon Valley, the High Line, transcontinental railway, trickle-down economics, urban renewal, urban sprawl, white flight, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration

Make sure to get fuel when you can. Gas stations are few and far between. As you reach town, Mexican curio warehouses and discount cowboy boot emporiums welcome you on both sides of the highway. Save yourself for the real deal: Rocketbuster Boots, where handmade leather is art for your feet. Hawaiian dolls, dancing Day of the Dead skeletons and stylized initials are just a few of the design options. Even if you can’t shell out $800 to $3000 for a custom pair, stop by to see the fabulous and funky boots, including the Guinness-recognized “Largest Cowboy Boots” (4ft tall by 3.5ft wide). Who knows, you might not be able to pass up a Christmas-stocking boot or an artistic leather pillow while you’re there.

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For vinyl and liner notes, follow Cahuenga Blvd south from Hollywood Blvd to Amoeba’s neon-lit, warehousey digs. Here, the click, click, click of customers flipping through hundreds of thousand of CDs, DVDs and vinyl is soothing in a party-like-it’s-1989 sort of way. Slip into nearby Velvet Margarita for tequila sipping and Day of the Dead decor, embrace the historic, divey charms of the Frolic Room, or simply chill out with an acoustic show at Hotel Café. For Mid-City shut-eye, consider the retro charms of the Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel, the nondescript blue-gray building hiding in plain sight on Beverly Blvd south of Hollywood.

Rough Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area by Nick Edwards, Mark Ellwood

1960s counterculture, airport security, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Blue Bottle Coffee, British Empire, Burning Man, California gold rush, carbon footprint, City Beautiful movement, Day of the Dead, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute cuisine, Joan Didion, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, machine readable, Menlo Park, messenger bag, Nelson Mandela, period drama, pez dispenser, Port of Oakland, rent control, retail therapy, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, San Francisco homelessness, Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, strikebreaker, transcontinental railway, unpaid internship, upwardly mobile, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration, young professional

Crumb, blunt in matters related to sex and bodily functions, as well as free stickers and candy, and puppy-eyed artists shilling their wares. A few underground stars like Shannon Wheeler and Craig Thompson usually make an appearance. $10 for a two-day pass, $7 per day. Dia de los Muertos (Nov 2; t 415/595-5558, w www.dayofthedeadsf.org) Don’t expect the riotous fun of Cinco de Mayo at this Day of the Dead, celebrated in the Mission by people dressed as skeletons. The parade starts at 24th and Bryant sts, and there’s celebration and contemplation in the mood of the candlelit procession, that ends at Garfield Park for the Festival of Altars where people pay tribute to their deceased loved ones and ancestors.

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For the more culturally inclined, the Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave near King (Tues–Fri noon–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm; free; t 408/928-5500, w www.mhcviva.org), has two gallery spaces featuring temporary exhibits of work by Mexican and MexicanAmerican artists; there are also frequent film, theater, and cultural events, highlighting this community that makes up nearly a quarter of San Jose’s population. A particularly lively time to visit is during the Day of the Dead festival on November 1–3. Eating and drinking 338 As you might expect for a city of its size, San Jose has plenty of restaurants to suit all palates and budgets, although it is not renowned for gourmet fare. For nightlife, it can scarcely compete with its northerly neighbor San Francisco or even the East Bay, but the SoFA area, in particular, attracts sizeable crowds of revelers.

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch

4chan, Black Lives Matter, book scanning, British Empire, Cambridge Analytica, citation needed, context collapse, Day of the Dead, DeepMind, digital divide, disinformation, Donald Trump, emotional labour, en.wikipedia.org, eternal september, Firefox, Flynn Effect, Google Hangouts, Ian Bogost, Internet Archive, invention of the printing press, invention of the telephone, lolcat, machine translation, moral panic, multicultural london english, natural language processing, Neal Stephenson, off-the-grid, pre–internet, QWERTY keyboard, Ray Oldenburg, Silicon Valley, Skype, Snapchat, Snow Crash, social bookmarking, social web, SoftBank, Steven Pinker, tech worker, TED Talk, telemarketer, The Great Good Place, the strength of weak ties, Twitter Arab Spring, upwardly mobile, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, Wayback Machine

Nuclear scientists, for example, have had an incredibly difficult time communicating the fairly simple concept “Danger: There is nuclear waste here” in a way that will continue to make sense for the next ten thousand years. Circle with a slash? Nope, could be a sideways hamburger. Skull and crossbones? Nope, could refer to the Day of the Dead or pirates. Much as we might wish it to be otherwise, there’s just no panacea for universal communication. This comparison between gesture and emoji can help us with more immediate decisions, however. Judges and juries are grappling with emoji sensemaking, according to law professor Eric Goldman, in much the same way as they’ve long had to interpret gestures and punctuation.

Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization by Edward Slingerland

agricultural Revolution, Alexander Shulgin, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Burning Man, classic study, collective bargaining, coronavirus, COVID-19, Day of the Dead, delayed gratification, Deng Xiaoping, disruptive innovation, Drosophila, experimental economics, germ theory of disease, global pandemic, Google Hangouts, hive mind, invention of agriculture, John Markoff, knowledge worker, land reform, lateral thinking, lockdown, lone genius, meta-analysis, microdosing, Picturephone, placebo effect, post-work, Ralph Waldo Emerson, search costs, Silicon Valley, Skype, social intelligence, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Steven Pinker, sugar pill, TED Talk, Tragedy of the Commons, WeWork, women in the workforce, work culture , Zenefits

3 Upon wandering, happily inebriated, out of the palace, the emperor strikes with his staff a stone that is blocking his path; the stone promptly jumps up and runs away. In Mexico, pulque, considered a sacred beverage in precolonial times, was in the Christianized era dubbed the “milk of our Mother” (Mary), sacrificed to souls on the Day of the Dead, and poured upon skulls buried in the four corners of fields to protect from robbers.4 Throughout Africa, the numinous power of beer is seen as the essential component of religious ceremonies and sacrifices to the ancestors. The Kofyar of northern Nigeria believe that “[people’s] way to god is with beer in hand.”5 As one Tanzanian puts it, “If there is no beer, it’s not a ritual.”6 Because of its special status, cultures often define themselves in terms of specific alcoholic beverages—think of the French and wine, Bavarians and beer, and Russians and vodka.

