H N Arabian Blog - Random Tales

  *** The story is a witty, culinary-centered vignette that dramatizes the convergence of three iconic North American deli traditions: Los Angeles’ Langer’s, Montreal’s Schwartz’s, and New York’s Katz’s. Told through a first-person, observational lens, the narrative captures the cultural and gastronomic significance of pastrami while situating it within the intimate social setting of a New Year’s gathering. Beyond a simple recounting of flavors, the story uses the arrival of each deli plate as a device to explore themes of rivalry, cultural pride, and shared human experience. *** A Three-City Ceasefire, Served on Rye By Harry Arabian By the time I pulled up to the house, the New Year had already begun announcing itself—laughter spilling out the front door, the muffled clink of ice in glasses, and someone inside arguing cheerfully about music that they absolutely would not change. I balanced my contribution carefully: a pastrami plate from Langer’s Delicatessen, arranged as though...

***The Skunk Train to Mendocino presents itself as a lighthearted family travel story, but beneath its humor lies a carefully structured meditation on authority, national identity, and the quiet, comic ways people adapt to unexpected social order. The story’s power comes from its ability to braid domestic chaos with institutional discipline, turning an ordinary train ride into a microcosm of American life. ***   The Skunk Train to Mendocino By Harry Arabian We imagined a nostalgic train ride through the redwoods—gentle scenery, family bonding, maybe a snack that didn’t immediately self-destruct in your lap. We did not imagine sharing a historic railcar with the National Guard heading to Mendocino for the Fourth of July. But America, as always, had other plans. At first it was charming—soft whistles, polite families waving like we were in a brochure. Then the doors opened… and in came camouflage, boots, and rucksacks the size of small refrigerators. Our teenage boys instantl...

*** “Walnut Street, Northbound” is a meditation on migration, belonging, and the illusion of control, using urban wildlife as both mirror and messenger. What begins as an observational nature sketch gradually reveals itself as a wry existential reflection on home, authority, and the limits of human intention. *** Walnut Street, Northbound By Harry Arabian Walnut Street in Irvine ran straight and obediently for miles, as if it had agreed not to surprise anyone. Aleppo pines stood at attention, drought-tolerant soldiers with tidy needles, while ficus and laurel figs filled the gaps with dense, evergreen confidence. Above the sidewalk, the canopy formed a moving ceiling of shade and sound. That was where the crows lived—high in the pines, near the crown, where the branches were sturdy and the view was absolute. They liked altitude and authority. On that early sunny morning, I was halfway through my usual health walk when the sky cracked open with noise. Sharp caws—fast, furious, unmi...

*** “The Lost Coast Trail” is a reflective short narrative that explores the tension between human optimism and the indifferent power of nature. Through restrained humor, personification, and a carefully structured journey arc, the piece examines how humility is learned not through instruction, but through sustained exposure to forces beyond human control.  *** THE LOST COAST TRAIL By Harry Arabian A Short Story About Optimism, Gravity, and the Ocean’s Opinions We chose the Lost Coast Trail because it was described as “remote” and “untouched,” which we interpreted as relaxing . This was our first mistake. At Mattole Beach, we posed for a photo. Our backpacks were new. Our boots were clean. Our confidence was offensive. The ocean watched quietly, like someone who had seen this before and had notes. Within twenty minutes, one of the boys asked how far we’d gone. “About half a mile,” I said. He nodded, the way people do when they receive bad medical news. The trail was not a ...

*** Inherited Ground operates at the intersection of memory, loss, and impermanence, weaving a narrative that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant. The story’s narrator, now sixty-two, returns to a village he last visited as a child, only to find it undergoing inevitable erasure under the rising waters of a dam. This simple premise belies the story’s layered exploration of inheritance—not of land or material wealth, but of memory, emotional geography, and the precise knowledge of “where things once stood.    ***   Inherited Ground I went back because someone said the village would soon be flooded, as if that were a simple administrative detail and not a sentence. A dam, they said. Progress. The word felt too clean for what it meant. I am sixty-two now. I had not returned since I was a child, since the year my grandfather died and the village quietly rearranged itself in my absence. My knees ached as I walked—an irritation I resented, as though my body we...

   *** By Way of Oak Street is a quiet, assured piece of creative nonfiction that succeeds through restraint rather than spectacle. Its power lies in how it translates a deeply specific cultural moment—a Lebanese vegan wedding brunch in a Boston backyard—into a universal meditation on belonging, hospitality, and the temporary grace of being welcomed into another people’s history. *** By Way of Oak Street By Harry Arabian The invitation arrived like a postcard from another life—cream paper, careful script, and an illustration of red-roofed village homes perched above a blue Mediterranean curve. Samir & Nadia. Saturday. 11:30 a.m. Vegan wedding brunch. It promised Lebanon by way of Oak Street, which felt improbable and therefore irresistible. Samir and I worked together on the engineering floor, where logic ruled and lunches were eaten quickly between meetings. He had come to us from a village in northern Lebanon with a calm intelligence that made complicated circuits s...

  *** “One Bed to Another” is a compact work of literary humor that transforms a routine act of modern travel into a meditation on exhaustion, identity, and the quiet negotiations of adulthood. Through precise observational detail, a gently ironic narrative voice, and a tightly controlled structure, the piece elevates an early-morning airport encounter into a moment of existential comedy. *** One Bed to Another By Harry Arabian I had an 11 a.m. business meeting in Nashville, which required an act of quiet violence against my natural rhythms: an early-morning flight out of Boston’s Logan Airport. At 5 a.m., I shuffled into the TSA checkpoint in a condition best described as recently assembled . My hair pointed in several philosophical directions, my face was unshaven, and my clothes looked like the result of a hasty compromise between dignity and gravity. The only thing approximating coherence was a Boston Red Sox cap and a matching T-shirt—less an outfit than a plea for lenienc...

 ***   "The Lion in the Garage" is a story exploring the collision between the ordinary and the absurd. A routine family favor—babysitting a cat. *** The Lion in the Garage by Harry Arabian Jack and his girlfriend Diana had planned a day-hike up Wachusett Mountain and needed one small favor before sunrise: could I babysit their cat? I agreed, with one condition—that the cat remain in the garage. Jack promised this would not be a problem. The cat was calm, he said. He would bring a tent-style enclosure, sufficient food and water for the day, and everything would be neatly contained. They arrived very early, well before my first cup of coffee had even occurred to me. The morning already felt unreliable, as though it had begun without consulting me. Half-asleep, I registered hurried footsteps, a muffled goodbye, and then the unmistakable whine of Jack’s Forester snow tires spinning as they departed into the darkness. I shuffled into the kitchen to start the coffee when anoth...

 ***   "Breakfast Meeting at New Locanda" is a warm, memory-rich story that blends nostalgia, place, and friendship into a gentle narrative about reconnection. It is a tale where the physical journey across Ottawa mirrors an internal journey through decades of recollections, each step awakening a thread of personal history. *** Breakfast Meeting at the New Locanda By Harry Arabian I was in Ottawa for the yearly Fire Safety Conference at Minto Place— a trip I’d made often enough that the city’s downtown blocks felt familiar, though never worn-out. On Tuesday evening, I phoned Andy to let him know I was in town and hoped to see him before my Friday flight home. “Wednesday, early morning. Eight sharp,” he said. “We’ll meet at the New Locanda Diner on Laurier West. Short walk from where you are—and trust me, they’ve got the best Lebanese coffee in the city. Fresh man’oush that’ll take you right back to vendors on the streets of Beirut .” That settled it. The next mornin...