When I came across “in my neck of the woods” in Richard Brautigan's The Revenge of the Lawn, I was intrigued. Do woods have necks? I filed the expression right next to “being on top of things.” This evoked images of a person sitting on the very top of a pile of stuff. At the time, I was working as simultaneous interpreter and translator for a center that focused on neurological and early child development. And completing my degree at the University of Bologna from the U.S. Not an easy commute. Professors almost never approved translations as theses. They made... Read more →