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

Ayatollah Khomeini, British Empire, Day of the Dead, dematerialisation, Deng Xiaoping, failed state, government statistician, Great Leap Forward, invention of gunpowder, invention of the telescope, Lao Tzu, Pax Mongolica, South China Sea, trade route

Ever since entering Iran I had been walking among tombs, and here it was Thursday, the day for cemetery visits. Families were picnicking with their dead, perched on benches or reclining on the grave-slabs. They brushed the leaves from the stone, scrubbed it with detergent, sprinkled it with rose petals. On the name-day of the dead they offered food to anyone nearby–you must accept it–biscuits, buns, dates. An old woman thrust on me a meal wrapped in cellophane, with a plastic spoon, smiling through spent tears. But she spoke of somebody whose name I did not know and could not pray for. Several old men were bowed by the Unknown Martyr’s Grave, for those who had simply disappeared.

Discover Hawaii the Big Island by Lonely Planet

Day of the Dead, land reform, Maui Hawaii, new economy, off-the-grid, sustainable-tourism

TAKO TACO Mexican $ Offline map Google map ( 887-1717; 64-1066 Mamalahoa Hwy; mains $5-12; 11am-8:30pm Mon-Sat, noon-8pm Sun) Attempting to re-create a Mexican taqueria, this small, colorful place serves big portions of tacos, nachos and burritos (including fish and veggie). Wash it all down with a stiff mango margarita ($6). The ʻono (delicious) quesadilla with mushrooms, cheese and caramelized onions lives up to its name, but the chicken taco is blah. With lots of Day of the Dead decorations to ogle and a na keiki (children’s) menu, this is a great place for kids. HAWAIIAN STYLE CAFE Hawaiian $ Offline map Google map ( 885-4295; Hayashi Bldg, 64-1290 Kawaihae Rd; dishes $6-10; 7am-1:30pm Mon-Sat, to noon Sun) The screen door, its springs shot, slams constantly as locals gather around the horseshoe-shaped counter.

Lonely Planet Cape Town & the Garden Route (Travel Guide) by Lucy Corne

Berlin Wall, British Empire, Cape to Cairo, carbon footprint, Day of the Dead, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, load shedding, Mark Shuttleworth, mass immigration, Nelson Mandela, New Urbanism, retail therapy, Robert Gordon, Suez canal 1869, tech billionaire, upwardly mobile, urban renewal, urban sprawl

CatacombsFASHION ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %021-788 8889; www.facebook.com/pages/Catacombes-Kalkbay/127570887056; 71 Main Rd, Kalk Bay; h9.30am-5pm; dKalk Bay) Get the floaty boho look at this boutique that stocks a beautiful range of dresses, separates and accessories. They're locally made and designed with original prints, some inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead or flowers. Also carries some art and crafts. The StudioARTS, CRAFTS ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %083 778 2737; www.thestudiokalkbay.co.za; Majestic Village, 122 Main Rd, Kalk Bay; h9am-5pm Oct-Feb, to 4pm Mar-Sep; dKalk Bay) Works by artist Donna McKellar, whose studio used to be here, are now supplemented by other artists and creatives.

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

1960s counterculture, Abraham Maslow, Albert Einstein, Anton Chekhov, Burning Man, cognitive dissonance, conceptual framework, crowdsourcing, dark matter, Day of the Dead, Douglas Engelbart, East Village, experimental subject, Exxon Valdez, Golden Gate Park, Google Earth, Haight Ashbury, Howard Rheingold, Internet Archive, John Markoff, John Perry Barlow, Kevin Kelly, Marshall McLuhan, Mason jar, Menlo Park, meta-analysis, microdosing, military-industrial complex, moral panic, Mother of all demos, off-the-grid, overview effect, placebo effect, radical decentralization, Ralph Waldo Emerson, randomized controlled trial, reality distortion field, Ronald Reagan, Salesforce, satellite internet, scientific mainstream, scientific worldview, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), sensible shoes, Silicon Valley, Skype, Steve Jobs, Stewart Brand, sugar pill, TED Talk, the scientific method, theory of mind, Thomas Bayes, Whole Earth Catalog

Same deal: Mary guided me to the bathroom by the elbow, geriatrically, and left me there to produce another spectacular crop of diamonds. But this time I dared to look in the mirror. What looked back at me was a human skull, but for the thinnest, palest layer of skin stretched over it, tight as a drum. The bathroom was decorated in a Mexican folk art theme, and the head/skull immediately put me in mind of the Day of the Dead. With its deep sockets and lightning bolt of vein zigzagging down its temple on one side, I recognized this ashen head/skull as my own but at the same time as my dead grandfather’s. This was surprising, if only because Bob, my father’s father, is not someone with whom I ever felt much in common.

