A few weeks ago, I found myself walking through a Swiss village — okay, it was really a Geneva suburb — called Nyon. Still, it looked like a village: There was a castle on the hill, and I could see some Roman ruins. There were a few shops and a nice view of the lake. There was no mosque to be seen. There were no women wearing burqas in the carefully landscaped city park. Read on »

Social climbing is an ancient art, one as old as society itself. The character of the high-society impostor — the fake aristocrat, the soi-disant marquis, the “professor” with no degree — has been known in every era, too. Read on »

Like comets hurtling at one another from opposite points in outer space, two different phenomena in different parts of the world soared into public awareness last week. Separately, they might not have had cosmic importance. Put together, however, they could prove an interesting harbinger of things to come. Read on »

I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat, and mentioned this to a friend. “Swine flu?” he asked, oinking a few times for emphasis. No, as far as I can tell I do not have swine flu, the virus more formally known as H1N1. But even if I did, I’m not sure that anyone around me would take it very seriously. Read on »

BERLIN — For some time now, I’ve been trying to put my finger on what has been bothering me about the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is nothing wrong with holding dozens of conferences, after all, and I’m all in favor of the many new books. Read on »

Did you know that there were German elections in late September? Were you aware that the German socialists were soundly defeated? Had you realized that there was now a new government in Germany? No? Read on »

“This is a solemn moment for this House and our country,” Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, said while addressing the House of Commons last week. A hush fell over the room and, according to a parliamentary sketch writer, the members “ceased to fidget, a truly rare thing in the Commons.” Read on »

Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of bribery, tax evasion, corruption and subversion of the press. His wife has left him on the grounds that he consorts with prostitutes and holds orgies at his villa in Sardinia. He makes embarrassing jokes (and then repeats them, as he did with the one about President Obama’s “suntan”) and periodically disappears to undergo more plastic surgery. Read on »

“I’m here because I have a vote and, basically, I’ve been told what to do with it,” one Irishman told a London reporter. “Thank God they will all shut up now,” a Dublin pensioner told a German newspaper. Read on »

It’s an odd thing, but sometimes I could swear that there are two Irans. Read on »