When you read this I may be at the Eiffel Tower going up to the sumptuous Jules Verne restaurant, or at the Café Beaubourg having a martini or whatever it is Parisians drink these days, or on the Ile de St. Louis saying au revoir to my decision to cut back on sugar with the best caramel ice cream in the universe. Or,  I may be in Amsterdam on a boat trip, or...

Oh, The Indignities of Travel . . . The e-mail message I sent from Rome was brief: Bring Colace. The reply from New York equally succinct: Relief is on the way! If this isn’t the most effective communication in the history of the Internet, I’ll eat my cappello. So what’s the story behind these messages between the Old Country and the New World?...