Coffeeland: One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug by Augustine Sedgewick

affirmative action, Alfred Russel Wallace, British Empire, business cycle, California gold rush, classic study, collective bargaining, Day of the Dead, European colonialism, export processing zone, family office, Fellow of the Royal Society, Food sovereignty, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Honoré de Balzac, imperial preference, Joan Didion, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, land reform, land tenure, Louis Pasteur, mass immigration, Monroe Doctrine, Philip Mirowski, race to the bottom, refrigerator car, scientific management, the scientific method, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, trade route, vertical integration, wage slave, women in the workforce, working poor, zero-sum game

Trick-or-treating had caught on quickly in the upscale neighborhoods of the capital, San Salvador, where the forty-two-year-old businessman lived and worked as an executive in his family’s company. Each year there were more and more costumed children going door-to-door, usually by car, for safety.2 Even so, Halloween paled in importance next to the upcoming Day of the Dead, celebrated at the beginning of November, and marking the start of the harvest season. Jaime always looked forward to the harvest season, when six months of steaming downpours finally gave way to blue skies and cool breezes, and his excitement said a good deal about the country’s history.

Lonely Planet Nicaragua (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet, Alex Egerton, Greg Benchwick

agricultural Revolution, British Empire, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, clean water, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Day of the Dead, land reform, liberation theology, Multics, off grid, off-the-grid, place-making, race to the bottom, Ralph Nader, Ronald Reagan, sustainable-tourism, the long tail, traveling salesman

The patron saint (in the guise of a bearded campesino named ‘Tata Chombó,’ or ‘Doctor of the Poor’) is taken from the Iglesia de San Jerónimo altar and borne around Masaya while traditional dances are performed, including Mozote y Verga, a mock battle that ends with peacemaking ceremonies to commemorate the September peace treaties of 1856, 1912 and 1979. Fireworks, marimbas, parades, drag queens and more make this a fiesta to remember. Noche de Agüizotes CULTURAL (last Friday in October) Not to be confused with Halloween or Day of the Dead, this spooky festival features legends come to life and ghosts of the dead, plus the costumed living parading through the streets. El Toro Venado CULTURAL ( last Sunday of October, third Sunday of November) This dance involves a mythical creature that is half bull, half deer (read: half Spanish, half indigenous), and whose mission is to make fun of the rest of the fair.

Frommer's San Diego 2011 by Mark Hiss

airport security, California gold rush, car-free, Charles Lindbergh, Day of the Dead, desegregation, Donald Trump, East Village, El Camino Real, gentrification, glass ceiling, machine readable, New Journalism, Norman Mailer, Skype, South of Market, San Francisco, sustainable-tourism, transcontinental railway, urban renewal, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration

Downtown, Gaslamp Quarter & Little Italy MEXICAN Combining a lively south-of-the-border cantina ambience with a hipster aesthetic, this “super cocina mexicana” serves simple, traditional fare like open-face street-style tacos, enchiladas, and burritos created from local, organic products (vegetarian offerings are available too). Adorned with bold and kitschy graphics, including a graffiti-inspired Day of the Dead mural that bursts from the restaurant’s back wall, El Camino segues into a casual nightspot with DJs and live music (Wednesdays feature local jazz mainstay Gilbert Castellanos). The openair back patio, where jets scream overhead on approach to Lindbergh Field, is a cool hangout with vintage Atari games and air hockey. 6 WHERE TO DINE lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch—makes for a winning dining experience, and one unique enough to create a stir in ever-morphing San Diego. 750 N.

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, Ella Morton

anti-communist, Apollo 11, Berlin Wall, British Empire, Buckminster Fuller, centre right, Charles Babbage, Charles Lindbergh, colonial rule, Colonization of Mars, cosmic microwave background, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, Day of the Dead, double helix, East Village, Easter island, Exxon Valdez, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Ford Model T, Frank Gehry, germ theory of disease, Golden Gate Park, Google Earth, Haight Ashbury, horn antenna, Ignaz Semmelweis: hand washing, index card, intentional community, Jacques de Vaucanson, Kowloon Walled City, Louis Pasteur, low cost airline, Mahatma Gandhi, mass immigration, mutually assured destruction, off-the-grid, Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, phenotype, Pluto: dwarf planet, Ronald Reagan, Rubik’s Cube, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, trade route, transatlantic slave trade, transcontinental railway, Tunguska event, urban sprawl, Vesna Vulović, white picket fence, wikimedia commons, working poor

Different portions of the water in the caverns have different levels of salinity, causing the denser water to sink to the bottom, where it looks like a misty underwater river all its own. The cenote is just southwest of the town of Tulum. Guides and transport may be arranged through tour agencies in Tulum. 20.137519 87.577777 A flooded cave appears to hide an underwater river. Pomuch Cemetery POMUCH, CAMPECHE November 2, the Mexican Day of the Dead, is bone-cleaning day at Pomuch Cemetery. When a Pomuch resident dies, he or she is temporarily buried at the town graveyard. After three years, family members come to disinter the bones, clean them, and place them in a wooden box for permanent display. Each year after that, the families return to participate in the ritual bone-cleaning.

California by Sara Benson

airport security, Albert Einstein, Apple II, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Berlin Wall, Blue Bottle Coffee, Burning Man, buy and hold, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, Columbine, company town, dark matter, Day of the Dead, desegregation, Donald Trump, Donner party, East Village, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, Frank Gehry, gentrification, global village, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute cuisine, Joan Didion, Khyber Pass, Loma Prieta earthquake, low cost airline, machine readable, McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit, McMansion, means of production, megaproject, Menlo Park, Neil Armstrong, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, off-the-grid, planetary scale, retail therapy, RFID, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, SpaceShipOne, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, the new new thing, trade route, transcontinental railway, Upton Sinclair, urban sprawl, Wall-E, white picket fence, Whole Earth Catalog, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional

Litquake ( 415-750-1497; www.litquake.org) Authors spill true stories and trade secrets at events around the city in late September to early October and share more than they mean to at the legendary liquor-assisted Lit Crawl. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (www.strictlybluegrass.com; Golden Gate Park) In late September and early October San Francisco’s historic, homegrown musical style gets its due with three days and three stages of bluegrass legends, all entirely free. Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead; www.dayofthedeadsf.org) Zombie brides, Aztec dancers and legions of toddler Frida Kahlos with drawn-on unibrows lead the parade honoring the dead down 24th St on November 2. Return to beginning of chapter SLEEPING Union Sq is convenient, near all public transportation and many major sights, but the area lacks color and abuts the Tenderloin on its southwest side, a neighborhood of panhandlers and junkies.

