I cooked the two turkeys that we had been fattening up in our courtyard; but when I slaughtered them, I didn’t say "Allah-o-Akhbar" as Bahjat had requested. Because of this, he declined to come to dinner with us. The Emir and his son, however, were too polite to ask; Dr. Saleman pretended not to care. It was a major faux pas on my part, but I was young and learning. We had a jolly dinner with wine and all, in spite of my goof.

Location: Our house in Selemiye, Syria.