Brazilian by birth and having lived in Brazil as a child and in Hawaii since 2003, my dual-cultured heart is bursting with excitement over this opportunity to "talk story" (as we say in Hawaii) with President Obama as he prepares to visit President Dilma Rousseff. It is with this spirit...

As they say in Brazil, parabens! (congratulations) to Paulo Coelho, famous novelist and fellow Brazilian, for speaking out against former Prime Minister Tony Blair's potential involvement in planning for Brazil's 2016 Olympics.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9DK8S8G0.htm

And, to Governor Sergio Cabral for declaring Rio de Janeiro...

Leave it to a Wall Street Journal story this week about a Chicago alderman's opposition to Jimmy Andrews' Felony Franks -- a hot dog joint that hires felons and sports a logo of hot dogs behind bars, the object of the alleged objection -- to get my buns...

Talking heads will not stop droning on about Obama's use of the word empathy as a requirement for his Supreme Court nominee until they stop to think . . . about how we think.

And I'm hopeful that my words will help them do so. Life is more interesting...

Like President Lula, I am also Brazilian and occasionally engage in cross-cultural communication with a Brit. My husband. Just as Gordon Brown and the chattering classes stiffened in reaction to Lula's white man comments, my husband did, too, with this cultural exchange:

While buying olive oil in a Brazilian...