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Labor Day The official end of summer, with outdoor barbecues, beach picnics and camping trips over a long weekend in early September. Halloween On October 31, kids dress up in costumes and go door-to-door trick-or-treating for candy, while adults act out their alter egos after dark. San Francisco’s party is the wildest. Day of the Dead Mexican communities honor deceased relatives with candle-lit memorials on November 2; candy skulls and skeletons are popular. Thanksgiving On the fourth Thursday of November, family and friends gather for daylong feasts, traditionally involving roasted turkey and watching pro football on TV.

Central America by Carolyn McCarthy, Greg Benchwick, Joshua Samuel Brown, Alex Egerton, Matthew Firestone, Kevin Raub, Tom Spurling, Lucas Vidgen

airport security, Bartolomé de las Casas, California gold rush, call centre, centre right, clean water, cognitive dissonance, company town, currency manipulation / currency intervention, Day of the Dead, digital map, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, failed state, Francisco Pizarro, Frank Gehry, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, Joan Didion, land reform, liberation theology, low cost airline, Mahatma Gandhi, megaproject, Monroe Doctrine, off-the-grid, Ronald Reagan, Skype, Suez canal 1869, sustainable-tourism, the long tail, trade route, transcontinental railway, urban renewal, urban sprawl, women in the workforce

Día de la Independencia (Independence Day) On September 16, the anniversary of the start of Mexico’s War of Independence in 1810. Festival Cervantino Barroco San Cristóbal de Las Casas puts on a great art fair in late October or early November. Día de Todos los Santos (All Saints’ Day) and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) On November 1 and 2, Mexico’s most characteristic fiesta. Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe (Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe) A week or more of celebrations throughout Mexico leads up to December 12, the day in honor of the Virgin who appeared to an indigenous Mexican, Juan Diego, in 1531. Posadas From December 16 to 24, nine nights of candlelit parades re-enact the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

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FESTIVALS & EVENTS National holidays (días feriados) are taken seriously in Central America, and banks, public offices and many stores close. The big national holidays are dictated by the Roman Catholic Church calendar. Christmas and Semana Santa (Holy Week), the week leading up to Easter, are the most important. Panama hosts some of the most famous Carnaval celebrations (February), and Mexico’s Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), on November 2, is another huge celebration. During events such as these, hotels are usually booked well in advance, especially in beach areas and in towns that have particularly elaborate celebrations, such as Antigua, Guatemala. Bus services may be limited or nonexistent on the Thursday afternoon and Friday leading into Easter, and many businesses are closed for the entire week preceding the holiday.

Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol by Iain Gately

barriers to entry, British Empire, California gold rush, corporate raider, Day of the Dead, delayed gratification, Deng Xiaoping, Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, Fellow of the Royal Society, gentleman farmer, Gordon Gekko, greed is good, Haight Ashbury, Hernando de Soto, imperial preference, invisible hand, joint-stock company, Jones Act, Louis Pasteur, megacity, music of the spheres, Norman Mailer, Peace of Westphalia, post-work, refrigerator car, Ronald Reagan, South Sea Bubble, spice trade, strikebreaker, the scientific method, Tim Cook: Apple, trade route, traveling salesman, Upton Sinclair, V2 rocket, vertical integration, working poor

Its products, and those of the multitude of other stills that sprang up postindependence, were drunk principally by men, who were expected to comport themselves with courtesy and dignity when under the influence. Mescal was used for ceremonial as well as recreational purposes. The Mexicans had kept many of their pre-Columbian festivals alive in the guise of Christian fiestas, the most important of which were Los Días de Muertos (the days of the dead), staged under the cover of the Catholic festivals of All Souls and All Saints. The dead were assumed to return to the world of the living for the duration of Los Días de Muertos and were supplied with offerings of food and drink. Spirits were the most popular libations, and their tendency to evaporate when left out in a glass was interpreted as proof that the departed had taken a sip.

Frommer's New Mexico by Lesley S. King

Albert Einstein, clean water, company town, Day of the Dead, El Camino Real, machine readable, off-the-grid, place-making, post-work, quantum cryptography, Ronald Reagan, SpaceShipOne, sustainable-tourism, trade route, Virgin Galactic, X Prize

I-25 at Tramway Rd. NE. & 800/365-5400 or 505/821-5400. www.sandiapueblo.nsn.us/bienmur.html. Gallery One This gallery features folk art, jewelry, contemporary crafts, cards and paper, and natural-fiber clothing. In the Nob Hill Shopping Center, 3500 Central Ave. SE. & 505/268-7449. Hispaniae in Old Town Day of the Dead people and Frida Kahlo faces greet you at this wild shop with everything from kitschy Mexican tableware to fine Oaxacan woodcarvings. 410 Romero St. NW, Old Town. & 505/244-1533. www.hispaniae.com. La Casita de Kaleidoscopes This shop carries kaleidoscopes in a dizzying array (some 500) of styles, from egg- and tepee-shaped to fountains to little paper ones, with over 60 artists represented. 326-D San Felipe NW, in the Poco a Poco Patio in Old Town. & 505/247-4242. www.casitascopes.com.

