Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS 2025 Travel: Destination Southeast Asia (Short Attention Span Version):20October2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Angkor Wat: Saving the Best For Last?

20October2025 Siem Reap, Cambodia: Angkor Wat: Saving the Best For Last? I have visited Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and now Cambodia. I have witnessed and experienced an incredible amount and the question that faces me is Angkor Wat the actual highlight of this tour? Impossible to answer although it was the destination of overwhelming attraction andContinue reading “RKS 2025 Travel: Destination Southeast Asia (Short Attention Span Version):20October2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Angkor Wat: Saving the Best For Last?”

RKS Literature: Goodwill (Friedrich Nietzsche)

“Among the small but endlessly abundant and therefore very effective things that science ought to heed more than the great, rare things, is goodwill. I mean those expressions of a friendly disposition, in interactions, that smile of the eye, those handclasps, that ease which usually envelops nearly all human actions. Every teacher, every official bringsContinue reading “RKS Literature: Goodwill (Friedrich Nietzsche)”

RKS Literature: The Hierarchy of Good (Friedrich Nietzsche)

“The hierarchy of good, however, is not fixed and identical at all times. If someone prefers revenge to justice, he is moral by the standard of an earlier culture, yet by the standard of the present culture he is immoral. ‘Immoral’ then indicates that someone has not felt, or not felt strongly enough, the higher,Continue reading “RKS Literature: The Hierarchy of Good (Friedrich Nietzsche)”

RKS Literature: Leaving Dead Bodies in the Woods as a Matter of Course (James Fenimore Cooper)

“The whole party moved swiftly through the narrow path, toward the north, leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the adjacent brooks and the bodies of the dead to fester on the neighbouring mount, without the rites of sepulture; a fate but too common to the warriors of the woods to excite either commiserationContinue reading “RKS Literature: Leaving Dead Bodies in the Woods as a Matter of Course (James Fenimore Cooper)”

RKS Poetry Anthology: Creeping October

Creeping October Guess who is in town Homecoming The big college game Goon jocks past and present Pilsner fog Purple painted faced engineers pursuing Colonel Kurtz? Initiation rites Into what? Last binge? And the roar after the big play Fat assed frat girls as a caramel sundae/Sunday’s For their boys And we all know theContinue reading “RKS Poetry Anthology: Creeping October”

RKS 2025 Travel: Destination Southeast Asia: 19October 2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Obese Americans with Fanny Packs (Ozempic People)

19October 2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Obese Americans with Fanny Packs (Ozempic People) Travelling is primarily observational. Churches, monuments, cuisine, archaeological sites, topography and people. The majority of Americans are obese and benefit from the current vogue word “inclusion”. Obese Americans in fanny packs lolling through Sofitel caught my eye as a bizarre site. Throughout myContinue reading “RKS 2025 Travel: Destination Southeast Asia: 19October 2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Obese Americans with Fanny Packs (Ozempic People)”

RKS Literature: Rosie and the Priest (Giovanni Boccaccio)

“So to begin, there’s a village not far from here called Varlungo, as every one of you knows or will have heard from other people. I had once a valiant priest, a fine figure of a man who served the ladies well. He was not much of a reader, but every Sunday he would spoutContinue reading “RKS Literature: Rosie and the Priest (Giovanni Boccaccio)”

RKS Literature: The Good Book and the Reality in the Colonial Woods (James Fenimore Cooper)

“I have heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If any suchContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Good Book and the Reality in the Colonial Woods (James Fenimore Cooper)”

RKS 2026 British Columbia Wine: Smith & Montpetit 2023 Muse

Another limited quantity wine from the Smith and Montpetit Winery in the Similkameen Valley in the Canadian province of British Columbia. 100 cases produced. A Cabernet Franc and Merlot blend. Barrel aged 12 months in 30% two-year-old French oak and 70% in neutral French oak. Six barrels produced. Wild yeast fermented. Aroma: Silky smoothness.  BingishContinue reading “RKS 2026 British Columbia Wine: Smith & Montpetit 2023 Muse”