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama

Admiral Zheng, agricultural Revolution, Andrei Shleifer, Asian financial crisis, Ayatollah Khomeini, barriers to entry, Berlin Wall, blood diamond, California gold rush, cognitive dissonance, colonial rule, conceptual framework, correlation does not imply causation, currency manipulation / currency intervention, Day of the Dead, demographic transition, Deng Xiaoping, double entry bookkeeping, endogenous growth, equal pay for equal work, European colonialism, failed state, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Francisco Pizarro, Garrett Hardin, Hernando de Soto, hiring and firing, invention of agriculture, invention of the printing press, John Perry Barlow, Khyber Pass, land reform, land tenure, means of production, offshore financial centre, out of africa, Peace of Westphalia, principal–agent problem, RAND corporation, rent-seeking, Right to Buy, Scramble for Africa, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), spice trade, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, the scientific method, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas L Friedman, Thomas Malthus, trade route, Tragedy of the Commons, transaction costs, Washington Consensus, zero-sum game

., Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 29 For example, Christianity was imposed on the indigenous populations of the western hemisphere by conquest and violence. Contemporary Catholicism in countries with large indigenous populations, such as Mexico and Peru, is a syncretic mixture of Christian and pagan practices, like the celebration of the Day of the Dead. It nonetheless still makes sense to think of them as historically Catholic countries. 19: THE STATE BECOMES A CHURCH 1 John W. Head, “Codes, Cultures, Chaos, and Champions: Common Features of Legal Codification Experiences in China, Europe, and North America,” Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 13, no. 1 (2003): 1–38.

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Andrei Shleifer, Asian financial crisis, Atahualpa, banking crisis, barriers to entry, Berlin Wall, blood diamond, British Empire, centre right, classic study, clean water, collapse of Lehman Brothers, colonial rule, conceptual framework, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cotton gin, crony capitalism, Day of the Dead, deindustrialization, Deng Xiaoping, disruptive innovation, double entry bookkeeping, Edward Snowden, Erik Brynjolfsson, European colonialism, facts on the ground, failed state, Fall of the Berlin Wall, first-past-the-post, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Francisco Pizarro, Frederick Winslow Taylor, full employment, Gini coefficient, Glass-Steagall Act, Great Leap Forward, Hernando de Soto, high-speed rail, Home mortgage interest deduction, household responsibility system, income inequality, information asymmetry, invention of the printing press, iterative process, Kickstarter, knowledge worker, labour management system, land reform, land tenure, life extension, low interest rates, low skilled workers, manufacturing employment, means of production, Menlo Park, Mohammed Bouazizi, Monroe Doctrine, moral hazard, Nelson Mandela, new economy, open economy, out of africa, Peace of Westphalia, Port of Oakland, post-industrial society, post-materialism, price discrimination, quantitative easing, RAND corporation, rent-seeking, road to serfdom, Ronald Reagan, scientific management, Scientific racism, Scramble for Africa, Second Machine Age, Silicon Valley, special economic zone, stem cell, subprime mortgage crisis, the scientific method, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas L Friedman, Thomas Malthus, too big to fail, trade route, transaction costs, Twitter Arab Spring, Tyler Cowen, Tyler Cowen: Great Stagnation, Vilfredo Pareto, women in the workforce, work culture , World Values Survey, zero-sum game

Mexico’s population fell from ten million at the time of Cortés’s arrival to two million in 1585, and then to one million by the beginning of the sixteenth century. Peru’s preconquest population shrank from nine million to somewhat over one million by 1580, and then down to six hundred thousand by 1620.13 The indigenous cultures of the New World have shaped contemporary Latin America in myriad ways, from the Day of the Dead ceremonies in Mexico to ayllu clan organizations that characterize social life in the Andes. But the higher-level political legacy of the pre-Columbian civilizations played a much smaller role than state-level indigenous organizations in other parts of the world, particularly those in East Asia.

Lonely Planet Eastern Europe by Lonely Planet, Mark Baker, Tamara Sheward, Anita Isalska, Hugh McNaughtan, Lorna Parkes, Greg Bloom, Marc Di Duca, Peter Dragicevich, Tom Masters, Leonid Ragozin, Tim Richards, Simon Richmond

Albert Einstein, Berlin Wall, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, crowdsourcing, Day of the Dead, Defenestration of Prague, Fall of the Berlin Wall, flag carrier, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, haute cuisine, low cost airline, mass immigration, pre–internet, Steve Jobs, the High Line, Transnistria, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl

Public Holidays ANew Year's Day 1 January AOrthodox Christmas 7 January AInternational Women's Day 8 March AConstitution Day 15 March ACatholic & Orthodox Easter March/April AUnity of Peoples of Russia and Belarus Day 2 April AInternational Labour Day (May Day) 1 May AVictory Day 9 May AIndependence Day 3 July ADzyady (Day of the Dead) 2 November ACatholic Christmas 25 December SLEEPING PRICE RANGES The following refer to the cost of a double room: € less than US$50 €€ US$50–US$100 €€€ more than US$100 Telephone There are four mobile-phone companies that can sell you a SIM-card package with oodles of data for next to nothing.

1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die, Updated Ed. by Patricia Schultz

Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, American Society of Civil Engineers: Report Card, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Boeing 747, Bretton Woods, Burning Man, California gold rush, car-free, Charles Lindbergh, Columbine, company town, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cotton gin, country house hotel, David Sedaris, Day of the Dead, Donald Trump, East Village, El Camino Real, estate planning, Ford Model T, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Guggenheim Bilbao, Haight Ashbury, haute cuisine, indoor plumbing, interchangeable parts, Mars Rover, Mason jar, Maui Hawaii, Mikhail Gorbachev, Murano, Venice glass, Neil Armstrong, Nelson Mandela, new economy, New Urbanism, Norman Mailer, out of africa, Pepto Bismol, place-making, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, scientific management, sexual politics, South of Market, San Francisco, Suez canal 1869, The Chicago School, three-masted sailing ship, transcontinental railway, traveling salesman, upwardly mobile, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, wage slave, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration, Yogi Berra, éminence grise

Hollywood Forever, formerly named Hollywood Memorial Park, is a slightly gothic graveyard with an abundance of artistic and curious markers and a fitting view of the “Hollywood” sign in the distance. Find out who’s resting beneath an exact replica of the Pioneer Rocket or the oversize bronze replica of a guitar-wielding Johnny Ramone. Owner Ted Cassidy allows regular tours and quirky events, including a colorful Day of the Dead celebration in late October or early November, with over a hundred homemade folk art altars, food, music, and folklore. Summer weekend movie screenings against the wall of a mausoleum also draw crowds. Among the dearly departed are Rudolph Valentino (note lipstick prints on his marble tomb), Cecil B.

…

., 619–20 Darien, Conn., 11 Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Fla., 326 Dartmouth College, N.H., 72–73 Dartmouth Winter Carnival, N.H., 73 Davenport House, Ga., 350 Davis Mountain State Park, Tex., 778 DAWSON CITY, Y.T., 1071–72 Dawson Creek, B.C., 913–14 Dawson National Historical Site, Sask., 1072 Day of the Dead tour, Calif., 821 Dayton, Ohio, 570 Dayton, Oreg., 884 Daytona Beach, Fla., 305–6 DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, Fla., 305–6 Daytona Kartweek, Fla., 305 Dayville, Oreg., 871–72 DB Bistro Moderne, N.Y., 189 Deadman’s Bar, Wyo., 668 DEADWOOD, S.Dak., 654–55 Dealey Plaza, Tex., 765 Dearborn, Mich., 526–27 Dearly Departed tour, Calif., 821 DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif., 811–12 Decatur, Ala., 289 Decatur, Ga., 352 Deep Creek Lake, Md., 125 Deep River, Conn., 8 Deerfield, Mass., 67–69 Deerfield Inn, Mass., 68 Deerhurst Resort & Highlands Golf Course, Ont., 998 Deer Isle, Maine, 33–34 Deer Valley Resort, Utah, 797–98 Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, Calif., 837 DeGannes-Cosby House, N.S., 985 Delacorte Theater, N.Y., 167 Delamater Inn, N.Y., 202 Delano Hotel, Fla., 317, 318 De la Tierra, N.Mex., 755 Delaware, 113–16 Delfina, Calif., 850 Del Posto, N.Y., 190 Delta Bessborough Hotel, Sask., 1071 Delta Blues Museum, Miss., 436 Delta Cultural Center, Ark., 393 Delta King Hotel, Calif., 809 Deluxe, N.C., 373 DELUXE HOTELS OF DALLAS, Tex., 763–64 DENALI, Alaska, 912–13, 926 Denali National Park, Alaska, 911, 912–13, 914 Denali West Lodge, Alaska, 912 Denver, Colo., 710–12 Denver Art Museum, Colo., 710–11 Denver Performing Arts Complex, Colo., 711 DENVER’S CULTURAL SCENE, Colo., 710–11 Derry, N.H., 71 Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Ariz., 702 Desert Hot Springs, Calif., 811 DeSmet, S.Dak., 556, 655–56 Des Moines, Iowa, 516–17 DeSoto House Hotel, Ill., 498 Detroit, Mich., 524–29 DETROIT INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS, Mich., 525–26, 529 DETROIT’S AUTO MUSEUMS, Mich., 526–27 DeValls Bluff, Ark., 396 DEVILS TOWER, Wyo., 665–66 Devils Tower National Monument, Wyo., 666 de Young Museum, Calif., 845, 847 De Zwaan, Mich., 532–33 D.G.

Lonely Planet Washington, Oregon & the Pacific Northwest by Lonely Planet

Airbnb, big-box store, bike sharing, Boeing 747, British Empire, Burning Man, butterfly effect, car-free, carbon footprint, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, Day of the Dead, Frank Gehry, G4S, gentrification, glass ceiling, housing crisis, indoor plumbing, intermodal, Kickstarter, Lyft, Murano, Venice glass, New Urbanism, remote working, restrictive zoning, ride hailing / ride sharing, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, trade route, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, urban decay, urban planning, urban sprawl, V2 rocket, Works Progress Administration, Zipcar

Fonda la CatrinaMEXICAN$ (%206-767-2787; www.fondalacatrina.com; 5905 Airport Way S, Georgetown; mains $9-14; h11am-10pm Mon-Thu, to 11pm Fri, 10am-11pm Sat, to 10pm Sun; g124) You’ll find a number of things in the busy confines of Fonda la Catrina, a shockingly good Mexican restaurant in industrial Georgetown. There’s the colorful Day of the Dead decorations and the Diego Rivera–inspired murals, strong drinks and – most importantly – fabulous food. Ma’OnoHAWAIIAN$$ (%206-935-1075; www.maonoseattle.com; 4437 California Ave SW, West Seattle; mains $12-17; h5-10pm Wed & Thu, 5-11pm Fri, 9am-3pm & 5-11pm Sat, 5-10pm Sun; g55) The fried chicken sandwich here – served on a King’s Hawaiian roll with cabbage and a perfectly spicy sauce – is one of the best things between two slices of bread currently available in Seattle.

Lonely Planet Morocco (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet, Paul Clammer, Paula Hardy

air freight, Airbnb, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, clean water, Day of the Dead, Dr. Strangelove, illegal immigration, low cost airline, Multics, Nelson Mandela, Norman Mailer, off-the-grid, place-making, Skype, spice trade, sustainable-tourism, trade route, urban planning, urban sprawl, women in the workforce, working poor, young professional

García Aldave OUTDOORS If you’ve done everything else, the García Aldave can be crossed from coast to coast along the N354, either by car or on foot (a hiking map from the tourist office will help). The route contains a series of circular neo-medieval watchtowers, closed to visitors. Several of these are visible from the excellent Mirador de Isabel II, which offers great views across the isthmus to Monte Hacho. On 1 November, the Day of the Dead, there is a mass pilgrimage here to remember the deceased. The road ends at Benzú , a small town on the northern coast, which faces the grand sight of Jebel Musa rising across the border. The mountain is known here as the Dead Woman, as it resembles one, lying on her back. Contemplate mortality here over a cup of mint tea.

Coastal California by Lonely Planet

1960s counterculture, airport security, Albert Einstein, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Berlin Wall, bike sharing, Blue Bottle Coffee, buy and hold, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, company town, Day of the Dead, Donner party, East Village, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, electricity market, Frank Gehry, gentrification, global village, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, Joan Didion, Khyber Pass, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, low cost airline, machine readable, Mason jar, McMansion, military-industrial complex, Neil Armstrong, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, off-the-grid, rolling blackouts, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, stealth mode startup, Steve Wozniak, trade route, transcontinental railway, Upton Sinclair, urban sprawl, white picket fence, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional, Zipcar

Litquake CULTURAL (www.litquake.org) Authors tell stories at the biggest lit fest in the West and spill trade secrets over drinks at the legendary Lit Crawl during the second week in October. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass MUSIC (www.strictlybluegrass.com) SF celebrates Western roots with three days of free Golden Gate Park concerts and headliners ranging from Elvis Costello to Gillian Welch in early October. Diá de los Muertos CULTURAL (Day of the Dead; www.dayofthedeadsf.org) Zombie brides, Aztec dancers and toddler Frida Kahlos with drawn-on unibrows lead the parade honoring the dead down 24th St on November 2. DEALS AND HIDDEN COSTS San Francisco is the birthplace of the boutique hotel, offering stylish rooms for a price: $100 to $200 rooms midrange, plus 15.5% hotel tax (hostels exempt) and $35-50 for overnight parking.

Northern California Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

Airbnb, Apple II, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, big-box store, bike sharing, Burning Man, buy and hold, California gold rush, California high-speed rail, call centre, car-free, carbon credits, carbon footprint, clean water, company town, dark matter, Day of the Dead, Donald Trump, Donner party, East Village, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Frank Gehry, friendly fire, gentrification, gigafactory, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Google bus, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, high-speed rail, housing crisis, Joan Didion, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, Lyft, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, Mason jar, McMansion, means of production, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, off-the-grid, Peoples Temple, Port of Oakland, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, San Francisco homelessness, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, South of Market, San Francisco, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, the built environment, trade route, transcontinental railway, uber lyft, Upton Sinclair, urban sprawl, white picket fence, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional

LitquakeLITERATURE (www.litquake.org; h2nd week Oct) Stranger-than-fiction literary events take place during SF's outlandish literary festival, with authors leading lunchtime story sessions and spilling trade secrets over drinks at the legendary Lit Crawl. Día de los MuertosFESTIVAL (Day of the Dead; www.dayofthedeadsf.org; h2 Nov) Zombie brides and Aztec dancers in feather regalia party to wake the dead on Día de los Muertos, paying their respects to the dead at altars along the Mission processional route. RESOURCES SFGate (www.sfgate.com) San Francisco Chronicle news and event listings. 7x7 (www.7x7.com) Trend-spotting SF restaurants, bars and style.

Southwest USA Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy, Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Berlin Wall, Biosphere 2, Burning Man, carbon footprint, Columbine, Day of the Dead, Donner party, El Camino Real, friendly fire, G4S, haute couture, haute cuisine, housing crisis, illegal immigration, immigration reform, indoor plumbing, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), low earth orbit, machine readable, off grid, off-the-grid, place-making, SpaceShipOne, supervolcano, trade route, transcontinental railway, Virgin Galactic, walkable city, Works Progress Administration, X Prize

MartAnne’s Burrito Palace MEXICAN $ (10 N San Francisco St; mains $7-10; 7:30am-2pm Mon-Fri, 8:30am-1pm Sun) For those about to diet, we salute you. For those about to dig into a fratelliquile, a pork-and-scrambled-eggs burrito smothered in green chile, green onions and cheese, we embrace you and call you friend. For we, too, understand the power of its goodness. MartAnne’s, a snug hole-in-the-wall with sassy Day of the Dead decor, checkered floors and bright coffee mugs, is locally beloved. Cash only. La Bellavia BREAKFAST $ (18 S Beaver St; mains $4-9; 6:30am-2pm) Be prepared to wait in line at this popular, cash-only breakfast spot. The seven-grain French toast with bananas, apples or blueberries is excellent; or try one of their egg dishes, such as eggs sardo, with sautéed spinach and artichoke hearts.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois

augmented reality, Bletchley Park, carbon tax, clean water, computer age, cosmological constant, David Attenborough, Day of the Dead, Deng Xiaoping, double helix, financial independence, game design, gravity well, heat death of the universe, jitney, John Harrison: Longitude, Kickstarter, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kuiper Belt, lolcat, Mahatma Gandhi, mass immigration, Neal Stephenson, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, Paul Graham, power law, quantum entanglement, Richard Feynman, Richard Feynman: Challenger O-ring, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Skype, stem cell, theory of mind, time dilation, Turing machine, Turing test, urban renewal, Wall-E

I begin to walk home as paparazzi shout questions. Fifteen minutes later I am indeed alone. I consider calling a cab, but then decide I prefer the night. Prefer to walk by myself through this city that never walks anywhere. On a street corner, I buy a pupusa and gamble on the Mexican Lottery because I like the tickets’ laser images of their Day of the Dead. It seems an echo of the Buddha’s urging to remember that we all become corpses. I buy three tickets, and one of them is a winner: one hundred dollars that I can redeem at any TelMex kiosk. I take this as a good sign. Even if my luck is obviously gone with my work, and even if the girl Kulaap was not the bodhisattva that I thought, still, I feel lucky.

Eastern USA by Lonely Planet

1960s counterculture, active transport: walking or cycling, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Bear Stearns, Berlin Wall, bike sharing, Bretton Woods, British Empire, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, collective bargaining, congestion pricing, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cotton gin, cuban missile crisis, Day of the Dead, desegregation, Donald Trump, East Village, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Ford Model T, Frank Gehry, gentleman farmer, gentrification, glass ceiling, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute cuisine, Hernando de Soto, illegal immigration, immigration reform, information trail, interchangeable parts, jitney, Ken Thompson, Kickstarter, license plate recognition, machine readable, Mason jar, mass immigration, McMansion, megacity, Menlo Park, Neil Armstrong, new economy, New Urbanism, obamacare, Quicken Loans, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Skype, the built environment, the High Line, the payments system, three-martini lunch, transcontinental railway, union organizing, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, walkable city, white flight, Works Progress Administration, young professional

It’s high season where the leaves are most brilliant (New England); elsewhere expect lower prices and fewer crowds. HALLOWEEN It’s not just for kids; adults celebrate Halloween at masquerade parties. In NYC, you can don a costume and join the Halloween parade up Sixth Avenue. Chicago does a cultural take with skeleton-rich Day of the Dead events at the National Museum of Mexican Art. FANTASY FEST Key West’s answer to Mardi Gras brings more than 100,000 revelers to the subtropical enclave on the week leading up to Halloween. Expect parades, colorful floats, costume parties, the selecting of a conch king and queen and plenty of alcohol-fueled merriment (www.fantasyfest.net).

The Rough Guide to Brazil by Rough Guides

Airbnb, Albert Einstein, Anthropocene, anti-communist, bike sharing, car-free, clean water, Day of the Dead, digital nomad, haute cuisine, income inequality, James Watt: steam engine, land tenure, mass immigration, Murano, Venice glass, Scientific racism, sexual politics, spice trade, Stephen Fry, sustainable-tourism, trade route, trickle-down economics, union organizing, upwardly mobile, urban planning, urban sprawl, éminence grise

Celebration of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, a venerated statue of the Virgin Mary (housed in Aparecida, São Paulo) and patron saint of Brazil. Oktoberfest Blumenau, SC, 18 days in Oct 47 3326 6901, oktoberfestblumenau.com.br. Boisterous version of the Munich beer festival. Mostra São Paulo, Oct. Sao Pãulo’s international film festival. NOVEMBER All Souls’ Day, or “Day of the Dead” (Dia dos Finados) Nov 2, national public holiday. Republic Day (Proclamação da República) Nov 15, national public holiday. Celebrates the creation of the Brazilian republic in 1889 after the removal of Emperor Dom Pedro II. DECEMBER Christmas Day (Natal) Dec 25, national public holiday. < Back to Basics Sports and outdoor activities Brazil’s national parks, rivers and gorgeous coastline offer the opportunity to indulge in a vast range of outdoor pursuits, everything from surfing, fishing and hiking, to scuba diving, caving and kayaking.

USA Travel Guide by Lonely, Planet

1960s counterculture, active transport: walking or cycling, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Asilomar, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Bear Stearns, Berlin Wall, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, big-box store, bike sharing, Biosphere 2, Bretton Woods, British Empire, Burning Man, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, congestion pricing, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cotton gin, cuban missile crisis, Day of the Dead, desegregation, Donald Trump, Donner party, Dr. Strangelove, East Village, edge city, El Camino Real, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, feminist movement, Ford Model T, Frank Gehry, gentleman farmer, gentrification, glass ceiling, global village, Golden Gate Park, Guggenheim Bilbao, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, Hernando de Soto, Howard Zinn, illegal immigration, immigration reform, information trail, interchangeable parts, intermodal, jitney, Ken Thompson, Kickstarter, license plate recognition, machine readable, Mars Rover, Mason jar, mass immigration, Maui Hawaii, McMansion, Menlo Park, military-industrial complex, Monroe Doctrine, Neil Armstrong, new economy, New Urbanism, obamacare, off grid, off-the-grid, Quicken Loans, Ralph Nader, Ralph Waldo Emerson, retail therapy, RFID, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, starchitect, stealth mode startup, stem cell, supervolcano, the built environment, The Chicago School, the High Line, the payments system, three-martini lunch, trade route, transcontinental railway, union organizing, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, Virgin Galactic, walkable city, white flight, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional, Zipcar

Even if you can’t round up the $800 to $3500 a custom pair costs, make an appointment to visit Rocketbuster Boots ( 915-541-1300; www.rocketbuster.com; 115 S Anthony St; by appointment) and you’ll see what all the fuss is about. As boot-maker to the stars, Rocketbuster has shod such celebrities as Julia Roberts, Dwight Yoakum, Emmylou Harris and Oprah Winfrey. The over-the-top designs include everything from wild floral prints to 1950s-era pin-up cowgirls to Day of the Dead skeletons. Owner-designer Nevena Christi will gladly show you around, and you can pick up leather pillows and boot-shaped Christmas stockings for just $75 to $300. Numerous other custom boot-makers work around town, including Caboots (www.caboots.com; 2100 Wyoming St; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri), which also sells a few pre-made pairs (about $300).